GLOBAL CAMPAIGN FOR EDUCATION: GAWE 2023 Press Release

https://campaignforeducation.org/en/press-centre/gawe-2023-press-release

Alarmingly, global tax abuse is estimated at $483 billion. Activists from more than 100 countries will collectively participate in the Global Action Week for Education (GAWE), to highlight these alarming data and call the attention of governments and the international community to decolonise education financing now.
 
The estimation of the annual education-financing gap in low and lower-middle-income countries is $148 billion. Additional costs due to COVID19 related school closures risk increasing this financing gap by up to one-third, or between US$30-45 billion.
 
In this context, the Global Campaign for Education (GCE), an international network that gathers activists, experts and educational communities from more than 100 countries of all over the world, highlights that there is an urgent need to demand a massive scaling up of financing, ensuring that it is accountable and reaches the most marginalized and that these resources are used to strengthen free public education systems for the benefit of all.
 
With global tax abuse estimated at $483 billion, GCE also reinforces that tax justice must be a priority for ensuring sufficient and adequate resources for education.
 
In that sense, with the objective of putting pressure towards a transformative and decolonising agenda for education financing, the Global Action Week for Education (GAWE) 2023, a national, regional, and global education mobilisation campaign coordinated by GCE, amplifies the voices of the educational communities, activists and social organizations and movements, to demand the governments and the international community:
 
- ACTION ON TAX: to increase tax-to-Gross National Product (GDP) ratios through progressive tax reforms. And change how global rules are set!
 
- ACTION ON AUSTERITY: urge the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and other international financial institutions to remove existing austerity measures, recommendations and obstacles, such as public sector wage constraints that discourage increased spending on teacher salaries; and champion policies that will increase the attractiveness of the profession and allow significant new recruitment of professional teachers wherever there are shortages.
 
- ACTION ON DEBT: countries spending more on debt servicing than on education should be at the front of the queue for debt cancellation or renegotiations. New mechanisms on debt are needed!
 
- ACTION ON PARADIGMS: it is necessary that Ministries of Finance see education as an investment, not a consumption.
 
- ACTION ON SPECIAL DRAWING RIGHTS: GCE demands a new issuing of the IMF currency as was done during Covid19 and the just redistribution of these resources.
 
To know more about this campaign that will be held from May 29 to June 2, including communication, advocacy and mobilisation activities in more than 100 countries all over the world, access our website or contact us: