That’s why RESULTS and RESULTS Educational Fund (REF) stand out. Our mission is to create the public and political will to end poverty by empowering individuals to exercise their personal and political power for change. We combine the voices of our passionate grassroots activists with strategic grass-tops efforts to leverage millions of dollars for programs and improved policies that give low-income people the health, education, and opportunity they need to thrive, both in the United States and around the world.
Around the world, 57 million primary school aged children are still not in school. And many more children who are in school are failing to acquire even basic reading, writing and numeracy skills. The world has made astounding progress since 1999, when 108 million primary school aged children were out of school. However, progress has stagnated in the last several years.
Unless more effective policies are implemented and there is greater international financial support, more children may be out of school in 2015 than in 2008. Millions more will receive a low-quality education and not be able to read, write, and counts. A renewed commitment is needed to not only get children into school, but ensure they are learning once they reach the classroom.
Moving forward, it is vital that the global community focuses on: improving access for the most vulnerable children, particularly those in conflict affected states, children with disabilities, girls, and other marginalized populations; and improving the quality of education through increasing teacher effectiveness and resources for education so children in school gain the skills needed to become productive, contributing members of society.
With our more than 100 grassroots advocacy chapters around the country, RESULTS is working to address these global challenges by advocating for increased U.S. support for the Global Partnership for Education, the only multilateral initiative focused on ensuring all children have access to a quality basic education, and improved United States government policies through the passage of the Education for All Act.
RESULTS works on these campaigns in close conjunction with GCE-US, partnering annually on Global Action Week activities, planning advocacy days in support of education on Capitol Hill, and putting together sign-on letters and other opportunities for coalition members to voice their support for critical global education issues to U.S. decision makers.
Since 2002, RESULTS has supported the Education for All campaign out of the belief that education is critical to eliminating poverty, empowering active and healthy citizens, and building sustainable solutions to the greatest development challenges of our day: HIV/AIDS, environmental degradation, economic deprivation, inequity, violence.