Between The Years
- EOF
- 3 days ago
- 5 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
For EOF, 2025 was a year of proof and 2026 will be a year of disciplined scale, writes our CEO Amel Karboul
I’ve always loved a German expression: zwischen den Jahren, “between the years.” It refers to the days between Christmas and the New Year, a short pause that is neither fully past nor fully future, but suspended in reflection and transition.
I’ve been thinking about the Education Outcomes Fund (EOF) in that space. Not because we are pausing, but because this work sits, by nature, between two realities: the education and skills systems we have, and the ones we are trying to build. Between funding that pays for activity, and funding that pays only for results. Between good intentions, and measured outcomes. And while this work might look slow from the outside, it is often the patient work of reforming how public money is spent and what it is spent for.
What 2025 proved
In Sierra Leone, the independent evaluation of the Sierra Leone Education Innovation Challenge (SLEIC) confirmed something that matters far beyond one programme: paying for outcomes can work at national scale, even in a low-income, high-complexity context. Learning gains outperformed roughly 70% of similar programmes globally, with maths gains reaching the 90th percentile of international effect sizes.
But what stays with me was not only the numbers; it was the change in practice.
When contracts and partnerships are built around outcomes, behaviour shifts. Conversations move from “we delivered the activities” to “did learning actually improve, and for whom?” Delivery becomes more adaptive. Data becomes something teams use to steer and improve, not something they produce at the end to justify effort. And you see it at the human level too: one teacher coach in Sierra Leone described their work in a simple phrase: “We are nation-builders.” That is what this looks like when it is real: disciplined implementation, accountability, and a shared seriousness about results.
Alongside delivery, 2025 was also a year of deep learning and knowledge-building for EOF, with a deliberate focus on equity and inclusion in outcomes partnerships.
In Rwanda, our early childhood outcomes fund explicitly builds inclusion for children with disabilities into the programme – not as an add-on, but as part of what is measured and paid for. We translated this experience into concrete, actionable learning: technical guide on disability inclusion, on equity and accountability in education finance, and peer learning through the Innovative Finance for Early Childhood Development Working Group and the Collective Learning Initiative.
Our knowledge is not sitting on shelves. It is informing programme design, shaping government conversations, and helping the wider field move beyond narrow notions of efficiency towards outcomes partnerships that are accountable for equity, inclusion, and social impact.
This spirit of learning also shaped our exploration of how artificial intelligence can support better delivery, better measurement, and better decision-making – always anchored in human judgment, ethics, and care.
What we’re seeing across our portfolio: ownership and accountability are accelerating
Across our work in 2025, we saw something else strengthen: governments are increasingly shaping their own outcomes-based models not as a donor experiment, but as a way to finance and govern education and skills systems with more accountability and better value for money.
In Tunisia, we are applying outcomes-based financing to one of the defining challenges of this decade: the gap between learning, skills, and work. Instead of funding training as an activity, the programme is structured around what ultimately matters: young people securing employment and staying employed. Only a few months into implementation, momentum is already tangible: partners reported 200+ permanent contracts secured, and recent discussions with the Minister of Employment and Vocational Training and the programme steering committee reinforced a long-term vision that includes the legal and financing frameworks needed for continuity and a potential next phase. The National Employment Agency is also eager to leverage the programme’s verification and data platform early – not only for this programme, but to strengthen how it monitors and adjusts its own efforts.
In South Africa, 2025 marked a major milestone with the launch of the R496 million ($29 million) Early Childhood Care and Education Outcomes Fund, the largest outcomes fund globally dedicated to early learning. For the first time, local and international donors are entering into a single outcomes-based partnership with government, aligning public leadership and philanthropic capital around shared accountability. The fund is designed to address the dual challenge of access and quality and is built around a simple reality: the future is built early, and it is built collectively.
In Rwanda, we are working with government on a national early childhood care and education outcomes fund designed to reach 25,000 children aged three to five over the next 3.5 years. The programme focuses on improving learning outcomes and strengthening early childhood development centres, while explicitly including children with disabilities, a first for a national ECCE outcomes programme.
In Nigeria, we signed a co-funding agreement with the Lagos State Government to launch a new outcomes-based education programme aimed at reaching over 45,000 out of school children, and improving edcuaction for 150,000 existing pupils, in the next four years. This agreement embeds outcomes-based financing into Lagos State’s education strategy – accountability and measurable impact as part of public education, not an add-on. We have already mobilised significant funding, and we are continuing to build a broader coalition of partners to fully match the ambition and commitment of government.
Across this growing portfolio, EOF has now mobilised over $130 million, improving education and skills opportunities for more than half a million children and young people. I mention this because scale matters: this is not boutique experimentation. It is public systems work – with real scrutiny, real accountability, and real stakes.
What 2026 is for: disciplined delivery, field-building, and the right partnerships
As we step into 2026, our focus is deliberate rather than expansive. We will prioritise disciplined delivery, credible evidence, and the partnerships that allow outcomes-based approaches to move from promising programmes to durable public systems.
We will continue to play a field-building role: not only funding programmes, but helping governments and partners build the practical infrastructure for outcomes-based public spending – verification approaches, learning agendas, financing pathways, and the real-world “how” of making this work in complex systems.
We will also enter a new institutional phase, transitioning our hosting arrangement from UNICEF to UNOPS. We are deeply grateful to UNICEF for the partnership and stewardship that helped build EOF to this point, and we are committed to carrying that relationship forward. This transition is a practical step to ensure the operational flexibility we need for the next stage of growth, while keeping us firmly anchored in the values and multilateral mission of the UN system.
Finally, a personal note: during my Bellagio residency in 2025, I have been writing Better Lives, Better Spending – field reflections on what outcomes partnerships have taught us so far, where they break, and what it would take to scale them with integrity: not just bigger deals, but the harder work of embedding outcomes into how public systems make decisions. I look forward to sharing more soon.
Between the years, I feel both gratitude and resolve. Gratitude for governments and partners willing to be measured, and resolve to keep building financing models that reward real progress for children and young people, especially in a tightening funding environment.
If you would like to explore partnership – joining the coalition that is taking this work to scale in our newest initiative in Nigeria, on skills-to-work, or on the evidence and learning agenda that makes these models credible – I would genuinely welcome the conversation.