Publication: Education Finance Watch 2024: Key Findings about Education Financing
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2024-12-24
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2024-12-24
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The Education Finance Watch (EFW) is a collaborative effort between the World Bank, the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report, and the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS). The EFW aims to provide an analysis of trends, patterns, and issues in education financing around the world.
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“World Bank; UNESCO. 2024. Education Finance Watch 2024: Key Findings about Education Financing. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/42582 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO.”
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Moreover, the strain on public education budgets in recent years has coincided with a 4 to 8 percentage point decline in minimum reading and math proficiency among 15-year-olds compared to 2018 pre-COVID levels in middle-income countries (OECD, 2023). In low-income countries (LICs), where data on educational outcomes are scarce, simulations suggest that the incidence of learning poverty, which was already high before 2020, is likely to have risen in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic (World Bank et al., 2023). The current challenge in education finance is the need to mobilize more resources while at the same time increasing the adequacy, efficiency, and equity of funding in the face of tight fiscal space and competing priorities. Tackling the spending inefficiencies and inequalities that are common to many education systems will be vital to enable countries to make better use of their resources and strengthen the link between spending and education outcomes.Publication Education Finance Watch 2023(Washington DC, Paris, 2023-11-14)The Education Finance Watch (EFW) is a collaborative effort between the World Bank (WB), the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report, and the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS). The EFW aims to provide an analysis of trends, patterns, and issues in education financing around the world. The EFW uses various sources of education, economic, and financial data from the World Bank, UIS, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The first volume of the EFW report (EFW2021) documented continuously increased global education spending in absolute terms over the decade but indicated that the COVID-19 pandemic would interrupt this trend. EFW2022 shed light on the impact of COVID-19 on global education spending in 2020, the first year of the pandemic, and revealed that half the analyzed sample of countries reduced their annual education spending, in real terms. This year, the EFW2023 updates analyses on trends and patterns of education spending for the past 10 years, up to 2021, the second fiscal year after COVID-19. As a special theme of this year’s volume, the EFW2023 sheds light on changes in the school-age population and projects its fiscal implications for the upcoming ten years for selected countries. In 2021, low-income countries (LIC) increased year-on-year total education spending (a total of government, households, and development aid) in real terms. This increase was driven by an increase in government spending, which reached 50 percent of total education spending, while official development assistance (ODA) to LIC decreased both in absolute and relative terms.Publication Challenges in Financing Education, Health, and Social Protection Expenditures in Zimbabwe(Washington, DC, 2011-02-02)The Government of Zimbabwe (GOZ) faces difficult choices in managing the size of its civil service wage bill. The Government understands the need to watch the escalating wage bill carefully and put in place a strategy to steer it to a sustainable level as early as possible. Historical and international comparisons suggest that an overall wage bill of around 10 percent of GDP should be the medium-term target. This note illustrates that Zimbabwe could take immediate steps in 2010 and 2011 that will put it on the path of a sustainable level of wage bill in the medium-term. The focus of efforts to contain the wage bill should be on short-term measures because designing and implementing a medium-term approach to wage bill management would be too challenging in view of prevailing economic uncertainty and complex political reality. The note covers the staff employed by the Central Government, including uniformed services and staff employed by the Grant-in-Aided (GIA) institutions. The staff employed by local governments and public enterprises are excluded because direct transfers from the central budget to local government and public enterprises are rather small. (annex A has an outline of the institutional aspects of civil service in Zimbabwe). Given the paucity of information, the note does not make any recommendations specific to the GIA wage bill.Publication Strengthening the Education Sector : Response to HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2008-01-29)This report the findings and outcomes of the three joint UNESCO/World Bank missions to Guyana, Jamaica, and St. Lucia, and elaborates on next steps identified for action at both national and regional levels. The report also sets these findings and next steps within the broader context of the Caribbean plan for action and presents in its appendixes sample resources to guide the development of a comprehensive response to Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV&AIDS) by the education sector. The priority placed on the education sector's response is based on evidence that education contributes towards the knowledge and personal skills essential for the prevention of HIV, and protects individuals, families, communities, institutions, and nations from the impact of AIDS. Education helps to overcome the conditions that facilitate the spread of HIV and can create the understanding and tolerance that contribute to reduced stigma and discrimination against vulnerable and marginalized communities and people living with HIV. The CARICOM regional body in the Caribbean, as well as leadership at the national level, has demonstrated commitment to accelerating the education sector response to HIV&AIDS. To fully maximize efforts at the national and regional levels, including (i) information and research; (ii) capacity building for planning, decision- making and coordination; (iii) strengthening teacher education and learning materials; and (iv) stigma, discrimination and human rights, including attention to cultural differences, will be addressed more systematically.Publication Financing Basic Education(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2022-07-31)Zambia introduced free and compulsory general education in 2011, but its implementation has been incomplete. In 2021, the government introduced the “Education for All” policy which abolished all formal and informal fees in general education (pre-primary, primary, and both lower and upper secondary levels), with fees replaced by compensatory increases in grants to schools. This note presents simulation results of the fiscal implications of the Education for All policy from 2022 to 2035. However, the introduction of measures to reduce costs and increase further the share of the budget allocated to education are likely to make the successful implementation of Education for All achievable. The note presents a range of cost-saving policies, similar to those employed by other countries to reduce costs during periods of rapid system expansion without negatively impacting learning. These include rationalized use of teachers’ housing, administrative offices, and laboratories and improved utilization of secondary school teachers. Implementing these policies, alongside the increases in education outlined in the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) would make the Education for All policy more affordable. However, our most expansive enrollment scenario would only be affordable if these cost-saving policies were coupled with further increases in education’s share of the government budget.
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It highlights key climate and transition risks affecting Mongolia’s future development and presents a pathway to enhance climate mitigation and adaptation. The report also makes a case for strengthening policies to enhance resilience to climate change and ensure a just transition, particularly for the most vulnerable. The report is structured as follows: section 1 gives introduction. Section 2 delves into the linkages between development and climate in Mongolia and presents model-based findings on the economic and poverty impacts of climate change under different scenarios. Section 3 covers four in-depth sectoral analyses. The first two mainly focus on adaptation to climate change in the agriculture and water sectors. The third considers prospects for the extraction sector, while the fourth sectoral analysis focuses on decarbonizing power and heat generation. Section 4 shifts the focus to how the government can boost resilience for climate-vulnerable populations. Section 5 outlines options for mobilizing private and public financing and private investments to support the green transition. Section 6 examines the existing institutional and governance structure for climate action and presents recommendations to improve its effectiveness, and section 7 concludes with a framework for prioritizing the policy actions outlined in this report.Publication Comoros Country Climate and Development Report(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-06-18)The Union of the Comoros (The Comoros) has significant vulnerability to climate change-related risks but has considerable opportunities to strengthen preparedness and resilience against these challenges. According to the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Index, the Comoros is the 29th-most vulnerable country to climate change and the 163rd most ready to adapt (out of 191). The Comoros archipelago is exposed to many natural hazards that adversely affect the country’s natural capital, people, and physical infrastructure. 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The Nationally Determined Contribution outlines significant climate actions, with initiatives focused on forest conservation, sustainable agriculture, and community development. However, the country's political instability, institutional weaknesses, and limited financial resources pose challenges to implementing these climate commitments, which depend heavily on external funding. The financial sector's underdevelopment and vulnerability to external shocks limit its ability to support green investments, though reforms could enhance resilience. Guinea-Bissau must consider its climate financing as development financing and vice-versa, engage the private sector, and integrate climate goals with national development plans to ensure a sustainable future. Concessional climate financing is vital due to the underdeveloped financial sector and the government’s limited borrowing capacity. Addressing Guinea-Bissau's vulnerability to climate change and its structural issues requires a cohesive approach that integrates development and climate strategies. This could involve improving governance, diversifying the economy, protecting natural capital, developing human capital, and investing in sustainable agriculture and infrastructure. The transition to a more sustainable and inclusive development pathway that supports economic growth is possible, but requires focusing on key strategic sectors, enhancing institutional capacity, and creating the conditions to mobilize finance. As a highly vulnerable country, there are myriad needs in the different sectors; however, to be more efficient and effective, Guinea-Bissau should prioritize actions in a few sectors, especially actions on biodiversity, agriculture, and social protection. 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