On the occasion of the International Conference on Financing for Development in Seville, UNESCO welcomes the joint declaration in which Member States recognize the importance of financing education, recognising culture as a driving force for development, and strengthening scientific cooperation in the face of global challenges.
Education, culture, and scientific research are among the most powerful levers for peace and the development of our societies. Ensuring sustainable funding for them is now essential-undermining it would mean undermining our shared future.
Audrey AzoulayUNESCO Director-General
A worrying decline in aid for education
With every dollar invested in education generating GDP growth of 15 to 20 dollars, education is one of the best investments a country can make. According to a recent UNESCO report, school drop-outs will cost the global economy up to 10,000 billion dollars per year by 2030. In addition to these financial considerations, there are also significant social impacts to take into account. Gaps in acquiring basic skills are associated with a 69% increase worldwide in unwanted teenage pregnancies among young girls.
Despite these tangible benefits, a new analysis published by UNESCO's Global Education Monitoring Report reveals that international aid to education could fall by more than a quarter between 2023 and 2027, with a 12% decline already observed in 2024.
In low-income countries, this aid represents an average of 17% of public spending on education, in some cases even half of national education budgets. This trend towards disengagement from aid providers is growing at a time when 272 million children and young people are still excluded from school systems, half of them in Africa, according to new figures from UNESCO.
UNESCO mobilizes for innovative financing in education
This under-investment is sometimes a result of already depleted public finances: 60% of low-income countries are over-indebted or at high risk of over-indebtedness. By 2022, debt servicing costs on the African continent had reached an amount comparable to that of public education budgets.
Faced with this urgency, UNESCO is promoting innovative financing mechanisms such as debt-for-education swaps, in line with the joint call to action launched in 2024 by Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, President of Brazil.
Such mechanisms have already been successfully implemented between Germany and Indonesia (2002-2011), Peru and Spain (2006-2017), and Côte d'Ivoire and France (2023). Building on these experiences, UNESCO is developing a roadmap and concrete recommendations to help more debtor and creditor countries direct debt relief towards investments in education.
Culture, a vector for development and social cohesion
In 2022, the cultural and creative industries represented 3.1% of global GDP and generated almost 50 million jobs. Financing the cultural sector - including creative industries and cultural heritage - means investing in sectors that create jobs, generate economic growth and reinforce social cohesion.
In recent years, UNESCO has demonstrated that investing in culture - from the renovation of cultural heritage to support for creative industries - has increased the benefits of development aid tenfold: in Mosul, Iraq, where more than 5,000 jobs have been created to lead the reconstruction of emblematic buildings in the old city; in Yemen, where more than 8,000 young people have taken part in the rehabilitation of their cultural heritage; or in the Caribbean, where 17 countries have benefited from the Transcultura programme, which has trained and supported more than 2,500 people to strengthen creative industries.
In the run-up to the MONDIACULT 2025 Conference in Barcelona, UNESCO is calling on governments to systematically integrate culture into their funding frameworks for sustainable development.
Investing in science and scientific cooperation
Science is an essential lever for tackling the major challenges of our time: ecological transition, protecting biodiversity, ocean health, disaster prevention and crisis resilience. Yet science remains largely underfunded. According to the latest UNESCO Science Report, 80% of countries devote less than 1% of their GDP to research and development. Ocean sciences, meanwhile, receive just 1.7% of national research budgets - an alarming figure, at a time when the United Nations Conference on the Oceans in Nice has just reiterated the urgent need for action.
But financial resources are not enough: cooperation is just as essential. Sharing infrastructures, data and scientific knowledge, including that of indigenous peoples, would enhance the impact of research, particularly in low-income countries. This is in line with the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science adopted by its Member States in 2021. In Seville, UNESCO renewed its call for stronger international scientific cooperation in the service of the common good.
About UNESCO
With 194 Member States, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization contributes to peace and security by leading multilateral cooperation on education, science, culture, communication and information. Headquartered in Paris, UNESCO has offices in 54 countries and employs over 2300 people. UNESCO oversees more than 2000 World Heritage sites, Biosphere Reserves and Global Geoparks; networks of Creative, Learning, Inclusive and Sustainable Cities; and over 13 000 associated schools, university chairs, training and research institutions. Its Director-General is Audrey Azoulay.
"Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed" - UNESCO Constitution, 1945.
