Global Citizen NOW: Impact Sessions

Every child deserves the chance to learn, dream, and build a bright future, yet almost 258 million school-age children are impacted by crises around the world, a figure that’s growing at an alarming rate. But providing an education requires more than classroom access alone. Children need nutritious meals, healthcare, family planning services, strong mentorship, and supportive learning environments to reach their full potential. When those foundations are in place, young people are better equipped to thrive and seize opportunities.

That’s why helping 2 million children get to school and stay there was one of three core goals of this year's Festival. Global Citizens around the world took action in the lead-up by pushing for expanded access to education, sports, school meals, and healthcare, and Global Citizen called on the governments of Denmark, Ireland, Japan, Spain, and Norway, alongside businesses and philanthropists, to help provide 2 million children with access to education, sports, school meals, and healthcare through the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund, Education Cannot Wait, the first global fund dedicated to education in emergencies, GPEI, and the Child Nutrition Fund.

Global Citizen has campaigned for Education Cannot Wait for years. The LEGO Foundation stood on that stage in 2022 and announced $25 million, pushing its total contribution to ECW to $65 million. By 2024, the story had grown even more urgent. Yasmine Sherif, ECW's Executive Director, stood in Central Park and told the crowd a number that should stop anyone in their tracks: the 75 million children ECW was built to serve in 2017 had swelled to 224 million, more than the populations of Australia, France, Italy, and the UK combined. That same weekend, new commitments worth $117 million were announced onstage, for children in Ukraine, Colombia, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Iraq, Syria, Haiti, Gaza, Lebanon, Eastern Congo, and Sudan.

Since its launch, ECW has turned $1.67 billion into more than 14 million children reached across 44 countries. Enrollment goes up in 96% of its programs; learning improves in 88% of them. That track record is exactly why the next moment matters so much: on November 5, 2026, the Government of Switzerland will host the Education Cannot Wait High-Level Replenishment Conference in Geneva, the centerpiece of ECW's global "Hope Starts Here" campaign. There, donors will be asked to commit $600 million to the ECW Trust Fund for 2027–2030, enough to reach 10 million more children.

The momentum built by this year's Global Citizen Festival campaigns carries directly into that conference. Global Citizen is continuing to call on the governments of Spain, France, and Australia to help fund schools for children in crisis and ensure ECW and its partners have the resources to keep children learning through conflict, displacement, and disaster.

Access to electricity changes everything: it means students can study after sunset, health clinics can keep lifesaving medicines cold, and families can safely light their homes and prepare meals. Yet an estimated 750 million people still live without access to electricity, and millions more are connected to a grid but still face frequent outages, limited hours of supply, or costs that make electricity difficult to use consistently. That’s why powering 2.5 million homes was one of three core goals of this year's Global Citizen Festival campaigns.

Expanding access to affordable, reliable, and clean energy is a central priority for Global Citizen NOW: Perth, taking place October 18–20, 2026 at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre in Western Australia. The summit will bring together leaders from government, business, philanthropy, First Peoples and Indigenous communities, academia, and civil society to advance the policies, investment, and partnerships needed to expand clean energy access, accelerate electrification, strengthen energy security, and support global development.

Building on the momentum of Global Citizen's Scaling Up Renewables in Africa campaign last year, this year's push turns to the Indo-Pacific, expanding clean energy and microgrids across vulnerable small island nations and Indigenous communities. Taking place just weeks before COP31 in Antalya, Türkiye, Global Citizen NOW: Perth is designed to help shape many of the commitments and collaborations that could define the next chapter of the global clean energy transition.

Global Citizen NOW: Perth will seek commitments to expand reliable and affordable electricity access to as many as 4 million homes and deliver at least 2.5 gigawatts of additional renewable energy capacity (enough to power a city). Achieving that will require suitable infrastructure, long-term investment, clear policies, technical expertise, and local knowledge — elements the summit will bring together to advance practical commitments on energy access across the Indo-Pacific and beyond.

See the "Looking Ahead" section of this report for more on GC NOW: Perth.

Beyond financial commitments, this year's campaign aimed to mobilize 10,000 verified volunteers around the world, connecting citizens with trusted local organizations working on education, health, environmental sustainability, and community development — including partnerships with Support+Feed, the New York City Service Department, Pollinator Pathways, the UK National Literacy Trust, the YMCA, and many others. Globally, we achieved our goal with 10,000 volunteer sign-ups during Festival season, surpassing 50,000 total throughout 2026.

In New York City alone, that meant a full slate of hands-on activations in the weeks leading up to the Festival, with hundreds of volunteers recruited to attend our in-person events.

See our section on “Community Engagement” for how these played out block-by-block.