Education Program Development Fund The multi-donor Education Program Development Fund (EPDF) was established in November 2004 to enable more low-income countries to access the Global Partnership for Education and accelerate progress towards universal primary education. The EPDF can provide technical support and build the capacity required to prepare a sound education plan in countries with weak capacity. It can also provide support to countries in the implementation of their education sector plans by supporting knowledge generation through better monitoring and evaluation, and knowledge sharing across countries. A Committee composed of a representative from all contributing donors provides overall guidance on the use of the fund and on regional allocations. EPDF commitments total about US$ 115 million for the period 2005-2013, with pledges from the following donors: Australia, Canada, France, Ireland, Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. To date, 60 developing countries have received support for country-specific activities and regional programs through the EPDF in the following five regions: Africa, East Asia and Pacific, Europe and Central Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Middle East and North Africa, and South Asia. The EPDF is undergoing restructuring and starting in July 2010 a new version of the Fund will be implemented. Two of the main guiding principles will be - in line with the strengthened country level processes - that the local education groups will play a stronger role and will manage the implementation of the EPDF country-specific activities. The application process will go through the local education group and is open to all low-income countries. Activities will be managed based on results and will directly be linked to the four strategic objectives as well as the objectives of the education sector strategy. Four Strategic ObjectivesThe EPDF finances country-specific and regional activities to achieve one or more of the following objectives: Objective 1: Education Sector Plan Development.Support low-income countries in the preparation of sound and sustainable national education sector programs through a broad-based consultative process; Objective 2: Capacity DevelopmentStrengthen government technical and institutional capacity to develop and implement policies and programs to enable all children to complete a full cycle of primary schooling of good quality; Objective 3: Monitoring Evaluation and Knowledge SharingImprove understanding of conditions for successful policies and programs, through better monitoring and evaluation and knowledge sharing across countries; and Objective 4: Strengthen PartnershipsStrengthen donor partnerships at the country level around the government's national education plan. Key Documents
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