Pakistan Educational Aid Rises to Regional High at $649 Million

Pakistan is receiving an increasing amount of education aid compared with the rest of the world. This was revealed in a policy paper by UNESCO, ‘Aid to Education is Stagnating and Not Going to Countries Most in Need.’

This development is all the more remarkable, given how the amount of education aid disbursed worldwide has been decreasing steadily since the last 6 years.

Pakistan Receives the Most Aid in South Asia

Pakistan on the other hand had its aid increased from $586 million in 2014 to $649 million in 2015. Pakistan also receives the highest aid compared to other South Asian countries. India, for the sake of comparison, got $589 million in 2015.

Most of the aid received by Pakistan is used for the provision of basic education. $371 million out of $649 million (57.16%) was used for basic education in 2015.

Total education aid stood at $12 billion which is 4% lower than the numbers recorded in 2010. Development aid on the other hand increased by 24% since 2010.

The data used in the analysis in the policy paper was taken from OECD Development Assistance Committee.

Decreasing Donations?

According to UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova,

Aid remains far short of what is needed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal 4, putting our commitments at risk. Aid would need to be multiplied by at least six to achieve our common education goals and must go to countries most in need. Yet, we see that donors to education are shifting their attention away from the poorest countries.

Some of the major countries like the US and UK have decreased their donations for education aid. US donated 11% less from 2014-2015 while UK gave 9% less during the same time period.

Norway and Germany on the other hand, increased their donations by a large margin. The two countries donated 50% and 34% more aid respectively, during 2014-2015.

Not Hitting the Mark

Another important point raised in the policy paper was that the countries that need education aid aren’t getting it. Sub Saharan Africa, for example, accounts for more than half of the world’s out of school children. Yet they receive less than half the aid for basic education in 2015 compared with the aid received in 2002.

They’re currently getting 26% of the total aid for basic education, which is slightly higher than 22% received by North Africa and Western Asia (the latter two account for 9% of out of school children).