During its meeting in June, GPE’s Board of Directors elected to dramatically scale up the resources available for the GPE Multiplier, an innovative finance instrument that crowds-in more and better funding for learning.

69 countries can now secure more resources from GPE through grants of up to US$25 million, in addition to other grants they are eligible for.

Multiplying funding, impact, and learning 

The Multiplier is a new instrument in GPE’s toolkit.

Like all support GPE provides for national education systems, Multiplier grants deliver critical education services where they are most-needed. These programs are based on education sector plans which reflect countries’ priorities, capacities, and needs. Unlike other grants, the Multiplier features an important incentive: to access a dollar from the Multiplier, countries and contributors need to mobilize at least three dollars in new and additional external funding.

This 3-to-1 co-financing carries direct benefits of generating more support for education in countries that will realize the highest returns from investing in literacy and numeracy. It also creates an incentive to lower the costs of managing the funding by encouraging contributors to align with national planning and priorities.

The ambition underlying the Multiplier’s design is to multiply funds for learning and to invest them wisely alongside other contributors and the national governments that continue to underwrite the vast majority of spending on education and health.

Early traction

A year ago, the Multiplier was an idea in need of implementation and a hypothesis in search of testing.

Originally developed as part of the partnership’s financing and funding framework --an ambitious toolkit of reforms and new instruments that will enable GPE to support education investments of US$2 billion a year across 89 countries by 2020-- the concept was to road test a new grant that could crowd-in and align funding from a range of partners.

Rather than invest in full upfront, GPE’s Board needed evidence that this type of instrument could really mobilize interest from contributors across a range of countries. If the Multiplier only unlocked resources (the US$3) from a few partners, there would be easier ways to design it (for example, a matching fund accessed at a single institution instead of open call for co-financing). And if the Multiplier couldn't catalyze co-financing at all, there would be better uses for GPE’s scarce capital.

An initial US$100 million investment in June last year generated a dozen expressions of interest, ultimately allocating US$67.5 million from the Multiplier. Those grants are associated with more than US$400 million in co-financing, exceeding on average the three-to-one requirement. That co-financing, moreover, comes from a diverse group of partners, ranging from philanthropic foundations to IDA, the World Bank’s concessional lending and grant-making window, and several further bilateral donors or regional development banks.

These earmarks are now being shaped into programs that deliver education where it is needed most. They are already supporting the development of programs-to be reviewed soon by GPE’s Board, to help tackle the learning crisis.

Crawl, walk, run

Based on this early evidence of demand from GPE’s country partners and enthusiasm from a diverse group of contributors, GPE’s Board of Directors determined that the time was right to ramp up the resources available for Multiplier grants. Following an investment decision at the Board meeting in Brussels last month, a further US$200 million can be deployed through the Multiplier.

As importantly, the Board streamlined the process for how countries (supported by the Secretariat) can secure Multiplier allocations, cutting a turnaround time that could take up to six months down to as little as one. And based on enthusiasm and demand from the instruments’ early adopters, the number of eligible countries was more than doubled to 69.

The Multiplier’s track record so far gives us reasons to be optimistic. It suggests that there are further resources to be unlocked in support of learning in the world’s most at-need contexts. Moreover, it indicates that this funding can be aligned around a country’s national planning priorities, combating fracturing or duplication: it is far better to invest US$10 in a coherent program than try to cohere ten US$1 programs.

As with every initiative to combat the global learning crisis, early evidence of traction cannot guarantee future success. But with new financial resources and a set of improved processes for investing them, GPE’s Board has set the stage for the Multiplier deliver on its promise-- and to meet the high expectations of GPE’s developing country partners.

Over the coming months, the Secretariat will work with those country partners to clarify the process for accessing Multiplier grants while continuing to support the preparation of smart, effective programs in countries that already have.

Learn more at the Secretariat’s Multiplier landing page.