Education Lending Trends

The World Bank is one of the world's largest providers of external funding for education. It began supporting education in developing countries in 1963 and to date has transferred almost US$ 46 billion in loans and credits for education. World Bank education lending has averaged roughly $2 billion annually for the last five years. In FY 09, total education lending reached a record high of US$ 3.4 billion, with assistance to the most vulnerable, channeled to low income countries through the International Development Association (IDA), reaching a record US $1.6 billion. This lending transferred by the World Bank to developing countries supports the development of education policies and strategies, strengthens institutions and service delivery and helps countries expand the qualitative and quantitative capacity of their education systems.

Aggregate data on World Bank lending trends in the education sector can be accessed through the Education Historical Lending Figures. The EdStats World Bank Projects Database module provides access to education project components while the World Bank’s Project Database provides access to detailed information and project documents on all World Bank projects and operations.

Below is a breakdown of World Bank Education lending trends between FY 2000 and FY 2009.

How much does the World Bank lend to education?

What region constituted the largest amount of lending in the education sector for FY 09?

Regional distribution of education lending

The largest amount of lending for education (US $941 million) was in the East Asia and Pacific (EAP) region, which accounted for 27 percent of total lending in FY09. Almost two-thirds of this total ($600 million) was allocated to the Indonesia School Operational Assistance–Knowledge Improvement for Transparency and Accountability Project. The second largest amount ($720 million), or 21 percent, was allocated to the Africa (AFR) region, followed by $711 million, or 21 percent, for the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region. Lending to the South Asia region (SAR) slightly decreased from $695 million in FY08 to $648 million in FY09. The largest number of lending operations was in the Africa region, with six projects amounting to just under a quarter of the total operations.

Education Lending by Average Number of New Education Projects FY04-FY09

What education sub-sector receives the most lending?

The World Bank supports holistic education reform in various manners. The distribution of education lending by subsector in FY09 followed much the same pattern as that of recent years, except for secondary education, which increased from $99 million in FY08 to $944 million in FY09. This increase reflects the high demand for secondary, especially lower secondary, education. The World Bank estimates that Basic Education support reached almost $ 1.5 billion in FY09. In FY09, general education received the largest volume of funding, accounting for 38 percent of total education lending. General education is used to code projects that finance more than one education subsector, therefore about half of all lending categorized as general education in recent years is estimated to be supporting basic education..

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