Education and
Development Strategy
Key message
Key challenges
- International aid for education needs to increase if lower-income countries are to reach the SDGs. Estimates at the introduction of the SDGs suggested that after domestic resources were maximised, international support for education to developing countries would need to increase from a current estimated US$16 billion per year to US$89 billion per year by 2030.
(International Commission on Financing Global Education Opportunity, 2016) - Projections for education show that by 2030 suboptimal education outcomes will limit progress towards the other global goals. Even before the impact of Covid-19, 258 million children were not in school and 617 million were not learning – and more than half of all young people were not on track to have basic reading and maths skills by 2030.
(International Commission on Financing Global Education Opportunity, 2016) - Despite aid increases for education, global aid priorities do not align with the need. Only 47% of aid to education was spent on basic and secondary education in low- and lower-middle-income countries, the two subsectors and two country groups perceived as most in need.
(UNESCO, 2020) - International finance is in danger due to the global pandemic which has caused a shock greater than the 2008 financial crisis. Global aid is likely to decline by up to US$2 billion from 2018 to 2022 as a result of recession caused by Covid-19, resulting in a 12% drop in international support for education.
(UNESCO, 2020) World Bank, 2020 - Lagging support for education may result in more children being out-of-school than before the pandemic. If current funding trends continue, the number of out-of-school children — particularly those hardest to reach in many of the poorest countries — will continue to increase. It is estimated that 10 million children previously in school will not return after the pandemic.
(Save the Children, 2020) - Without major cost increases, 21% of the financing required to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 4 will remain unaccounted for between 2023 and 2030. This is the same as an annual funding gap of approximately US $97 billion.
(UNESCO, 2023) - Aid to pre-primary education has decreased at a faster rate compared to education overall. Overall aid to education decreased by 6.9% between 2020 and 2021. The amount spent on pre-primaryeducation decreased by a larger amount over the same period, by 9.4%.
(Theirworld, 2023)
Make the case
- Donors have an important role to play in supporting an increase in finance for education. To meet the Sustainable Development Goals, donors need to increase aid to education to 15% of total official development assistance and channel additional aid multilaterally.
(International Commission on Financing Global Education Opportunity, 2016) - Education aid was increasing before the pandemic struck. Aid to education in 2018 reached a record of US$15.6 billion, increasing 9% from the prior year. This represented the highest allocation of aid ever to go to basic education, secondary education and higher education.
(UNESCO, 2020) - Investing in education in developing countries to reduce inequality is a moral imperative. On average, a low-income country will invest US$1,300 in a child’s education, while the average high-income country will spend US$110,000.
(World Bank, 2020) - Norway’s commitment to education at the outset of the Sustainable Development Goals demonstrates how a donor country can effect significant impact. Norway doubled its investment in education for development, and increased aid to education in emergencies by 150% between 2013 and 2016. These contributions provided education for five times as many children as there are primary education students in Norway, supporting over 3.1 million girls and boys, providing 11 million students with learning materials, and training 140,000 teachers.
(NORAD, 2017) - In conflict and emergencies, investment in education can yield higher returns, saving lives in the short-term and billions of dollars in opportunity costs in the long-term. For example, in Pakistan between 2009 and 2012, lack of access to education for 5.5 million children due to conflict is estimated to have cost $2.9 billion in lost income.
(A World at School, 2015) - Increasing education per capita is vital. While greater spending on education will not necessarily lead to better education outcomes, learning is lowest in countries spending the least per school-age child. In countries where populations are increasing, securing more financing for education on a per capita basis will become both more important, and more challenging.
(Benveniste et al, 2023)
Key Q&As
- We cannot focus on every development priority. Our country has selected another issue area – why should education be included?
- Education unlocks all other development priorities. The Key topics on this website can help your government make the case for why education should be a strategic priority for official development assistance, even if your main focus is other issues, like climate change, economic growth, mental health or public health.
Key talking points
- In an increasingly globalised world, furthering mutual priorities and addressing global issues – ranging from income equity and economic development to public health and climate change – relies on providing access to quality education.
- To achieve the Sustainable Development Goal for education, international aid for education needs to increase dramatically, even more so following the global Covid-19 pandemic.
- Education underpins all of the Sustainable Development Goals and is a precursor to unlocking any development agenda.
- Development strategies must include a clear and sharp focus on supporting quality education systems to create sustainable change in any other sector.
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