The importance of non-government organisations as donors to education

This paper considers the role of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) as donors to education within international development. Firstly it looks at the amounts of official development assistance (ODA) channelled through NGOs... [ view full abstract ]

This paper considers the role of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) as donors to education within international development. Firstly it looks at the amounts of official development assistance (ODA) channelled through NGOs into education as reported by the OECD-DAC Creditor Reporting System. It then analyses the income sources and education programme expenditure of three international NGOs with large education portfolios: Plan International, Save the Children, and BRAC. Our analysis finds that grant funding makes up 25 to 50 per cent of the income of these NGOs, and that overall their incomes have been growing. In financial terms, the education programmes of these NGOs are of a similar scale to that of some bilateral and multilateral donors and their programmes are more closely aligned to the Education for All goals than government aid. The paper concludes that the NGO sector as a whole plays a significant and increasing role in the funding of basic education, when compared to official international aid. Looking post-2015, with the volume of ODA to education falling in recent years whilst NGO income has been rising, the NGO sector is likely to become an increasingly significant player in the funding of basic education. The case studies of the three NGOs also illustrates that there is likely to be a significant shift from ‘traditional’ north-south aid to education flow to a south-south aid to education flow.