GMR Policy Brief: Pricing the right to education: The cost of reaching new targets by 2030
In view of the Financing for Development Conference that will be held in July (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) to discuss the cost of post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals, UNESCO’s Education for All Global Monitoring Report (GMR) has released a new paper revealing that an annual US$22 billion external funding gap must be bridged if low and lower middle income countries are to achieve quality universal pre-primary, primary and lower secondary education by 2030.
This projected finance gap already assumes a considerable increase in national public expenditure in low income countries on pre-primary and basic education, from 2.3% to 3.4% of GDP between 2012 and 2030. It also assumes an increase in the share of their budget allocated to education to 19.7% over the period.
The paper concludes that aid will remain a crucial source of education finance over the next 15 years if the targets are to be met. Across low and lower middle income countries, donor aid for pre-primary, primary and lower secondary education will need to at least quadruple.
