Picture a seven year old girl from a developing country avidly reading a schoolbook. It doesn’t seem much, but that basic early schoolwork equips her later in life to make informed choices about marriage, family planning, or starting a small business. Or imagine a boy from a poor rural family learning how to read and to write. Then think of his improved ability later in life to learn about productive agricultural techniques, how to deal with drought and how to play his part in governing his home village. Education is powerful.

There is overwhelming evidence that education is the best investment a country can make as it seeks to increase economic growth, advance maternal and child health, empower women, promote good governance and break the vicious cycle of poverty.

In the past century, rich industrialised countries could never have made their great leap in wealth without investing heavily in education. South Korea had a national income similar to Nigeria in the early 1960s. Thanks to its continuous investments in a skilled and educated workforce, South Korea flourished economically and is now a member of the G20. The average Korean over 25 has close to 14 years of formal schooling; that compares to 12 years in The Netherlands and 13 in the United Kingdom.

As the Global Partnership for Education just launched a new and ambitious resource mobilization campaign at the EFA High-Level Group Meeting in Thailand, we are asking donor organizations to give wholehearted support to FTI. Not only because of the moral imperative, but because – within development cooperation- it makes good economic sense.

The Global Partnership for Education has been praised by the international community as a model for donor harmonisation, based around the developing countries’ own education plans (or in the case of fragile states much simpler transitional education plans). These plans are sometimes ambitious, but they are credible and worthy of the international community’s investments. The EFA FTI has a track record in making aid to the education sector more effective.

We shouldn’t forget that governments of developing countries of GPE-endorsed countries dedicate a significant portion (close to 20%) of their national budgets to education, more than to any other sector. Increasing the financial aid for education in low-income countries is an investment that will pay off – for developing and developed countries alike.

However, I am worried that donor investments in basic education are falling: we see evidence of donors pulling out of bilateral assistance for education in many countries (Cambodia, Burkina Faso and Zambia are examples of countries of particular concern).

This makes no sense.  Why pull back on supporting education when there are still 67 million primary children out of school?  Why cut education spending when hundreds of millions of children drop out of school functionally illiterate? There remains a huge job ahead of us.

So that no one forgets, I have listed the main benefits of supporting education below:

1. Education as an effective means of reducing poverty:

   • Each year of schooling translates into a 10% increase in an individual’s potential income.
   • Four years of primary schooling can boost a farmer’s productivity by nearly 9%.
   • An increase of one standard deviation in student scores on international assessments of literacy and mathematics is associated with a 2% increase in annual GDP/capita growth.

2. Education to achieve long-term health benefits:

   • In Africa, children of mothers with a full primary education are 40% more likely to survive to age 5 and are 50% more likely to receive life-saving immunizations.
   • Half the global reduction in deaths of children younger than 5 years over the past 40 years can be directly attributed to the better education of women.
   • HIV and AIDS rates are halved among youth who have completed primary education.  Worldwide, 700,000 HIV cases could be prevented each year if all children received a primary education.

3. Education to promote gender equality:

   • One year of schooling reduces the fertility rate by 10%.
   • In sub-Saharan Africa, investing in the education of girls has the potential to boost agricultural output by 25%.
   • For girls, each additional year of primary education increases her potential income by 15%.

I joined EFA FTI because I am committed to getting more kids into school for longer for a better education.  Particularly girls.  EFA FTI works: the model makes sense and has proven success So, please get behind our replenishment campaign!

Learn more

• A mother’s education has a huge effect on a child’s health By David Brown, The Washington Post, Thursday, September 16
• More financing for education resource page on GPE website