On September 14, Nicholas Burnett, R4D Managing Director, addressed a UNESCO Future Seminar in Paris, whose audience included senior leaders and representatives of many countries, including donor agencies, the private sector and NGOs.
Burnett and his colleague Oxford University Visiting Research Fellow Desmond Bermingham's presentation reviewed why innovative finance is needed for education and assesses the most promising current proposals, building on work they have published for the Open Society Institute and for the Task Force on Education of the Leading Group on Innovative Finance for Development.
Burnett noted that, “innovative finance for education is a idea whose time has come, and several proposals are close to being tested."
In their view, several proposals are now ready or nearing the testing phase, including two developed exclusively by R4D: (a) local currency education bonds, in association with the prize-winning Affinity Macrofinance; and (b) an Education Venture Fund. In addition, they argued, it is essential to make the case for education receiving a major share of any development funding that may be raised by a financial transactions tax.
On Tuesday September 21, Burnett and Bermingham will, at the request of the French government, present the work of the Leading Group Task Force at a special side-event to the MDG Summit, to be addressed also by Her Highness Queen Rania of Jordan, who has been an important force behind innovative finance for education.
