Global education fund chaired by Julia Gillard steers ECEC funding to Uzbekistan

The Global Partnership for Education (GPE), a multi-stakeholder partnership and funding platform chaired by Julia Gillard, former Prime Minister of Australia, that aims to strengthen education systems in developing countries has committed $10m in the from of a “Multiplier” grant to expand early childhood services in Uzbekistan.

Uzbekistan, a country with a population of over 33 million, is located in Central Asia and has a relatively underdeveloped preschool attendance record with only 30 per cent of children currently attending a preschool.

The GPE grant will support reforms designed to expand Uzbekistan’s early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector with the goal of universalising access to quality preschool for 6 year olds and expanding the service to include three, four and five year olds especially in disadvantaged regions.  

Importantly the grant will also go towards establishing an education quality measurement system to support evidence-based policy making. The results-based portion of the grant is conditional on a revision of learning outcome indicators and targets that are currently in place.

Uzbekistan is one of six countries to receive funding totalling $176.6 million

The Global Partnership for Education is putting US$176.6 million in new grants to work to support high-quality schooling for children in Benin, Burundi, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Tanzania and Uzbekistan.

The new funding will help the governments of the six countries to strengthen their national education systems through a set of interventions ranging from more and better early childhood development, accelerated early grade learning, training for teachers, the creation and distribution of high-quality learning materials, improved physical infrastructure, more rigorous education data collection, monitoring and analysis and more professional education management.

Commenting on the grants Ms Gillard noted “These grants are prime examples of GPE’s core transformative power: to provide developing countries the essential resources they need to educate all their children.”

Special “Multiplier” grant model will see overall Uzbeki commitment reach $60 million

Uzbekistan is one of three countries that will receive a Multiplier grant of US$10 million which is mobilized alongside almost US$60 million in additional co-financing from the International Development Association and the Global Partnership for Results-based Approaches.

A multiplier grants, will see GPE provide US$1 for every US$3 Uzbekistan raises in new and additional funding from other sources. Since 2018, 12 countries have secured more than US$100 million in allocations, which has mobilized more than US$440 million in support of quality education.

GPE’s overall results-based funding model makes one-third of each grant only available once countries have met agreed goals to improve the efficiency of their education system such as more children staying in and completing school; enhance equity to ensure underserved groups of children get access to quality education; and produce better learning outcomes.   

To learn more about the global partnership for education please click here.