Education Outcomes Fund for Africa and the Middle East: is it a game changer?
The Education Commission and The Global Steering Group for Impact Investment have plans to establish a $1 billion Education Outcomes Fund for Africa and the Middle East (EOF), which they claim will be a ‘game changing initiative to drive results in education’. The financing mechanism will pool grants to commission results-based contracts with non-state actors using capital provided by impact investors.
In this review, Keith Lewin, Emeritus Professor of International Education and Development at the University of Sussex, argues that the fund’s potential to be a game changer for education in Africa and the Middle East is questionable and identifies multiple critical issues with the fund’s design.