Publication: Refugee Education Financing: Key Facts and Findings — Insights into the Financing of Refugee Education in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
Loading...
Published
2024-04-11
ISSN
Date
2024-04-11
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
This paper, along with its accompanying data, provides the first comprehensive analysis on financing for refugee education in low- and middle-income countries. By compiling and scrutinizing data on host government financing, foreign aid contributions, and philanthropic giving, a consolidated and quantified overview of all major sources of financing for refugee education in low- and middle-income countries is produced. This data is then analyzed to reveal key trends and patterns in refugee education financing, existing financing gaps, and potential biases in financing allocations. These findings are explored in the 10 facts and findings outlined in this paper, and summarized in Box 1 below. It is hoped that this dataset and analysis will help to improve the understanding of financing for refugee education in low- and middle-income countries and inform future discussion and debate on refugee education financing.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Hopper, Robert. 2024. Refugee Education Financing: Key Facts and Findings — Insights into the Financing of Refugee Education in Low- and Middle-Income Countries. Policy Research Working Paper; 10752. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/41411 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Publication The Economic Value of Weather Forecasts: A Quantitative Systematic Literature Review(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-09-10)This study systematically reviews the literature that quantifies the economic benefits of weather observations and forecasts in four weather-dependent economic sectors: agriculture, energy, transport, and disaster-risk management. The review covers 175 peer-reviewed journal articles and 15 policy reports. Findings show that the literature is concentrated in high-income countries and most studies use theoretical models, followed by observational and then experimental research designs. Forecast horizons studied, meteorological variables and services, and monetization techniques vary markedly by sector. Estimated benefits even within specific subsectors span several orders of magnitude and broad uncertainty ranges. An econometric meta-analysis suggests that theoretical studies and studies in richer countries tend to report significantly larger values. Barriers that hinder value realization are identified on both the provider and user sides, with inadequate relevance, weak dissemination, and limited ability to act recurring across sectors. Policy reports rely heavily on back-of-the-envelope or recursive benefit-transfer estimates, rather than on the methods and results of the peer-reviewed literature, revealing a science-to-policy gap. These findings suggest substantial socioeconomic potential of hydrometeorological services around the world, but also knowledge gaps that require more valuation studies focusing on low- and middle-income countries, addressing provider- and user-side barriers and employing rigorous empirical valuation methods to complement and validate theoretical models.Publication Direct and Indirect Impacts of Transport Mobility on Access to Jobs: Evidence from South Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-11-12)Access to jobs is essential for economic growth. In Africa, unemployment rates are notably high. This paper reexamines the relationship between transport mobility and labor market outcomes, with a particular focus on the direct and indirect effects of transport connectivity. As predicted by theory, wages are influenced by the level of commuting deterrence. Generally, higher earnings are associated with longer commute times and/or higher commuting costs. Local accessibility is also important, especially for individuals with time constraints. Both direct and indirect impacts are found to be significant in South Africa, where job accessibility has been challenging since the end of apartheid. For the direct impact, the wage elasticity associated with commuting costs is significant. Returns on commute are particularly high for women. Local accessibility to socioeconomic facilities, such as shops and health services, is also found to have a significant impact, consistent with the concept of mobility of care. To enhance employment, therefore, it is crucial to connect people not only to job locations but also to various socioeconomic points of interest, such as markets and hospitals, in an integrated manner. This integration will enable individuals to spend more time working and commuting longer distances.Publication The Macroeconomic Implications of Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Options(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-05-29)Estimating the macroeconomic implications of climate change impacts and adaptation options is a topic of intense research. This paper presents a framework in the World Bank's macrostructural model to assess climate-related damages. This approach has been used in many Country Climate and Development Reports, a World Bank diagnostic that identifies priorities to ensure continued development in spite of climate change and climate policy objectives. The methodology captures a set of impact channels through which climate change affects the economy by (1) connecting a set of biophysical models to the macroeconomic model and (2) exploring a set of development and climate scenarios. The paper summarizes the results for five countries, highlighting the sources and magnitudes of their vulnerability --- with estimated gross domestic product losses in 2050 exceeding 10 percent of gross domestic product in some countries and scenarios, although only a small set of impact channels is included. The paper also presents estimates of the macroeconomic gains from sector-level adaptation interventions, considering their upfront costs and avoided climate impacts and finding significant net gross domestic product gains from adaptation opportunities identified in the Country Climate and Development Reports. Finally, the paper discusses the limits of current modeling approaches, and their complementarity with empirical approaches based on historical data series. The integrated modeling approach proposed in this paper can inform policymakers as they make proactive decisions on climate change adaptation and resilience.Publication From Policy to Practice: Lessons from the Implementation of the Refugee Work Rights Policy in Ethiopia(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-11-10)This paper examines the early implementation of Ethiopia’s refugee work rights policy, with a focus on the issuance of permits that enable refugees to engage in economic activities. Building on significant legal and institutional advances under the 2019 Refugee Proclamation and subsequent directives, the analysis explores how these reforms are being operationalized in practice. Using a mixed-methods approach, combining document review, administrative data analysis, and semi-structured interviews, the paper identifies both progress and remaining challenges. Permit issuance has increased since the adoption of detailed operational guidance in 2024, reflecting the Government of Ethiopia’s commitment to operationalizing its progressive legal framework and ensuring that refugees can exercise their right to work. However, take-up remains modest, with about 5.2 percent of the working-age population holding a permit. Preliminary evidence suggests that coordination gaps, limited subnational capacity, low awareness among refugees and employers, and disincentives to formalize in a largely informal labor market are contributing to the low take-up. The paper offers policy suggestions, grounded in the Ethiopian context and emerging evidence, to help translate legal commitments into improved labor market outcomes for refugees.Publication Monitoring Global Aid Flows: A Novel Approach Using Large Language Models(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-11-04)Effective monitoring of development aid is the foundation for assessing the alignment of flows with their intended development objectives. Existing reporting systems, such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Creditor Reporting System, provide standardized classification of aid activities but have limitations when it comes to capturing new areas like climate change, digitalization, and other cross-cutting themes. This paper proposes a bottom-up, unsupervised machine learning framework that leverages textual descriptions of aid projects to generate highly granular activity clusters. Using the 2021 Creditor Reporting System data set of nearly 400,000 records, the model produces 841 clusters, which are then grouped into 80 subsectors. These clusters reveal 36 emerging aid areas not tracked in the current Creditor Reporting System taxonomy, allow unpacking of “multi-sectoral” and “sector not specified” classifications, and enable estimation of flows to new themes, including World Bank Global Challenge Programs, International Development Association–20 Special Themes, and Cross-Cutting Issues. Validation against both Creditor Reporting System benchmarks and International Development Association commitment data demonstrates robustness. This approach illustrates how machine learning and the new advances in large language models can enhance the monitoring of global aid flows and inform future improvements in aid classification and reporting. It offers a useful tool that can support more responsive and evidence-based decision-making, helping to better align resources with evolving development priorities.
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication INSPIRE Guide to Refugee Inclusion in National Education Systems(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-06-24)The guide is structured into three main sections: guidance notes. This section acts as a primer, offering clear, concise, and practical information on policy and process issues related to refugee inclusion. It discusses the why of inclusion, highlighting the benefits for both refugees and host countries, and the shift from parallel education systems to national inclusion. It also delves into the practical aspects of inclusion, including legal frameworks, policies, and interventions, and emphasizes the importance of understanding the refugee population's characteristics and needs. The political economy of inclusion, including financing and the changing roles of national and international actors, is also explored. Section two is the intervention repository. This section curates short notes on on-ramp inclusion interventions. These interventions are categorized into addressing policy/financing, supporting schools, supporting students, and monitoring and evaluation. Each note provides details relevant to design and implementation, such as cost estimates, human and material resource requirements, and evidence of impact. Examples of interventions include strengthening identification documentation systems, increasing school capacity through double-shift systems, training teachers in school safety, engaging refugee teachers, providing teacher professional development, recognizing prior learning, organizing back-to-school campaigns, offering cash grants, distributing school kits, extending school health and nutrition programs, providing remedial/accelerated education, strengthening psychosocial support and socio-emotional learning, and using EdTech solutions. The third section is the evidence note. This section synthesizes empirical evidence on refugees and education to inform policy decisions and interventions. It covers the impact of forced displacement on human capital, factors predicting educational outcomes (age at arrival, sex/gender, socio-economic status, parental education, country of origin, length of stay, return intentions, early school environment, refugee teaching assistants, language of instruction, and child labor), the impact of the school environment on psychosocial adjustment, the link between educational attainment and longer-term integration outcomes, and the effects of refugees on the educational outcomes of host community children.Publication The Global Cost of Inclusive Refugee Education(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-01)This report estimates the cost of educating refugee children in the countries in which they currently reside. The cohort-average annual cost of providing education to all refugee students in low, lower-middle and upper-middle income host countries is 4.85 billion US Dollars. A sensitivityanalysis, relaxing model assumptions, suggests the estimate lies in the range of 4.44 billion and 5.11 billion US Dollars. The total financing envelope required to provide K-12 years of education over a 13-year period to 2032 is 63 billion. As data on the impact of COVID-19’s (coronavirus)impact on education costs and public expenditure is still evolving, this paper provides a pre-COVID-19 baseline for the estimated costs of educating all refugee children. The Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) has placed enhanced responsibility-sharing at the center of the international refugee protection agenda. It commits stakeholders to specific measures to achieve that goal, including a proposal to measure their contributions. Thisrequires a standardized and transparent methodology, developed through a participatory process, that can be used across all host countries; and provides the motivation for this work. The report is cognizant of the fact that education in emergencies is not only a humanitarian crisis but also a development crisis with large numbers of refugee children spending their whole education life cycle in displaced settings. These environments are often already stretched to deliver quality education services. Eighty-five percent of the world’s displaced persons are hosted in low and lower middle-income countries. Where refugees are concentrated in border or rural regions, inclusive education systems can direct resources to previously underserved areas in host countries. Inclusive national education systems promote a streamlined response to the large influx of refugees by building resilient systems with benefits for refugees and host communities alike. It creates a framework for the international community to harmonize efforts and share the collective burden and responsibility of refugee education. The costing methodology developed in this report is based on the key premise that refugee education is embedded in the host country education system, facing the same cost drivers and efficiency and quality constraints. This implies that refugee students receive an education that is "no better, no worse" than host country students in terms of teacher quality, school infrastructure, access to learning materials and other inputs. It starts with the public unit cost of education in each country for each level of education. Refugee education coefficients are then added to the unit costs to provide education services essential to the integration ofrefugees into national systems. These services include accelerated learning programmes, psychosocial support, support in the language of instruction, teacher training in refugee inclusiveness and so on. In addition, given the historical levels of low investment in earlychildhood education (ECE), this paper adds an ECE coefficient to primary public unit costs to estimate pre-primary costs for each country. While this paper uses uniform coefficients acrossall countries, these are likely to vary based on the local context.Publication Forced Displacement of and Potential Solutions for IDPs and Refugees in the Sahel : Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger(Washington, DC, 2013-10)The Sahel region has seen the forcible displacement of more than million persons as a result of conflict. Tackling displacement in the Sahel is critical for both poverty alleviation and stabilization, and only a development response will be adequate to the task. A development response to forced displacement in the Sahel requires a regional approach. Such an approach would have the benefits of being able to overcome challenges relating to cross-border movements, obtain commitments by host governments to support the prospects of displaced from neighboring countries, and facilitate common approaches, shared conceptualization and learning. The purpose of this scoping study on forced displacement is to contribute towards the formulation of a regional policy framework for sustainable solutions to displacement and towards the substantiation of a development response. The main challenges for the displaced populations include: i) livelihoods; ii) relations with host communities; iii) cohesion; iv) depletion of services; and v) governance. Measures to be taken to address the needs of these communities are: 1) improving the monitoring of population movement and knowledge on the locations, profiles and needs of the displaced, their host and return communities; 2) ensuring that the displaced and those affected by them can benefit from ongoing wider development investments in the region by designing 'displacement-sensitive' interventions; 3) strengthening services in affected areas through targeted regional investment programs; 4) employment creation and livelihood generation for those displaced; 5) delivering resources for the displaced in such a way that important outcomes are achieved; and 6) exploring the creative use of new technologies to extent information and development benefits to the displaced.Publication Indonesia - Spending More or Spending Better : Improving Education Financing in Indonesia(World Bank, Jakarta, 2013-03)The report is divided into two parts. The first three chapters show that the vast increase in education resources has not been accompanied by a similar increase in learning outcomes, and thus highlight the urgent need to improve the quality of spending. Chapter one starts by describing the complex financing and governance systems. With this policy framework in mind, Chapter two focuses on the 20 percent rule, analyzing its consequences for budget planning and management and examining where resources went after this vast increase in spending. The chapter also provides some estimates of the cost of meeting future government objectives, in the context of discussions on expanding compulsory education, and broadening teacher certification. Chapter three looks at education outcomes, reviewing the significant improvements in access and equity, as well as the worrisome trends in learning outcomes. It points to improving the quality of education and expanding access to secondary and above (especially for the poor) as the main challenges in the sector. Given the cost of achieving these goals, and the fact that current expenditure patterns are unlikely to lead to improvements in learning outcomes, the chapter concludes that improving the quality of spending in education is now critical. The second part of the report focuses on how to improve the quality of spending in order to continue expansion and improve learning outcomes. In chapter four, the quality of spending issue is divided into two areas: i) reassigning or improving programs at the central level, and ii) improving management at the district and school levels. At the central level, this chapter analyzes the Scholarships for the Poor program (BSM) and recommends that it be expanded and improved. At the sub-national level, the report explores how a combination of more efficient teacher management and stronger support for schools can improve efficiency and learning outcomes, and what the central government s role should be in ensuring that these changes occur. Finally, chapter five summarizes these recommendations, providing a framework for improving the quality of spending and, ultimately, ensuring that this spending leads to an improvement in the quality of the Indonesian education system.Publication Forced Displacement of and Potential Solutions for IDPS and Refugees in the Sahel : Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger(Washington, DC, 2014-08)A development response to forced displacement in the Sahel requires a regional approach. Such an approach would have the benefits of being able to: (i) overcome challenges relating to cross--- border movements, (ii) obtain commitments by host governments to support the prospects of displaced from neighboring countries and (iii) facilitate common approaches, shared conceptualization and learning. A regional approach will be appropriate in the context of ECOWAS cooperation, as three of five countries suffering the heaviest displacement in the region are members of that organization, namely Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. The purpose of this scoping study on forced displacement is to contribute towards the formulation of a regional policy framework for sustainable solutions to displacement and towards the substantiation of a development response. This study, undertaken jointly by UNHCR and the Global Program on Forced Displacement (GPFD) in the Social Development Department (SDV) of the World Bank in June 2013, indicates that the main development challenges for the displaced in the region.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication The Container Port Performance Index 2023(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-07-18)The Container Port Performance Index (CPPI) measures the time container ships spend in port, making it an important point of reference for stakeholders in the global economy. These stakeholders include port authorities and operators, national governments, supranational organizations, development agencies, and other public and private players in trade and logistics. The index highlights where vessel time in container ports could be improved. Streamlining these processes would benefit all parties involved, including shipping lines, national governments, and consumers. This fourth edition of the CPPI relies on data from 405 container ports with at least 24 container ship port calls in the calendar year 2023. As in earlier editions of the CPPI, the ranking employs two different methodological approaches: an administrative (technical) approach and a statistical approach (using matrix factorization). Combining these two approaches ensures that the overall ranking of container ports reflects actual port performance as closely as possible while also being statistically robust. The CPPI methodology assesses the sequential steps of a container ship port call. ‘Total port hours’ refers to the total time elapsed from the moment a ship arrives at the port until the vessel leaves the berth after completing its cargo operations. The CPPI uses time as an indicator because time is very important to shipping lines, ports, and the entire logistics chain. However, time, as captured by the CPPI, is not the only way to measure port efficiency, so it does not tell the entire story of a port’s performance. Factors that can influence the time vessels spend in ports can be location-specific and under the port’s control (endogenous) or external and beyond the control of the port (exogenous). The CPPI measures time spent in container ports, strictly based on quantitative data only, which do not reveal the underlying factors or root causes of extended port times. A detailed port-specific diagnostic would be required to assess the contribution of underlying factors to the time a vessel spends in port. A very low ranking or a significant change in ranking may warrant special attention, for which the World Bank generally recommends a detailed diagnostic.Publication Global Economic Prospects, June 2025(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-06-10)The global economy is facing another substantial headwind, emanating largely from an increase in trade tensions and heightened global policy uncertainty. For emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs), the ability to boost job creation and reduce extreme poverty has declined. Key downside risks include a further escalation of trade barriers and continued policy uncertainty. These challenges are exacerbated by subdued foreign direct investment into EMDEs. Global cooperation is needed to restore a more stable international trade environment and scale up support for vulnerable countries grappling with conflict, debt burdens, and climate change. Domestic policy action is also critical to contain inflation risks and strengthen fiscal resilience. To accelerate job creation and long-term growth, structural reforms must focus on raising institutional quality, attracting private investment, and strengthening human capital and labor markets. Countries in fragile and conflict situations face daunting development challenges that will require tailored domestic policy reforms and well-coordinated multilateral support.Publication Business Ready 2024(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-03)Business Ready (B-READY) is a new World Bank Group corporate flagship report that evaluates the business and investment climate worldwide. It replaces and improves upon the Doing Business project. B-READY provides a comprehensive data set and description of the factors that strengthen the private sector, not only by advancing the interests of individual firms but also by elevating the interests of workers, consumers, potential new enterprises, and the natural environment. This 2024 report introduces a new analytical framework that benchmarks economies based on three pillars: Regulatory Framework, Public Services, and Operational Efficiency. The analysis centers on 10 topics essential for private sector development that correspond to various stages of the life cycle of a firm. The report also offers insights into three cross-cutting themes that are relevant for modern economies: digital adoption, environmental sustainability, and gender. B-READY draws on a robust data collection process that includes specially tailored expert questionnaires and firm-level surveys. The 2024 report, which covers 50 economies, serves as the first in a series that will expand in geographical coverage and refine its methodology over time, supporting reform advocacy, policy guidance, and further analysis and research.Publication Global Economic Prospects, January 2025(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-01-16)Global growth is expected to hold steady at 2.7 percent in 2025-26. However, the global economy appears to be settling at a low growth rate that will be insufficient to foster sustained economic development—with the possibility of further headwinds from heightened policy uncertainty and adverse trade policy shifts, geopolitical tensions, persistent inflation, and climate-related natural disasters. Against this backdrop, emerging market and developing economies are set to enter the second quarter of the twenty-first century with per capita incomes on a trajectory that implies substantially slower catch-up toward advanced-economy living standards than they previously experienced. Without course corrections, most low-income countries are unlikely to graduate to middle-income status by the middle of the century. Policy action at both global and national levels is needed to foster a more favorable external environment, enhance macroeconomic stability, reduce structural constraints, address the effects of climate change, and thus accelerate long-term growth and development.Publication Digital Progress and Trends Report 2023(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-03-05)Digitalization is the transformational opportunity of our time. The digital sector has become a powerhouse of innovation, economic growth, and job creation. Value added in the IT services sector grew at 8 percent annually during 2000–22, nearly twice as fast as the global economy. Employment growth in IT services reached 7 percent annually, six times higher than total employment growth. The diffusion and adoption of digital technologies are just as critical as their invention. Digital uptake has accelerated since the COVID-19 pandemic, with 1.5 billion new internet users added from 2018 to 2022. The share of firms investing in digital solutions around the world has more than doubled from 2020 to 2022. Low-income countries, vulnerable populations, and small firms, however, have been falling behind, while transformative digital innovations such as artificial intelligence (AI) have been accelerating in higher-income countries. Although more than 90 percent of the population in high-income countries was online in 2022, only one in four people in low-income countries used the internet, and the speed of their connection was typically only a small fraction of that in wealthier countries. As businesses in technologically advanced countries integrate generative AI into their products and services, less than half of the businesses in many low- and middle-income countries have an internet connection. The growing digital divide is exacerbating the poverty and productivity gaps between richer and poorer economies. The Digital Progress and Trends Report series will track global digitalization progress and highlight policy trends, debates, and implications for low- and middle-income countries. The series adds to the global efforts to study the progress and trends of digitalization in two main ways: · By compiling, curating, and analyzing data from diverse sources to present a comprehensive picture of digitalization in low- and middle-income countries, including in-depth analyses on understudied topics. · By developing insights on policy opportunities, challenges, and debates and reflecting the perspectives of various stakeholders and the World Bank’s operational experiences. This report, the first in the series, aims to inform evidence-based policy making and motivate action among internal and external audiences and stakeholders. The report will bring global attention to high-performing countries that have valuable experience to share as well as to areas where efforts will need to be redoubled.