Academy for Educational Development

Washington, D.C., August 2, 2006 — The Academy for Educational Development has received a significant grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to continue operation and expansion of the Global Learning Portal over the next two years.

The Global Learning Portal, www.glp.net, is a free online network of individual educators and groups around the world aimed at helping raise educational quality and lay the foundation for economic growth. The portal, which focuses on developing countries, is available in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic, and is capable of supporting another 15 languages.

“This grant will allow the Global Learning Portal to dramatically expand its content offerings by linking to existing library and journal collections and by improving software tools which will enable better access to education material,” said AED President Stephen F. Moseley.

During the last three years, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the World Bank, International Reading Association, the Peace Corps, nongovernmental organizations in 68 countries, and Education International, the largest teacher union in the world, have partnered with AED to support the site.

The Hewlett Foundation grant represents the largest single foundation commitment to the portal, which is managed by AED in close collaboration with USAID.

"The Hewlett Foundation is committed to supporting efforts to provide free, high quality, open educational resources to people around the world," said Marshall (Mike) Smith, Education Program Director at the Hewlett Foundation. "The Global Learning Portal is an important part of this strategy, and we are pleased to support this excellent project."

The Foundation has been extremely active in supporting the Open Content and Open Knowledge Initiatives internationally, all designed to provide free or extremely low cost materials to the world community.

The Global Learning Portal has received funding from USAID, SUN Microsystems, and other donors. The Portal is a direct outgrowth of the groundbreaking Global Development Alliance education initiative started by USAID in 2002.

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