Education is key to prosperity.
Access to education helps countries reduce inequality, poverty, and instability. Research has found that countries that have experienced surges in literacy rates by 20-30% have seen simultaneous increases in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 8-16%.
Education increases life expectancy, economic productivity and overall health.
Educated mothers are more likely to send their own children to school, leading to greater education and opportunity for future generations.
Browse through the resources below for resources on education and foreign assistance. Please Note: we're still adding to these sections!
Books:
Changing international aid to education: global patterns and national contexts
By Kenneth King and Lene Buchert
Link to abstract
International Comparisons of Educational Attainment
By Robert J. Barro and Jong-Wha Lee
Link to abstract
Women's Education in Developing Countries: Barriers, Benefits, and Policies
By Elizabeth M. King and M. Anne Hill
Link to abstract
Constructing Education for Development: International Organizations and Education for All
By Colette Chabbott
Link to abstract
Organizations:
United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization
UNESCO aims to build peace in the minds of men by functioning as a laboratory of ideas and a standard-setter to forge universal agreements on emerging ethical issues. UNESCO also serves as a clearinghouse – for the dissemination and sharing of information and knowledge – while helping Member States to build their human and institutional capacities in diverse fields.
USAID – Education and Universities
USAID emphasizes programs of support for basic education and places a special emphasis on improving opportunities for girls, women and other underserved and disadvantaged populations. USAID also provides short-term training opportunities to hundreds of thousands of individuals in developing and transition countries each year.
Basic Education Coalition
The Basic Education Coalition, a group of 20 development organizations, works to increase knowledge about, raise the priority of and increase support for quality basic education for all as a means of promoting economic development and human well-being. Basic education is the foundation for long term, sustainable success in development.
Academy for Educational Development – Education
For more than 30 years, AED has worked to increase access to quality K-12 education in more than 30 developing countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. AED's efforts have focused on improving teaching and learning, involving parents in schools, creating more opportunities for girls, and integrating technology into education strategies.
Mercy Corps – Education
Mercy Corps embraces a broad definition of education: teaching livestock breeders in Lebanon less costly ways to grow feed, building temporary classrooms in Darfur's refugee camps, constructing all-girls schools in the West Bank, showing residents in Central Asia ways to promote peace among neighbors and demonstrating more efficient farming techniques in South Sudan.
CARE – Education
CARE seeks to ensure access to education, even in the most difficult circumstances and for the most vulnerable groups, such as refugee children and people living with HIV/AIDS. CARE is working with partners at the local and national level in 26 countries to improve the quality and accessibility of basic education — helping individuals and communities reach their full potential.
Center for Global Development – Education
Recognizing that education is a lynchpin of development - and the focus of much development assistance - the Center for Global Development investigates promising new approaches for rich countries to help improve education outcomes in developing countries. A focus of research by Senior Fellow Maureen Lewis, Nancy Birdsall, and others is the beneficial effects that educating girls can have on health and social development, as well as economic growth.
Relief International – Education and Global Connectivity
RI’s Education programs span from post-conflict and disaster reconstruction to equipping high-need schools with modern Information and Communications Technology. Through a Global Citizenship and Youth Philanthropy approach, RI offers teacher and youth-centered opportunities that increase individual and community connectivity—locally and internationally.