lEducation is one of the most powerful levers for reducing poverty around the world and achieving greater equity and inclusion. This conviction was placed at the center of the G20 agenda (to be held on November 18 and 19 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), at the initiative of the Brazilian presidency and UNESCO, which is the preferred partner.
But education itself today is undermined by inequalities. UNESCO’s new global education monitoring report, presented at the end of October in Fortaleza (Brazil), highlights that 251 million children and young people around the world are still deprived of school. They represent 33% of children in low-income countries, compared to 3% of children in high-income countries. [selon les catégories de la Banque mondiale]. More than half of these out-of-school youth are found in the sub-Saharan Africa region alone.
When in school, students are still very far from receiving the same quality of education and therefore having the same chances of success, as the gaps in education funding are very significant. According to new data released by UNESCO and the World Bank, low-income countries spent an average of just $55 per student per year in 2022, compared to $8,543 in high-income countries.
Scholarships, new establishments, educational strategies…
This underinvestment by some countries in education is not an option. It is the consequence of public finances exhausted due to the lack of financial resources. 60% of low-income countries are over-indebted or at high risk of becoming over-indebted, according to the International Monetary Fund.
In 2022, on the African continent, debt service costs will reach an amount comparable to public education budgets. In the same year, the proportion of global official development assistance [émanant des pays développés vers les pays en voie de développement] Education spending fell to 7.6%, down from 9.3% in 2019.
Breaking this triple crisis – of poverty, education and debt – is possible through international solidarity and innovative financing mechanisms, including the conversion of debt into investments for education.
Several bilateral initiatives have paved the way in recent years. Between 2002 and 2011, Indonesia and Germany carried out a pilot program that allowed the gradual cancellation of more than 77 million euros of debt in exchange for the construction of new educational centers and the financing of scholarships for doctoral students and researchers. In 2006, Cameroon and France reached an agreement to redirect more than one billion euros of debt towards financing a ten-year education strategy.
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