Global Campaign for Education's verdict on the G8 communiqué

The Global Campaign for Education UK (GCE UK) says that the outcome from the Hokkaido Tokyo Summit represents little if any progress on the global education crisis.

The main outcome on education, expressed in the communiqué, is a commitment to fill the 2008 financing gap for countries endorsed through the Education Fast Track Initiative (EFA-FTI), amounting to $1 billion. A progress review on support to FTI will be tabled at next year’s Summit.

This increase is welcomed by GCE, yet GCE points out that the amount pledged is less than 10% of what the G8 owes to meet its collective ‘fair share’ of the $16 billion external funding requirement for Education For All goals. In addition, the omission of the pledge that 'no country seriously committed to EFA shall fail for lack of resources' from this year’s statement is a worrying retreat from wording in previous communiqués.

‘The $1 billion pledged today will cover a fraction of the costs of what the poor countries need to invest in all levels of education. African governments need predictable, long-term and substantial aid flows to invest in building schools, hiring teachers and offering literacy programmes, to give everyone a chance not just of survival, but success' said Gorgui Sow, GCE Board Member of Africa Network Campaigns on Education For All (ANCEFA)

The Africa and Development statement contains one further paragraph on education highlighting a number of priority areas such as the need for attention to teachers, quality, and inclusion of disadvantaged and marginalised children, especially in fragile and conflict-affected states. However, GCE spokespeople say that the wording stops short of any real commitment to action on any of the issues.

‘Children truly know the value of promises. Broken promises mean broken dreams for generations left to suffer in ignorance and illiteracy.’ Kailash Satyarthi, GCE President and Chair of Global March on Child Labour

For the UK government to fulfil it’s promises, GCE UK say they must triple the rate at which they are delivering UK aid to education in the next two years. Currently the promised £8.5 billion for education is being spent too slowly for any hope of getting the Education Millennium Development Goal back on track.

In addition there must be greater stability in UK aid flows to education. Often aid is unpredictable in the most vulnerable countries, which means that fixed costs like teacher salaries cannot be planned for. This is a key way to address issues of quality and inclusion.

GCE also joined other anti-poverty campaigners in criticising the G8’s half-hearted reiteration of the 2005 commitment to give an extra $50 billion in aid each year by 2010. Last-minute campaign efforts partly paid off, and the final text does refer to the $50 billion annual target, but in weak and equivocal language.