A Movement United: Education Cannot Wait Executive Director Joins Global Citizens, Activists and Celebrities on Stage at Global Citizen Festival

Education must come first in our global efforts to defeat poverty, defend the planet and demand equity. 

NEW YORK, Sept. 29, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- At this weekend's Global Citizen Festival, Education Cannot Wait (ECW) Executive Director Yasmine Sherif lit up the stage in New York's Central Park with her passionate call to expand support for education for crisis-affected girls and boys around the world. Sherif joined Rachel Brosnahan onstage in calling for expanded action to ensure education for all – especially children and adolescents impacted by armed conflicts, climate-induced disasters and protracted crises.

ECW's partnership with Global Citizen and other key champions has brought together citizens from across the globe to accelerate ECW's resource mobilization efforts, resulting in over US$1.6 billion mobilized to date. Leading up to the festival, thousands of individuals took action through Global Citizen's campaign to support education for all through Education Cannot Wait. Throughout the day, a wide range of world leaders, celebrities and advocates – including headliners such as LISA from Blackpink, Post Malone, Doja Cat, Jelly Roll, RAYE, Hugh Jackman and Dr. Jane Goodall – took to the Global Citizen stage with a common goal to defeat poverty, defend the planet and demand equity.

"Every child deserves a future irrespective of race, religion, ethnicity or politics – no matter who or where they are. This is a human imperative. Every child deserves an education. Every child deserves to reach their potential in safety, be it in Ukraine, Gaza, Afghanistan or Chad," said Sherif. "We are proud today to be committing US$90 million towards quality education for children in Ukraine, Colombia, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Iraq and Syria to ensure that they are equipped to realize their dreams and build a future, just like all of us. We are also committing US$27 million for emergency education support for the children of Haiti, Gaza, Lebanon, Eastern Congo and Sudan. Thank-you Global Citizen – and all of you – for being part of our mission to deliver education to children in crisis, for making the world a better, fairer and more humane place."

When Education Cannot Wait was founded in 2017, it was estimated that 75 million crisis-impacted children needed ECW's support in accessing quality, holistic education opportunities. That number has tripled to 224 million today – that's more than the populations of Australia, France, Italy and the United Kingdom combined.

Brutal wars have exacerbated the issue, stretched foreign aid budgets, and derailed progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals. Without additional measures, by 2030 an astonishing 300 million children will lack basic numeracy and literacy skills worldwide. Just as concerning, 1 in 4 young people are either out of school, out of a job, or out of a training programme to join the work force, and girls are twice as likely as boys to be impacted by this critical situation.

The challenges are especially strong in the world's forgotten crises. Approximately half of all out-of-school children in emergencies are concentrated in only eight countries: Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Mali, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan and Sudan. In Nigeria alone 20 million children are out of school; in Sudan, 18 million children are out of school. Without the safety and protection of a quality education they face an uncertain future, recruitment into armed groups, child marriage and other grave violations of their human rights. Even when they are in school, millions more children are falling further behind.

Despite the growing needs, overall humanitarian funding for education dropped for the first time in over a decade last year, decreasing by 3%, from US$1.2 billion in 2022 to US$1.17 in 2023, according to ECW's Annual Results Report.

Against all odds, ECW and its strategic partners are achieving significant results. Since ECW became operational in 2017, ECW's investments have reached 11 million children and adolescents, including 5.6 million girls and boys in 2023 alone. The global fund is calling on world leaders, businesses, philanthropic foundations and high-net-worth individuals to provide US$600 million in urgent funding to reach 20 million children through the Fund's four-year strategic plan. Financing education is an investment in all of humanity without discrimination.