Education and Learning in Developing Countries: Facing the Challenges of Data, Financing and Fragile Contexts

According to the “2013 Results for Learning Report” from the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), GPE’s developing country partners have made great progress in global education. There are now more children attending and completing primary school than ever and more children now have access to lower-secondary school. However, the report highlights potential risks that threaten to derail the progress on global education, including the alarming decreases in external financing for education and the challenges in reaching children in fragile and conflict-affected states. Another major issue is the lack of data on financing for education and learning outcomes, which is a clear obstacle to setting goals and measuring progress.

On December 11, the Center for Universal Education (CUE) at Brookings and the Global Partnership for Education hosted a discussion on the key findings of the report. After a short presentation of the report by Jean-Marc Bernard of GPE, a panel discussion followed with Alice Albright, chief executive officer of GPE, and David Edwards, deputy secretary general at Education International. Brookings Fellow Liesbet Steer from the Center for Universal Education moderated the discussion.

Follow the discussion on Twitter with the hashtag #GPEresults