Wodon, Quentin

Person:
Wodon, Quentin

Education Global Pracice

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Early Childhood Development, Girls' Education, Education for All

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Education Global Pracice

Last updated: April 17, 2025

Biography

Quentin Wodon is a Lead Economist at the World Bank. Previous roles include managing the unit on values and development, serving as Lead Poverty Specialist for Africa, and working as Economist/Senior Economist for Latin America. Before joining the World Bank, he taught with tenure at the University of Namur. He has also taught at American University and Georgetown University. Quentin has more than 500 publications and his research has been covered by major news outlets. He has served as Associate Editor for journals and as President of two economics associations (the Society of Government Economists and the Association for Social Economics). A lifelong learner, he holds four PhDs in economics, environmental science, health sciences, and theology. Upon completing business engineering studies, Quentin conducted market research as Laureate of the Prize of Belgium’s Secretary for Foreign Trade. He worked next as Assistant Brand Manager for Procter & Gamble. Almost 30 years ago, he shifted career and joined ATD Fourth World, a non-profit working with the extreme poor. He has tried to remain faithful to the cause of ending extreme poverty ever since. In his free time, he volunteers with nonprofits and through Rotary, where he has served in leadership positions with his club, his district, and globally. He also tries to remain (barely) fit with occasional marathons and triathlons, finishing at the end of the pack.

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 150

Protecting Women and Girls from Cyber Harassment: A Global Assessment of Existing Laws
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-06-22) Affoum, Nelsy Reyhanne Marikel; Santagostino Recavarren, Isabel Micaela; Vohra, Nayantara; Wodon, Quentin
Cyber violence against women has been rising at alarming rates in recent decades. Such acts not only harm women as individuals but have severe detrimental effects on society and the economy at large. This Brief analyzes laws from 190 economies to assess the extent and coverage of current legislative safeguards women from cyber harassment, one of the many forms of cyber violence. Data collected by the World Bank Group’s Women, Business and the Law project reveals that laws that protect women against cyber harassment exist in only about one-third of economies, covering less than half of the population of children, adolescent girls, and women. Enhancing legal protections is crucial to effectively tackle cyber violence against women.
Teacher Satisfaction and Its Determinants: Analysis Based on Data from Nigeria and Uganda
(Taylor and Francis, 2022-01-28) Nkengne, Patrick; Pieume, Olivier; Tsimpo, Clarence; Ezeugwu, Gilbert; Wodon, Quentin
Teachers who are satisfied with their job are more likely to teach well, which in turn should enable their students to better learn while in school. Sub-Saharan Africa is currently experiencing a learning crisis, with close to nine out of ten children not able to read and understand a simple text at age 10. This affects all types of schools and students, including students in Catholic and other faith-based schools. Improving working conditions and job satisfaction among teachers is part of the answer to this learning crisis. After a brief discussion of data for Nigeria, this article looks at the level of satisfaction of teachers in Uganda, its determinants, and its impact on the quality teaching. Specifically, four questions are asked: What is the level of teacher job satisfaction in Uganda? How does job satisfaction relate to the characteristics of teachers? What is the impact of teachers’ satisfaction on their performance, as it can be measured through various variables of teacher effort? Finally, what are the main factors affecting satisfaction according to teachers? The answers to these questions have implications for policy and practice in faith-based as well as in other schools.
Catholic and Faith-Based Schools in Africa: Introduction to the Special Issue
(Taylor and Francis, 2022-01-28) Grace, Gerald; Wodon, Quentin
Africa is the region of the world where Catholic and other faith-based schools have the largest footprint. One in nine students in a primary school in Africa is enrolled in a Catholic school, and students from the region account for more than half of all students in Catholic primary schools globally. Through the role it plays in Africa, the Catholic Church is at the forefront of providing educational opportunities in low-income countries, but challenges abound. In particular, learning poverty defined as the inability of 10-year-old children to read and understand an age-appropriate text, affects nine in ten children in sub-Saharan Africa. Students in Catholic schools are not immune to this crisis. This article introduces a framework from the World Bank on how we could end the learning crisis and summarizes the contributions of the articles included in this issue in terms of that framework.
Unrealized Potential: The High Cost of Gender Inequality in Earnings
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2018-05-01) Wodon, Quentin T.; de la Brière, Bénédicte
This first note in the series on the cost of gender inequality focuses on the losses in national wealth due to gender inequality in earnings. There is a substantial literature on the impact of gender inequality on economic growth and performance. By focusing on wealth, the approach usedfor measurement in this note is different. Wealth is the assets base that enables countries to produce income Gross Domestic Product or GDP). A country’s wealth includes various types of capital. Produced capital comes from investments in assets such as factories, equipment, or infrastructure. Natural capital includes assets such as agricultural land and other renewable and non-renewable natural resources. However, the largest component of countries’ wealth typically resides in their people. As noted in the recent World Bank study on the Changing Wealth of Nations, human capital measured as the present value of the future earnings of the labor force accounts for two thirds of global wealth. If gender equality in earnings were achieved, countries could increase their human capital wealth, and thereby their total wealth substantially. This would enable them to strengthen the sustainability of their development path. Gender inequality has major economic implications forwomen, communities, and countries in a range of areas. While the cost of gender inequality – in terms of human capital losses - for development is not solely due to losses in earnings, the impact of gender inequality on earnings is key. This is the area on which this note focuses.
Ending Violence in Schools: An Investment Case
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-07) Fèvre, Chloe; Wodon, Quentin; Malé, Chata; Nayihouba, Ada; Nguyen, Hoa
While there is no doubt that education is transformative, simply going to school is not enough. Real learning, the process of receiving and distilling information, of thinking and creating and producing and socializing, is less likely to happen if a child is scared or traumatized. Preventing violence in and through school is therefore a prerequisite for girls and boys getting the education they need and deserve, and acquiring the skills, knowledge and values that provide the foundations for strong and inclusive societies. This report demonstrates that violence in and around schools negatively impacts educational outcomes, and society pays a heavy price as a result (with an estimate of $11 trillion in lost lifetime earnings). Cost-benefit analyses suggest that implementing interventions to prevent violence in and through schools from early childhood to secondary education is a smart economic investment. Rigorously evaluated programs and policies aimed at preventing violence at different levels of the education system show that action is feasible. The benefits of investing in preventing violence in and through schools is likely to far outweigh the costs.
Koranic Schools in Niger: How Much Can Be Learned from Existing Data?
(Taylor and Francis, 2022-01-28) Male, Chata; Nayihouba, Ada; Wodon, Quentin
The term Koranic school is often used to describe schools that are not part of the formal education system and typically place a strong emphasis on memorizing the Koran in Arabic, as well as on knowledge of Islamic religious education and practice. Using data from Niger as a case study, this paper provides data on trends in the share of individuals that have a Koranic education, a formal education, or no education at all, as well as a basic profile (univariate and multivariate) of children with Koranic education, formal education, or no education at all. In addition, the potential impacts of Koranic education in comparison to formal education or no education at all on outcomes such as literacy and numeracy, labor market earnings, household consumption, assets and perceptions of well-being, and infant mortality is analyzed.
Missed Opportunities: The High Cost of Not Educating Girls
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-07-11) Montenegro, Claudio; Wodon, Quentin; Nguyen, Hoa; Onagoruwa, Adenike
Too many girls drop out of school prematurely, especially in low income countries. Low educational attainment for girls has negative consequences not only for them, but also for their children and household, as well as for their community and society. This study documents the potential impacts of educational attainment for girls and women in six domains: (1) earnings and standards of living; (2) child marriage and early childbearing; (3) fertility and population growth; (4) health, nutrition, and well-being; (5) agency and decision-making; and (6) social capital and institutions. The results are sobering: the potential economic and social costs of not educating girls are large. Low educational attainment reduces expected earnings in adulthood, and it depresses labor force participation, leading to lower standards of living. When girls drop out of school prematurely, they are much more likely to marry as children, and have their first child before the age of 18 when they may not yet be ready to be wife and mothers. This in turn is associated with higher rates of fertility and population growth, which in low income countries are major impediments for reaping the benefits of the demographic dividend. Low educational attainment is also associated with worse health and nutrition outcomes for women and their children, leading among others to higher under-five mortality and stunting. Girls who drop out of school also suffer in adulthood from a lack of agency and decision-making ability within the household, and in society more generally. They are also less likely to report engaging in altruistic behaviors such as donating to charity, volunteering, or helping others. Finally, when girls and women are better educated, they may be better able to assess the quality of the basic services they rely on and the quality of their country’s institutions and leaders. These negative impacts have large economic costs, leading among others to losses in human capital wealth (future lifetime earnings of the labor force) estimated at $15 trillion to $30 trillion. Educating girls is not only the right thing to do: it is also a smart economic investment.
Not All Catholic Schools Are Private Schools: Does It Matter for Student Performance?
(Taylor and Francis, 2022-01-28) Tsimpo, Clarence; Wodon, Quentin
National student assessments from Uganda suggest low levels of proficiency for students in primary and secondary schools. This is confirmed by data for primary schools from the 2013 Service Delivery Indicators survey. The data are used in this article to conduct an assessment of factors affecting student performance. A unique feature of the data is that comparisons can be made not only between public and private schools, but also between Catholic and non-Catholic schools, with most of the Catholic schools being public schools. The analysis looks at student performance on tests for English, numeracy, non-verbal reasoning, and the student’s overall score for the three dimensions combined. Explanatory factors include a wide range of school, teacher, child, and community characteristics. After controlling for these factors, students in private schools, Catholic or not, tend to perform better than those in public schools, Catholic or not. By contrast, differences between Catholic and non-Catholic schools, especially when the schools are public, appear to matter less for student performance.
How Do Shocks Affect Enrollment in Faith-Based Schools?: Evidence from West Africa
(Taylor and Francis, 2022-01-28) Elmallakh, Nelly; Wodon, Quentin
The COVID-19 pandemic has renewed concerns about how shocks may affect religious and other private schools in low-income countries, especially when they do not benefit from state support. By reducing parental incomes, shocks – not only epidemics but also natural disasters and conflicts, reduce overall enrollment in school. But they may also lead to a shift from private to public schools with potentially differentiated effects by type of private school depending on context. In addition, household responses to shocks such as migration may lead to a change in the socio-cultural context in which households live, and these changes may also affect school choice. This paper explores the effects of shocks and migration on school choice in West Africa. Results suggest that shocks and migration lead to a shift from private to public schools, but with differentiated effects by type of private schools.
Measuring Education Pluralism Globally
(Taylor and Francis, 2021-06-09) Wodon, Quentin
In education systems that support pluralism, students or parents can choose the type of school or university they attend. Given heterogeneity in priorities for what should be taught, education pluralism has a value in itself. It may also boost schooling and learning. The fact that there is heterogeneity is clear, otherwise we would not have different types of schools. What is less clear is the extent to which education systems are pluralistic. Rather than looking at inputs for pluralism such as laws and regulations, this article introduces a measure of education pluralism based on outputs, i.e. enrollment in different types of schools and universities. The normalized education pluralism index is inspired by the literature on market concentration. Estimates are provided based on data for public, private non-Catholic, and Catholic institutions.