INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE (IDC) INQUIRY

DFID’S WORK ON EDUCATION: LEAVING NO ONE BEHIND?

Memorandum by the Department for International Development (DFID)

Summary

Children can only fulfil their potential if they have access to an education system which delivers good quality teaching and learning. Inclusive economic growth is not possible in countries where the majority of the population are unable to contribute to society through low levels of literacy and numeracy[1]. The UK’s priority areas in education are to (i) improve the quality of education services and the effectiveness of education systems so that learning outcomes improve, (ii) ensure all children - especially those who are marginalised, displaced or in fragile states - are reached, and (iii) keep girls in school and learning.

Overview

Globally 121 million children and young adolescents, between the ages of 6 and 14 years, have either never started school or have dropped out. In addition, 1 in 3 children of upper secondary school age are out of school (142 million), although some will be in employment. (UIS 2015[2] and UIS 2016[3]). The out-of-school figure has increased slowly in recent years as school systems struggle to cope with continued population increases and the impact of conflict. Many of those children not in school are marginalised, hard to reach, and living in fragile and conflict-affected states.

Adolescents of lower secondary school age (typically 12 to 14 years) are almost twice as likely to be out of school as primary school-age children, with 1 out of 6 (16%) not enrolled. A large part of the recent increases in primary and secondary out of school children is due to conflict in Syria, where the numbers have increased by 1.5 million in recent years (UIS 2015[4]). However data on refugees and Internally Displaced People is not generally reliable and the out of school figures could be higher in reality.

While these figures demonstrate that there is still an urgent need to improve access to school, it is crucial that we also remember that school attendance alone is not enough to guarantee learning. Evidence indicates that the developing world is facing a widespread learning crisis with an estimated 250 million children unable to read or count, including at least 130 million that have spent 4 years in school[5].

DFID focuses on quality basic education – primary plus lower secondary – but also invests in selected higher education, skills, and early childhood programmes. Responding to need - and the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) agenda - DFID’s focus has shifted away from just access to primary and lower secondary education to quality of education at all levels.

This new focus and DFID’s overall approach in education has been laid out in our Position Paper: Improving learning, expanding opportunities. It combines strengthening education systems to ensure better delivery of education; improving accountability for results, within systems and between citizens and service providers; and improving what happens in classrooms – the practice of teaching. DFID works with a wide range of partners, including national governments, multilateral institutions, civil society and the private sector. DFID’s approach is strongly evidence-based, and supported by a research agenda that includes quick win projects such as impact evaluations and literature reviews and longer-term investments such as the flagship Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE) programme, which will generate ground-breaking evidence on the levers of system reform and identify blockages to the delivery of learning for all. DFID is considered a global leader on education research and works closely with partners to broaden the supplier market, ensure greater coordination and continually enhance standards to develop a more ambitious, multi-disciplinary research base.

Over the last five years UKAid has supported over 11 million girls and boys in primary and lower secondary schools, through our bilateral programmes.   In addition by 2017 we will be supporting up to one million of the world’s poorest girls through the UK’s Girls’ Education Challenge. The UK has again pledged to support 11 million children with a decent education between 2015 and 2020.

The UK fully supports the Global Goals set in 2015, indeed the UK was instrumental in shaping the Global Goals. We strongly support the fourth goal on education, which represents an ambitious expansion of the education agenda from basic education under the MDGs to the full span of education from early childhood to tertiary. The high numbers of young people in developing countries presents an opportunity to develop an enabling environment for sustainable economic and inclusive growth.  DFID is stepping up efforts in addressing the transition from school to productive work, to increase the proportion of learners with the right skills needed to secure decent jobs.  Marginalised groups in particular are less likely to be able to access the right skills and women’s economic empowerment is central to achieving genuinely inclusive growth. DFID’s research agenda is responding to these emerging priorities.

In 2013, DFID convened a Higher Education Taskforce as part of the Government’s International Education Strategy. It concluded that higher education is critical to sustainable economic development and inclusive growth, and public services and government effectiveness. Tackling the shortage of skilled labour offers an opportunity for Higher Education to generate graduates that are better matched to evolving labour markets, and are productive and entrepreneurial - supporting sustainable economic growth. In response DFID launched SPHEIR (Strategic Partnerships for Higher Education for Innovation and Reform) in 2015: a new £45m Fund to catalyse ambitious and high-value partnerships to transform the quality, relevance, access and affordability of Higher Education.

Does DFID currently apportion enough priority and dedicate enough funding to its work on global education? Has it got the balance of spending on early years, primary, secondary and tertiary right?

DFID’s spend on education has risen progressively over the last ten years, reflecting the priority that DFID places on education. Figure 1 charts these increases and indicates forecast spend on education in this financial year. It should be noted that the indicative spend in 2016/17 includes pre-pipeline (investments under consideration), pipeline (business case in development) and approved spend (business case approved).

FIGURE 1

In line with our priorities in education we still dedicate a large part of our spend to basic education (primary and lower secondary). This is an area where there is still huge need in low income countries, and ensuring that children are able to complete these stages of education with literacy, numeracy and other basic skills is essential for the achievement of the SDGs, educational attainment further up the system and inclusive economic growth. In addition to our focus on basic education we are increasing our focus on upper secondary and post-secondary education in order to respond to the needs of our partner countries and the needs of children moving through the system. We are also supporting selected early childhood interventions which evidence shows offer good outcomes for children and their families[6]. Figure 2 disaggregates total DFID spend across educational sub-sectors for the last spending review period (2011-2015) and sets out our current indicative forecast for the breakdown over the 2016 – 2020 spending review period (note that this is subject to change).

The UK is one of the leading donors to education research in developing countries. DFID’s research portfolio includes research into early childhood development, post primary education, skills, teacher effectiveness and a wider analysis of the education systems that underpins the successful delivery of all the above. DFID is pioneering a ‘what works’ approach to education research. This has involved a shift away from small-scale research on individual interventions, to research backed by partner governments into how the governance and implementation of education systems are best structured to transform learning outcomes in developing countries[7].

FIGURE 2

Is DFID’s education funding being targeted appropriately?  How effective are its interventions through multilateral organisations (e.g. Global Partnership for Education, the World Bank), implementing partners, centrally managed programmes and direct support to government education budgets?

DFID’s education funding is targeted in a variety of ways, with a portfolio approach that aligns to the government’s UK Aid Strategy objectives to end extreme poverty, deliver the Global Goals, and tackle global challenges. The allocation of funding takes into consideration educational need, DFID country footprint, value for money, effectiveness of delivery partners and impact. The main delivery channels include:

• Bilateral country programmes developed in ‘tier 1’ focal countries (majority in Sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East and Asia) where DFID country offices design and implement education programmes and financing instruments as part of their country specific Business Plans.  Adapted to local circumstances and context, these tend to include a mix of (i) financial aid instruments with host countries (where possible), (ii) contracted projects and programmes with a mix of partners: commercial companies, NGOs, civil society organisations (CSO) and UN agencies and (iii) accountable grant agreements with not-for-profit entities who are uniquely positioned to provide a service.
• Centrally managed programmes through the Education Policy and Research Teams which are designed to complement the bilateral programme and support education in countries where we do not have country offices.  These include the Girls Education Challenge (GEC) fund: operational in over 15 countries since 2013, the Strategic Partnerships in Higher Education for Innovation and Reform programme (SPHEIR) launched in 2015, the Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE) programme and a range of other data, research and evidence initiatives that seek to promote the global common good in education development.
• Investments in the Global Partnership for Education, the world’s only multilateral fund specifically for education
• Core and specific contributions to multi-lateral organisations who, in turn, deliver education programmes; in particular the World Bank, regional development banks, the European Commission and UNICEF.

Over the years DFID has continually updated and adapted its education programme and strategy according to best practice and latest research. There has been an increasing emphasis on supporting the improvement of good quality basic education, and recognition that without better student learning outcomes, our investments risked being undermined.   Since 2011 there has been a shift away from general and education sector support provided through financing agreements with country governments and an increase in programmes that can directly demonstrate impact and build local capacity and sustainability[8]. 

In some countries financial aid agreements have replaced budget support arrangements (for example in Ethiopia, Rwanda and Tanzania). These tend to be results based approaches in which DFID funds are released after delivery of a specific, verified result such as more students in a remote region completing secondary school or a measurable increase in early grade reading fluency.  These innovative, results based approaches with partner governments are being trialled in combination with more traditional programmes that support countries with improved pedagogy, teacher training, inspection, school leadership and management reforms.

All DFID programmes, in both country offices and headquarters, are designed by a team of multi-disciplinary experts who develop a business case incorporating the latest research and evidence. All business cases are peer reviewed and high value business cases are scrutinised by the Quality Assurance Unit. Monitoring and evaluation plans are developed for all programmes at design stage and every programme is subject to an annual review.

Performance and effectiveness of multi-lateral organisations are periodically reviewed through the Multilateral Aid Review (MAR) process, the findings of which are used to drive improved performance and effectiveness. The most recent MAR was published in 2013 and a further update will be published soon.   

Of these only the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) is a specifically targeted global fund for education. It currently funds 65 low and lower-income countries, and fragile and conflict-affected states to plan and deliver education.  The GPE’s strategic objectives are well aligned to DFID’s priorities, including learning outcomes, equity and girls’ education, supporting fragile states, teacher effectiveness, strengthening education systems, improving data collection and increasing domestic financing for education. GPE supports delivery of UK commitments on global education, and extends the UK’s global reach and influence to support countries where we do not work directly in education through our country programmes (e.g. Afghanistan, Sudan, Nepal), where DFID is shifting out of education (e.g. Kenya, Mozambique) and where DFID does not have a country programme (e.g. Chad, Mali). GPE complements UK bilateral aid to basic education by promoting in-country coordination and policy dialogue around education sector plans, and providing funding from a wider donor base. DFID are contributing up to £300 million to GPE over the 2015-2018 period, contingent on the UK share not exceeding 15% of the total pledged by donors in 2014, and improvements in the way GPE works. £100 million of our contribution will be ‘reform-based funding’, conditional on GPE demonstrating progress against agreed reforms.   DFID takes very seriously its responsibility for promoting continuous improvement and reform of all partners it works with.

Are there any best practice examples of DFID interventions in global education programmes? What is working well and can this be replicated? Are there any innovative approaches that could be scaled up?

Globally, DFID plays a sector leadership role on girls’ education, education in protracted crises and is well respected for its focus on evidence, its systems approach and the technical competence of its staff. Country programmes vary in size, scale and modality so as to respond to context and the needs of children, but all programmes aim to effect change at national, state level or community level, sometimes focusing in depth on a particular issue or part of the country. This combination of broad systemic change, complementary technical assistance with the identification and testing of innovations and work with other donors to maximise impact is a powerful combination. All DFID education investments are continually assessed against key performance indicators in logical frameworks. Interventions that demonstrate impact for children are considered for scaling up and interventions that are failing are closed. DFID’s cadre of education advisers based around the world and in London, have regular technical discussions to facilitate the spread of best practice and assist lesson learning.

The Independent Commission for Aid Impact have studied DFID’s education programmes in six countries. In 2015 they published a review paper that concluded “DFID has been successful in generating sound annual reviews of programmes based on good data at a national level. All six countries are strengthening school leadership, parental and community participation and local government support for schools”, and that,  “we have seen significant moves by DFID to strengthen its education cadre and its mode of operation … there is a determined focus on improving pupil learning, with a particular emphasis on supporting teachers in the classroom”[9]

The Girls Education Challenge is a global programme that built in a mechanism to incubate, scale up and rigorously evaluate interventions from the outset. This is only one example. More examples can be found on DFID’s DevTracker website or in the Education Position Paper.

How can DFID best support efforts to secure access to primary education for the most marginalised children, including getting the 59 million out-of-school children into education?

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How best can DFID support efforts to eliminate inequalities in access and quality of education on the basis of gender, disability, indigeneity, and for children in vulnerable situations, including emergencies?

SDG4 brings a welcome focus on issues of marginalisation and on ensuring we deliver learning outcomes for all children, including those that are the most marginalised.

Of the estimated 75 million children and young people whose education is affected by emergencies and protracted crises, nearly half of them (37 million) are out of school[10]. The UK is committed to increasing access to education to ensure children and young people are able to access a good quality education in emergencies and crises.  DFID played a leading role in the development of the Education Cannot Wait fund, a new global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises. The fund was launched at a special event at the World Humanitarian Summit in May, co-hosted by the UK. The fund has generated a high level of interest, raising $90m to date – including £30m from the UK, as the largest founding donor – and expects to reach 4.5 million children over the next two years. 

The No Lost Generation Initiative (NLGI) is an umbrella initiative, co-founded by DFID, which aims to prevent a whole generation of children being lost to the Syria conflict. The Supporting Syria and the Region Conference held in London on February 4th 2016 resulted in a step change in the international community’s commitment to delivering NLGI. Donors pledged over $12bn for 2016- 2020. So far UK Aid has provided over 920,000 children in Syria and across the region with psychosocial support, has funded over 1.1 million education interventions providing hundreds of thousands of children with formal and non-formal education, and has provided over 350,000 children in Lebanon with textbooks, including over 100,000 Syrian refugee children who are attending Lebanese public schools.

Children with disabilities comprise nearly one third of all out of school children, and having a disability can double the probability of children never attending school. It is estimated that 15-20% of children in school have some kind of special educational need[11]. Across our global and country programmes, we are supporting a range of activities to support access to education and learning for children with disabilities. The DFID Disability Framework sets out the commitments we have made to people with disabilities across a number of sectors, including education.  Depending on the context, we are either working through partner governments or through local and international partners. Our Girls Education Challenge programme has dedicated spend for disability-focused girls’ education projects in Uganda, Kenya and Sierra Leone. One example of our broader country work is that in Kenya we have invested nearly £35m over the past three years to improve early learning, enhance transparency and accountability in the classroom, and drive up enrolment and retention for some of Kenya’s poorest and most marginalised children including those with disabilities.

Gender inequality in education still persists within and between countries, and marginalised girls still lack access to quality education. The UK has prioritised girls’ education as 1 of the 4 pillars of its Strategic Vision for Women and Girls. All UK-led education programmes have a focus on girls and young women, aiming to keep girls in school, support them to learn and ensure the critical transition from primary to secondary school – where the benefits are greatest. DFID has supported over 5 million girls in primary and lower secondary school through bilateral programmes between 2010 and 2015 and a further 1 million of the world’s most marginalised girls are supported through the Girls Education Challenge programme.

DFID’s investments continue to be underpinned by high quality evidence and DFID aims to embed research and evaluation into programming where appropriate in order to better understand what interventions are most effective in improving learning for all, including the most marginalised. All of our commissioned research on education has strong gender/equity objectives[12] where relevant, and equity issues are mainstreamed into these programmes’ monitoring frameworks.

Should DFID support low-fee schools, including private schools, in developing countries? If so, what should this support look like? If not, how can universal access be achieved?

The majority of children in DFID supported countries rely on government funded schools particularly at primary level and therefore most of DFID’s support is targeted at improving government provision. However, in recent years - particularly in urban areas - the number of low fee schools has grown significantly, providing some parents with an alternative to state provision. For example in Lagos there are 18,000 private schools and 1,600 state schools. In such contexts the private sector is essential for children to have the right to education, and for universal access to be achieved. 

These schools are currently of mixed quality and the evidence is still emerging on whether they can systematically provide a good quality, affordable and sustainable alternative to the poorest section of the population. DFID are testing ways to support non-state education providers that have the potential to improve choice, equity, learning outcomes and value for money. Non-State partners include multilateral organisations, religious institutions and NGOs as well as the private sector. In addition DFID supports the need for more research on education in developing countries. DFID is leading the international community to invest further in research and communicate the findings to support governments to make smarter decisions about their resources to make sure more girls and boys benefit.

In Nigeria, DFID uses a market systems approach to improve the functionality of the private education market in Lagos where 70% of children attend private, low fee schools. DFID Nigeria also works in partnership with the Lagos State government to develop standards and improve regulation for the low fee private sector. An Innovation Fund also provides seed funding to test innovative ideas to improve learning in low fee private schools in Lagos.

In Kenya, DFID works with 399 low fee private schools in slums in Nairobi and Mombasa. The aim of this programme is to pay school fees for the very poorest and raise school standards. Most beneficiaries were already enrolled in school and the goal is to stop them dropping out. We have also been successful in enrolling some children who were previously out of school. We are currently paying school fees for around 22,000 children.

In Pakistan, DFID works with state governments to provide vouchers to children who have never been to school to attend low fee private schools where there are often no alternatives; co-funds with the government a strategy that supports low fee private schools to provide access in places where no government school exists; supports the government education sector’s plan to reach out of school children in far flung areas of the poorest districts of Punjab through involvement of non-state organisations like BRAC.

The UK reiterated its position on the private sector in education in response to the recent report by the UN Special Rapporteur on education:

The United Kingdom notes the Special Rapporteur’s report and its contribution to the debate on the right to education. We also recognise the important role that the private sector can and does play in developing and delivering high-quality education provision alongside the public sector within appropriate regulatory and accountability frameworks. In many countries, the best outcomes for children and young people come from co-operation and partnership between all stakeholders in education, irrespective of classifications. We believe it is important for national governments to be able to define the appropriate balance between private and public provision in their country, in compliance of course with their international human rights obligations

In line with our focus on evidence we have funded a study on the business of education in Africa which is looking at the role of, and potential for, the private sector to improve access to quality education in Africa including to the most marginalised children.

How can DFID most effectively support efforts to increase learning outcomes, particularly ensuring that those children in school are gaining proficiency in literacy and numeracy?

The challenge to improve learning is multi-dimensional; there are no quick fixes as our learning framework shows.  A focus on improving access to school which in turn delivers good quality teaching and learning drives DFID’s approach to investment in education. DFID believes learning is a lifelong process. The UK approach is to strengthen national education systems, improve the quality of education services and support local reforms. In line with SDG4, at a minimum, every girl and boy must be able to read, write and count by the end of primary school in 2030.

Currently, there is limited global data on reading and maths skills, let alone on a broader set of learning outcomes. To be powerful and effective, learning data must be used at the classroom, school, and system level to inform both national education policy and practice including teaching improvement and training. DFID tracks learning outcomes in the countries we work in and supports global efforts to improve the assessment and measurement of progress in learning. Through support to the UNESCO Institute of Statistics’ Global Alliance to Monitor Learning (GAML), the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment for Development (PISA-D) and the Global Education Monitoring Report, DFID has also stepped up its support for better global education statistics and analysis for improved learning. All DFID education research includes an explicit focus on how to improve learning outcomes. The portfolio includes research on how to improve learning from pre-school to higher education and across a set of different research themes (teacher effectiveness, challenging contexts, accountability in education systems). We aim to stay at the forefront of identifying innovative opportunities to transform education in developing countries, for example by scoping opportunities to build the evidence base on Education Technology. 

We know that simply providing more resources for education will not work.  The UK is seen as global leader in generating new evidence on ‘what works’ to raise learning outcomes.  DFID along with the World Bank, UNICEF, USAID and private foundations have established the Building Evidence in Education (BE2) network, a global working group to ensure that governments across the globe are using evidence to inform their education expenditure and deliver better value for money for their citizens. In some countries such as Ghana this can be as much as 30% of annual government expenditure[13].

Should DFID be doing more to support countries in developing more effective education systems, including high quality teacher education and leadership training?

The UK approach to education combines strengthening national education systems to ensure better provision, improved learning outcomes, enhanced accountability to citizens and taxpayers for results, and improving what happens in classrooms.

DFID recognises the centrality of teachers to a good education. For teachers to be effective they must be motivated, supported, effectively deployed and managed[14].  Deficits in these areas contribute to major systemic inefficiencies such as high rates of absenteeism observed in many developing countries and undermine investments in teacher training and broader reforms initiatives.

In half of our bilateral programmes we are supporting teacher training through funding extra places at teacher training colleges and strengthening their programmes.  Better initial training and continuous professional development are both required to improve student learning. In Nigeria, Afghanistan[15], Ghana and Malawi we are working to increase the number of female teachers - this has been proven to increase girls' attendance and retention in school in many countries. In addition to our bilateral work we supported the training of 380,000 teachers from 2011 to 2015, through our multilateral partners.

DFID has established itself as a global thought leader on education systems, and catalysed the development of education systems as a new field of research. The Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE) programme is DFID’s flagship education research programme and the first education systems research programme of its kind in developing countries. RISE is not only establishing how education systems can be reformed to accelerate learning outcomes, but is also expanding and influencing international debate on how education can be transformed.  RISE will work with government and private sector innovators to generate ground-breaking evidence from operational research, in countries where governments have a clear commitment to reform.

Does DFID need to develop a greater focus on tertiary education, including technical and practical education? How can it support efforts to ensure that the growing youth population in many of its bilateral partner countries are given the life skills they need?

Tertiary Education has an important role to play in achieving all four of the UK Aid Strategy objectives. In particular, Tertiary Education develops leaders and citizens of the future who are crucial for driving peace, stability and good governance and it supports the development of skills for employability and entrepreneurship thereby contributing to prosperity. There is an urgent need for graduates who have the capacity to innovate, think laterally and seek out solutions. Where there is labour demand relevant skills can contribute to growth and inclusion. Our support for Tertiary Education prioritises building transferable skills such as critical thinking and other skills which meet the demands of international, national and local labour markets.

In response to the recommendations of DFID’s Higher Education Task force, which concluded in 2013, DFID is implementing an ambitious and expanding programme of activities to support tertiary education. The £45m Strategic Partnerships for Higher Education Innovation and Reform Programme is soon to announce its first two ‘demonstration’ projects – to make use of Technology-Enhanced Learning to boost employability in priority populations. A full call for proposals will open in the autumn and is expected to generate around 10 additional projects to strengthen Higher Education systems in developing countries. Another example of our support to Tertiary Education is via the Commonwealth Scholarships scheme which offers scholarships and fellowships to citizens of other Commonwealth countries for postgraduate study and professional development. This work is delivered by our Non-Departmental Public Body; The Commonwealth Scholarships Fund.

Effective tertiary education relies on a primary and secondary school system which produces students with the necessary foundational skills to benefit from further study. Therefore tackling the learning crisis at earlier levels of the school system must be a crucial component of any tertiary education policy agenda.  

To complement the work DFID is funding on tertiary education, we have also significantly increased our engagement with other government departments to drive coherence and to ensure that we are getting the maximum benefits from our engagements on Higher Education and Research. In particular:

• We are working with colleagues in BEIS, the Research Councils, British Council and the learned academies to ensure our programmes which work with ‘knowledge systems’ in six countries in Africa are coordinated and effective, and that the UK is benefitting from the potential for influence offered by these investments in Higher Education, research, skills and innovation
• We are working with a number of other government departments on a Prosperity Fund-supported programme to support Education and Skills in emerging markets. This will have a strong Higher Education focus.

How should the UK Government involve UK Higher Education institutions in its work?

UK universities are world leaders across a wide range of international activities: second in the world for international student numbers; ahead of the US on research quality and innovation; ahead of European competitors in attracting EU research funding and one of the top countries in transnational education delivery with over 600,000 studying for a UK qualification overseas.  As the global demand for tertiary education is rapidly increasing, many countries actively seek international partners to help them meet demand as well as scale. A strength of the UK’s system is its quality and diversity. Standards are high because universities both compete and collaborate, and the range of institutions means that we have the right partners to meet varied international needs. The UK Government is supporting universities to contribute to international development aims through research, capacity building and developing human capital.  As these countries develop they can also mature to become sources of future HE demand on the basis of demographic and economic growth.

DFID has contracted Universities UK International Unit (a body which aims to support the UK HE sector’s influence and competitiveness globally) as part of a fund manager consortium for the Strategic Partnerships for Higher Education for Innovation and Reform programme to ensure that we are maximising opportunities for the UK HE sector to contribute to the programme’s objectives. Universities UK International Unit is also maximising opportunities for UK HE institutions through The Newton Fund which promotes the economic development and welfare in partnering countries through science and innovation partnerships. This fund aims to strengthen capacity and unlock further funding to support poverty alleviation and is managed by the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy through 15 UK delivery partners in collaboration with 16 partner countries.

DFID also works closely with research centres and the UK academic community to develop and expand the supplier market in order to strengthen the evidence base. This includes a partnership with the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) on Raising Learning Outcomes. By developing a diverse education research portfolio of rigorous literature reviews, Randomised Control Trials and at-scale research, DFID is bringing new researchers and methodologies to the sector (notably economists and political scientists), and ensuring a more multi-disciplinary research base than has historically been possible. By investing in ‘gold standard’ qualitative as well as quantitative research, DFID can address key knowledge gaps on not only the impact of particular education interventions, but how and why implementation successes and failures occur. The UK’s HE institutions will therefore be at the forefront of a global shift among the international community to increase standards and investment in the education research sector.

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