Rihanna brought her passion for global education to the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) Financing Conference on Friday, February 2 in Dakar, Senegal.

The Global Partnership for Education (GPE) Financing Conference, co-hosted by Presidents Macky Sall (Senegal) and Emmanuel Macron (France), convenes heads of states, NGOs, and business leaders to commit funding to education. Rihanna, GPE’s Global Ambassador, attended and addressed the powerhouse audience of global leaders. This year marks the first time an education financing conference has been hosted by a G7 leader and the president of a developing country.

Rihanna addressed the crowd with a powerful message: “This is what we've wanted all along. We've made tremendous progress today but of course our work is never done. We have a long way to go. And this is a fight we're never going to stop fighting until everybody and every girl has access to education." Rihanna’s full speech can be viewed here.

The conference successfully encouraged donor countries to commit $2.3 billion to education funding through the Global Partnership for Education, a substantial increase from the $1.3 billion contributed over the past three years. In the lead up to the event, Rihanna tweeted various other global leaders from Great Britain, Australia, France and Norway to pledge money to the fund, which garnered a groundswell of support and press. Rihanna’s tweet to President Macron the day before had substantial influence on increasing France’s commitment up to $200 million.

CLF is committed to pairing global advocacy with grassroots work and to support Rihanna’s call to action, CLF was on the ground in Senegal supporting projects as part the foundation’s core mission. CLF committed to a number of local initiatives that will be announced in the coming weeks.

CLF is excited to see the replenishment efforts continue to build momentum and to continue the foundation’s presence on the ground in Senegal.

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