Charities blame UK aid cuts for an â” ˜underwhelmingâ” ™ outcome at major fundraising event

Charities blame UK aid cuts for an â” ˜underwhelmingâ” ™ outcome at major fundraising event

Charities have blamed the UK's aid cuts for an "underwhelming" outcome at a major fundraising event. Speaking at a summit to boost the number of children in schools across the globe, Boris Johnson described education as a "silver bullet" to tackle some of the world's most difficult challenges. "[Education] is the silver bullet, this is the magic potion, this is the panacea, this is the universal cure, this is the Swiss army knife - complete with allen key and screwdriver and everything else - that can solve virtually every problem that inflicts humanity," the Prime Minister told the conference, co-hosted in London by the British and Kenyan governments. Alongside lifting GDP and life expectancy, Mr Johnson said education can "help end all kinds of ignorance and prejudice", helping to tackle challenges from terrorism and war to climate change. But, despite the Prime Minister's searing rhetoric, the summit has been described as "decidedly underwhelming" by NGOs, after falling $1 billion ( £716 million) short of fundraising targets. The two-day summit had hoped to generate $5 billion ( £3.67 billion) for the Global Partnership for Education (GPE). Over the next five years, the initiative aims to create an extra 88 million school