Britain Providing Billions for Education in Africa

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And it's being called the biggest global educational initiative ever undertaken. Britain has promised to give $15 billion to fund education in developing countries, mostly in Africa. Ministers say yesterday's announcement means Britain is delivering on a pledge made during last year's G8 Summit, and they want other countries to do the same. NPR's Rob Gifford reports from London.

ROB GIFFORD reporting:

Britain's finance minister, Gordon Brown, visited a school yesterday in the capital of Mozambique, Maputo, where 4,000 pupils were crammed into classrooms without desks or even the most basic education materials. He said Britain's initiative was about delivering one of the most fundamental human rights, the right to education.

Mr. GORDON BROWN (Finance Minister, Britain): We will try to persuade other countries to join us, and it is our commitment to the future of Africa, but to the future of the whole world, that these resources should be made available so that every child has a chance.

GIFFORD: Brown said the British pledge to fund schools, teachers and equipment over 10 years, marked the biggest such education aid initiative ever undertaken. He said it was a major step in realizing pledges made by Britain last year in response to the Make Poverty History campaign.

His announcement was welcome by non-governmental aid groups who in the past have criticized development countries for failing to deliver on promises of help. Brown was joined in Maputo by former South African President, Nelson Mandela.

Mr. NELSON MANDELA (Former South African President): Promises to children should never be broken. So I'm very happy to see Gordon Brown, one of the people who made his promises showing he is prepared to stand by his word.

GIFFORD: Gordon Brown, who is widely expected to succeed Tony Blair as leader of Britain's ruling Labor Party, said he wants other countries to raise a further $10 billion per year to meet a goal of bringing education opportunities to a hundred million children. But Richard Dowden of the Royal Society for African Affairs in London says money is only part of the solution.

Mr. RICHARD DOWDEN (Royal Society for African Affairs, London): The most important thing however is not the money itself; it's how it's used. And it about the political will of governments in Africa to deliver it to their people and building the capacity in the civil service to get it right down to the schools. If that's done, yes, then this money will be well spent and well used.

But in many African countries even if there's the political will, there isn't the capacity to do that.

GIFFORD: Dowden and other experts agree that without education there is little hope for Africans to improve their situation. Now, what's needed they say is a similar effort to improve the way African countries are governed.

Rob Gifford, NPR News London.

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