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Education is a critical piece of the development puzzle. Research indicates that investment in education, with a particular focus on girls, may be one of the highest yield investments available in the developing world. Education attacks poverty at its roots and strengthens individuals, families and communities.

 

 

Evidence for Action

In addition to equipping a child with the knowledge and skills needed for a productive life, universal primary education offers societies even deeper and wider returns for health and economic growth.

Faster economic growth: Increasing the number of women with a secondary education by one percentage point boosts annual per capita income by 0.3% on average.

Higher wages: In low-income countries, a young woman’s average earnings increase by 10%–20% with each additional year of education.

Healthier families: Educating girls for five years could boost child survival rates by up to 40%. Educated mothers are 50% more likely to immunize their children than are uneducated mothers.

Fewer HIV/AIDS infections: A study in Uganda found that children who finished secondary education were seven times less likely to contract HIV – and those who finished primary education half as likely – as those who received little or no schooling.

Despite the proven potential of expanding education, 72 million children remain out of school around the world; 33 million of them in Africa. In order for countries to realize their full development potential, access to quality primary education must be made universal.

Expanding Access to Quality Education

Donor countries have a vital role to play in supporting governments who commit to the goal of universal primary education. Debt cancellation has saved African countries $70 billion, which along with targeted aid for education helped send an additional 29 million more African children to school for the first time between 1999 and 2005. In Tanzania, savings from debt cancellation helped the government abolish primary school fees in 2001, leading to a doubling of enrollments (from 1.4 million to 3 million). Similar results have played out in Mozambique, Kenya, Malawi, Uganda, Rwanda and Ethiopia.

Countries are also making important progress by creating national education plans through the World Bank’s Education for All-Fast Track Initiative (FTI), a financing mechanism which coordinates increased bilateral and multilateral funding for countries whose education plans have been technically vetted and endorsed.

• Six African FTI countries increased enrollments by 40% within four years of their plans being endorsed.
• Since receiving FTI-endorsement in 2002, Burkina Faso has increased its primary enrollments by 55%, sending nearly 550,000 more children to school.
• Teacher recruitment in Niger has jumped by 1,000% and enrollments doubled from 530,000 to 1.1 million children between 2002 and 2005 thanks to a three-fold increase in donor assistance through FTI.

Although many governments in the developing world have done their part by creating sound, FTI-endorsed education plans, not all well-structured plans are receiving the support promised by donors. In total, FTI countries face a financing gap of around $1 billion; African countries’ gaps represent $537 million of that total.