Reaching the marginalized: EFA global monitoring report, 2010; 2010

0120CHAPTER 1Education for All Global Monitoring ReportThe UnitedNationsSecretary-General shouldconvenea high-levelmeeting onEFA financinginclude the tightening of fiscal and monetary policy.The authors conclude: ‘Policy conditions attachedto these IMF loans are fairly similar to those ofthe past, including a requirement that recipientcountries reduce public spending and increaseinterest rates’ (United Nations Conference onTrade and Development, 2009). This would appearto be inconsistent both with the IMF’s policypronouncements and – more importantly – withthe need to avoid deflationary measures in theinterests of economic recovery and long-termpoverty reduction.Looking aheadThe United Nations Secretary-General has warnedin stark terms that the financial crisis has thepotential to mutate into a long-term developmentemergency. ‘If we do not act together, if we do notact responsibly, if we do not act now,’ he said inMay 2009, ‘we risk slipping into a cycle of poverty,degradation and despair’ (United Nations, 2009b).The danger is that as the world economy pulls outof recession, the real victims of the crisis will beforgotten, including millions of children facing theprospect of losing their chance for an education.The most immediate priority is for rich countriesto respond to the mounting budget pressure facinggovernments in low-income countries. That meansproviding more concessional financing beforeirreparable damage is inflicted on vital socialinfrastructure. While leaders of the G20 and the G8have adopted encouraging communiqués, deliveryhas been woefully inadequate. Behind the globalfinancial pledges, the world’s most vulnerablecitizens have been left to sink or swim with theirown resources. As social and economic pressuresmount, there is an imminent threat that progressin education will stall, damaging prospects foreconomic growth, poverty reduction and health.Political leaders in rich countries need to respondto the human crisis in poor countries with thesame level of resolve they have demonstratedin their domestic responses to the crisis.Action is required at many levels. The followingare among the most urgent priorities:Convene a high-level meeting on Educationfor All financing before the 2010 MillenniumDevelopment Goals summit. Financing gaps forachieving the 2015 Education for All goals havebeen systematically underestimated. Evidenceset out in this Report (see Chapter 2) suggeststhat the average annual shortfall in financingis around US$16 billion, rather than theUS$11 billion previously assumed. With slowereconomic growth in the poorest countries,prospects for closing this gap are deteriorating.Given the scale of the financing gap and thefailure of rich countries to support social andeconomic recovery in the poorest countries,the United Nations Secretary-General shouldconvene a high-level meeting to elaboratestrategies for making more resources availablebefore the Millennium Development Goalssummit in September 2010.Scale up aid and provide early support.If developing countries are to protect andstrengthen public financing commitments inthe face of an economic downturn, they needa sustained and predictable increase in aid andup-front support to counteract revenue lossesfrom 2008 and 2009. The financial crisis hasadded to the urgency of rich countries actingon the aid commitments made in 2005 (seeChapter 4). Increased official developmentassistance should be backed by a temporarydebt moratorium for low-income countries for2009 and 2010, with the savings released forspending in key areas. Such a moratorium wouldcost around US$26 billion in total (United NationsConference on Trade and Development, 2009).Make monitoring more effective. Waiting untilthe education crisis announces itself in officialdata is not a sensible course of action. Crisisprevention – which is eminently preferable toresponse after the event – requires far more36