UNESCO has urged governments and international lenders to expand debt-for-education swaps to help tackle a worsening education financing crisis. The U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) launched new guidance on debt swaps at a global education summit in Paris, arguing that the mechanism could help heavily indebted countries redirect scarce resources towards schools, teacher training, and student support.

Debt-for-Education Swaps

Debt-for-education swaps allow countries to refinance or buy back expensive debt and channel the savings into education. The World Bank has recently started backing such arrangements, and UNESCO pointed to bilateral examples, including a 2023 agreement with France that helped Ivory Coast finance the construction of more than 30 schools.

UNESCO’s call comes as new research highlights mounting pressure on education budgets worldwide. According to the agency, 113 countries, home to 6.1 billion people, spend more on debt servicing than on education. In low-income countries, debt payments are nearly four times higher than education spending.

UNESCO also warned that international support for education is shrinking. Its Global Education Monitoring Report projects that global aid to education could fall by as much as 30% between 2023 and 2027. Aid to education fell 8% in 2024 from the previous year, while funding for basic education dropped 15%.

Original reporting: Appleton, WI News Feed (HLL/CB) — read the source article.