Regional Priorities
Related pages: Education
programmes and activities |
DFID
aid to education |
Regional
Priorities | International agencies
The countries of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia provide the main focus for
DFID’s bilateral programmes and for its work internationally.
Africa
 Sub-Saharan
Africa is the region where the challenge of deep-seated poverty is most
enduring. 44% of the total population is estimated to live on less than one US$1
a day. At the G8 Conference in Gleneagles in 2005, under the British presidency,
member countries agreed to a doubling of aid by 2010 - an extra $50 billion
worldwide – of which US$25 billion would be for Africa. To back up these
commitments, it was announced in April 2006 that the UK would spend at least
£8.5 billion on aid to education over the next 10 years, with Africa receiving
the largest share. DFID would enter into 10-year agreements with countries in
order to support their own 10-year education plans.
Of the countries with which DFID has partnership programmes in the education
sector, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda and Sierra Leone have
10-year plans, which include getting all girls into school. Malawi, Tanzania,
Uganda and Zambia should have agreements in place by the end of 2007. Overall 20
sub-Saharan African countries should have 10-year plans by that time.
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Asia
 In a specially convened conference in 2006, DFID announced that UK bilateral aid to Asia will grow by 25% between 2005 and 2008, this for a region where two thirds of the world’s poorest people live and sustainable and significant improvements in the lives of the poor is key to achieving the MDGs globally.
And it is in South Asia (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and
Sri Lanka) where the challenge remains greatest. Given this focus, DFID is
placing particular emphasis on reaching the hard to reach in education,
especially in Bangladesh, Pakistan and India (where an additional £200 million,
to be disbursed over the next four years, was committed early in 2007 to support
the Government of India’s efforts to place every child into basic education)..
Bilateral programmes
 Bilateral
aid lies at the heart of DFID programming and while the Department gives aid to
a very large number of countries worldwide, its core bilateral programmes lie
within DFID’s Public Service Agreement (PSA).
The PSA sets out the objectives and targets by which DFID measures its progress
based on the MDGs. The current PSA runs from 2005 to 2008 with eight primary
objectives. The first two objectives are a) to reduce poverty in sub-Saharan
Africa and b) to reduce poverty in Asia.
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Last updated 15 February 2008
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