Enhancing the Allocative Efficiency of Education Aid : A Review of Issues and Options

This article reviews issues and options for allocating education aid by sub-sector, purpose and country in ways likely to increases the impact of such aid on national and international development goals, including by mitigating the dependency risks in countries highly dependent on aid. The article focuses on Sub-Saharan African countries. To promote more strategic allocation and use of aid, the article calls for more effective global coordination to ensure that the sum of aid allocation decisions made by individual donors makes sense in the aggregate in terms of maximizing the impact of overall aid on education outcomes, nationally and globally. The article warns that the current neglect of allocative efficiency issues in general, and of the funding of regional and global public good functions in particular, undermines the overall effectiveness of education aid.