"Education has a clear multiplier effect; with education comes increased health, economic growth and food security." Students in a school in Mingun, Burma, a village just north of Mandalay.

Margaret Koziol

E3’s Office of Education (E3/ED) leverages its expertise, partnerships, and global perspective to guide and influence the Education Sector, advancing the Agency’s development priorities. The office provides expertise and guidance to the field and USAID bureaus on the design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of USAID policy, planning, and programs in the areas of basic education, youth workforce development and higher education. The Office monitors U.S. support for and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals for education; assists in the development, implementation, and evaluation of Agency policies, strategies, and resource allocation priorities; and advises Agency leadership on developments that could have an impact on Agency performance in designing and delivering cost-effective education programs. It also provides relevant technical content and teaching staff for training programs designed and implemented by the Bureau, and oversees the recruitment, selection, and training of new Education Foreign Service Officers.

USAID Strategy and Program Focus

Resolving the global learning crisis--ensuring all children and youth are in school and learning-- requires political will at the highest levels and strong collaboration in the countries where we work.  USAID partners with other U.S. government agencies, donors, country governments, multilateral agencies, civil society, and the private sector to ensure equitable access to inclusive, quality education for all – especially the most marginalized and vulnerable. We do this by working to achieve the goals of the USAID Education Strategy, (PDF 589KB) including:

• Improving the reading skills of students in the primary grades to increase school success and completion;
• Increasing employment opportunities for youth, and strengthening higher education systems, so youth can find good jobs and contribute to the economic growth of their countries; and
• Increasing equitable access to education in crisis and conflict environments.

Learning, effectiveness, accountability, and transparency are central to the success of our strategy. To most effectively reach our goals, and the goals of our host country partners, USAID collaborates with partners globally to generate and use evidence as the basis for continuous learning and program improvement.

Results

USAID accomplishments under the current Education Strategy (2011-2015) take many forms, including providing clarity on USAID priorities in education, concentrating investments at the global and country level, contributing to education service delivery in our partner countries, and establishing critical partnerships and collaborations that have advanced the goals of the strategy.

From 2011-2015, USAID results include:

• Improving reading instruction and creating safe learning environments for more than 41.6 million children and youth (20.2 million females and 21.4million males);
• Improved or established quality education in safe learning environments for a total of 11.8 million individual children and youth in crisis and conflict environments (5.6 million females, 6.2 million males);
• Improving employment outcomes for 609,000 individuals.

Initial report of progress achieved under the 2011-2015 USAID Education Strategy. (PDF 2.6MB)

E3’s Partners

• Global Partnership for Education (GPE): E3/ED represents the United States on the Board of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), a multilateral partnership aimed at mobilizing global and national efforts to contribute to the achievement of equitable, quality education and learning for all, through inclusive partnership, a focus on effective and efficient education systems and increased financing. In FY 2015, the U.S.'s annual contribution to the GPE Fund was $45 million, with a planned FY 2016 contribution of $70 million.
• Education Cannot Wait: The U.S. Government has pledged $20 million towards Education Cannot Wait, a global platform and pooled fund for education in emergencies designed to play a role in financing education for the most vulnerable crisis-affected children and youth, with particular consideration to displaced and refugee children and their host communities. It aims to reach 75 million children and youth whose education has been disrupted because of crises by 2030.
• Global Book Alliance: USAID is partnering with the Governments of Norway and the United Kingdom, UNICEF, Save the Children, GPE and others on an initiative to transform the development, procurement and distribution of books and reading materials for early grades.
• All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development: USAID is partnering with World Vision and the Australian Government to support All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development to identify and accelerate innovative solutions to improve early grade reading. The Mobiles for Education Alliance, works with a broad array of partners to find appropriate, scalable and low-cost technologies to help improve learning outcomes. 

For More Information

• Contact our Office Director: Robert Burch
• Visit our webpage