US and Europe must help Afghanistan humanitarian crisis
Former U.K. prime minister and current U.N. special envoy for global education, Gordon Brown, told CNBC that the world must come together to find the $4.4 billion needed to address the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.
“I’m asking Britain and Europe, and there are many other people involved in this, to call a humanitarian pledging conference, so that we can raise this four and a half billion,” he said.
“The Middle East will help, many of the Islamic states will help, America must do more and so too must Europe, and at least we can start to avoid what is really happening before our eyes and that is emaciated families and children dying, and simply not enough food,” he added.
Brown, who was appointed U.N. special envoy for global education in 2012, told CNBC that funding is needed and conditions must be set with Taliban leaders to ensure that girls in the region have unrestricted access to education.
He said girls in Afghanistan are being told they can go back to school in March, “but we must give them the chance to do so through us providing finance, and I think that’s right, but the Taliban must agree that they will not suppress or intimidate or use violence against girls who want simply to have an education.”
Global education crisis
Most governments have had to spend on health, and they’ve had to spend on social protection, and that’s essential, but it has often been at the cost of education.
Gordon Brown
U.N. special envoy for global education
“No, it’s not being given the priority. And I think everybody who looks at what’s been happening over the last three years understands this. Aid to education has been cut by something in the order of 2 billion. So that is about a 10% cut in aid. Most governments have had to spend on health, and they’ve had to spend on social protection, and that’s essential, but it has often been at the cost of education,” he said.
“We should be talking about build back better, we should be talking about how we can catch up and we should be investing more in children now going back to school so that they can make up the lost ground. But actually, we’re facing cuts in education both internationally and nationally and that’s what we’re trying to reverse, and that’s of course why the World Bank and others are talking about this. And that’s why [U.N. Secretary-General] Antonio Guterres has called a special summit on education for September this year,” he added.
Brown, who served as U.K. prime minister from 2007 to 2010, told CNBC that 268 million children were officially out of school even before the pandemic, and half of the children of the world are not getting the education that allows them to have basic literacy and numeracy at the age of 10.
He said Africa is a region particularly affected by the crisis in global education.
“Well, Africa sadly is probably, and it’s a tragedy to have to say this, it’s probably in levels of education standards and achievement, about a hundred years behind the most successful educational systems…
Read More: US and Europe must help Afghanistan humanitarian crisis