Response to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic

GPE supported lower-income countries to mitigate the impacts that school closures had on the most vulnerable children and to build the resilience of education systems.

Results of GPE COVID-19 grants

Discover how the rapid support by GPE to 66 partner countries made a difference in keeping millions of children learning and back to school safely.

 Credit: Samoa Ministry of education, sports and culture

When COVID-19-related school closures first swept Samoa in 2020, a survey reported that fewer than 40% of students had accessed learning through radio, television, or paper-based and online lessons and resources.

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Credit: Samoa Ministry of education, sports and culture
Students at Saint Ignatius Primary School wash their hands after an art project. Lethem, Region 9, Guyana

Students at Saint Ignatius Primary School wash their hands after an art project. Lethem, Region 9, Guyana.

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Credit: GPE/Kelley Lynch
Noah Urrea, a 10-year-old boy in Côte d'Ivoire, studying using “My School at Home”.

Noah Urrea, a 10-year-old boy in Côte d'Ivoire, studying using “My School at Home”.

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Credit: UNICEF/Frank Dejongh
Class three students at Wangsel Institute for the Deaf in Bhutan learn to use assistive devices.

Class three students at Wangsel Institute for the Deaf in Bhutan learn to use assistive devices.

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Credit: Save the Children Bhutan
Chanceline Niyera, Grade 8B student at Bumwe Basic School in Burundi

“I caught COVID-19, but I felt reassured because we had been told that it could be cured. I had to stay at home and I followed all the hygiene rules we’d learned at school. When I got better, I went back to school, where I was welcomed by the other students without feeling stigmatized.” Chanceline Niyera, Grade 8B student at Bumwe Basic School in Burundi.

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Training participants discuss on how to keep children learning should pandemic-related restrictions disrupt schooling in Timor-Leste

Training participants discuss on how to keep children learning should pandemic-related restrictions disrupt schooling in Timor-Leste.

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Credit: UNICEF Timor-Leste/2022/SMdasilva
A young student uses hand sanitizing gel in class. Sudan, July 2021

A young student uses hand sanitizing gel in class. Sudan, July 2021.

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Credit: GPE
UNICEF purchased a batch of educational materials and sports equipment, with a total value of over $70,000 to be made available to preschoolers and primary school children. One of these sets reached 6-year-old Adelina in Nisporeni. UNICEF purchased a batch of educational materials and sports equipment, with a total value of over $70,000 to be made available to preschoolers and primary school children. One of these sets reached 6-year-old Adelina in Nisporeni.

UNICEF purchased a batch of educational materials and sports equipment, with a total value of over $70,000 to be made available to preschoolers and primary school children. One of these sets reached 6-year-old Adelina in Nisporeni, Moldova.

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Credit: UNICEF Moldova
Saint Lucian students saying thank you to GPE in song

Saint Lucian students saying thank you to GPE in song.

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Credit: OECS Commission
Children playing in front of their classroom in Guinea.

Children playing in front of their classroom in Guinea.

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Credit: UNICEF Guinea
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Map of COVID-19 grants and stories

To view grant amounts, click on countries in blue.
To view grant amounts and results stories, click on countries in green.

The boundaries, colors, denominations and any other information shown on this map do not imply, on the part of GPE, any judgment on the legal status of any territory, or any endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries.

GPE response

Between April and October 2020, GPE approved $467 million in COVID-19 accelerated grants to 66 countries and another $25 million for a global grant to UNESCO, UNICEF and the World Bank.

The grants to partner countries helped to produce and distribute learning materials, train teachers to track learning and provide distance education, ensure that schools could re-open safely, and provide remedial learning opportunities for children. The support also laid the foundations to build resilient education systems ready to face future crises.

Grant allocations by category
(in US$ millions)

Distance learning methods
(in US$ millions)

The country grants helped ensure that girls and children from the poorest families, who were hit hardest by school closures, were not left behind.

  • Grants supported partner countries' response in:
    • Equity: Hygiene and psychosocial support programs, with priority for the most vulnerable children, including children with disabilities.
    • Learning: Distance learning initiatives, provision of learning materials, support to teachers in distance and accelerated remedial learning programs.
    • System resilience and school reopening: Preparations for the reopening of schools by ensuring that students and teachers can return to safe education facilities.
  • 38% of the grants support low tech solutions for distance learning (radio and TV); 34% support printed materials, and 28% support e-learning.

More details on thematic allocations of COVID-19 grants

COVID-19 grants

  • 66 countries received COVID-19 accelerated grants totalling US$467 million (see table below)
  • 87 countries received a COVID-19 planning grant in March 2020 at the start of the pandemic for a total of US$8.8 million
  • a US$25 million global grant funds a joint initiative by UNESCO, UNICEF and the World Bank to ensure regional and global efficiencies and knowledge sharing in the education pandemic response.

View data on COVID-19 and education

Approved grants

Click on each country in the table below to learn more about COVID-19 grants and related documentation

Country Amount (US$ M) Grant agent
Afghanistan 11 UNICEF
Bangladesh 15 World Bank
Benin 7 World Bank
Bhutan 0.75 Save the Children
Burkina Faso 7 AFD
Burundi 7 UNICEF
Cabo Verde 0.75 UNICEF
Cambodia 7 UNICEF
Cameroon 11 UNESCO
Central African Republic 7 UNICEF
Chad 7 World Bank
Comoros 0.75 UNICEF
DR Congo 15 UNICEF
Republic of Congo 7 UNICEF
Cote d'Ivoire 11 UNICEF
Djibouti 3.5 World Bank
Ethiopia 15 World Bank
The Gambia 3.5 World Bank
Ghana 15 World Bank
Guinea 7 UNICEF
Guinea Bissau 3.5 UNICEF
Guyana 3.5 UNICEF
Haiti 7 UNICEF
Kenya 11 World Bank
Kiribati 0.75 UNICEF
Lao PDR 7 UNICEF
Lesotho 3.47 UNICEF
Liberia 7 UNICEF
Madagascar 15 World Bank
Malawi 10 UNICEF
Maldives 0.75 UNICEF
Mali 7 World Bank
Marshall Islands 0.75 UNICEF
Mauritania 3.5 IsDB
FS Micronesia 0.75 UNICEF
Mozambique 15 UNICEF
Myanmar 11 UNICEF
Nepal 11 World Bank
Nicaragua 7 World Bank
Niger 11 AFD/UNICEF
Nigeria 15 UNICEF
OECS (Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines) 3 OECS
Pakistan 20 World Bank
Papua New Guinea 9.44 UNICEF
Rwanda 10 World Bank
Sao Tome and Principe 0.75 UNICEF
Samoa 0.75 UNICEF
Senegal 7 AFD
Sierra Leone 7 World Bank
Solomon Islands 0.75 UNICEF
Somalia (Federal Government) 5.4 Save the Children
Somalia (Puntland) 1.3 UNICEF
Somalia (Somaliland) 2.2 Save the Children
South Sudan 7 UNICEF
Sudan 11 World Bank
Tanzania 15.16 SIDA
Tanzania (Zanzibar) 1.5 UNICEF
Timor-Leste 3.5 UNICEF
Togo 7 World Bank
Tonga 0.75 Save the Children
Tuvalu 0.75 UNICEF
Uganda 15 World Bank
Vanuatu 0.75 Save the Children
Yemen 11 ISDB
Zambia 10 UNICEF
Zimbabwe 7 UNICEF
TOTAL 467.22  

Last updated: November 2, 2020