Aid to education projected to drop by a quarter
A new paper, Aid to Education: Time for tough decisions, released by the GEM Report estimates a drop in aid by one-quarter by 2027 due to a 12% decline in education aid between 2023 and 2024, and a further 14% cut projected by 2027. This is critical for low-income countries, where aid constitutes 17% of public education spending, and where the cuts could halve some education budgets.
Despite urgent needs, only one-fifth of education aid reaches these low-income nations, and funding for basic education is shrinking. The paper advocates prioritizing multilateral programs to bolster national budgets, noting that bilateral donors channel a mere 17% of aid through recipient governments compared to multilaterals’ 60%. It warns against the shift from grants (currently 60% of education aid) to loans, which exacerbate debt burdens. The findings underscore the need for more effective financing and for innovative solutions to reduce borrowing costs that can help national governments #fundeducation for improvement.
A second paper, Data in Distress, released in partnership between the GEM Report and Education Cannot Wait looked across the three core aid reporting platforms (IATI, CRS and FTS) and confirmed the fact that funding for education in emergencies and protracted crises (EiEPC) is not as simple as focusing on humanitarian disbursements alone. New analysis showed that nine out of every ten dollars spent on education in crises comes from development aid.