On 13 March, UNESCO and France convened a high‑level policy debate on sustainable education financing under the G7 France Presidency, in close cooperation with the Global Partnership for Education (GPE). With an estimated annual financing gap of US$97 billion in developing countries, SDG 4 is at risk. Traditional approaches to education financing must be rethought. A shift toward more integrated strategies, stronger partnerships, and better coordination is urgently needed. At the global level, the SDG 4 High‑Level Steering Committee (HLSC) serves as a key platform for aligning and amplifying initiatives. UNESCO is taking the lead in driving this discussion and shaping more sustainable solutions, working closely with France’s G7 Presidency, GPE, and a broad range of partners.
Debt servicing now exceeds public spending on education in 113 countries, representing three-quarters of the world’s population. At the same time, international aid for education is declining, with a 25% decrease expected between 2023 and 2027. Access to quality education remains deeply unequal: annual public spending per student averages $55 in low-income countries, compared with $8,500 in high-income countries. Overall, the annual financing gap to achieve the goal of quality education by 2030 in developing countries is estimated at $97 billion. Added to this are the additional education costs caused by conflicts around the world.
A recent study by UNESCO nevertheless shows that funding education is more beneficial than paying for its absence: failing to provide children with basic skills costs the global economy around $10 trillion per year.
Faced with this urgency, UNESCO promotes innovative financing mechanisms such as debt conversions into investments for education (Debt4Ed).
- In the case of debt relief, the creditor and the partner country agree to a reduction in the debt service payments of an existing loan, on the condition that the partner country commits to investing additional resources in education.
- In the case of a loan-to-grant conversion, the creditor—or a third party—pays all or part of the interest and/or principal of a loan on behalf of the partner country, the final borrower.
Such mechanisms have already been successfully implemented between Indonesia and Germany (2002–2011), Peru and Spain (2006–2017), and Côte d’Ivoire and France (2023). UNESCO will soon publish concrete recommendations to help more debtor and creditor countries channel debt relief into investments in education.
Organized with France as part of the French presidency of the G7, and in close partnership with the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), UNESCO hosted a high-level meeting on 13 March aimed at promoting a modernized approach to education financing. The goal is to move from short-term solutions toward structural approaches in which existing financing tools (public, philanthropic, and private) are better aligned with the national strategies of beneficiary countries.
read more: https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/g7-unesco-and-gpe-join-forces-strengthen-education-financing
