A new report ‘One Billion Voices: How Africa can lead on education in a post COVID-19 world’ is based on a desk top review of education financing in Africa, including emerging issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic. It analyses government policy documents, national budgets, budget speeches, citizen budgets plus documents on debt servicing, domestic revenue, and taxation The report looked at the following 35 African countries.

The report uses the 4S Framework[1] referring to the Share, Size, Sensitivity and Scrutiny of budget allocation. Data Collection was supported by Africa Network Coalition for Education for All by working directly with national coalitions. An analysis of COVID-19 implications on education was carried out to identify the impact of the pandemic on financing of education. The percentages of budget allocation to education from national budgets was calculated, as was the percentage of the national budget that was spent on debt servicing. The data were examined to determine what percentage of their national budget countries were spending on education.

The report sets out ‘What is stopping education financing?’ and then examine ‘What needs to happen to Fund Education?’ within the context of Africa. The report sets out a range of findings and observations and then finishes with a set of policy recommendations for national governments in Africa, donors and the international community.

[1] Archer, D (2nd May 2018) The 4 s Framework for Domestic Financing in the Arab Region: Presentation Notes for Acea Conference, Beirut.

Resources
Download the related resources.
Share this article

The Global Campaign for Education (GCE) is a civil society movement that aims to end exclusion in education. Education is a basic human right, and our mission is to make sure that governments act now to deliver the right of everyone to a free, quality, public education.