US singer Rihanna has praised Ireland for its aid contributions to other countries.

The Barbados-born star is an ambassador for the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), which supports over 65 developing countries to ensure every child receives a quality basic education.

As part of her role, she visited Malawi last year and "witnessed the impact of the work of GPE".

She then went to Dakar, Senegal where the Senegalese and French governments co-hosted the GPE financing conference.

Here, US$2.3bn (€1.96bn) was pledged towards global education between 2018 and 2020.

Writing in The Guardian, she says: "We still have a bit to go to reach our goal of improving education for 870 million children in 89 countries.

"We are grateful for the generous contributions of those such as the EU and France, and countries that doubled their contributions such as Canada and Ireland.

"I look forward to seeing additional contributions from countries I know can step up even more, such as Germany and Japan, and seeing those that didn't contribute - the Netherlands, Finland and New Zealand add their support to help us reach our target."

She admits that she often took going to school for granted when growing up - but she now wants to be part of a solution to give access to education to millions of children around the world.

Rihanna, born Robyn Rihanna Fenty, also posted a video about her visit to Malawi:

Reacting to her article, the Department of Foreign Affairs tweeted: "Thanks for the shout out @rihanna!

"We doubled Ireland's contribution to @GPforEducation because we have firsthand knowledge of the difference a quality education can make to the lives of children & communities".

Thanks for the shout out @rihanna!

We doubled Ireland's contribution to @GPforEducation because we have firsthand knowledge of the difference a quality education can make to the lives of children & communities??
Help us #transformourworld! #irishaidworks https://t.co/9lPTa1D3UA

— Irish Foreign Ministry (@dfatirl) September 19, 2018

Ireland has contributed to the GPE since 2006, having pledged more than US$84m (€71.9m) in total.

According to the Irish Government, 70% of all expenditure on education is in sub-Saharan Africa.

In 2015, the top recipients of Irish Aid to basic education were Uganda, South Africa, South Sudan and Kenya.