Financing Education: Opportunities for Global Action

Overview & Synopsis

It is hoped that this year will be marked in history as the year when the world agreed on an ambitious global plan to eradicate poverty and ensure that all children have access to a high-quality basic education. This report focuses on how a subset of the targets related to basic education--that is, that all children should complete high-quality pre-primary, primary and lower secondary education--can be financed. It reviews the financing efforts for the education sector in developing countries during the past decade and assesses what will be required in the coming years to reach the basic education goals by 2030. The authors draw on variety of data sources as well as five country case studies--for Afghanistan, Lebanon, Malawi, Nigeria and Pakistan. Based on their findings, they conclude with four opportunities for global action. Three annexes are included: (1) Projected Total Annual Cost, Domestic Public Spending and Aid for Basic Education in 2020, per Child, constant 2012 dollars; (2) Goal 4 of the United Nations General Assembly's Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals: Ensure Inclusive and Equitable High-Quality Education and Promote Lifelong Learning Opportunities for All; and (3) Methodology.