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Most developing countries spent less on education than they did repaying debt last year, according to the UN, at the same time as global aid to education is predicted to decline by up to ۳۰%.
More was spent on servicing foreign debt than on education in ۱۱۳ developing countries in ۲۰۲۵, according to research by the UN’s culture and education agency, Unesco. In sub-Saharan Africa, countries spent ۳.۶ times more on debt than education.
The situation is likely to be exacerbated by funding cuts, the agency warned. Low- and lower-middle-income countries have already lost ۲۱% of the aid to education they were receiving in ۲۰۲۳ and could lose up to ۳۰% by ۲۰۲۷. Some countries – including Afghanistan, Mali, Niger and Liberia – have already lost more than ۴۰% in three years.
Min Jeong Kim, director of Unesco’s education division, said: “Current approaches really keep the countries trapped in a cycle of austerity, underinvestment and stalled development.
“This is really weakening countries’ stances on economic growth, eroding domestic revenue mobilisation and ultimately also diminishing their ability to handle their debt over time.”
Eighteen of the most indebted countries spent five times the amount they did on education on debt – and up to ۱۶ times more in the case of Sri Lanka.
According to the UK-based campaign group Debt Justice, repayments by poorer countries hit a ۳۵-year high last year, with ۵۶ countries spending almost a fifth of their total revenue on servicing loans.
Tim Jones, policy director at Debt Justice, said: “Countries’ debt payments have ballooned following a series of shocks from Covid, energy price and interest rate rises and climate disasters.
“In the worst-affected [countries], this is leading to cuts in spending on essential services such as health and education.”
The situation has been made worse by aid cuts made by the US and Europe, which saw funding to education drop by $۶۰۰m (£۴۷۰m) in ۲۰۲۴, the last recorded figures, and is expected to have fallen further in ۲۰۲۵.
The combined impact of aid cuts and public spending being redirected to debt servicing has meant disruption to education systems, with schools often not receiving sufficient funds to operate and teachers not being paid.
In the long term, there is concern that weakened education systems affect indebted countries’ ability to develop their economies and better equip themselves to handle debt burdens in the future.
Unesco said there needed to be a change to how debt relief was structured, shifting away from short-term relief to long-term arrangements that allowed countries to continue funding public services.
Jones said that another key factor in changing debt relief was ensuring that private lenders, often based in Britain and the US, were not able to block agreements to extract more profit for themselves, as they recently did with Ethiopia.
“The UK needs to use its presidency of the G۲۰ in ۲۰۲۷ to get major changes to the debt-relief process, including more debt cancellation and a faster process,” he said. “Central to this is incorporating the process into English law, so that private creditors can no longer disrupt and hold out from the debt relief.”
