There are approximately 58 million children who are unable to attend elementary school in the world. Including secondary school, an estimated 244 million children are out of school.Note 74 In particular, in Sub-Saharan Africa, the percentage of out-of-school children has been increasing since 2000. Above all, children with disabilities, children of minority ethnic groups and disadvantaged communities, refugee and displaced children, and those living in remote areas are at the greatest risk of being left behind. Russia’s aggression against Ukraine has deprived children and students of their right to education and halted international exchange. Meanwhile, the spread of COVID-19 has revealed vulnerabilities in the education system. In addition to the loss of learning opportunities due to school closures, it is pointed out that some children do not return to school even after reopening. These situations raise further concerns about malnutrition, early marriage, and gender inequality of those children.

Education is extremely important as an “investment in people” that is essential for promoting “human security.” SDG 4 aims to “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all,” and the international community works on achieving the goal of “Education 2030 Framework for Action.”Glossary The Transforming Education Summit, held at the UN Headquarters in September 2022, also highlighted the need for international cooperation to build education systems that can respond to crises in order to protect education for people in vulnerable situations. Japan continues to promote educational initiatives based on the perspectives of quality education for all, empowerment of women, children, and youth, and ensuring educational opportunities in conflict and disaster situations.

● Japan’s Efforts

Third grade primary school children using a math study app as part of a project to improve teaching and learning mathematics in primary education in Laos (Photo: JICA)

A JOCV working to improve the quality of primary education in Djibouti City (Photo: JICA)

Japan provides developing countries with a broad range of support, including the enhancement of basic educationNote 75 and higher education.

In particular, Japan provides support to children prone to be in vulnerable situations, such as girls, children with disabilities, and children in conflict-affected areas, as well as children of refugees, displaced persons, and their host communities, who have been left out of school and learning opportunities. For example, Japan supports projects for children in conflict-affected areas by providing distance learning equipment and mental health care support in Ukraine. Japan also works to promote inclusive education that takes into consideration children with disabilities, as well as education with climate change and disaster risk reduction perspectives. For example, in Mongolia, Japan works to develop primary and secondary education facilities that are barrier-free and equipped with fire doors and storage, which can be used as a base for disaster prevention for the local communities (see “Stories from the Field 3” for higher education support in India. Also see “Featured Project” for efforts for children with disabilities in Kenya).

Also, Japan contributed a total of approximately 51.41 million US dollars from 2008 to 2023 to the Global Partnership for Education (GPE).Glossary In 2022 alone, more than 106 million children were supported through GPE’s support activities, and more than 670,000 teachers were trained. At the Global Education Summit held in July 2021, Japan pledged to contribute more than 1.5 billion US dollars over five years from 2021 to 2025 to support the education sector, including continued support for GPE, as well as the support for the education and human resources development of 7.5 million girls in developing countries. More than 1.25 million girls were supported over the two-year period from FY2021 to FY2022, and Japan will continue to provide support going forward. Furthermore, Japan announced that it would make a new contribution to the Education Cannot Wait (ECW)Glossary fund to ensure that Ukrainian children could learn in a safer environment.

At TICAD 8 held in August 2022, as an initiative in the field of education (human resources development including youth and women) for Africa, Japan expressed that it would help improve children’s learning by promoting school enrollment, improving inclusiveness, and providing school meals. Japan also announced that, through these efforts, it aims to eventually provide quality education, including STEMNote 76 education, to 9 million children and improve access to quality education for 4 million girls. In addition, Japan announced that it would work to develop highly-skilled human resources through human resources development and acceptance of students from Africa under the Japan-Africa university network, and would promote research cooperation in the field of science and technology.

Specifically, Japan has implemented the “School for All”Note 77 project since 2004, which aims to build relationships of trust between schools, parents and guardians, and local residents, as well as to improve the education environment for children, particularly in West African countries. In cooperation with the World Bank, GPE, and others, Japan works to expand the project throughout each targeted country, and by October 2022, approximately 70,000 primary and secondary schools in nine countries have introduced the project. Japan also cooperates with more than 20 Japanese universities, establishing a university network based at the Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology (E-JUST) in Egypt and the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT)/PAU Institute of Basic Sciences, Technology and Innovation (PAUSTI) in Kenya. By strengthening collaboration in education, research, and industry-academia collaboration, Japan aims to resolve social issues in the entire African region through research cooperation.

In addition, with regard to Africa, Japan has provided specialized education and internship opportunities in Japan for African youth through the “African Business Education Initiative for Youth (ABE Initiative).” To date, Japan has worked to develop human resources who will be the backbone of Africa’s future, with over 6,700 young people involved. (see Part V, Section 1 (6) and Part V, Section 2 (2) A regarding the ABE Initiative).

In the Asia-Pacific region, Japan provides assistance for initiatives toward the achievement of SDG 4. It includes support for organizing the “Asia-Pacific Meeting on Education 2030 (APMED2030)” through the contribution to a funds-in-trust within the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), as well as support for improvement of education quality, enhancement of early childhood education, spread of non-formal education, and improvement of teachers’ teaching skills. Moreover, Japan supports human resources development in developing countries by engaging in a wide range of efforts such as strengthening networking among higher education institutions between Japan and ASEAN, collaborating with the industrial sector, participating in joint research projects with neighboring countries, and accepting international students to Japanese higher education institutions and other institutions.

■ Promoting Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)

“Education for Sustainable DevelopmentGlossary: Towards achieving the SDGs (ESD for 2030)” began in January 2020 with UNESCO as the leading organization. ESD can contribute to the realization of all SDGs by fostering the builders of a sustainable society, and Japan, as the country that proposed ESD, continues not only to engage in the promotion of ESD but also to play a significant role in its global advocacy and enhancement through the funds-in-trust to UNESCO. In addition, through the aforementioned funds-in-trust, Japan actively promotes ESD by implementing the “UNESCO-Japan Prize on Education for Sustainable Development” together with UNESCO, honoring organizations and institutions that conduct excellent initiatives toward putting ESD into practice. 21 organizations have been awarded to date.

1. Note 74: Pages 211 and 214 of the “Global Education Monitoring Report 2023.” https://www.unesco.org/gem-report/en/technology
2. Note 75: The educational activities designed to enable individuals to acquire knowledge, values, and skills necessary to live. It mainly refers to elementary education, lower secondary education (equivalent to Japanese junior high schools), pre-school education, and adult literacy education.
3. Note 76: STEM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, and refers collectively to these four fields.
4. Note 77: This is a community-wide school management initiative in which “everyone,” including parents, teachers, and local residents, forms a School Management Committee and works with the government to manage the school. It supports children’s learning by sharing the importance of education with the entire community, not only parents and teachers. It began in 23 primary schools in Niger in 2004 and has now expanded to multiple countries in Africa.

Main Text | Reference Statistics | Stories from the Field | Master Techniques from Japan to the World | ODA Topics