Aid cuts and conflict threaten educational lifeline for Middle East's most vulnerable

Annual donor ‘scorecard’ shows international aid for early years education was already falling before the US stripped $745m from the global budget

Palestinian children receive donated food at a distribution centre in Nuseirat, in the central Gaza Strip. AP

The proportion of aid for early childhood education was falling even before the US abandoned its programme and global bodies such as the UN children’s fund and the World Bank shrank their spending, a report has found.

The sharp drop in aid for pre-primary education may be the first sign that the international community is turning its back on the world’s most vulnerable children amid wider economic strain, it warned.

Researchers warned the impact would inevitably be felt hardest in countries most in need due to continuing or recent conflict, such as Syria and Gaza.

In Syria, less than 20 US cents of aid were spent per pre-primary aged child in 2023. Average per-child spend among countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) was just under $8,000.

More than half of funding for pre-primary education is highly concentrated, going to five countries: Tanzania, Rwanda, Jordan, Bangladesh and Ethiopia. Five of the 26 countries classified as “low income” received nothing. In Palestine, aid per pre-primary aged child equated to $1.79, and in Ukraine it was just 14 cents.

We need to be much smarter about whom we fund and how

Pauline Rose,
University of Cambridge

The annual donor ‘scorecard’, produced by researchers at the University of Cambridge for Theirworld – the charity chaired by Sarah Brown, wife of former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown – reveals that the proportion of global education aid being committed to education for under-fives was already dropping from 2023: the beginning of what they describe as a new era of “cuts and conflict”.

The researchers expected to see signs of a post-pandemic recovery, but instead found a decline: between 2022 and 2023, pre-primary education aid fell by $20 million, to $250 million in total.

However, the true picture could be far worse as the figures precede the Trump administration’s recent decision to axe 99 per cent of basic education funding through the United States Agency for International Development, stripping $745 million from the global education aid budget. Britain and Switzerland have also scaled back spending commitments.

“There are signs that others might be moving in the same downward spiral,” the report noted. “While the effects of the latest cuts are yet to be felt, it is apparent that the aid landscape is rapidly changing.”

Displaced children attend class at a makeshift school in Syria. AP

Professor Pauline Rose, director of the Research for Equitable Access and Learning (REAL) Centre at the University of Cambridge, pointed out that the main donors to pre-primary education to Palestine in 2023 were Switzerland, the US and Unicef. “The downward trend in Unicef's spending on pre-primary education, together with USAID freezing its aid globally is predicted to negatively affect the volume of aid for pre-primary,” Prof Rose told The National.

Switzerland was the largest pre-primary education donor in Syria in 2022-2023, while only being the 18th largest education donor, but has also reduced its aid to education over the past year. “The projected forecast for aid to Syria for pre-primary education does not look good,” Prof Rose said.

Cuts to UNRWA funding would also probably have a knock-on effect given they are the main international organisation supporting basic services in Gaza and have been providing support to recreational activities to children, Prof Rose said. “This is a time when an increase in aid is needed to support young children, many of those who have survived have lost family members, have themselves been injured by Israeli air attacks, and need some kind of normality in the face of the devastation of the war,” she said.

“This information comes from the very start of a period of both severe aid cuts, and escalating conflict in places like Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine.

“The cost of these dual effects for children is likely to be immense. We know that the poorest and most marginalised children already lack access to crucial early childhood learning opportunities. That crisis will now deepen, if those with the power to save and change lives continue to turn inward instead.”

According to Unicef, only 40 per cent of children can access early childhood education and in parts of Africa and the Middle East the figure is closer to 25 per cent. Theirworld has called for 10 per cent of education aid to be allocated to the early years.

In raw terms, the total aid spent on pre-primary education in 2023 was the second highest since records began. However, the $250 million disbursed represented just 1.2 per cent of global education aid, down from 1.4 per cent the year before, and drifting further from the 10 per cent target. The report suggests this may be a sign of worse to come, as global aid spending overall also fell by 0.6 per cent.

The report highlights that aid tends to be concentrated in the hands of a few donors. The World Bank accounted for 57.3 per cent of all early childhood education aid in 2023, but also cut its spending by 17.7 per cent. EU institutions and Unicef – who together accounted for much of the remainder – also reduced their spending allocations.

“Given that Unicef is an organisation dedicated to children, this decrease is a cause for concern,” Dr Asma Zubairi, co-author of the report, said.

With the US in particular effectively abandoning education aid, Prof Rose said that other major donors should urgently reaffirm their commitments and ring-fence support for the pre-primary years. In 2023, donors spent 24 times more on aid for postsecondary education than on pre-primary, much of which went to students from low-income countries studying in the donor nations.

“Aid is heavily skewed towards higher education, in particular to students studying in higher education institutions in donor countries themselves. This ‘aid’ doesn't event leave the country. This is 19 times higher than the total amount donors spent on pre-primary education.

“Higher education clearly matters, but the balance is wrong,” Prof Rose said.

“We need to be much smarter about whom we fund and how. Instead on focusing on young people who make it to university, we should be targeting those children who never make it out of the starting blocks.”