The IDP Foundation, Inc. and the World Bank co-hosted an Education Stakeholders Meeting on Wednesday, 29 March 2017 at the Alisa Hotel in Accra, Ghana. The half-day event brought together government officials, development partners, NGOs and other stakeholders in education to identify opportunities for effective collaboration and engagement.

On Wednesday, April 19 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City, The Irene D. Pritzker/IDP Foundation Distinguished Lecture on Social and Economic Development, co-hosted by Foreign Policy Association in the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Chamber, featured the Right Honorable Gordon Brown, former United Kingdom Prime Minister and UN Special Envoy for Global Education.

Fresh off the release of their latest report on an increasingly diversifying education landscape, Results for Development and the IDP Foundation continue moving the discussion forward on low-fee private schools.

A trip to Ghana in 2008 to help secure microfinance loans for struggling rural schools convinced IDP Foundation President Irene Pritzker that a new financing model was desperately needed to ensure the survival of these small local institutions.

IDP Foundation was approached by CapitalPlus Exchange (CapPlus), a local non-profit organization that works closely with financial institutions in emerging markets to serve small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and assist in growing their businesses more effectively.

As the IDP Foundation made its rounds in New York City during the 71st Session of the UN General Assembly in September, a constant theme surrounding the efforts of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) resonated throughout many of the sessions.

The Global Campaign for Education has been a powerhouse of education advocacy over the years, bringing together networks of campaigners from the grassroots in the poorest countries to the UN General Assembly, advocating for Education for All. GCE has made the world a better place, but I would be remiss if I did not share my disappointment with their latest report: ‘Private Profit, Public Loss - why the push for low-fee private schools is throwing quality education off track’ (GCE, 2016).

Last year, the United Nations convened to agree on the most important global development initiative to focus on until 2030, launching the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These 17 goals are accompanied by hundreds of targets and indicators; as such, with many organizations implementing the SDGs into their work, it is crucial that data collection process be thorough and accurate to track and measure impact, specifically around girls and women.

The International Commission on Financing Global Education Opportunity (The Education Commission) recently launched its report on education financing at the 71st Session of the UN General Assembly. In its report, “The Learning Generation: Investing in Education for a Changing World,” The Education Commission’s vision is strikingly bold, outlining fundamentals that are razor sharp, focusing on four transformations: performance, innovation, sources of financing and inclusion.

Within the past decade, there has been a surge in low-fee private schools in some of the poorest countries across the globe. In 2010, there were an estimated one million private schools in the developing world; however, the fastest-growing group of these are small low-fee private schools, run by entrepreneurs in poor areas that cater to those living on less than $2 (USD) a day.