The Challenge
Quality education has the power to transform the lives of children living in poverty. Returns on investment in education are significant, especially for girls. Education is tied to increased income, improved health, reduced generational poverty and gender equity. Access to education, however, is not enough. The most marginalized are not in school or are dropping out. Overcrowding and low resources are overwhelming systems and families. A shift to quality learning is urgently needed. Much of free education in developing countries is dogmatic and antiquated. Quality learning – the acquisition of knowledge and cognitive and behavioral skills that promote employability, productivity and growth – is key.
Local education entrepreneurs developing innovative culturally relevant approaches to quality education are not receiving the support they need. Traditional large funders are not adequately supporting these early stages ventures. Overhead costs of due diligence limit grants to <$500,000 and there is limited capacity to work with entrepreneurs on concepts that are not yet ready for scale. Typical annual and one off grants are not reliable to sustain innovative work and required support in multiple disciplines is not easily accessible.
Partnering for Impact
To address this urgent need, GEF is testing a new concept - portfolio management for philanthropy - with its launch of GEF Innovation Fund 1 (IF1). Through multi-year financial investments, IF1 provides local education entrepreneurs with the support they need to develop, sustain, and scale their ventures..
IF1 focuses on social returns v. financial returns with any financial returns re-invested in new educational ventures. GEF will identify and vet 5-7 educational ventures in the IF1 portfolio working with local and international issue-area experts. GEF will develop and assess social impact, growth, and sustainability metrics per investment, and support, monitor, and evaluate investments to exit or sustainability.
This approach allows for staging of investments and tracking to plans with the ability to raise issues earlier with more time to address them. A called capital approach accommodates longer relationships with financial infusion at the right time. Directing resources to promising educational ventures earlier helps create leverage on investments and sustainability. IF1 also allows for the opportunity to test sourcing of educational ventures and assessments for quality and sustainability. Importantly, the portfolio creates opportunities for learning across educational ventures and others for greater social impact.
100% of IF1 will directly support entrepreneurs and programs. GEF staff, including its Executive Director and administrative/fundraising expenses, are covered by GEF’s general fund.
