Our Mission
Let's face an uncomfortable truth. Education systems are failing. By 2030, half of the world’s children will be failing to learn – most of them in Africa and the Middle East. How can we expect these children to succeed without knowing how to read and count properly?
There isn't a teacher in the world who wants their children to fail. But whatever we are doing in schools is not delivering results. We need to stop expecting better outcomes with the same approaches. We need to understand why education isn't working and how we get children to read and write.
This is why we have set up the Education Outcomes Fund (EOF). EOF is an ambitious effort to significantly improve learning and employment outcomes by tying funding to measurable results. Through a partnership model, we bring together governments, donors, implementing partners, and investors to achieve concrete targets for learning, skill development, and employment. Using our global platform, we are scaling up results-based financing in education, with the aim of improving the effectiveness of spending and transforming the lives of 10 million children and youth.
Children don't have the power to change education. But we do.
Our beliefs that underpin this initiative
We face an urgent global learning crisis.
In the Middle East and North Africa, only half of children and youth reach minimum proficiency in reading and math. In sub-Saharan Africa, the figure is less than 20%. Without significantly more and better funding, by 2030, 1 billion children worldwide will be denied basic skills, posing a major threat to global prosperity and security. COVID-19 is making the current global learning crisis even more acute.
Working towards Sustainable
Development Goal 4 (SDG 4)
EOF’s objectives are aligned to and directly in support of SDG 4, with an emphasis on early childhood development, improving the quality of free basic education, developing skills for work, and supporting those that are left behind.
1
Get children back into school, and learning
Support accelerated learning programs and ‘last mile’ delivery for out-of-school children, getting them back into school at the right level, and ensuring they stay on track once there. Relevant SDG target 4.1
2
Strengthen public school systems and support teachers
Build the capacity of public systems at the level of the school and the community and support teachers’ professional development, drawing on the best innovations both locally and from around the world to help improve learning outcomes. Relevant SDG target 4.1
3
Expand early childhood education
Expand access and quality of early childhood education, a critically important period in a child’s development when the impact of investment in education is often highest. Relevant SDG target 4.2
4
Promote the 21st Century skills needed for work
Support the development of technical and 21st Century skills that reflect the needs of the labor market in each country in which we work, both helping young people prepare for work, as well as promoting the right skills earlier in education systems. Relevant SDG target 4.3, 4.4
5
Support those that are being left behind
Provide focused support for girls, refugees, rural children, children with disabilities, and other underserved populations to ensure a quality education for all. Relevant SDG target 4.5
6
Help governments improve outcomes across the system
Support governments to work with and regulate the whole national education system, including informal and private operators, to ensure government is always at the table and able to help ensure quality education for all children. Relevant SDG target 4.1 to 4.5