The Global Partnership for Education’s evolving support to fragile and conflict-affected states

•This study traces the history of policy development within the Global Partnership for Education to discern the drivers behind the uptake of its shifting policies relating to education in fragile and conflict-affected states.•The study elucidates how and why this international organization has altered its policy stance and funding modalities.•The study employ a process tracing analysis of document and interview data.•We provide three country case studies of Global Partnership for Education financing to Liberia, Madagascar, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.•We posit that three sources of change have engendered the GPE’s shifting policies on supporting fragile and conflict-affected states: a broader normative shift in the wider development arena; the work of key policy entrepreneurs within the organization; structural changes in the global policy environment that spurred organizational changes to the GPE.

In this study, we trace the history of policy development within the Global Partnership for Education to discern the drivers behind the uptake of its shifting policies relating to education in fragile and conflict-affected states. In order to elucidate how and why this international organization has altered its policy stance and funding modalities, we employ a process tracing analysis of document and interview data. Moreover, we provide three country case studies of Global Partnership for Education financing to Liberia, Madagascar, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.