Domestic financing

GPE helps partner countries improve the amount, fair distribution and efficiency of their financing for education.

GPE in action

GPE supports ministries of education to work more closely with ministries of finance to both increase domestic spending and ensure that the available resources are spent fairly and efficiently.

In conjunction with policy dialogue in each country, GPE grants can be leveraged to encourage better education spending overall, which generates greater efficiency in education budgets and helps ensure funding is reaching the children who need it most.

GPE incentivizes these reforms through results-based financing options, through which countries access a portion of their total funding (usually between 10 and 20%) if certain conditions are met.

GPE supports partner countries in assessing whether national education spending is sufficient and sustainable to meet the needs. It also helps build capacity to track the use of domestic finance and improve the availability of data to support transparency and accountability.

Recognizing that debt burdens can limit education budgets, GPE supports efforts to increase fiscal space, explore debt-swap initiatives and catalyze additional external resources to make national funds go further and achieve greater impact.

GPE encourages:

  • Stronger systems through coordination of external education financing.
  • Increased budget for education through fairer taxation and reduction of debt burdens on the poorest countries through Debt2Ed.
  • Participation of civil society in budget monitoring and use of better data to improve transparency and accountability in education spending.
  • Improved accountability and strengthening of dialogue between education and finance ministries.

Commitments on education financing

In 2021, 20 Heads of State made a commitment to prioritize education, pledging to work towards spending at least 20% of their budgets on education over the next five years.

At the GPE 2021 Financing Summit, 25 more countries submitted individual commitments to prioritize and protect the volume of education financing and improve its efficiency and fairness.

Latest blogs and news

July 06, 2021
Heads of State declaration on education financing
Call to action by President Kenyatta on behalf of GPE partner countries about their commitment to financing education to strengthen education systems and secure a stable and prosperous future for all...