No world leader is safe from Rihanna’s mission to get every child in school.
Just a couple of weeks after Rihanna tweeted at Prime Minister Erna Solberg of Norway, calling on her to #FundEducation through the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), the pop star added to her list Thursday, tweeting world leaders from three more countries and asking them to ramp up efforts in realizing every child’s right to a quality education.
The the UK, France, and Australia all found themselves in Rihanna’s sights — as she asked them to step up and support GPE.
.@erna_solberg#throwback to 1 year ago when we talked about how important it is to #FundEducation. Now it’s time… Will 🇳🇴 lead in Senegal on 2/2/18 with a $375M USD pledge to @GPforEducation? @glblctzn@claralionelfdnpic.twitter.com/KRFXbmMSbj
— Rihanna (@rihanna) January 17, 2018
Merci @emmanuelmacron for stepping up to co-host @GPforEducation’s Financing Conference in Dakar! Will France 🇫🇷 pledge €250M for @GPforEducation tomorrow? @claralionelfdn@glblctzn 🌍
— Rihanna (@rihanna) February 1, 2018
hi @JulieBishopMP & @TurnbullMalcolm will you step up w/ a 🇦🇺 $200M pledge to #FundEducation at the @GPforEducation conference in Senegal tomorrow? Kick off your 1st year on the #HumanRightsCouncil by giving the universal human right to education! 📚🌏 @claralionelfdn@glblctzn
— Rihanna (@rihanna) February 1, 2018
🇬🇧 Hello @theresa_may and @PennyMordaunt, please continue to prioritize girls’ education and be a top funder of @GPforEducation. Will @DFID_UK make a historic commitment of £380M to #FundEducation tomorrow? ✏️ @claralionelfdn@glblctzn
— Rihanna (@rihanna) February 1, 2018
And you can join her. Global Citizen is calling on leaders in EU, US, Canada, France, other G7 countries, and the Asia-Pacific region to #FundEducation.
Take Action: Join Rihanna, Call On World Leaders to #FundEducation!
But time is running out for governments to offer their support.
That’s because right now there’s a financing conference for the Global Partnership for Education — a global fund for education set up by private donors, NGOs, and other international organizations, working in 65 developing countries to make sure every child gets a quality basic education.
The conference, held in Senegal and co-hosted by Senegal and France, marks the first time European and African leaders have jointly raised money to get kids back in school.
The GPE works to reach some of the most educationally challenging parts of the world — essential in tackling poverty and inequality — but, right now, efforts are severely underfunded.
Read more: Rihanna Spent a Week in Malawi For a Really Good Reason
Right now, 264 million children around the world are missing out on education.
If current trends continue, 15 million girls and 10 million boys worldwide will never set foot in a classroom. By 2030, less than 10% of young people in low-income countries will be on track to gain basic secondary level skills.
It’s statistics like these that inspired Rihanna to put her fame, and her extensive Twitter following, to use to tackle these injustices.
In 2016, she became an ambassador for GPE, and she’s been taking the role very seriously. In January last year, she travelled to Malawi with Global Citizen and the GPE, to meet with children at under-resourced schools.
Read more: Et Voila! How Global Citizens (Including Rihanna) Helped Get France to Commit $2M to Education
She travelled with former Australian Prime Minister and GPE Chairperson Julia Gillard, and Global Citizen CEO Hugh Evans, visiting students, teachers, government officials, and mentors to better understand the issues and challenges surrounding education.
“I’m really here to see it,” Rihanna said at the time. “It’s one thing to read statistics, but I want to see it firsthand and find out all that can be done and where to start first.”
It’s not the first time Rihanna has used Twitter to get her message across.
Last year, she tweeted Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, Argentinian president Mauricio Macri, German leader Angela Merkel, and French president Emmanuel Macron.
Read more: Rihanna Meets With President & First Lady Macron to Support Global Partnership for Education
To Trudeau, in June 2017, she wrote: “I know you had our backs during the Global Citizen Festival, will you recommit Canada to #FundEducation?”
To Macri she said: “Hey there, what’s your plan for Argentina to commit to #FundEducation?”
And she got some responses.
Hola @Rihanna! Education is in the central core of our political aims. Only education can change the world. @EstebanBullrich 🇦🇷 https://t.co/T49GIB0QXo
— Mauricio Macri (@mauriciomacri) June 24, 2017
.@rihanna we've got your back! Thanks to @mclaudebibeau who made sure girls' education is in our feminist international development policy.
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) June 26, 2017
Even better, the singer actually had a face-to-face meeting with French president Macron in July last year as a result of her tweet, to discuss the critical issue of the replenishment of a global education fund.
And her efforts — alongside the efforts of Global Citizens — are really paying off.
In 2016, after targeting then-French president Francois Hollande and rallying her fans to do the same, Rihanna was able to persuade the French government to commit $2 million to the Education Cannot Wait fund.
Quality education is one of the UN Global Goals, a 17-goal plan for ending extreme poverty by 2030. And, for many, it is one of the most vital goals to achieve because it ties into so many others.
An educated person is more likely to lead a healthy life, for example, and is less likely to die in childbirth. Education helps to promote gender equality, reduce child marriage, and build peace.
Read more: Why an Indian City Awarded Free Lifetime Education to One Baby Girl
But children — particularly girls, children with disabilities, and children living in conflict zones — are still missing out.
In South Sudan, in a shocking example, a girl is more likely to die in childbirth than she is to finish secondary school.
Over 100 million young women living in developing countries are unable to read a single sentence. One in three girls in developing countries get married before they turn 18, and they usually leave education when they do.
Not only is this deeply unjust, it also ignores the immense potential of educating girls. If all girls went to school for 12 years, low- and middle-income countries could add $92 billion per year to their economies — and a girl who is educated is less likely to marry young, contract HIV, and more likely to have healthy, educated children.
Read more: ‘Sesame Street’ Just Got $100 Million to Help Refugee Kids
Global Citizen campaigns to achieve the Global Goals, including goal number four, quality education. We believe that every child everywhere has the right to an education and the right to the best possible start in life. You can join us by taking action here.