Why aid for education is money well spent

SIR – For those worrying that aid spending is more warm-hearted than hard-headed, we would like to suggest that they look at the smart economics of the work under way in improving the life chances of children in developing countries.

Through our work on the Girls’ Education Challenge in Kenya – funded by the Department for International Development – we have been able to get over 70,000 more girls from the slums of Nairobi and the arid and semi-arid lands of rural Kenya into education. We are now working on the next phase of the project, which will see those children move into senior-level schooling.

For girls in developing countries, an education can be the difference between a life of poverty and one in which they have the opportunity to thrive both socially and economically – with a much better chance of creating and sustaining wealth and health in their communities and countries.

Any announcement of additional international aid funding invites debate over whether it is in fact an increase – but also, rightly, over whether it provides value for the taxpayer.

Every day we see what Kenyan school leaders, teachers and pupils are achieving. To us, such initiatives are clearly smart economics – for both funder and beneficiary. Dr Patrick Brazier

Chief Executive Education Development Trust Reading, Berkshire