Donor policies, practices and investment priorities in support of education, and post-2015 prospects: A review

The Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2011, whilst conceding that considerable progress towards education related goals had been made over the previous decade, reminded us that many challenges still remain. This article has been developed from a study commissioned by the European Commission in 2012 to examine the policies, practices and investment priorities of bilateral and multilateral agencies in support of education since 2002. The overriding development policy focus has been on poverty reduction and economic and social development; and education policy has been prepared in the firm belief that relevant good quality education for all is a crucial driver of overall development. But have there been any noticeable trends in policy and investment priorities? To what extent has evaluation of practice been able to feed into the policy making process? This article attempts to answer these and other questions. It derives lessons learned over the past decade and suggests ways in which these can guide development assistance to education in order to address both existing and emerging challenges from 2015 onwards.