ASPBAE’s Participation in the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) Consultations in Support of Young Peoples’ Call for Action: Education Multiplies Possibility

“As young people from around the world, we are living in a time of challenge and opportunity. Inequality, youth unemployment, conflict, and the rapid pace of digital change are reshaping our futures. In the face of all this, we believe one thing can multiply possibility more than anything else: education.”- Young Peoples’ Call for Action: “Education Multiplies Possibility”

With the chronic underfunding of education being a major challenge, both domestically and internationally, it is important for young people to contribute in shaping a sustainable financing agenda that will support equitable, quality, resilient and gender-transformative public education systems.

The Global Partnerships for Education (GPE) supported the youth-led development of a Global Youth Statement, which aims to present a unified call from young people across regions, urging greater and much-needed political and financial support in education systems that prepare youth for life, work, and leadership in a rapidly changing world.

This is part of the consultative processes steered by the GPE Youth Leaders, who hosted a series of regional consultations, including one for the Asia Pacific that was held on 7 June 2025, followed by a Global Consultation on 12 June 2025. ASPBAE encouraged and invited youth across the Asia-Pacific region and beyond to contribute to and shape the GPE Youth Statement. Among the participants were the Coalition for Education Development (CED) Sri Lanka’s Rangani Lakmali, Civil Society Education Partnership (CSEP) Timor Leste’s Antonio Cardos, and ASPBAE’s Advocacy and Youth Engagement Officer, Lae Santiago, who shared their inputs and called for increased public financing for education.

Through lively discussions in breakout groups, youth across the region and the globe were invited to reflect on the biggest challenges they see in accessing quality education, how increased and better-allocated funding could address these challenges, and how education contributes to a more just, peaceful, and sustainable world. They also put forward their demands to governments and discussed why it is crucial for governments and donors to invest in education globally.

ASPBAE’s Lae Santiago, helped facilitate one of the breakout groups in the Global Youth Consultation, and presented the key highlights of the discussion in the plenary. She

emphasised the intersecting, systematic, and structural barriers that affect one’s right to education, including the lack of political will and financing and the deprioritization of education in the global agenda, as well as the adverse impacts of rising tensions, armed conflict, and climate change on education.

She highlighted the role of governments, as duty-bearers, in prioritizing public funding for education through domestic resource mobilization and progressive taxation, ensuring that there is a focus on both formal and non-formal education systems and a strong emphasis on addressing equity, inclusion, gender, and quality issues in education. She also called for education in emergencies (EiE), especially for young refugees and displaced persons, tailored educational support for marginalized groups, as well as SDG 4.7 on global citizenship education.

The outcome of the regional and global consultations, known as the ‘Young Peoples’ Call for Action: Education Multiplies Possibility,’ calls on world leaders to “invest boldly in education, because education multiplies possibility for people, peace, and the planet.” Sign the GPE 2030 Youth Statement: https://www.globalpartnership.org/news/education-multiplies-possibility-young-peoples-call-action