Champions of Education The financing of education systems: issues and prospects
May 23, 2025
Recording of the webinar on 13th March 2025: Financement de l’éducation. Quelles modalités de financement des systèmes éducatifs? The webinar is in French.
Introduction
Financing education is a major global challenge in 2025, marked by budget cuts and a reduction in international funding. As part of the ‘Champions of Education’ 2025 cycle, a number of experts are analysing current trends and solutions for adequately funding education.
The first session, dedicated to the financing of education systems, was introduced by Martin Péricard, strategic adviser at Agence Française de Développement (AFD), who highlighted the particularity of the “Champions de l’Éducation” (Champions of Education) : an initiative supported by a broad partnership, including civil society organisations (CSOs), public institutions and international players.
He recalled the current pressures on the education sector worldwide: a global trend towards financial disengagement, illustrated by the drastic budget cuts of €2.1 billion for France's development aid budget in 2025, the freezing of USAID funding, and the UK and other European countries abandoning the target of 0.7% of GDP devoted to official development assistance (ODA).
In the face of these challenges, Martin Péricard stressed the importance of pooling funding and exploring new avenues based on our shared values of advancing education worldwide. He also praised the advocacy work of the Coalition Education and the Champions of Education space.
A worrying context: falling funding and unfulfilled commitments
In her speech, Vanessa Martin (Action Education), a member of the Coalition Education, presented the annual Annual monitoring report on French funding allocated to education in partner countries of the Coalition Education. This tool, which has been published for over ten years, analyses the distribution of France's international solidarity funding for education and its accountability in terms of educational cooperation.
According to the most recent figures, basic education accounts for only 2.2% of France's overall bilateral international solidarity budget. In addition, 42% of bilateral funding includes questionable expenditure such as study grants or subsidies to French establishments abroad, reducing the direct impact on partner countries' education systems.
Vanessa Martin's speech also highlighted the delay in the payment of France's commitments, in particular for the Global Partnership for Education and the Education Cannot Wait fund, thereby jeopardising support for education systems in the poorest countries.
Faced with these challenges, the Education Coalition has also co-published with UNICEF France an advocacy document entitled “Threats to funding for education: the 17 SDGs at risk”, highlighting the urgent need to preserve and increase education funding to guarantee access to quality education for all.
The impact of debt and taxation on education
El Hadji Mame Moussa Sarr of ActionAid Senegal highlighted the impact of debt and tax justice on education funding. According to their “Who Owes Who” study, many countries in the South devote more resources to debt repayment than to essential public services such as education and health.
One of the most striking figures in the study reveals that more than 75% of low-income countries spend more on debt repayment than on medical care. Some countries even spend twice as much on debt as on education.
Climate debt is also a major issue. The countries of the North owe 107 trillion dollars to the countries of the South as compensation for the damage caused by global warming. However, the climate financing promised remains insufficient and is often granted in the form of loans, making the countries of the South even more financially dependent.
El Hadji Mame Moussa Sarr points out that illicit financial flows and tax evasion by multinationals represent a haemorrhage of 1.13 trillion dollars a year for developing countries, further reducing the ability to finance public services such as education.
Public-Private Partnerships: A controversial solution
Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) are often presented as a miracle solution to the lack of funding in education. Delphine Dorsi, from Right to Education, presented the findings of the report “Demystifying Education Public-Private Partnerships”, published by the Consortium on Education Privatisation and Human Rights, which shows that these arrangements often generate higher hidden costs and widen educational inequalities.
According to the report, these partnerships can:
Select the best performing pupils and exclude those with special educational needs, creating discrimination in access.
Reduce public spending on education due to costly contractual commitments with the private sector.
Introducing less innovative and lower quality teaching approaches in the pursuit of profitability.
Create a lack of transparency and control because contracts are often opaque, making it difficult to assess performance and ensure accountability.
In the face of these challenges, the study recommends a cautious approach: building public sector capacity, ensuring strict regulation of the private sector and favouring more equitable and inclusive financing solutions.
The French Development Agency (AFD), represented by Assiba Djemaoun and Rohen D'aiglepierre, presented its vision of Public-Private Partnerships and the strategies put in place to make them effective and equitable in the education sector.
Assiba Djemaoun pointed out that, despite the promotion of PPPs by MDG 17, very few projects are actually being implemented in education. One of the main obstacles is the lack of preparation on the part of governments, which often lack the technical skills to structure these contracts in a balanced way.
Rohen D'aiglepierre points out that AFD insists on the need for strict regulation and strengthened governance to avoid abuses.
The Abidjan Principles: a framework for equitable public education
In her speech, Aya Douabou, from GI ESCR, presented the Abidjan Principles, a legal framework adopted in 2019 in Côte d'Ivoire to regulate the financing and governance of education while respecting human rights.
These principles, which compile the obligations of States in terms of financing and regulating the education sector, offer concrete guidelines for guaranteeing free and inclusive public education. Aya Douabou highlighted several key points:
Governments must give priority to funding public education and mobilise the necessary resources, including through fairer taxation and better debt management.
Budget cuts must not be used to justify a reduction in the right to education. In the event of an economic crisis, governments must demonstrate that they are doing everything possible to preserve access to quality education.
The private sector must be regulated in order to guarantee minimum quality standards and avoid abuses such as the selection of pupils or uncontrolled increases in tuition fees.
Public schools must respect obligations of transparency and accessibility, particularly with regard to their fees and administrative management.
Aya Douabou illustrated these principles with the case of Kenya, where a study was carried out to analyse the regulation of informal schools known as “ABETS”. The study revealed that although these schools fill an educational void, they often operate without a clear regulatory framework, which poses challenges in terms of quality and inclusion.
Conclusion
To close the session, Sarah Nardone, Education Adviser at the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, stressed the urgent need for collective action in this context, and praised the intense advocacy efforts being made by civil society.
She stressed the importance of breaking down the silos in the sector to work more cross-sectorally and with a greater diversity of players, while taking account of the challenges of PPPs.
Sarah also asserted that this reality does not mean that “France is giving up defending these issues, including within the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, on an inter ministerial basis, and probably working even more closely than before with France's bilateral and multilateral partners on these issues.”
If you would like to watch the webinar: Video
Author: Léa Rambaud
