This week world leaders convened in New York at the UN for the 10th anniversary meeting of the MDGs, charting progress so far with the aim to determine where attention and resources should be focused between now and 2015, the target year for meeting them.
On September 21, R4D Managing Director Nicholas Burnett and Oxford University Research Fellow Desmond Bermingham presented the report of the Task Force on Education of the Leading Group on Innovative Finance to a high level side-event at the UN MDG summit. The event was chaired by French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner along with ministers from Leading Group Chair Japan and EU presidency Belgium.
The meeting took place just before the opening of the United Nations General Assembly, with a goal to develop the current and potential role of innovative financing for development in the achievement of the MDGs.
The task force report calls for more attention to innovative finance for education, and suggests that there is an opportunity to link innovative financing and innovation in education. The report also identifies nine promising areas, of which R4D developed two: an Education Venture Fund and Local Currency Bonds for Education, and proposes further work by the Task Force to bring these ideas to implementation.
“Introducing innovative financing mechanisms will not only generate additional funds, but will also instigate the necessary change in the education sector that will ultimately benefit children, the poor and most vulnerable in society,” said Nick Burnett.
Some of the salient points in the report that were identified as particularly promising by the attendees were local currency bonds as well as moving forward with the implementation of the task force’s work and conclusions. Click here for more information.
