History

The Global Partnership for Education started in 2002 as the Education For All – Fast Track Initiative (source: World Bank^[1]). The original objective of EFA FTI were to accelerate progress towards the Millennium Development Goals set by the United Nations in 2000, namely MDG 2: Achieve universal primary education (source: UN^[2]).

In September 2011, EFA FTI was renamed the Global Partnership for Education (source: GPE).^[3]

Initially EFA FTI targeted its support to a small set of countries: Burkina Faso, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Nicaragua, Niger, and Yemen It then expanded its support to all low-income countries As of January 2006, 45 low-income countries were receiving technical or financial support from EFA FTI.

Scope and focus

The Global Partnership for Education (GPE) is the largest global fund solely dedicated to transforming education in lower-income countries, and a unique, multi-stakeholder partnership. GPE works to deliver quality education so that every girl and boy can have hope, opportunity and agency.

GPE delivers grants and technical support to build strong education systems in countries characterized by extreme poverty or conflict so that more children, especially girls, get the education they need to thrive and contribute to building a more prosperous and sustainable world.

GPE brings together all partners invested in education—lower-income countries, donors, international organizations, civil society, youth, teacher organizations, the private sector and private foundations—to transform education systems focusing particularly on the places and people with the greatest needs.^[4]

At the national level, GPE brings together all education partners in a collaborative forum called the local education group, led by the ministry of education. The group participates in the development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of education sector plans and programs. A coordinating agency is selected among its members to facilitate the work of the local education group. Additionally a grant agent is chosen by the government and approved by the group to oversee the implementation of GPE grants.^[5]

Funding

GPE leverages the financial support of donor countries, international organizations, the private sector and philanthropy to strengthen education systems in developing countries. GPE also encourages partner developing countries to allocate 20% of their national budget to education, with a significant proportion (45%) for primary education. Since 2003, GPE has received US$5.7 billion from donors.

Private and philanthropic funders include the Children's Investment Fund Foundation, Dubai Cares, European Commission, the LEGO Foundation, Open Society Foundations, and the Rockefeller Foundation.

Critics have noted that there is some redundancy in GPE funding, most of which is transferred through the World Bank or UNICEF before reaching its intended recipient. However this redundancy must be balanced against its democratic and inclusive governance structure.^[6]

Related data

Since 2002, there are 77 million more children in school in GPE partner countries and US$5.3 billion in grants have been allocated since 2003, including US$2.4 billion to partner countries affected by fragility and conflict.

Despite progress, there is still much work to be done. To date, there are 258 million children, adolescents and youth who are not in school. This includes 59 million children of primary school age, 62 million adolescents of lower secondary school age, and 138 million youth of upper secondary school age.^[9]

Working together, support from the Global PE and the World Bank has improved education outcomes around the globe.

Senegal: 100% of all new teachers are trained using an updated curriculum, 195 news schools have been built in rural areas, middle schools are implementing a new math and science program and learning assessment is now used in primary schools to better understand what children are learning. The program has benefited more than 1.8 million people, exceeding the original target of 1.3 million.

Democratic Republic of Congo: The net enrollment rate for basic education increased from 65% in 2013 to 85% in 2017. The country has also trained close to 35,000 teachers and delivered 20 million textbooks (French, math, science) to schools.

Mongolia: The development and implementation of mobile kindergartens housed in yurts that travel with nomadic families each summer and are equipped with furniture, teaching materials and toys has provided access to preschool for more than 3,700 nomadic children who might not otherwise have had access to early childhood education opportunities.

Haiti: A tuition waver program has helped more than 180,000 children attend school.

Niger: Teacher training has been provided to 4,500 contract-teachers, about half of whom are women, as well as to 3,300 teacher trainers, inspectors and academic advisors. Together with the World Food Programme (WFP), school canteens are benefiting 47,592 children during the 2017/18 school year, including 21,116 girls.

Mauritania: The number of girls in lower secondary education increased by 35% in the six poorest regions and in rural areas; and 13 lower secondary schools were built to allow girls to transition to secondary education. Teacher training has also improved: more than 1,000 new teachers were trained in bilingual education, the number of new teachers meeting minimum standards increased by 5% annually and some 300,000 pedagogical kits were distributed to students in primary and lower secondary schools serving poor and disadvantaged students.

Tajikistan: More than 5,400 primary teachers have been trained, two million new learning materials have been distributed to grades 1-4, and 160,000 primary students are using a new and updated curriculum.

The Gambia: An additional 45,000 students have enrolled in school, thanks to the construction of early childhood development centers, lower schools, and lower secondary schools. The country also introduced free education from Grades 1-9, and grade three students have increased their English-language learning outcomes.

Cambodia: An estimated 100 formal schools and 1,000 community-based new preschool facilities have opened and more than 47% of children between 3-5 years old are now enrolled in preschools, directly benefiting some 125,000 young children.

Ethiopia: More than 100,000 primary teachers and 17,000 secondary teachers are upgrading their teacher qualifications through training. Major gains have been made in learning outcomes as national assessments indicate that the share of students achieving proficient and advanced levels in Grade 4 mathematics increased from 13% in 2011 to 19% in 2015.

Sudan: More than 850 new classrooms have been constructed, with an additional 260 underway.

Source: The World Bank ^[1]