Increasing Domestic Resources to Reach Universal Pre-Primary Education

• In Event: Early childhood education systems, policy, and finance

Proposal

Currently, only 15 percent of young children in low-income countries (LICs) and 40 percent of children in lower-middle income countries (LMICs) are enrolled in pre-primary education. While access has improved over the previous decade, current domestic and international spending is insufficient to meet the Sustainable Development Goal Target 4.2. It is unrealistic to assume that this funding shortfall will be covered by international finance. There has historically been insufficient aid to support wide coverage of high-quality pre-primary education (Global Education Monitoring Report, 2018), which itself makes up a minimal share of total aid provided to education. For example, between 2012 and 2015, only 0.6 percent of aid to education was spent at the pre-primary level (Rose and Zubairi, 2017). Furthermore, as countries graduate to higher income levels, they may become ineligible for international finance at favorable terms. Thus, sustainable sources of finance are needed to address these gaps and ensure wide coverage of services, necessitating increases in domestic resources. While both public and private sources are important components of domestic resources allocated to pre-primary education, this paper focuses on the need to increase government spending which is necessary to ensure that quality pre-primary education is truly affordable for all children, as a reliance on household spending will inevitably exclude the lowest-income households.

This paper starts off with an overview of how pre-primary education is financed in low- and middle- income countries including from domestic and international sources. It describes typical funding modalities, including where funds originate as well as how they are raised and allocated. The paper then turns to an overview of domestic spending needs to reach universal pre-primary education with a focus on cost estimates and financing scenarios. After providing these estimates, the paper analyzes what low- and middle-income countries are currently spending.

Given the gaps in current spending, the paper then concludes with recommendations for how countries can increase domestic resources allocated to pre-primary education using a variety of country case studies as a guide. These recommendations are organized around a set of key principles and specific measures which fall under three broad actions: 1. Increase domestic financing, 2. Utilize existing resources more efficiently and equitably, and 3. Increase international financing to complement domestic financing.

Authors

• Arjun Upadhyay, Results for Development Institute

• Vidya Putcha, Results for Development Institute