As the world faces increasing uncertainties, vibrant and resilient education systems should be assuming even more prominent parts in fostering economic prosperity, stability and social harmony. Education remains the smartest investment a country can make in its future.

Throughout 2024, GPE continued to show the benefits of a model for education funding that emphasizes country leadership, more efficient use of resources and clear evidence of success to transform education systems.

Educated children who can realize their full potential are the drivers of economic prosperity and social stability. Their success fosters a virtuous cycle that makes domestic financing of education more sustainable and efficient in the long run.

The 2024 Annual Report offers many examples of how resourceful partnerships, country-led reforms and innovative financing for education can give more girls and boys the education they need.

Key achievements in 2024

Highlights from 2024 reaffirm GPE’s emphasis on country leadership and powerful partnering in support of clear, ambitious education reforms that can drive progress at a scale beyond what would be possible through project-based funding alone:

• Grant approvals passed $1.2 billion while disbursements almost reached the same level, representing records for GPE financing since its inception.
• GPE grants leveraged another $1.5 billion in cofinancing from other donors, effectively unlocking a total of $3.8 billion in support of education reforms.
• Since the beginning of our current funding cycle, GPE grants have reached more than 253 million children, trained 1.9 million teachers, distributed 169 million textbooks and built or improved around 36,000 classrooms in partner countries.
• Seventy-one partner countries have finalized partnership compacts, serving as a foundation for their ongoing engagement with GPE and other stakeholders and setting out their path to systemwide transformation.
• By early 2025, 15 partner countries had secured a total of $225 million through the Girls’ Education Accelerator to address multiple barriers girls face in accessing and completing their education. A total of 3.6 million girls are expected to benefit from better education through this support.
• Jordan, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia joined the partnership, further broadening the membership base in the Middle East and Persian Gulf.

Mobilizing more funding for education

At a time of severely constrained public budgets, heavy debt burdens and declining global aid to education, GPE resources were directed to boost domestic finance to education, providing temporary support to teacher salaries in Eritrea and Cameroon and teacher training and deployment in Sierra Leone and Ukraine.

One way GPE incentivizes reforms is through results-based financing or ‘top-ups’ through which countries access additional funding, usually between 10 and 20 percent, upon meeting certain conditions.

Nearly 80 percent of countries that have chosen to leverage GPE results-based financing have tied their selection to policy shifts on domestic financing.

Creating sustainable education systems

GPE continued to foster partner countries’ capacity and expertise for better efficiency and sustainability of education reforms through country-to-country learning.

The GPE Knowledge and Innovation Exchange (KIX), civil society engagement funded by Education Out Loud and technical assistance initiatives on technology, climate, gender equality, nutrition and school safety, all contributed to enhancing countries’ capacities.

GPE technical assistance initiatives explored how technologies can be applied more widely to improve education in Ghana and Tajikistan through the Tech4Ed initiative, while KIX events in 2024 provided opportunities for country-to-country learning and knowledge sharing for more than 26,000 participants.

To further drive improvement in its own performance, GPE in 2024 pursued a series of enhancements that will strengthen operational efficiencies and better meet partner countries’ needs, including shifting GPE teams closer to partner countries, increasing responsiveness.

This year, we are preparing our next strategic plan—GPE 2030—applying the lessons from independent reviews of GPE’s work and impact as well as from consultations with partners and Board constituencies.

I expect the new strategy will add momentum to GPE’s progress so far, particularly in including the most marginalized children and getting more girls an education.

We will strive to learn from the success of the GPE Multiplier and generate greater innovation in education financing while also affording partner countries easier access to a more diverse group of grant agents to best apply GPE funding so that every girl and boy can go to school and learn.