With 37.2 million euros in new funding, the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) continues its longtime support to strengthen Senegal’s education system and help millions of Senegalese children go to school and get a quality education.
The grant was approved by GPE’s Board of Directors to help Senegal’s government improve equitable access of all Senegalese children to quality education in primary schools across the country, focusing on the most marginalized children in deprived areas. The funding will also improve the management and oversight of schools, increase the number of qualified teachers, drive more student enrollment and improve learning outcomes.
The majority of the funding is results-based and only becomes available when Senegal meets agreed-upon targets and outcomes in line with the ambitions of the program such as improved reading and math levels at the end of grade 3 and a new vulnerability mapping to improve education services for the most disadvantaged.
The grant includes 8.7 million euros from the GPE Multiplier, which is mobilizing an additional 35 million euros in co-financing from Agence Française de Développement (AFD).
“Senegal has made it a national priority to provide quality schooling to all its children – especially the most marginalized, such as girls,” said Alice Albright, Chief Executive Officer, Global Partnership for Education. “GPE will continue to support Senegal’s efforts as we have for nearly a decade. With the leveraging of the GPE Multiplier, the total amount available to Senegal will be more than 70 million euros thanks to the additional co-financing of the French government.”
The GPE Multiplier is an innovative financing instrument that provides US$1 for every US$3 countries raise in new and additional funding, from other sources – in this instance AFD which is also the GPE grant agent in Senegal.
The combined GPE and AFD contributions of 72.2 million euros will support Senegal’s national education strategy 2018-2030 which coordinates all domestic and external funding for education. The funding will help improve the accountability and transparency of public expenditure for education with more effective oversight of reforms and improve the efficiency of public expenditure by reducing the dropout rate in the early grades.
Original source: GPE
Published on 28 May 2019
