Does education aid reach countries that need it most? Check out the data maps

In Mali, 31% of primary-age children are not enrolled in school and aid for basic education totalled about $44 million in 2012-13. Neighbouring Niger, where the out-of-school rate of 37%, received $26 million. And conflict-ridden Sudan, where 46% of children are not school, got only about $7 million.

These startling facts come from a new set of data maps – which show that the aid flow is not necessarily reaching countries with high rates of out-of-school children.

One of the new Sustainable Development Goals is to achieve 12 years of universal primary and secondary education for every child by 2030. But there are fears that attempts to expand access to secondary education may result in the most marginalised children being left behind.

To reach every child, an extra $39 billion is needed each year, according to estimates from the United Nations agency UNESCO and the Education For All Global Monitoring Report. To fill this gap, the new Internsational Commission on the Financing of Global Education Opportunities brings together 20 world leaders – with UN Special Envoy for Global Education Gordon Brown as chair – to find alternative sources of funding and to better deploycurrent resources.

The maps have been produced by OECD-DAC, the UNESCO Institute for Statistics. They highlight the gap between the SDG promise and the reality. There are 124 million children and youth excluded from school and aid to education is slowing. The maps help to answer the question of whether aid reaches the countries with the greatest needs.

By clicking on the image below, you can explore this data:

Duration of compulsory education by country
Percentages and numbers of out-of-school children at primary and lower secondary levels – and boys compared to girls
Amount of aid to basic education by country (bilateral and multilateral)

Users can “Take Action” and select a social media postcard and customise a tweet or Facebook post. Information about the data and links to the sources are in the “About” section of the visualisation.