Britain's Chancellor Gordon Brown on Monday unveiled a 15 billion-dollar aid package to boost education in poor countries over the next decade, and challenged other rich countries to do the same.
Launching the new aid package in the Mozambican capital, Brown said he hoped Britain's funding commitment would "persuade other rich countries" to give money towards education.
"It's in everybody's interest that we have an educated population in Africa," he said at the launch of the aid initiative, which was also attended by former South African president Nelson Mandela, his Mozambican wife Graca Machel and the Mozambican President Armando Guebuza.
In an article published Monday in the London-based Independent newspaper, Brown pledged to spend the money, which he said was "four times more than Britain's commitment over the last decade". The appeal to the G8 club of the world's richest countries comes after Gordon's previous call to the developed world to fund a "new Marshall Plan" to fight poverty in Africa. "Today, it's a scandal that 100 million children in the world are denied an education," Brown said. "Most are in Africa, most are girls and all are denied the most basic chance to reach their potential," he said.
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