UK-Kenya fundraising summit aims to raise $5bn to fund global education

At global education summit in London a call has been made on governments, businesses and philanthropists to invest in the future of children.

The summit being co-hosted by the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson and his Kenyan counterpart, Uhuru Kenyatta, is aiming to raise more than $5bn is being raised to support global education efforts.

This comes at a time when charities have criticized the British government's decision to make significant aid cuts around the world.

''We believe in their potential in the power of education to unleash it and in particular to in particular, to promote 12 years of quality education, the bedrock of the foundation. So it's in that spirit that we're delighted and honored to co-host this summit with Kenya’’, said British Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab.

The joint UK-Kenya fundraising summit is aiming to raise $5 billion over the next five years. World leaders will be asked to commit a fifth of their national budgets to education.

Meanwhile, Britain announced that it would begin donating millions of coronavirus vaccine doses around the world, including Commonwealth countries, following its pledge to provide 100 million jabs globally by June 2022.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the rollout of an initial 9 million doses from Friday would go to Kenya, Jamaica and several Asian nations.

"They will go to countries, vulnerable places like Laos and Cambodia, partners like Indonesia, Malaysia (and) a range of Commonwealth countries from Kenya to Jamaica," he said.

Britain has committed to sharing 100 million Covid-19 vaccines by the middle of 2022, with 30 million to be sent by the end of the year.

Around 80% of the contribution is set to go through the Covax programme, which aims to ensure fair distribution of jabs, with the rest directly to individual countries.