USAID CATALYZE EduFinance Activity - Education Finance Network

Summary

The goal of the Private Sector in Education Community of Practice is to build a coalition to lead sustained, collaborative engagement among diverse stakeholders who have not consistently interacted with each other; strengthen and communicate the evidence base around a common learning agenda for greater private sector engagement in education (including both core and ancillary services); and enable all stakeholders (e.g. governments, education practitioners, investors, and civil society) to make data-driven decisions.

• Project Duration: Jan 2022 – Sep 2024
• Implementers: Dalberg Advisors, Palladium, Opportunity International

The Challenge

Partner country governments have scarce financial resources, leading to gaps in education delivery that non-state actors have begun filling. A large funding need for education remains, and little dialogue or collaboration has occurred to date between the private sector and education actors. Interviews with education and finance experts revealed the lack of an accessible platform for collaborating and sharing lessons or best practices in education financing. In addition, private sector involvement in education is often met with resistance, and some actors remain uncertain of the private sector’s role in education because of concerns around learning quality, inequality, and weak accountability structures. Part of this resistance could be due to the lack of an evidence base on comparative efficacy and efficiency of non-state schools and private finance. Assessments also reveal the lack of investment models that demonstrate that private or blended finance in non-state education can increase access to quality education, especially for the disadvantaged.

Our Approach

CATALYZE USAID Education Finance Network activity is building a CoP consisting of global thought leaders, implementers, funders, businesses, governments, civil society organizations, USAID staff and partners, associations for nonstate schools, and other relevant stakeholders. The CoP is leading sustained, collaborative engagement among its members; strengthening and communicating the evidence base around a common learning agenda for greater private sector engagement in education; promoting collaborative learning and exchanges with relevant institutions and partners; and supporting the sharing of lessons learned to enable all stakeholders to make data-driven decisions.

Through CATALYZE, we are: 

1. Supporting CoP start up, the creation of a member needs assessment and implementation roadmap, and CoP implementation;
2. Recruiting CoP members;
3. Providing leadership on deliverty of a needs assessment, learning agenda, knowledge products, and professional development plans. 

Targets

• Build a community of practice, starting with a core member group
• Develop and execute a membership engagement plan to build, strengthen, and diversify membership
• Develop and curate knowledge and evidence to inform policy and practice on private sector engagement in education
• Develop and execute a robust external communications strategy to contribute measurably to perceptions among key stakeholders that private actors in education can play a complementary role to the public sector
• Create and implement professional development activities to build capacity of CoP members, USAID staff and partners in education finance activities

Project Details

Topics

Education

Funders

Dalberg, USAID/CATALYZE, implemented by Palladium

Status

Active