WISE Awards Finalists 2022

Each year, the WISE Awards recognize and promote six successful and innovative projects that are addressing global educational challenges. Since 2009, WISE has received more than 3,000 applications from over 150 countries. Today, 78 projects have been awarded, from a wide variety of sectors and locations for their innovation, positive contribution and ability to adapt and scale.

These projects represent a growing resource of expertise and sound educational practice. Every year WISE is building a community of educational innovators that offers a fertile environment for groundbreaking collaborations. Today the WISE Awards network comprises pioneering projects that are bringing positive change to societies and communities.

Nomination: Opportunity International EduFinance

Before COVID-19, 617 million children worldwide were out of school or in school but not accessing quality education. This represents 6 out of 10 children not learning, which perpetuates poverty and global inequality generation after generation. Opportunity International EduFinance is working to get more children into better quality schools with social finance in low- and middle-income countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America. Opportunity EduFinance first partners with financial institutions to prove technical assistance to launch and grow Education Finance Portfolios.It then invites partners’ school borrowers to join EduQuality, a three-year holistic training program designed to equip school leaders to run sustainable schools and increase the quality of education over time.

“While it is a great honour for Opportunity EduFinance to be recognised in this way, I am most grateful for the improvement in learning attainment that we will see as a result of more widespread understanding of the role that local school owners play in educating low income communities around the world.” Andrew McCusker, Head of Education Finance at Opportunity international.

Read more about Opportunity EduFinance's nomination here.