At existing rates of progress, fragile states represent those countries most at-risk of failing to achieve universal primary education. It is estimated that around a third of the world's out of school children live in countries where the state faces severe development challenges instigated and perpetuated by weak institutional capacity, poor…

It is generally agreed that spending on education and health is key to poverty reduction, but simply allocating more resources to these sectors does not ensure that poverty actually declines. On the basis of four in-depth case studies (on Indonesia, Madagascar, Peru and Tanzania) and three Technical Papers on malnutrition and primary education in…