International Financing Facility for Education

The International Financing Facility for Education (IFFEd) is a foundation offering a financing innovation that multiplies donor resources, enabling countries to invest in quality education and skills development urgently. It is a collaborative and sustainable way to finance transformative solutions for the world’s poorest children and youth.

Launched in September 2022 at the United Nations Transforming Education Summit, IFFEd was designed to tackle the education and skills crisis in lower-middle-income countries (LMICs), home to 80% of the world’s children and youth. On 1 July 2023, IFFEd became an independent organization operating as a nonprofit foundation based in Geneva, Switzerland. Through its innovative finance model, the foundation will collaborate with government, nongovernment organizations, philanthropic partners, and multilateral development banks (MDBs) to scale up more affordable financing for quality education and skills development in LMICs. Following several years of design and development, IFFEd’s financial mechanism is in its final stages of preparation and will become effective by mid-2024. IFFEd will initially focus on Asia and the Pacific and Africa, in collaboration with ADB and the African Development Bank as pilot MDBs, with ADB poised as the first MDB to receive IFFEd support.

Highlights

Trust Funds. In April 2023, ADB established the IFFEd Financing Partnership Facility, which will house the IFFEd Trust Fund that will accept grant contributions from IFFEd and other fund donors. ADB may utilize the funds to finance grant components of projects, support technical assistance, and other activities that may be agreed upon between the fund donors and ADB.