UNESCO Wants Countries to Swap Debt for Education

A major United Nations agency is calling on governments and international lenders to use a special financial tool to help pay for education. UNESCO, the U.N. organization focused on education, science, and culture, made the announcement at a global education summit in Paris on Friday, July 10. The agency warned that 113 countries around the world are spending more money paying off loans than they are spending on schools and students. UNESCO says this is creating a serious crisis for education budgets, and it wants leaders to act fast.

The tool UNESCO is promoting is called a 'debt-for-education swap.' Here is how it works: a country owes money to another country or a bank, and instead of paying all of it back with high interest, they make a deal. The savings from that deal must then be spent on education. This lets struggling countries put more money toward schools, teachers, and students without taking on even more debt.

UNESCO pointed to real examples that show this idea can work. In 2023, France and Ivory Coast made a debt swap deal that helped Ivory Coast build more than 30 new schools. Spain and Peru ran a similar program that funded 50 education projects over ten years. The World Bank has also recently started supporting these kinds of agreements. UNESCO hopes more countries and lenders will follow their lead.

The numbers behind the crisis are striking. Right now, 113 countries — home to about 6.1 billion people — spend more on paying back loans than on education. In countries with the lowest incomes, debt payments are nearly four times higher than what they spend on schools. In 18 of the most heavily indebted countries, debt payments are at least five times bigger than their entire education budgets.

At the same time, international aid for education is going down. UNESCO's research projects that global aid to education could drop by as much as 30% between 2023 and 2027. In 2024 alone, aid to education fell 8% from the year before, and funding for basic education dropped 15%. Countries that depend on outside help for their schools are feeling this pressure most sharply.

Some of the world's poorest countries have already lost a large share of the education aid they count on. Low- and lower-middle-income countries have lost about 21% of the education aid they received in 2023, UNESCO said. Nations like Afghanistan, Liberia, Mali, and Niger have seen their education aid drop by more than 40%. Education's share of total development aid fell to just 7.5% in 2024 — the lowest level in 20 years.

UNESCO estimates that low- and lower-middle-income countries face a gap of $97 billion every year in education funding. That means they need $97 billion more than they currently have to properly educate their children. UNESCO Director-General Khaled El-Enany said, 'Education is the most powerful investment countries can make, yet it is being systematically underfunded.' He called on world leaders to support new and creative ways to fund schools.

The announcements were made at the Transforming Education Summit+4, a major gathering of government ministers, development banks, and international organizations. The summit is focused on checking progress toward a United Nations goal: making sure all children around the world have access to good quality education by the year 2030. With funding shrinking and debt rising, many experts say countries will need to act quickly and creatively to reach that goal.