What we offer

Advice on planning and financing education
We advise education ministries and decentralised authorities on comprehensive education reforms. To this end we prepare sector analyses, plans and financing models. In terms of decentralisation we promote communities' participation in school management.

Strengthening educational institutions
We advise schools and higher education institutions on quality development. Our focus is on planning and shaping school development, comprehensive quality management and networking services.

Teacher training  
We advise education ministries and specialist institutions on reforming and improving initial and in-service teacher training – from the drawing board to nationwide implementation.

Education for all in multilingual societies
Children need to be taught in their mother tongue if they are to learn successfully. We promote mother-tongue and bilingual intercultural education. We provide advice on policy formulation, linguistic analysis, the development of curricula and teaching materials, and teacher training.

Non-formal education – a new chance
Being able to complete primary education at a later stage is of paramount importance to disadvantaged groups. We advise partners on policy design and curriculum development, ensure the resulting solutions are sustainable, and promote pre-vocational training measures.

Combating HIV/AIDS through education
The pandemic is also impacting on the education sector. We support education ministries in preventing HIV/AIDS. We help to cushion impacts by providing policy advice, supporting capacity development, and by developing participatory approaches, curricula and teaching materials.

Fostering the development potential of universities
Higher education institutions can guide and strengthen development processes. We assist them in developing capacities, training professional and managerial staff and setting up regional and multidisciplinary networks.

Gender equality in education
"Education for All" requires dedicated support for girls. We provide that support at local community level and in schools. We develop gender-sensitive sector policies and financing mechanisms and provide advice on developing and introducing education approaches.

Learning to live together in peace
Peace-promoting education systems are crucial in conflict and post-conflict situations as well as for socially disadvantaged children. We develop customised concepts and provide advice on integrated basic education and youth work with a crisis and conflict orientation. 

What you can achieve with us

The urgent social challenges of the 21st century cannot be met without radically improved education systems. More than 100 million children worldwide still have no access to primary education. Yet education is the key to social development and enhances the opportunities open to each individual. Basic education, above all, is a crucial factor in combating poverty. All UN member states have committed themselves to enabling all children to complete primary education and eliminating gender disparities in the education system by 2015. This is key to tackling the major social challenges of the 21st century.

Improved education and training – especially for girls and young women

• strengthens people's ability to develop innovations and solve problems
• creates more personal income and boosts the economic productivity of society
• reduces birth rates and child mortality
• significantly reduces the HIV/AIDS infection rate
• promotes peace and productive approaches towards handling conflicts
• creates a framework for environmentally sustainable behaviour.