Pop Diva, Rihanna Helps World Leaders Raise Over Two Billion For Education

Rihanna, named one of 2017's most charitable celebrities, recently helped raise more than $2 billion for global education.

Rihanna and French president Emmanuel Macron were on hand for a Global Partnership for Education (GPE) fundraising conference Friday in Senegal, ABC News reported. World Bank president Jim Yong Kim and multiple African heads of stat were also in attendance. Rihanna and French president Emmanuel Macron were on hand for a Global Partnership for Education (GPE) fundraising conference Friday in Senegal, ABC News reported. World Bank president Jim Yong Kim and multiple African heads of stat were also in attendance.

Rihanna and President Macky Sall of Senegal

Rihanna and President Macron of France

"We've made tremendous progress today, but of course, our work is never done," Rihanna, a GPE ambassador, said when addressing the conference to "cheers and whistles" from the crowd. "We have a long way to go and this is a fight that we're never going to stop fighting until every boy and every girl has access to education."

According to a tweet from the official account of Rihanna's Clara Lionel Foundation, Friday's efforts resulted in $2.3 billion raised for global education.

Unicef's United Nations Children's Fund revealed that there are approximately 264 million out-of-school children and adolescents throughout the world. The majority of these children cannot attend as a result of poverty, conflict, and social barriers including gender bias against girls.

The Global Partnership's goal for the conference was to raise $3.1 billion from donors by 2020 to support the education of 870 million children across 89 developing countries. As part of that goal, GPE is striving to get these developing countries to allocate 20% of their overall budgets for education.

Rihanna put her 86 million person audience on Twitter to good use as she tweeted U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May, Australia's Malcolm Turnbull, and President Macron encouraging them to demonstrate their support through donating to Global Partnership for Education. They have all responded by increasing their donations toward education. Additionally, Erna Solberg, Prime Minister of Norway, recently tweeted Rihanna with a pledge from her country.