What is it that can easily bring the President of France and a young dashing musical celebrity together on stage? It will take the inspired guesser multiple attempts to get the answer. But it is simple – It has nothing to do with Entertainment. The answer is Education.
President Emmanuel Macron and Rihanna certainly do not move in the same circles, but the French President and the pop star joined forces last Friday to champion the cause of education for the world’s poorest countries.
The pair urged world leaders and donors to scale up support for schooling at a financing conference of the Global Partnership for Education, GPE, in Senegal’s capital, Dakar. Rihanna, who is GPE’s Global Ambassador, was wildly applauded when she said on stage, “This is a fight that we are never going to stop fighting until every boy and every girl has access to education”.
The singer, who came originally from Barbados, also called out other presidents on Twitter – where she has 86 million followers – to honour their commitments ahead of the summit.
“Supporting education is not a choice we can make or not make, it is a necessity,” said President Macron, who co-hosted the event with Senegal’s President, Macky Sall. GPE aims to raise $3.1 billion over the next two years to ensure access to classrooms for 870 million children in 65 developing countries.
About 264 million children worldwide are missing out on school, according to the partnership. But the share of global aid going to education has been shrinking for over a decade, said the ONE campaign, a global advocacy organisation. “Dakar should be a turning point for access to quality education,” said ONE’s President, Gayle Smith, in a statement.
