September 2022 Foundational Literacy and Numeracy Roundup

The Transforming Education Summit, held as an UNGA side event from September 16-19, 2022, offered opportunities for reflection on the state of ODA regarding education. In this Foundational Literacy and Numeracy Roundup, you will find policy updates from DAC donor countries, commentary on TES, and analysis of donor priorities in education ODA.

Key takeaways

• In preparation for TES, 105 countries, including Canada, Germany, Norway, Japan, and the UK, prepared National Statements of Commitment to transform education. An analysis of the country statements shows only 30% of countries mentioned :abbrFLN while educational recovery and resilience took the main stage. 
• Efforts to build FLN suffer from minimal funding, inconsistencies in definition, measurement, and tracking, and low prioritization among donor countries, resulting in downward trends noted in speeches by World Bank President David Malpass and UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. 
• TES was a big moment for education financing, as partnership of the ADB, AfDB, Netherlands, Sweden, UK, and several private donors announced the creation of a new International Financing Facility for Education. IFFEd will disburse US$2 million in initial funding starting in 2023 and aims to offer up to US$10 billion for global education by 2030 to combat losses in learning due to crisis situations and build capacity for higher quality education globally. 

Donor Country Updates 

• The summit also provided an opportunity for the EU to reaffirm its commitment to increasing its ODA allocation to education by at least 3% (an increase of US$540 million), while also promising an additional US$106 million to education recovery in Ukraine. 
• Germany’s pledge of an additional US$10 million to ECW reflected the summit’s focus on education in crisis, with the support going to rebuilding educational capacity in Ukraine. 
• Following Japan’s August 2022 announcement of US$30 million in support for developing human resources in African partner countries, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s remarks at the 77th UNGA{title]"UN General Assembly"} meetings in September 2022 indicated that the outcomes of TES would guide Japan’s education ODA policy. 
• During a TES roundtable on capacity building in education, Norwegian Minister of International Development Anne Beathe Tvinnereim highlighted the necessity of bolstering gender equality and safety in education, and well as mechanisms for disaster response and climate adaptation. 
• Canada co-hosted a summit event with UNICEF, at which it joined the Generation Unlimited Leadership Council. 

Multilateral Developments 

• Gaps in funding due were a focal point, with ECW calling on leaders to contribute US$1.5 billion for children in crisis zones. GPE likewise called for increased commitment to education financing, gender equality, and transformation of education. 
• In addition to mobilizing over 1 million stakeholders at the summit, UNESCO participated actively in sessions sharing best practices for development partnerships, such as developing public libraries and utilizing open educational resources. The focus on public infrastructure for education resurfaced during UNGA, where stakeholders promised US$295 million for digital public infrastructure. 
• The World Bank Group, OECD, UNESCO, and UNICEF published the 4th Survey on National Education Responses to COVID-19 School Closures results, in which countries shared their progress in the RAPID recovery framework measures of retention, assessment, foundational skills, quality of instruction, and students’ wellbeing. Ahead of TES, the organizations also published priorities for recovering learning based on the same framework. 
• The fragile situations of children living and learning in crisis zones were central to discussions leading up to the summit, as evidenced in UNHCR’s report on disparate learning outcomes for refugees. ECW Director Yasmine Sherif underscored the disadvantages faced by children attending school in crisis zones. A spotlight session on Education in Crisis Situations was likewise well-attended by representatives of UN agencies, including the UNHCR, UNESCO, UNICEF, and ECW. 
• UNICEF was quite active at the summit, with Executive Director Catherine Russell speaking at sessions on education in crisis zones and gender equality and equal opportunity in education.