USAID Catalyze EduFinance in Latin America and the Caribbean

The USAID CATALYZE EduFinance project mobilizes blended finance, through the strategic use of USAID funds, to increase private sector investment and to crowd-in private capital for non-state schools and education enterprises in USAID partner countries. It is part of the overall USAID CATALYZE Blended Finance project launched in October 2019. Private capital leveraged with funding from USAID will address the substantial funding gap for education and improve learning outcomes. 

The 5-year USAID CATALYZE EduFinance program seeks to mobilize private capital that addresses the substantial funding gap for education. Private capital leverage with funding from USAID will increase access to quality education and improve and sustain learning outcomes of disadvantaged children and youth in multiple countries. Each country-level activity has a specific theory of change, geography of implementation, target beneficiaries, and specific outputs and outcomes. However, all partnerships will improve access and learning outcomes for disadvantaged learners and improve the overall ecosystem for financing non-state education providers beyond the life of the project.

A key objective of USAID CATALYZE is to contribute to USAID’s understanding of internal constraints to implementing blended finance projects, including where, and in which contexts, blended finance activities are most effective at mobilizing private capital for development. As such, learning is a critical pillar of this activity.

CATALYZE EduFinance in the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region covers six countries - Haiti, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, El Salvador, Ecuador and Paraguay.

The goal of the CATALYZE EduFinance LAC activity is to:

Mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on the non-state education sector

Mobilize blended finance for non-state education sector

Increase equitable access to education for learners, especially the disadvantaged; and

Improvement in learning outcomes

What It Does 

To date, CATALYZE EduFinance - LAC has conducted market assessments on the non-state education sector in six countries in the region:

Dominican Republic View market assessment	Guatemala View market assessment
Ecuador View market assessment	Haiti View market assessment
El Salvador View market assessment	Paraguay View market assessment

Where It Works 

USAID CATALYZE EduFinance supports education finance activities in the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, and Paraguay.

In Haiti, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic CATALYZE Edufinance will provide technical assistance to financial institutions (FIs) to mobilize financing for school improvement loans for low-fee non-state schools and school fee loans for parents of students attending low-fee non-state schools. Technical assistance will include market research on financing needs of non-state schools, product development for tailored financial services to schools including support for COVID-19 resilience.

CATALYZE Edufinance LAC will also provide technical assistance to low-fee non-state schools to improve school leadership and administration capacity, classroom teaching practices, and practical actionable strategies to re-open schools and remain open successfully.

Expected Results (2021-2024)

Capital Mobilization

• Technical assistance to local financial institutions
• Mobilize significant private capital (at least 5x multiplier over USAID contribution) in education loans to low fee non-state schools and parents

Education Quality

• Technical assistance to schools to improve school leadership and education quality
• Improved learning outcomes

COVID-19 Mitigation

• Financing to low cost non-state schools to reopen and remain open successfully
• Financing to low cost non-state schools to support COVID-19 resilience

CATALYZE EduFinance Haiti View Fact Sheet [Coming Soon]	CATALYZE EduFinance Dominican Republic View Fact Sheet [Coming Soon]
CATALYZE EduFinance Guatemala View Fact Sheet [Coming Soon]

In Paraguay and El Salvador CATALYZE Edufinance LAC will support secondary and vocational education in rural schools and build each school into a self-sustaining organization. This will include technical assistance to schools to conduct market analysis to identify potential economic opportunities, training of teachers, investments to establish productive economic activities (e.g., agriculture, cheese production, tourism) in each school, and creation of commercial channels to sell the school products. School graduates will receive vocational training to become rural entrepreneurs or obtain other vocational jobs in the rural areas. Students who enroll in vocational training are usually those that have dropped out of the education system (i.e., do not have a high school diploma) and decide to pursue technical training later.

Expected Results (2021-2024)

Capital Mobilization

• Mobilize concessional loans and grants (at least 2x multiplier over USAID contribution) to rural secondary schools

Education Quality

• Technical assistance to schools to become self-sustaining vocational schools
• Technical assistance to secondary students to become rural entrepreneurs or get vocational jobs in rural areas

COVID-19 Mitigation

• Technical assistance to rural secondary schools to become self-sustainable

CATALYZE EduFinance Paraguay View Fact Sheet [Coming Soon]

CATALYZE EduFinance El Salvador View Fact Sheet [Coming Soon]