Biniam Bedasso argues that free school meals improve enrollment, attendance, learning outcomes and help food-insecure countries. But Farzana Afridi thinks we need more evidence on long-term gains.

In 2021, Ghana announced a plan to issue sovereign bonds of up to $2 billion, with proceeds due partially to fund a free secondary school program. Just months later, Ghana’s rising debt burden means this is no longer feasible. Can developing countries tap the social bond market in order to fund publ...

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine threatens to cause more disruption to the global food system by dramatically increasing the cost of staple foods and the energy required to transport them. The Black Sea region is responsible for the export of at least 12 percent of global food calories, so cutting off a...

The exclusion of Ethiopia from the African Growth and Opportunity Act is intended to stop human-rights abuses in Tigray, but there is little evidence that such measures affect the behavior of political elites. Instead, they limit options for low-skilled workers and damage bilateral relationships.

The use of foreign aid to support poor countries with inadequate implementation capacity and weak regulatory institutions has at times, been described as “pouring money into a leaky bucket.” Given that there is seldom a quick fix for inadequate state capacity, aid programs can employ internal contro...

Every now and then we get asked by education donors whether and how they should fund the private education sector. It’s an important question: around 20 percent of children enrolled in primary school in low income countries attend private primary schools.

As demand for quality education in many developing countries increases, and state capacity to provide this falls short, private education is growing in popularity. Significant attention has, in the past, been paid to the direct impacts of private schools on student outcomes (see, for example, t...