Breaking out of the bubble to transform education financing: how the strategic finance agenda from the 'Transforming Education' summit could deliver breakthroughs in 89 countries

The Transforming Education Summit (TES) in September 2022 was the highest level education meeting ever – convening Heads of States on an unprecedented scale to address the education crisis. One of the five core tracks for the Summit focused on finance, with a TES Discussion Paper on Financing developed with 193 UN Member States and a Call to Action on Financing Education endorsed by the UN Secretary General, that was launched on 19th September 2022. This marked a significant turning point in how discussions on education finance are framed, requiring the education community at national and international levels to engage on the wider issues that profoundly affect the financing of education including tax, debt and austerity. This briefing is based on an extensive new analysis of different data sets (see the 3 tables in the annexes) to show how breakthroughs on tax, debt and austerity are fundamental for making progress on education in 89 partner and eligible countries of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE).