Despite considerable efforts by governments, civil society and the international community, the world is still far from its goal of providing a quality education for all. This is partly due to challenges in mobilising the necessary financial resources and ensuring their effective use. The aim of this report is to identify opportunities for improving the allocation of spending towards priority sectors like education by examining spending patterns and allocation mechanisms.

First, it identifies key patterns and trends of public education spending by income, by region and by level of education since the mid/late 1990s.

Second, it uses correlation analysis and multivariate regressions to explore the drivers and correlates of government expenditure on education.

Third, it assesses mechanisms that could potentially enable governments to alter the composition of their expenditure in favour of education (and other priority sectors generally).