Paris (GNP): UNESCO Education Financing Summit 2026 will bring together global education leaders in Paris on July 10, four years after the landmark Transforming Education Summit convened by the United Nations Secretary General. The gathering will examine global progress and challenges in education at a time when financing for the sector faces serious and growing pressure around the world.
Participants at the UNESCO Education Financing Summit 2026 will include President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, more than 17 education ministers from countries around the world, economist Vera Songwe, and Grammy nominated recording artist and songwriter Audrey Nuna, known for being the singing voice of Mira from Kpop Demon Hunters. United Nations Deputy Secretary General Amina Mohammed and UNESCO Director General Khaled El-Enany will also take part in the event.
Global education financing is currently facing a serious crisis, with declining aid flows, rising debt burdens, and growing fiscal pressures affecting countries everywhere. Today, 113 countries, home to 6.1 billion people, spend more on debt servicing than they do on education, creating a damaging cycle of underinvestment, inequality, and stalled development for millions of children and young people.
To help countries navigate these difficult challenges, UNESCO will launch a comprehensive technical guide for governments on July 10 to help implement debt for education swaps. These swaps can help countries break free from the debt trap and generate additional resources that can be invested directly into education systems, giving struggling nations a practical path toward better funded schools and learning opportunities.
UNESCO’s new series of resources on innovative education financing solutions will be officially launched during the Transforming Education Summit Plus Four at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris. This summit represents a key milestone ahead of the 2030 deadline for Sustainable Development Goal 4, which focuses on ensuring quality education for all children around the world.
The UNESCO Education Financing Summit 2026 will also examine how artificial intelligence and other new technologies are reshaping education systems globally. This discussion forms part of UNESCO’s ongoing efforts to ensure that artificial intelligence genuinely improves learning outcomes, particularly in developing countries, without undermining human agency or replacing the essential role of teachers and educators. With a strong focus on building resilience in education systems, the summit will also address the impact of climate change and ongoing global crises on children’s access to quality education.
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Ahead of the main event, journalists have been invited to attend an online press briefing where UNESCO’s debt for education swap guide and new data on declining global aid to education will be presented under embargo. The press briefing will take place on Thursday, July 2, from 15:00 to 16:00 Central European Time, with Min Jeong Kim, Director of UNESCO’s Division for Education 2030, and Manos Antoninis, Director of the UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report, leading the discussion.
The main Transforming Education Summit Plus Four event will take place on Friday, July 10, from 14:30 to 18:00 Central European Time at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris. The event will be livestreamed for those unable to attend in person, ensuring that education stakeholders, journalists, and the public around the world can follow the discussions and outcomes of this important gathering on the future of global education financing.
