LONDON – UNESCO has urged governments and international lenders to expand debt-for-education swaps to help tackle a worsening education financing crisis, warning that 113 countries now spend more on servicing debt than on educating their populations.
The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) launched new guidance on debt swaps at a global education summit in Paris on July 10, arguing that the mechanism could help heavily indebted countries redirect scarce resources towards schools, teacher training and student support.
Debt-for-education swaps allow countries to refinance or buy back expensive debt and channel the savings into education.
The World Bank has recently started backing such arrangements, and UNESCO…