Keypoints:
- Leaders urge evidence-based learning investments
- Domestic budgets, philanthropy to replace aid
- Call for measurable results and efficiency
AFRICAN and global education leaders have announced a sweeping plan to finance foundational learning across the continent, aiming to tackle a severe learning crisis as traditional aid falls. The declaration came during the United Nations General Assembly side event, Disrupt to Deliver: Financing the Future of Foundational Learning, where African ministers called for ‘mission-minded’ investment to ensure all children can read and count by the age of ten.
Crisis deepens as aid drops
Speakers warned that drastic cuts in overseas development assistance threaten hard-won progress. USAID has suspended 153 education projects in sub-Saharan Africa, affecting Ethiopia, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo with losses of 33 million, 35 million and 51 million US dollars respectively. Nearly 89 percent of African children cannot read a simple text or perform basic maths by age ten, according to the latest figures.
Yet leaders said the challenge is solvable. They highlighted India’s rapid improvements as proof that evidence-based interventions can deliver results in as little as two to four years.
Continental ownership takes centre stage
Rather than wait for foreign aid to rebound, African governments are asserting control. The African Union’s End Learning Poverty for All in Africa campaign and the new Continental Education Strategy for Africa both aim to reduce dependence on donors.
‘Together, the African Union and UNICEF have produced a report on education spending in Africa that translates into actionable continental initiatives,’ said Sophia Ashipala of the AU Commission. ‘This is about empowering Africa’s social and economic development.’
Senegal’s education minister, Moustapha Mamba Guirassy, described the funding shortfall as a wake-up call: ‘The collapse of USAID presented us with an opportunity. We see this as our responsibility.’
Focus on results and efficiency
The new strategy prioritises impact over sheer spending. Research shows that allocating as little as six dollars per pupil to teacher training and quality learning materials can transform outcomes. High-quality reading programmes can return 30 dollars for every dollar spent, while a single standard deviation increase in literacy and numeracy scores can lift GDP per capita by two percent annually.
Caroline Eliot of education NGO VVOB reported from Zambia: ‘Through Catch-up/Teaching at the Right Level, we reach one million children every year and see a 20–25 percent improvement in literacy and numeracy in grades three to five.’
Dr Obiageli Ezeikwesi, CEO of Human Capital Africa, added: ‘Governments and donors must measure impact by learning results, not dollars spent. Africa needs smart, strategic spending.’
New financing models
Countries including Sierra Leone, Kenya and Rwanda are digitising tax systems and reforming procurement to free domestic funds for education. Leaders are also encouraging African philanthropists to move beyond charity towards strategic, high-return investments, drawing lessons from India’s domestic giving.
International partners are urged to become catalytic investors, funding programmes that strengthen rather than replace national budgets. ‘We need to see how catalytic donors can help to test and scale,’ said Pia Rebello Britto of UNICEF.
Next steps and global alignment
The UNGA event closed with a call for governments to dedicate domestic budgets to proven interventions and to support a proposed G20 Foundational Learning Leaders Network. Global institutions such as the World Bank and the Global Partnership for Education were urged to embed measurable learning outcomes in all grants.
The initiative will be reviewed at the Association for the Development of Education in Africa Triennale in Accra from 29 to 31 October 2025, where ministers will assess progress since last year’s Africa Foundational Learning Exchange.
As Anders Holm of the Hempel Foundation put it, ‘Governments are now the key scaling partners. We must listen to their needs and focus on efficiency.’
Africa’s leaders insist the moment is theirs to seize—placing children’s education at the heart of the continent’s economic future.
