The scale of the global education crisis is staggering. Even before COVID-19, over half of the world’s children and youth were either out of school or in school but not learning the skills needed to thrive. COVID-19 has tragically deepened and intensified this crisis. Unless we act now, learning losses will translate into significant long-term challenges with grave economic, development, and social ramifications.
More than half of the world’s children and youth – over 700 million – live in 50 lower-middle-income countries (LMICs). These countries include some of the world’s most populous, like India, Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria, and Pakistan. While wealthier countries are able to provide quality education using their own resources and the world’s poorest countries receive the highest proportion of bilateral grant aid and financing from existing global funds for education, LMICs fall into a “missing middle.” They are too poor to mobilize resources domestically and have become “too rich” to access the low-cost financing necessary for education.
There is a massive global funding gap. Even the most conservative estimates say the financing gap is $40 billion per year, with 80% of this gap expected to be in LMICs by 2030. Total international aid for education is currently only around $16 billion, falling far short of global needs. Targeted action is needed urgently to help these countries unlock investments in education and skilling, train the future’s entrepreneurs, engineers, doctors, artists, and activists, and build a better, more resilient world.
The International Finance Facility for Education – IFFEd – is a new and powerful financing engine for global education that multiplies donor resources so governments can invest urgently in quality education and skills in lower-middle income countries.