Events
CATALYZE EduFinance: Early Lessons
On July 13, the Education Finance Network hosted a members-only event showcasing USAID CATALYZE EduFinance activities in sub-Saharan Africa, including models implemented in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, and Zambia. The presentations centered around lessons learned by CATALYZE EduFinance implementing partners, including Opportunity International EduFinance, Kaizenvest, PEAS (Promoting Equality in African Schools) and Education Partnerships Group (EPG).
The event opened with an introduction to CATALYZE EduFinance by Michael Tetelman, Education Finance Activity Lead for CATALYZE at Palladium. CATALYZE EduFinance mobilizes blended finance – the strategic use of public funds to increase private sector investment – to crowd in private capital into non-state schools and education enterprises in USAID partner countries. CATALYZE EduFinance is a learning initiative testing different implementation models to build a strong evidence base and inform the replicability and scale of various approaches.
The following is an overview of the models presented at the event.
- Opportunity International EduFinance operates in Zambia, DRC, and Tanzania, where they provide technical assistance to financial institutions to deliver loans to low-fee private schools and parents, and help improve school quality through school development planning, school leadership professional development, and teacher mentor training.
- Kaizenvest operates in South Africa and Rwanda, where they stimulate the creation of high-quality and sustainable micro-early childhood development (ECD) enterprises focusing on low-income communities by providing loans and capacity building to ECD entrepreneurs.
- PEAS operates in Zambia, where they support 20 government primary schools serving low-income communities through the Targeted Improvement for Equitable Education in Zambia (TIEEZ) program – a system strengthening initiative aimed at providing technical assistance to primary schools.
- EPG operates in Zambia, where their role is to generate and use research to inform non-state education policy, design and develop policy, and support piloting and scaling of policy reform and initiatives.
Following the presentations of the CATALYZE EduFinance models by each implementing partner, participants were invited to join a breakout room of their choice to discuss early learnings from the different models.