Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Chair of the Board of Directors of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) Julia Gillard had a quick meeting while they were both in Hamburg for Global Citizen Festival to discuss gender issues and how they relate to education.

Gillard focused on the need for the world to step up when it comes to education.

While the prime minister was supportive, it’s still unclear what sort of financial contribution we can expect from Canada when it comes to GPE replenishment 2020. However, Trudeau did say that Canada can play an important role internationally when it comes to GPE support.

Take Action: Thank our most powerful leaders for supporting education at the G20

GPE’s third replenishment aims to raise US $2 billion a year by 2020 for the 89 countries eligible for support. These countries are home to 870 million children and youth and cover 78% of the world’s out-of-school population, according to GPE.

The organization asked Canada for a contribution of US $187.5M (CAD $259M) from 2018 to 2020 to help meet GPE’s 2020 target and accelerate the progress of education initiatives worldwide.

Overall, donor governments are being asked to provide US$3.1 billion over three years and development country partners are being asked to allot 20% of their government’s budget to education. GPE has also reached out to private philanthropic foundations and the private sector for contributions.

Read More: 7 Photos of Rihanna Visiting Malawi to Support Education

There’s an estimated 263 million children out of school. With new donor investments from 2018 to 2020, GPE says replenishment 2020 could, “Provide education plan implementation grants to 67 developing countries; support 30 developing countries to develop new plans for education; and develop education sector investment cases to attract additional financing and align it behind education plans.”

With more funds, GPE could drive increased resource mobilization and strengthen education systems. Their support would result in 19 million more children finishing primary school, 6.6 million additional children finishing lower secondary school, 1.7 million trained teachers, 23,800 classrooms built and 204 million textbooks distributed, according to GPE.

Read More: The Benefits of Educating Girls Are Widespread. So Why Aren’t We Doing More?

GPE’s replenishment conference will take place in early 2018. The replenishment hopes to reverse the trend of declining aid for education and seeks new funds to continue to increase access to and improve education around the world.

News

Defeat Poverty

Trudeau Discussed Gender Equality and Education at Global Citizen Hamburg — But Canada’s Commitment Still Unclear

By Jackie Marchildon