Evaluations of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) Multiplier

The Global Partnership for Education (GPE) Multiplier is an innovative financial instrument that catalyzes increased investments in education from co-financers, such as multilateral development banks, bilateral donors, and private funders. From 2022 to 2023, GPE commissioned Mathematica to conduct a mixed-methods evaluation to assess the financial additionality, value additionality, and process efficiency of the Multiplier, drawing on a desk review of program documents, interviews with Multiplier stakeholders, and secondary education financing data. The evaluation presented several recommendations to promote efficiency, reduce transaction costs for GPE partner countries, and clarify the Multiplier’s objectives to support education systems transformation. The evaluation identified critical gaps in tracking the disbursement, recipients, efficiency, and effectiveness of Multiplier co-financing.

Following these findings, in 2024, GPE commissioned Mathematica to conduct a follow-up study to analyze the efficiency, effectiveness, and alignment with GPE priorities of the co-financing affiliated with the Multiplier. Mathematica applied GPE’s results area framework and gender coding methodology to classify and cost co-financed activities and aggregate results along GPE priority areas, and synthesized information from various documents and datasets into a database. Drawing on program documents and interviews with co-financers, Mathematica also characterized the efficiency, in terms of timeliness and costs, of co-financed programs.