Recognizing that education is a lynchpin of development, CGD investigates promising new approaches for rich countries to improve education outcomes in the poorer world. CGD research in this area focuses on the benefits of educating girls, the effectiveness of global education programs, strategies for achieving universal primary education, and the potential application of Cash on Delivery (COD) aid to the education sector.
Work includes the following:
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Cash on Delivery Aid, a proposal by Nancy Birdsall and Bill Savedoff for donors to pay for measurable progress on specific outcomes pre-agreed with recipient governments. The book Cash on Delivery: A New Approach to Foreign Aid with an Application to Primary Schooling will be published in 2010.
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A report by Ruth Levine and colleagues entitled Girls Count: A Global Investment & Action Agenda explains why and how to initiate effective investments to empower adolescent girls in developing countries.
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Research led by Desmond Bermingham on aid effectiveness in the education sector looks particularly at the Education for All–Fast Track Initiative, including his paper, Reviving the Global Education Compact: Four Options for Global Education Funding.
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Aid for Education: More Bang for the Buck, a chapter by Kate Vyborny and Nancy Birdsall in The White House and the World urges the United States to support a significant international effort to expand high-quality primary schooling in low-income countries.
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Inexcusable Absence by Maureen Lewis and Marlaine Lockheed highlights that nearly three-quarters of the 60 million girls not in school belong to ethnic, religious, linguistic, racial, or other minorities. It draws on detailed analysis to offer concrete proposals for new policies and programs that directly address this exclusion.
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Exclusion, Gender and Education: Case Studies from the Developing World, a companion volume to Inexcusable Absence, analyzes the determinants of school enrollment, completion, and learning in seven countries to increase understanding of impediments to universal primary education.
