Overview of Accomplishments 2013-2014

OVERVIEW OF ACCOMPLISHMENTS 2013 - 2014 Since its launch in 2012, the Global Business Coalition for Education (GBC-Education) has grown to become the single forum connecting business to make a lasting impact on the lives of children and youth through education.

GBC-Education is currently comprised of over 100 companies and growing, including leading member companies and the #smartinvestment Network.

A business-led, action-oriented organization, GBC-Education focuses on four core functions: connect, cooperate, showcase and discover. During the past year there were many successes and accomplishments associated with these four-core coalition functions.

CONNECT Coordinating the business community for greater impact in target countries ●

The Safe Schools Initiative was launched in 2014 with Nigerian business leaders - including Advisory Board member Nduka Obaigbena - UN Special Envoy for Global Education Gordon Brown and A World at School at the World Economic Forum Africa in Abuja. The business community contributed an initial $10M and successfully leveraged a $10M government match (total of $20M). The initiative is operating in the in northern Nigeria to promote schools as safe spaces. International donors have now started to contribute to this business-led initiative.

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The India Working Group, led by Accenture and Western Union and joined by Intel, Lenovo, McKinsey & Co. and Pearson, continued to meet and is coordinating a policy roundtable – in cooperation with the Global Compact Network India - for late 2014 on the topic of business engagement in education for leading CEOs and policymakers. The group is also collaborating with the India School Leadership Institute to train school leaders in low-income settings.

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The Pakistan Working Group - which includes Habib Bank Limited, Vitol Foundation, Western Union, Standard Chartered, and Nestlé - was established in 2014 to accelerate education delivery in Pakistan. Following an inaugural meeting in Islamabad, the group is developing projects on health and education, financing for education, and championing the Right to Education under article 25A in the Pakistan’s constitution. Habib Bank Limited hosted a meeting of the Pakistan Working Group – facilitated

by Advisory Board member Baela Raza Jamil - in Karachi in early September 2014.

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The Business for Early Childhood Development Task Force led by LEGO Education and Oando Foundation, informs business engagement in early childhood development in collaboration with the Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution. GBC-Education kicked off the effort with a webinar featuring LEGO Education and leaders from Delta Airlines and University of California, Berkeley.

COOPERATE Creating opportunities for partnerships at the local, national and global levels ●

Western Union rolled out the Western Union Education for Better Fund with A World at School which allows nearly anyone, anywhere in the world, to donate to support UNICEF education programs for Syrian youth. Western Union will match consumer donations on a 1:1 basis, up to $100,000. By using their core business asset, Western Union is allowing anyone to be a philanthropist.

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Discovery Communications is the official media partner for the #EducationCountdown Campaign.

The company helped launch the campaign on August 18 by airing public service announcements that highlighted the urgent need for quality universal education. GBC-Education members contributed their social reach to the Campaign, informing over 60M social media followers about the importance of education.

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GBC-Education facilitated a meeting between UNICEF Innovation, DFID, Vitol Foundation, Microsoft, Econet Wireless and Pearson to discuss an off-the-shelf education solution for use in refugee camps. Vitol Foundation chaired a panel on investing in low-cost innovative schooling and learning models at DFID’s No Lost Generation Initiative: Syria Region Education Meeting in Amman, Jordan.

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Pearson, Microsoft and Discovery Communications joined the Minister of Education of Ghana at the Global Partnership for Education Replenishment Conference in June 2014 to discuss ways the business community can improve the coordination of multilateral efforts in global education. The event was standing room only, sending a clear signal of the riding momentum for private sector engagement in global education.

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Business leaders Strive Masiyiwa (Executive Chairman and Founder, Econet Wireless) and Aliko Dangote (President, Dangote Group) joined the Emergency Coalition for Global Education Action with other world leaders, including singer and songwriter Shakira, USAID Administrator Raj Shah and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

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GBC-Education facilitates conversations between its members and government. For example, through one of the GBC-Education member working calls, Discovery Communications was introduced to the DFID Girls' Education Challenge. Through the Girls' Education Challenge's open competition and brokering process, a $38M Strategic Partnership has been forged between DFID and Discovery Communications, with Discovery Learning Alliance as an implementing partner. This partnership - intended to increase enrollment, attendance and learning for marginalized girls, their families and communities in Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria - is now underway.

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Intel is the first company to endorse a new policy by Education International to help technology companies deploy solutions that support teaching and learning.

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SHOWCASE Using the voice of business to put education on the global agenda ●

#Tech4Ed - GBC-Education’s Education and Technology forum - convened HP, Intel and GUCCI at Facebook’s London HQ to discuss the role of technology in digital campaigning and cause marketing. A second forum convened companies at the World Economic Forum in Abuja to discuss the skills gap and employability.

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Accenture devoted its annual Roundtable at Davos to exploring innovative partnerships and financing in global education with Executive Chair Sarah Brown and The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Executive Director Mark Dybul.

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GBC-Education - in cooperation with the UN Global Compact - coordinated an Education Talkback session on business engagement in education as part of the UN Global Compact’s CEO Roundtable on Corporate Sustainability in Ethiopia. Over 30 business leaders and executives discussed how to overcome barriers to get Ethiopia’s 3M out-of-school children back into school and learning by 2015.

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GBC-Education publishes a widely read blogs series on its website and other media outlets on the topic of business engagement in education and features the thought leadership of business leaders and experts, including Standard Chartered, Microsoft, Oando Foundation, Discovery Communications, Pearson, GUCCI, Intel and GEMS Education.

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GBC-Education launched its #smartinvestment Network with the assistance of ReedSmith to create an audience to share best practices of leading member companies and champion education worldwide. The Network brings together the leading members of GBC-Education and a growing network of new companies pledging to engage deeper in education in developing countries. The Network provides insight and curated content to inform business involvement in global education and connects companies through online webinars.

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GBC-Education hosted the first business and education #CSRChat with CSR advocate Susan McPherson. The Twitter chat brought together active CSR and education champions on social media to promote accomplishments by Hess, Western Union, Discovery, HP and GUCCI.

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GBC-Education organized a panel at MIPTV in Cannes with Robert Triefus (CMO, GUCCI) and David Zaslav (CEO, Discovery Communications) highlighting GBC-Education members’ work to television global industry executives demonstrating how effective use media could engage the public in the campaign for global education.

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Aliko Dangote (President, Dangote Group) was appointed to the steering committee of the UN Secretary-General’s Global Education First Initiative.

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DISCOVER Identifying best practice and opportunities for investment ●

GBC-Education collaborated with PricewaterhouseCoopers and A World at School to develop a report on measuring the impact of corporate social investments in education. The report aims to help organizations build a framework to begin to better measure and subsequently build a credible narrative about the impact of their investments in education, in terms of benefits to both business and society.

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GBC-Education Policy Briefs convey private sector perspectives on education policy topics. The most recent brief entitled “Cooperating with Multilaterals for Global Education” highlighted four areas of cooperation between the business sector and the multilateral agenda to accelerate progress to get all children and youth into school and learning.

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GBC-Education hosted a series of business consultations to contribute to “The Smartest Investment: A Framework for Business Engagement in Education,” the first of its kind guide launched at the UN Global Compact Leaders’ Summit 2013 and downloaded nearly 1,000 times. The document has been subsequently translated in Arabic, Chinese-Mandarin, French, Portuguese and Spanish. GEMS Education used it as the foundation of their Business Backs Education campaign.

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GBC-Education facilitated conversations about a global education platform initiative, identifying how technology can be used to deliver accessible, recognized and relevant skill development opportunities through a public good model targeting the most marginalized. A discussion paper was published in 2014 highlighting five potential models for harnessing technology to bridge the global skills gap.

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A GBC-Education, Brookings Institution and Accenture report on Social Impact Bonds went to the next level as Accenture hosted a global webinar convening over 40 partners to discuss the next stages of investment and piloting opportunities.

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