Remarks by Masatsugu Asakawa, President, Asian Development Bank, at the Global Education Summit – Financing the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) 2021–2025, 29 July 2021
Distinguished participants, warm greetings from the Asian Development Bank.
ADB recognizes that human capital development is vital to the wellbeing and empowerment of people, equitable economic growth, and resilient and sustainable societies.
However, due to the severe impacts of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, the hard-earned gains that many developing countries have made are at risk of being reversed. Now more than ever, we must redouble our efforts with investments in education that provide effective and innovative solutions to the challenges they face.
To meet the immense needs across the Asia and Pacific region, ADB aims to significantly increase its financing for education. Our target is to double the percentage of our support to education to up to 10% of our total annual commitments by 2024.
As we make progress toward this goal, I am proud of ADB’s partnership with the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), which provides cutting-edge knowledge and precious grant resources.
For example, in collaboration with GPE, ADB supports open and evidence-based policy dialogue with key stakeholders to improve the quality of education.
By blending GPE’s grants with ADB’s loans, we can provide clients with access to increased financing on more concessional terms, along with opportunities to invest in best-in-class education programs developed through joint ADB-GPE expertise.
Continued collaboration between ADB and GPE will make a tangible difference for education in the 29 countries in Asia and the Pacific, including small island countries, eligible for our joint support.
I believe this important event will empower GPE and its development partners, including ADB, to further expand our collaboration and maximize our impact on education for our beneficiaries.
My sincere wishes for the best outcomes.
Speaker
