U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon Tuesday joined Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai in calling on world leaders to make sure young people across the globe have access to education.

Speaking in Oslo, Norway, at an international conference to promote education in Third World and conflict-stricken countries, Ban described children as the 'seeds of future progress.' He said that education is the 'soil to help them grow into global citizens.'

The conference comes ahead of a summit on financing education and other strategies to combat poverty in Ethiopia later this month and the U.N. General Assembly in September.