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The Global Campaign for Education, U.S. Chapter (GCE-US) is a broad-based coalition (click here for a complete list of our coalition members) of U.S. organizations including faith-based groups, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), teachers unions, foundations, and think tanks dedicated to ensuring access to quality basic education in developing nations.

GCE-US promotes access to education as a basic human right and mobilizes the public to create political will in the U.S. and internationally to improve education for the world’s poorest children.  As a coalition, we also work to promote the importance of pre-school education, prevent abusive child labor, increase adult literacy rates, and eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education.

Founded in 2003 by Gene Sperling, formerly the Director of the Center for Universal Education, GCE-US has grown into a thriving and diverse coalition with more than 30 member organizations working together to increase awareness of the need for Education for All and to secure U.S. leadership on a multilateral global education initiative.

Current Objectives of the U.S. Chapter of the Global Campaign for Education:

• Making Education a Global Development Priority: The Obama Administration’s Global Development Strategy does not include education as a development priority. Achieving universal basic education is the key to success across all development sectors, and GCE-US is calling on the President to make education a global development priority.
• Passing the Education for All Act: The Education for All Act increases access to and improves the quality of education, focuses on country-driven capacity building, and calls on the U.S. to support a multilateral education initiative. GCE-US is committed to securing passage of the Education for All Act in this Congress.
• Securing U.S. Participation in a new Multilateral Education Initiative: Currently, the U.S. funds global basic education efforts almost exclusively on a bilateral basis through the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Coordinating aid through a multilateral education initiative is smart aid, and results in more support for children, schools, and teachers in developing countries and better oversight of how funds are used. GCE-US continues to call on policymakers to commit U.S. funding to a new multilateral education initiative or global fund for education.
• Removing Barriers for Girls Secondary Education: Despite the fact that gains for investing in the education of women and girls grow with each year of school completed, girls continue to make up more than half of the out-of school children worldwide. At the secondary level, girls face barriers related to health and sanitation, causing many of them to drop out after enrolling. GCE-US advances policy that removes these barriers to secondary education for girls and allows them to achieve their full potential.

GCE-US is an independent secretariat of the Global Campaign for Education (GCE), based in Johannesburg, South Africa.  GCE was founded in 1999 and brings together major nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and teachers’ unions and other civil society groups in more than 100 countries.