A former Australian Prime Minister will lead a program aimed at educating the world's poorest children.

The Global Partnership for Education is an international initiative bringing together educational experts, authorities and administrators across sixty developing countries, donor governments, various international organisations, private investors and civil society groups.

The broad partnership will be guided by former Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

Ms Gillard will steer the ship toward the goal of educating more than 50 million children worldwide, who are currently missing out.

The project will require some massive fundraising efforts to achieve its goals, but it is difficult to imagine a more worthwhile cause.

“I believe that with 57 million of the world's children still lacking access to a basic education and 250 million children unable to read, write or master simple math, there can be no higher priority,” Ms Gillard, who served as education minister before becoming prime minister in 2010, said in a statement.

“I am delighted to take on this new role with the Global Partnership for Education.

“I am also alarmed about the recent sharp decline in donor support to education that threatens the progress achieved over the past decade, particularly for girls' education,” she said.

“The global community must respond generously to the upcoming call for a renewal of multilateral, bilateral and national financing for basic education.”

The CEO of Global Partnerships is Alice Albright, a senior banker with JPMorgan and daughter of US secretary of state under Bill Clinton, Madeleine Albright.

Ms Albright says Ms Gillard is “one of the world's most articulate and effective advocates for improving access and quality of education for children in the poorest countries”.

“As chairwoman, Ms Gillard would lead a board of directors representing 18 different constituencies from developing country governments, donors, civil society organisations, private sector and foundations, and multilateral agencies and regional banks,” Ms Albright said.

The fund holds cash reserves of about a billion dollars at the moment, most of which has already been dedicated to grants for better education in developing nations.

In the last ten years the Global Partnership for Education says it has helped nearly 22 million children go to school for the first time, supported the construction of over 52,000 classrooms, and trained over 300,000 teachers.