A new $1.5 billion investment, announced on Thursday, will boost education and skills development for millions of the world’s children and youth most in need.
Education is always the first public spending to be cut in a crisis and the last to be restored, according to the UN Special Envoy for Global Education Gordon Brown.
But on Thursday he announced a new $1.5 billion commitment to invest in education for those children and youth most in need, powered by the game-changing International Finance Facility for Education.
Children make up half of Gaza’s entire population of over two million, but none have been able to attend school since the 7 October attacks triggered nearly a year of devastating war.
Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of the UN Palestine refugee agency, UNRWA, told UN News during an interview in New York on Tuesday that the longer the fighting goes on, the greater the chance of losing an entire generation.
For 75 years, UNRWA has provided free basic education to millions and the agency is determined to reopen classrooms as soon as possible.
Ongoing violence in Haiti is putting the education of over 100,000 displaced children in the south at risk, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned on Wednesday.
Recent years have seen a dramatic increase in the number of attacks on students, teachers and schools, resulting in an “incalculable cost” for children affected by conflict around the world, Secretary-General António Guterres said in a message commemorating the International Day to Protect Education from Attack on Monday.
