From Evidence to Scale: Key Reflections on Education Finance at CIES 2026
Last month, I was grateful to attend CIES 2026 and represent Opportunity EduFinance on the panel “Financing Education for Social Cohesion: Blended Finance Approaches in Emerging Economies.” This was my third year attending CIES – always a jam-packed, exciting five days with hundreds of panels happening simultaneously, and side events, networking gatherings, and impromptu coffee chats sprinkled in between.
In 2025, the CIES conference took place immediately following the USAID stop-work order and subsequent termination of almost all USAID contracts and grants. I did not attend last year, so I wondered how this drastic shift had affected this conference, which is normally dominated by USAID implementing partners, and dozens of panels sharing the implementation research conducted through USAID grants or funded through official development assistance.
How would CIES look and feel this year, without that? I expected there to be less energy, less optimism, and less talk of future plans and projects – but I was so happy to be proven wrong. Instead, CIES 2026 brought what felt like a renewed sense of purpose for education research: In this time of drastic funding cuts for education, how can we come together as a sector to truly understand what works, innovate new ideas for what doesn’t work, and unite our efforts to achieve more with less?
Understanding What Works
As a research conference, CIES aims to showcase research results and share learnings so similar projects can build on successes and course-correct where needed. We can no longer afford to waste resources on what doesn’t work, so understanding what does produce results feels urgent and important.
Opportunity’s two-panel sessions did just that. On our first panel, “Financing Education for Social Cohesion: Blended Finance Approaches in Emerging Economies,” I was grateful to be joined by the Education Finance Network, Dalberg, NORRAG, and Education Outcomes Fund to explore how blended finance and outcomes-based approaches can help address persistent education funding gaps. I discussed one example of what is working: the results of research conducted at our School Leadership Academy workshops, where participation increased access to finance for schools by 12 percentage points, out of which 54% were first-time borrowers. Contributions from fellow panellists reinforced that outcomes-based financing is not inherently pro-equity, but it becomes equitable through intentional design choices: how success is measured, what incentives are embedded, and how programs align with national priorities.
Our second panel, “Non-State Actors Promoting Girls’ Success Inside and Outside of Government Schools: From Global Evidence to On-the-Ground Impact in Kenya,” was represented by Andrew McCusker alongside the Education Finance Network and IREX. We shared another example of how research is pointing us in the right direction: Our three-year quasi-experiment in Kenya showed how not only does the EduQuality program lead to results in learning outcomes, but the results were nearly double for girls: the intervention led to an increase of 0.26 equivalent years of schooling (EYOS) for all learners, and 0.47 EYOS for girls. Colleagues from IREX shared similar results on girls’ learning from an EdTech intervention in Kenya, and the Education Finance Network showcased the Evidence Gap Map updates on girls’ education. All of this compiled research tells us that non-state interventions are moving the needle on girls’ education. We know it is working: the next question to ask is not how to replicate small-scale pilots, but how to achieve results at scale?
Innovating for Scale
During my years at Opportunity EduFinance, I have attended several events and panels focused on innovative finance. What stood out to me this year at CIES was how much this conversation has evolved: it is no longer only about mobilizing capital, but about how to design innovative financing models that can advance equity, reduce structural barriers, and build stronger education systems. As the Education Finance Network aptly describes, we must move beyond small pilot projects to achieve systemic change and equitable scale.
During our panel discussion, the Education Outcomes Fund discussed how outcomes-based financing approaches can support more equitable outcomes only when they are tailored to local needs and aligned with broader system goals. Colleagues at NORRAG also reinforced that just because innovative finance is “innovative,” it is not a silver bullet. Plenty of ambitious blended finance solutions fail when they do not consider feasibility, capabilities of the actors involved, and local realities.
I also heard these points emerge in other panels and events I attended, including the side event Opportunity EduFinance led on “Funding the Future of Education: From Evidence to Investable Solutions.” The side event focused on generating ideas of how private capital can be used most strategically and effectively to close the global education financing gap. When we brainstormed innovative, new ideas, the conversation consistently focused on what is effective and equitable at scale – not just within specific contexts or programs.
Uniting Efforts for Greater Impact
Conferences can demonstrate the power of bringing people together in one room (or in this case, one large hotel lobby) over a shared goal, and I felt this deeply at CIES. Across panels, side events, and informal conversations, one message surfaced again and again: we cannot continue to design standalone efforts or operate in siloes. Private and public sector funders, alongside NGOs, governments, researchers, and schools themselves each hold a piece of the puzzle, but real progress depends on how well those pieces connect. In a time of constrained resources, coordinating efforts is essential, and systemic change will depend not only on new funding models, but on our collective ability to align incentives, share evidence, and collaborate effectively.