31/07/2026
By 2050, one in four people on Earth will be African. Investing in education today is therefore not only a development priority, but a global imperative.
Yet across much of the continent, rising debt servicing is reducing the fiscal space available for investment in teachers, schools and learning.
In sub-Saharan Africa, governments allocate, on average, 3.6 times more resources to debt service than to education. In the most debt-burdened countries, debt service payments exceed education spending by a factor of five or more.
At the same time, low- and middle-income countries face a US$97 billion annual education financing gap, US$77 billion of which is in Africa.
Launched on the occasion of the Transforming Education Summit +4, UNESCO’s Debt and Education package explores how debt solutions, including debt-for-education swaps, can help align debt relief with investment in education, ensuring that demographic growth becomes a dividend rather than a missed opportunity.
Source:
🔗 Learn more:
https://www.unesco.org/sdg4education2030/en/education-financing-unesco/education-investment?hub=129041