Education Outcomes Fund: Supporting Results-Based Funding for Education in Africa
The Big Win
By 2050, Africa’s population will more than double. It will remain the world’s youngest region, with a median age under 25 years old. This next generation of young Africans has the potential to make a significant positive impact on the economic trajectories of their countries and the continent as a whole.
But urgent changes are needed in order for this potential to be realised. We are currently facing a global learning crisis, and if nothing changes by 2030, half of the world’s young people will be failing to learn.
New and innovative approaches to financing education and measuring learning outcomes are required in order to equip the next generation to succeed and harness the demographic dividend they could provide.
To be successful, these approaches must align with country-led education reforms, and capacity must be built at the country level to sustainably manage their implementation and evaluate their impact.
The Education Outcomes Fund – Big Win Partnership
Big Win Philanthropy has been one of the earliest supporters of the Education Outcomes Fund (EOF), which aims to help transform educational attainment in Africa and the Middle East. Together with governments, EOF funds innovative education and youth employment readiness programs in these regions and helps to improve their effectiveness.Rather than the traditional model of paying for programs up front—based on the number of students reached or learning materials purchased— EOF incentivizes success by paying for the learning and employment results those programs deliver, once they’re achieved.
EOF works with governments to set learning objectives, based on country-led development agendas and incentivizing a broad set of skills essential for young people to succeed in the 21st Century. They also work to strengthen governments’ capacity to effectively commission for outcomes and to ensure that interventions contribute to the sustainable strengthening of their education systems.
In September 2020, EOF became an independent trust fund under the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and expanded its operations in Africa and the Middle East to become a global fund.