Jutta Urpilainen, European Commissioner for International Partnerships, has been appointed Chair of the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report Advisory Board, taking over from H. E. David Moinina Sengeh, Chief Minister of Sierra Leone, who was the Chair of the Board in 2021–2023, and following other eminent Chairpersons, including Helen Clark, Professor Jeffrey Sachs and Amina Mohammed.
Established in 2002, the GEM Report is an editorially independent report, hosted and published by UNESCO. At the 2015 World Education Forum, it received a mandate from the world’s governments to monitor and report on progress on Sustainable Development Goal 4 “Quality Education” and the implementation of relevant national and international strategies.
“As a former teacher, witnessing the transformative power of education, I have made education my top priority during my mandate as EU Commissioner for International Partnerships. I am very proud of the significant funding increase that we have achieved in that perspective: the share of education of the International Partnerships budget has risen from 7% to over 13%. I believe in leading by example and have been an active champion of financing global education as a member of the SDG 4 High-level Steering Committee.”
“I am excited to take this position as Chair of the Advisory Board for the GEM Report, and to leverage these experiences, supporting the team’s strategy to drive impactful action on education to 2030 and beyond so that the global community invests more and better in education”, said Urpilainen.
Her role as Chair will involve leading the annual meeting of the Advisory Board, which is convened in Paris every June, as well as supporting and advocating for the work of the GEM Report and the overall SDG 4 agenda.
“Data should guide actions. I am a strong believer that research and monitoring can fuel collaboration and ensure that investments in education are as impactful as possible,” she continued.
The Advisory Board consists of 35 members, made up of multilateral organisations, donors, regional experts, regional organisations, civil society organisations and independent experts.
A new five-year strategy for the Report will be finalised at the first Advisory Board meeting being chaired by Ms Urpilainen this month, outlining the outputs to be prioritized between now and 2030 that will best support the international community to identify policy priorities for improving progress towards the SDG 4 agenda.
