Italy / Education

ODA Spending

ODA In Context

Italy spent US$392 million of its ODA on education in 2021, or 6% of its total ODA, less than the 9% DAC average. Italy was the 6^th-largest DAC donor to education in 2021 and the 19^th-largest in terms of relative share, indicating that this sector is a lower priority for Italy than for other DAC donors.

ODA Trends

Italy’s funding for education saw an increase in 2021, despite remaining as a small proportion of ODA. Italy’s overall funding for education has generally followed an upward trend and increased by 36% between 2017 and 2021.

As is the case across sectors, Italy favors multilateral spending for education.

ODA Breakdown

Bilateral Spending

Italy sees investments in providing support for girls’ education in fragile and conflict-affected states as paramount. Italy also aims to address the quality of learning and teacher training as priorities for ODA.

In 2021, Italy spent US$214 million or 55% of total education ODA as bilateral funding. It included US$19 million or 5% of earmarked funding through multilaterals. The top three sub-sectors receiving the most bilateral education ODA were 'higher education' (24%), 'education facilities and training' (22%), and 'early childhood education' (19%).

Multilateral Spending and Commitments

In line with its overall ODA, Italy provided close to half of its ODA for education through multilateral organizations (45%).

Top multilateral recipients of Italy's education ODA are EUI (38%), followed by the IDA (5%), and the UNRWA (1%).

Funding and Policy Outlook

Gender equality plays a prominent role in Italy’s recent education programming guidelines. The GPE is mentioned as a key partner in the guidelines, providing support for girls’ education in fragile and conflict-affected states and addressing quality of learning, as well as teacher training.

Key Bodies