FINANCING FOR GLOBAL EDUCATION OPPORTUNITIES FOR MULTILATERAL ACTION A report prepared for the UN Special Envoy for Global Education for the High-level Roundtable on Learning for All: Coordinating the Financing and Delivery of Education

PAULINE ROSE LIESBET STEER With Katie Smith & Asma Zubairi SEPTEMBER 2013

Center for

Universal Education

at BROOKINGS

The Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution The Center for Universal Education (CUE) at the Brookings Institution is one of the leading policy centers focused on universal quality education in the developing world. CUE develops and disseminates effective solutions to achieve equitable learning, and plays a critical role in influencing the development of new international education policies and in transforming them into actionable strategies for governments, civil society and private enterprise. For more about the Center for Universal Education at Brookings, please visit: www.brookings.edu/universaleducation. Education for All Global Monitoring Report Developed by an independent team and published by UNESCO, the Education for All Global Monitoring Report is an authoritative reference that aims to inform, influence and sustain genuine commitment towards Education for All (EFA). It tracks progress, identifies effective policy reforms and best practice in all areas relating to EFA, draws attention to emerging challenges and seeks to promote international cooperation in favour of education. For more about the Education for All Global Monitoring Report, please visit: http://www.efareport.unesco.org.

Pauline Rose is the Director of the Education for All Global Monitoring Report. Liesbet Steer is a Fellow at the Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution.

Katie Smith is a Research Analyst at the Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution. Asma Zubairi is a Research Officer at the Education for All Global Monitoring Report.

Acknowledgements This report is a joint research effort by teams from the Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution and the Education for All Global Monitoring Report, published by UNESCO. We are grateful to Karen Mundy, Brad Herbert and Birger Fredriksen for their support in preparing the background case studies for this study and their contributions to this report; and to Lydia Poole for her help with the data analysis. We are also thankful to the staff of the six multilateral agencies reviewed in this study for sharing their thoughts in interviews. We would also like to thank Paul Isenman, Tamar Manuelyan Atinc and Rebecca Winthrop for their inputs into the research and helpful reviews of drafts of the report.

CONTENTS Executive Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1. Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 2. Basic Education – Still a Global Priority? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Education Is Prioritized in Official Donor Strategies, and in Client Surveys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Multilateral ODA for Education Has Increased, but Fallen Short of Expectations. . . . . . . . . . . . 11 3. Needed: A Coordinated Global Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Coordination Efforts in Education. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Education Aid Remains Highly Fragmented. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Multilaterals are not Sufficiently Filling Gaps in Countries with the Greatest Need . . . . . . . . 23 4. Opportunities for Action: Engaging Multilateral Financing. . . . . . . . . . . .