Chapter 2. Progress towards the EFA goals - Unesco

PROGRESS TOWARDS THE EFA GOALS
Estimating the cost of achieving Education for All
Estimating the cost
of achieving Education
for All
The Dakar Framework for Action includes strong
commitments on education financing. Developing
countries pledged to ‘enhance significantly
investment in basic education’ (para. 8[i]), while rich
nations promised an increase in aid, mainly in the
form of grants and concessional finance, to ensure
that ‘no countries seriously committed to education
for all will be thwarted in their achievement of this
goal by a lack of resources’ (para. 10).
Ten years later, finance remains a major barrier
to Education for All. Developing countries have
stepped up their efforts to make domestic
resources available, albeit on an uneven basis.
Many could do much more to raise their
investment in education by strengthening revenue
collection and equity in public spending. The
international community has also increased aid
for basic education, but collectively donors have
fallen far short of delivering on their commitments
made in Dakar.
This section assesses the scale of the Education
for All financing gap. It sets out the results of a
costing exercise covering forty-six low-income
countries. 49 The exercise looks at the financing
requirements for achieving a range of goals in basic
education and beyond. Among the key findings:
The financing gap is far larger than previously
assumed. Even with an increased domestic
resource mobilization effort, low-income
countries face a financing gap of about
US$16 billion for basic education (literacy,
pre-primary and primary education),
representing 1.5% of their collective GDP. 50
This is a third higher than the previous estimate.
Factoring in lower secondary education would
increase the gap to US$24 billion.
Low-income countries need to strengthen
efficiency and equity in education financing.
There is considerable scope for making more
domestic resources available by improving
revenue collection, giving education a higher
priority and focusing more on basic education.
Increased revenue collection and greater equity
could enhance domestic financing for basic
education by about 0.7% of GDP. This represents
US$7 billion, or two-thirds of current levels of
spending in the countries included in the study.
Several countries have the potential to double
the share of GDP allocated to basic education.
Exploiting that potential should be part of the
Education for All contract between developing
countries and donors.
Aid donors need to undertake a ‘Gleneagles plus’
aid commitment. Aid levels for basic education
in the forty-six countries covered need to rise
sixfold from their current level, from
US$2.7 billion to US$16 billion. 51 Even if
donors act on the commitments made at
the 2005 Group of Eight summit in Gleneagles,
Scotland, and substantially increase aid to
the poorest countries, the level will still fall
US$11 billion short. An emergency pledging
conference should be convened to mobilize
the additional financing required.
Reaching the marginalized requires additional
finance. Failure to take into account the costs
associated with reaching marginalized groups
has contributed to systematic underestimation
of the financing gap. It costs more to extend
education opportunities to the most
disadvantaged than it costs to reach better-off
households. The new study estimates that
additional measures to extend primary school
opportunities to social groups facing extreme
and persistent deprivation will cost
US$3.7 billion annually.
The revised Education for All financing gap
points to challenges for both aid recipients and
donors. Developing countries need to increase
the level of ambition for public spending in
education at a time when slower economic growth
is putting budgets under pressure. Most major
donors, for their part, are gripped by recession and
rising fiscal deficits. Some are cutting aid budgets.
Others are reviewing future commitments. As these
pressures mount, it is important that governments
recognize the crucial role of education investments
in creating the foundations for recovery and future
poverty reduction efforts.
Part 1 of this section sets out the cost estimates
and the assumptions behind them. Part 2 presents
the findings on the Education for All financing gap.
Ten years after
Dakar, finance
remains a major
barrier to
Education for All
49. Full details of the
methodology and results
of the study are available in
(EPDC and UNESCO, 2009).
50. These figures relate to
average financing gaps and
GDP levels in low-income
countries between 2008
and 2015.
51. Chapter 4 reports that
annual aid commitments
to basic education averaged
US$4.9 billion in 2006
and 2007 (see Figure 4.7).
The low-income countries
included in this costing
exercise received 55% of
those commitments and
US$2.7 billion of total aid to
basic education. Chapter 4
shows that low-income
countries received 60% of
all aid to basic education,
but the figure includes some
small countries excluded
from the costing exercise,
as well as India, which
the OECD-DAC defined as
a low-income country at
the time of writing.
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