IFC Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

The practice of charging school fees has been consistently shown to be an ineffective means of poverty alleviation. The international community, including governments, donors, and civil society, have worked for the last two decades to... more

The practice of charging school fees has been consistently shown to be an ineffective means of poverty alleviation. The international community, including governments, donors, and civil society, have worked for the last two decades to abolish school fees, and the World Bank has been a key actor in driving these policy shifts. Nevertheless, the World Bank, through the International Finance Corporation (IFC), is investing in the expansion of for-profit, fee-charging private primary and secondary schools as a means of providing basic education to the poor, raising a fundamental question: With costs of education being a known obstacle to the extreme poor and most marginalized, how do IFC investments in the expansion of for-profit, fee-charging private schools contribute to the World Bank’s goal to end extreme poverty by 2030?
For these reasons, RESULTS Educational Fund set out to learn how IFC investments in basic education target the poor, reach the poor, and benefit the poor. To do this, RESULTS Educational Fund conducted a portfolio review of IFC investments in K-12 (pre-primary, primary, and secondary) education over the last 20 years and field visits in South Africa, Uganda, and Kenya. The portfolio review consisted of all approved IFC investments that included a K-12 education component between 1996 and 2015, totaling 43 projects. The field visits in South Africa, Uganda, and Kenya, in addition to other outreach, created a total of 104 interviews between October 2015 and April 2016.