Investing in Transformation: Boosting Education in Ireland’s Overseas Aid Programme
DOWNLOAD HERE: IFGE Pre-Budget 2025 Submission
We are pleased to announce the publication of the IFGE’s Pre-Budget Submission for 2025. Our recommendations, which reflect the collective input and insights of our diverse network, have today been officially submitted to the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Minister of State with responsibility for International Development and Diaspora.
We greatly appreciate Ireland’s well-established commitment to global education, evidenced by its significant pledges and contributions in recent years. However, the global education landscape continues to face severe challenges due to conflicts, climate shocks, and chronic underfunding, with 250 million children still out-of-school and many more lacking basic skills.
In light of these ongoing challenges, we urge the Government to increase the proportion of the ODA budget allocated to education in 2025, ensuring that education remains a priority in Ireland’s development cooperation. This investment will significantly contribute to building prosperous, inclusive, and sustainable societies worldwide.
The submission outlines our key recommendations for the upcoming budget, focusing on crucial areas such as:
- Increasing the ODA Budget for Education: Building on previous commitments, we call for an increase in funding to address the critical gaps in global education, with a focus on girls’ education and education in emergency contexts.
- Education-Climate Nexus: Increasing climate funding dedicated to climate-proofing education and education-specific projects and taking a leading role in the COP28 Declaration on the Common Agenda for Education and Climate Change.
- Advocating for Free Education for All: Strengthening Ireland’s advocacy for free education in international forums, including supporting the global initiative for a new optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the rights to free early childhood, pre-primary, and secondary education.
- Strengthening Education Financing: Supporting reforms in tax, debt, and austerity measures, as well as advancing the UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation, to enhance the financial capacity of countries worldwide to invest in education.
With education serving as a vital driver to achieving all SDGs, these recommendations are important not only for guaranteeing quality education for all worldwide. Investing significantly in global education in 2025, building on the €250 million commitment from 2019 to 2024, will yield essential outcomes for development initiatives and advance the 2030 agenda and all SDGs worldwide for the good of all.
We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to all our member organisations and stakeholders who contributed their valuable insights and feedback to this submission. Your collaboration and commitment are essential to our shared mission of promoting quality education for all worldwide, especially in development and emergency contexts.
The full Pre-Budget Submission document is available for DOWNLOAD HERE: IFGE Pre-Budget 2025 Submission
