Thematic lead: Monica Mawoyo
Peer Reviewer: Susan de Witt (UCT) and Claudette Russell
Lead Organisation: Commonwealth Secretariat (ComSec)
A recent World Bank brief on the impact of COVID-19 on education financing (May 2020) highlights that as government revenues shrink because of economic non-activity, expenditure will rise in response to the pandemic. It is anticipated that education budgets that are already inadequate will be under severe pressure due to prioritisation in spending on health and social protection, and low and income middle countries are most likely to be affected by this phenomenon. In the light of this, it is important to explore the extent to which the pandemic is impacting education provision and how governments will mitigate changes in budget allocations and use available funding more effectively during and after COVID-19.
The purpose of this research is to investigate the use of innovative funding mechanisms to address short, medium and long term funding needs in the public education sector during and in the aftermath of COVID-19 in commonwealth countries in Africa and Asia. This research can be used to make recommendations to the Commonwealth of Learning and agencies working in innovative finance on the technical assistance required by education ministries among commonwealth countries to adopt innovative finance instruments to maintain and improve educational outcomes.
