MOGADISHU (SD) – Somalia will attend the Global Education Summit (GPE) which is expected to kick off on Wednesday in London, United Kingdom.

According to sources privy to the development, Somali prime minister, Mohamed Hussein Roble and the country’s education minister, Abdullahi Abukar Haji will be travelling to London in the forthcoming hours.

The summit will be co-hosted by Boris Johnson, UK Prime Minister, and President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya.

The summit will run between 28 and 29 July 2021. Several heads of state and government, as well as stakeholders and youth leaders, will participate in the summit.

The Summit will raise funds for the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), which has set a target of procuring $5 billion over the next five years to help ensure 175 million children get the opportunity to learn, according to Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).

“Now with the impact of the Covid-19 and its knock effect on learning, we are at a critical junction. Previous progress sadly is at risk of being undone, and we know that girls have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic,” said UK Minister for the Middle East and North Africa James Cleverly.

It is estimated that a whopping $210 billion is required to tackle the shortfall in global education – which has forced many young people, particularly women, into unemployment and cycles of poverty in the Middle East and North Africa.