At a Glance ·         Education is key to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and is a powerful driver of the development of individuals and societies. ·         The World Bank manages a portfolio of $11.2 billion, with operations in 82 countries. ·         The Bank’s Education Strategy 2020, Learning for All: Investing in People’s Knowledge and Skills to Promote Development, is a roadmap for the next decade that focuses on increasing learning for all by investing early, investing smartly, and investing for all.  Education: An Instrument for Reducing Poverty  By investing in people, education is a powerful driver of development and one of the strongest instruments for reducing poverty and improving health, gender equality, peace, and stability. Today, the Bank manages a portfolio of $11.2 billion with operations in 82 countries, and invested more than $1.8 billion in education in 2011. The Bank works with countries to develop policies that expand global access to schooling, improve the quality of learning, increase learning outcomes, and provide education to the poorest and most disadvantaged groups. Through financing, analytic work, and policy advice, the Bank helps integrate education into national economic strategies and develop more effective education systems.  The MDGs for Education  As one of the largest external funders of education in the developing world, the Bank is a key player in global efforts to help countries reach the MDGs for education—universal primary completion and gender parity in education—and achieve quality learning for all. At the United Nations Summit on the MDGs last fall, the Bank pledged to increase its International Development Association (IDA), the Bank’s fund for the poorest, resources for basic education by an additional $750 million over the following five years. This support will focus on the countries that are not on track to reach the education MDGs by 2015, especially those in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. The additional resources will support innovative interventions that improve access to good-quality schools for underserved populations and address barriers to demand for those services, especially for girls.  A new $71 million IDA credit this year supports Mozambique’s Education Strategic Support Program through 2015 to expand access to education and improve education quality. A unique feature of this operation is that the IDA financing leveraged an additional $90 million in grant funding from the Education for All – Fast Track Initiative, for an operation totaling $161 million.  Education Strategy 2020: Learning for All  In April 2011 the Bank launched its Education Strategy 2020, Learning for All: Investing in People’s Knowledge and Skills to Promote Development, a road map for the next 10 years that focuses on increasing learning for all by investing early, investing smartly, and investing for all. Consultations with governments, development partners, students, teachers, researchers, civil society, and business representatives from more than 100 countries informed its development.  Learning for all means giving all people equitable opportunities to acquire the knowledge and skills they need to have healthy and satisfying lives, to be good citizens, and to be productive contributors to their countries’ economic development. The driver of development will ultimately be what young people learn. This applies to learning both in and out of school, from preschool to the labor market, across low-income countries, fragile states, and middle-income countries.  The Bank will focus on working in strategic partnership to help developing countries strengthen education systems beyond inputs and to build a global knowledge base for reform. New tools to assess education systems will help countries formulate better education policies according to evidence-based global standards and best practice, from early childhood development to higher education and beyond.  Better evidence and knowledge are the levers that make effective reform possible. The Bank conducts rigorous impact evaluations to generate stronger evidence about what works in education under different country conditions. Recent publications include Making Schools Work, which reviews evidence on school accountability reforms and No Small Matter, which explores the impact of early childhood development programs in the developing world. Another new book, Assessing Sector Performance and Inequality in Education, analyzes global education inequality and is a comprehensive resource to using the Bank’s ADePT data analysis software.
Global Education Partnerships  Collaboration with a host of development partners, including the Education for All – Fast Track Initiative, United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), advances the global commitment to achieve the goals of the Education for All initiative and the education MDGs. The Bank partners with the U.K. Department for International Development to strengthen the evidence base for what works in education policy and through the Russia Education Aid for Development (READ) trust fund to build capacity for learning assessment. These and other joint efforts are crucial for mobilizing global and country resources for education and improving policy making within countries.  The Bank manages its popular Education for Global Development and EduTech blogs to connect with counterparts throughout the development community and around the globe through social media. Together, the Bank hopes to amplify the global conversation around learning for all.  For more information, please visit www.worldbank.org/education.  Media Contacts:           Phil Hay, (202) 473-1796, phay@worldbank.org                                    Melanie Mayhew, (202) 458-7891, mmayhew1@worldbank.org  Updated July 2011  |
