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EFA Global Monitoring Report 2011

August 19th, 2011

The Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2011 was released by UNESCO on 1 March 2011. This year’s edition of this annual report has the title The hidden crisis: Armed conflict and education. The report documents the impact of violent conflict on education and the long-lasting negative effects on educational attainment and literacy.

Today, 28 million or over 40 percent of all children out of school (67 million worldwide) live in countries affected by conflict, although these countries are home to only 116 million or 18 percent of the global population of primary school age (653 million) (see Figure 1). (Only out-of-school children in low and lower-middle income conflict-affected countries were counted to arrive at the total of 28 million. In addition, for large countries like India, Indonesia, Nigeria and Pakistan, only children living in conflict-affected areas were included in the 28 million children affected by conflict.) In conflict areas, the out-of-school rate is around 24 percent, compared to 7 percent in other parts of the world. Children affected by armed conflict are thus more than three times as likely to be out of school as other children.

Conflict-affected countries also have some of the lowest levels of literacy. In these countries, only 79 percent of youth between 15 and 24 years and 69 percent of adults are literate, compared to 93 percent of youth and 85 percent of adults in other countries.

War does not only destroy lives and schools, it also diverts resources from education to military spending. TheGlobal Monitoring Report documents how lack of access to education or exposure to the wrong kind of education can contribute to persistent inequality, prejudice and renewed armed conflict, a vicious cycle that is difficult to break.

Lastly, the Global Monitoring Report 2011 examines the role of development assistance in conflict-affected countries and argues for increased and more effective aid for the education sector.

Figure 1: Population of primary school age and children out of school in countries affected and not affected by armed conflict, 2008Source: UNESCO 2011, pages 132, 308, 309; author’s calculations.

Reference

  • UNESCO. 2011. EFA Global Monitoring Report 2011: The hidden crisis: Armed conflict and education. Paris: UNESCO.

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Education for All regions

August 19th, 2011

For monitoring of progress towards the six Education for All (EFA) goals, the world has been divided into eight EFA regions:

  • North America and Western Europe
  • Central and Eastern Europe
  • Central Asia
  • East Asia and the Pacific
  • South and West Asia
  • Arab States
  • Sub-Saharan Africa
  • Latin America and the Caribbean

These regions, shown in the map below, are used in publications like the EFA Global Monitoring Report by UNESCO or the Global Education Digest by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics.

Regions for monitoring of Education for All goals

Combined, the eight EFA regions cover 204 countries and territories. Two EFA regions – East Asia and the Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean – are further divided into two sub-regions.

Composition of EFA regions

  • North America and Western Europe (26 countries and territories)
    Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States.
  • Central and Eastern Europe (21 countries)
    Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, Poland, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey, Ukraine.
  • Central Asia (9 countries)
    Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan.
  • East Asia and the Pacific (33 countries and territories)
    East Asia (16 countries and territories)
    Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Indonesia, Japan, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Macao (China), Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Viet Nam.
    Pacific (17 countries and territories)
    Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia (Federated States of), Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu.
  • South and West Asia (9 countries)
    Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka.
  • Arab States (20 countries and territories)
    Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Mauritania, Morocco, Occupied Palestinian Territory, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen.
  • Sub-Saharan Africa (45 countries)
    Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Swaziland, Togo, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
  • Latin America and the Caribbean (41 countries and territories)
    Latin America     (19 countries)
    Argentina, Bolivia (Plurinational State of), Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of).
    Caribbean     (22 countries and territories)
    Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands.

References

  • UNESCO. 2011. EFA Global Monitoring Report 2011: The hidden crisis: Armed conflict and education. Paris: UNESCO. Annex,
  • UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS). 2010. Global education digest 2010: Comparing education statistics across the world.

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Education finance in sub-Saharan Africa

August 19th, 2011

A new report by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Financing education in sub-Saharan Africa, presents comprehensive data for the past decade for 45 African countries.

The number of children enrolled in primary school in sub-Saharan Africa grew from 87 million in 2000 to 129 million in 2008, an increase of 48 percent. Over the 1999-2009 decade, real public expenditure on education, adjusted for inflation, grew on average by 6.1 percent per year, based on data from 26 countries. The highest annual growth rates of education spending in sub-Saharan Africa, over 12 percent, were observed in Mozambique and Burundi. Of the countries with data, only the Central African Republic experienced a decline in public expenditure on education.

The countries of sub-Saharan Africa combined spend 5.0 percent of their GDP on education, the second highest value of the eight EFA regions, after North America and Western Europe, where 5.3 percent of the regional GDP is spent on the education sector.

The figure below shows data on education expenditure in 28 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The horizontal axis indicates a country’s total public expenditure as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP). The vertical axis indicates a country’s total public expenditure on education as a percentage of total public expenditure. Total public expenditure on education as a percentage of GDP can be calculated as the product of the two values plotted along the vertical and horizontal axes.

Public education expenditure / GDP =
(Public education expenditure / Total public expenditure) × (Total public expenditure / GDP)

The three curves in the graph indicate where total public expenditure on education is equal to 2, 5 or 10 percent of GDP. Countries with higher expenditures on education as a percentage of GDP are found near the upper right corner of the graph, countries with lower expenditures near the lower left corner. For the countries in the graph, public expenditure on education as a percentage of GDP ranges from 1.3 percent in the Central Africal Republic to 12.4 percent in Lesotho.

Total public expenditure on education as a percentage of total public expenditure in relation to total public expenditure as a percentage of GDP

Reference

  • UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS). 2011. Financing education in sub-Saharan Africa: Meeting the challenges of expansion, equity and quality.

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