Ei-iE

The 8th World Congress of Education International (EI), meeting in Bangkok, Thailand, from 21 to 26 July 2019:

(1) In October 1970, the General Assembly of the United Nations agreed a resolution that countries should allocate a minimum of 0.7% of gross national income (GNI) for official development assistance (ODA).

(2) Congress reminds EI and member organisations of the Resolution on Development Cooperation adopted at the 2nd EI World Congress, July 1998 that called upon EI to facilitate and monitor Development Cooperation and called upon EI member organisations to allocate a minimum of 0.7 % of their income to Development Cooperation.

(3) According to OECD data for 2017, just 5 OECD countries met the 0.7% target: Sweden, Norway, Luxembourg, Denmark and the United Kingdom (UK)(1). Furthermore, globally, less than 10% of official public aid goes to education.

(4) Congress calls on EI to:

(i) lobby the OECD to put pressure on OECD member governments to fulfil the agreement and allocate at least 0.7% of GNI for ODA;

(ii) draw attention to those countries that are failing to meet the target or that use the ODA budget for other purposes;

(iii) encourage and support EI affiliates to press governments to allocate at least 0.7% of GNI to ODA and, where appropriate, to follow the example of the UK by incorporating the target into legislation;

(iv) lobby the OECD and member governments to recognise the importance of education to achieving the sustainable development goals and earmark budgets for education within ODA.

(v) Monitor governments’ use of official development assistance to ensure that they do not impose harmful education policies on recipient countries.

(1) Link to OECD data page on ODA as a percentage of GNI by country: https://www2.compareyourcountry.org/oda