2024: a year of impact and influence

In 2024, working with our corporate partners, we:   

• welcomed new global household names including Google, Microsoft and Toyota to the coalition;
• convened the business community around the future of AI and its implications for Africa;
• partnered with Ukraine’s Ministry of Education to mobilize the distribution of laptops and tablets to refugees and displaced teachers and children;
• brought the private sector to the table alongside global funds investing more than $600 million annually in education.

Here’s a more detailed look at what GBC-Education achieved over the past year.

Expansion of our network and elevation of private sector in education policy

To grow our reach and influence, and bring local experience to the global stage, we forged new partnerships with regional and national business coalitions in Latin America, Europe and South Asia, bringing dozens more companies into our network – in addition to adding new multinational partners.

At an event in Berlin in June, business leaders met representatives from donor countries and international organizations to explore opportunities to expand the depth, breadth and impact of public-private partnerships.

We demonstrated how business can address education challenges through our presence at UNESCO’s High Level Steering Committee for Sustainable Development Goal 4 and on the boards of the Global Partnership for Education (World Bank) and the Education Cannot Wait Fund (UNICEF).

Collaboration with companies to advance social impact

We supported SAP in piloting a program to train and certify hundreds of youths, as part of its signature corporate social responsibility initiative Educate to Employ, which aims to equip youth aged 18 to 35 around the world with soft skills and foundational knowledge.

This typified how we serve as a key partner for many of our network members, selecting and vetting non-profit partners and providing strategic insights to inform their programmatic efforts, thanks to our expertise with non-profits serving youths and our knowledge of the global skills landscape.

Delivering on our promise to the children of Ukraine

GBC-Education redoubled its efforts to distribute thousands more laptops and tablets to students and teachers in Ukraine, where there are two million children either studying remotely or combining distance learning with in-person classes. At the invitation of the Ministry of Education, we served as the implementation partner of the Ukraine Device Coalition, a joint initiative of the Ministry, the Ministry for Digital Transformation and the Olena Zelenska Foundation. This followed the Digital Equity for Ukraine initiative in 2022-23, which distributed 78,000 devices in partnership with HP Inc and Microsoft.

Convening the business community around the future of AI in Africa

At a packed event in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly we demonstrated our outstanding convening power, bringing together national ministers, major global companies, academia and civil society to focus on the potential for AI in Africa and especially its youth population of 650 million. The audience at Harnessing AI for the Future of Africa was especially engrossed by contributions from some of our Global Youth Ambassadors from Africa on what AI could bring to their countries.

An accelerated impact on youth skills and employment

The second year of our Youth Skills and Employment Accelerator brought the program to a total of 28 non-profits in 22 US states that have positively impacted more than 200,000 young people. With up to 20 new non-profits set to join in 2025, we are working towards creating the largest network of youth-serving organizations in the US. Supported by Dell Technologies and Deloitte, the program has been addressing the skills shortage since 2011. It assists non-profits working to improve the skills and employment prospects of young people in underserved communities to connect with like-minded organizations, businesses and funders. 

Harnessing the early years to advance skills, solve talent shortages and promote gender pay equity

We demonstrated the coherence, effectiveness and impact of our advocacy and campaigning with the second year of our Act For Early Years campaign, launched in 2023 in tandem with Theirworld. GBC-Education backed a call for $1 billion in new commitments from the public and private sectors over the next three years to support early years care and education. We recommended that businesses contribute towards the target by providing childcare benefits, such as stipends for childcare providing day care back-up or childcare credits.

That messaging was supported by senior executives from the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise and Etsy at our Act For Early Years event in Washington DC during the World Bank Spring Meetings in April. They also made the case that investment in the early years would not only address talent shortages, but the gender pay gap.

That advocacy was complemented by our CEO Justin van Fleet in a letter to the editor published in the Financial Times arguing that early years childcare should be treated as an investment, not a cost.

Ahead of the UN General Assembly, GBC-Education and Theirworld once again demonstrated our ability to produce well-honed, timely research that gains publicity for our campaigns and concerns. We received strong media coverage in the US and UK for new research showing that teachers believed children were less ready to start school than several years previously. The survey also found that around the world large numbers of new students cannot perform simple tasks such as identifying numbers and washing their hands.

What’s to come in 2025?

Next year we will accelerate our journey towards giving every child the start they need in life and the skills to succeed. For members current and new there will be more excellent networking opportunities at a variety of events, from short information sessions to roundtables, and opportunities to leverage employee volunteerism, corporate philanthropy and CSR programs to drive social and business goals.

Our calendar already includes:  

• a dialogue in Nairobi with global companies, local coalitions and governments to address the youth skills gap in east Africa;
• an in-person International Women’s Day event in London with leading businesswomen and personalities;
• a new study and launch event quantifying the economic impact of LGBTQ+ discrimination in schools and the case for business action;
• a new US youth skills and employment accelerator impacting the lives of thousands more young people;
• a roundtable on innovative finance for education at the World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington DC,
• and our annual UN General Assembly High-Level Dinner.

If you want to be a business that puts education at the heart of its social strategy, please join us. Read more about becoming a member of the coalition here.