(MENAFN- Swissinfo) Basic education in low-income countries is falling victim to cuts in development aid by donors like the United States, Switzerland, and others. Can charitable foundations make up for the shortfall and improve learning outcomes? This content was published on November 3, 2025 - 09:00 9 minutes

Reporter specialised in Swiss foreign affairs, with a side hustle as a sub-editor in the English Department. Previously my focus was on disinformation and fact-checks, which I still produce occasionally.

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With 90 pupils in her classes, Diana Zacharia admits that meeting the needs of each child can be a heavy load.

The primary school teacher in the provincial Tanzanian city of Arusha, a few hours' drive from the iconic Mount Kilimanjaro and Serengeti plains, has learned to ease that burden with help from Swiss development group Helvetas.

The NGO offered Zacharia and her colleagues two years of training. It introduced ideas, such as getting students involved in preparing lessons and helping each other, to boost engagement in class and bring textbook knowledge to life.

The course elevated Zacharia's confidence.“It's totally changed me,” she said.“The closeness between student and teacher has grown, which helps me to understand them better.”

It's also having proven benefits on the pupils: those taught by teachers who have been through the training are more likely to achieve top grades in maths exams.

Countries such as Tanzania have made progress in enrolling children in school in recent decades. Yet globally, challenges persist. Some 272 million children worldwide are unschooledExternal link, many classrooms are overcrowded, and teachers lack training.

Now, further gains in basic literacy and numeracy are coming under threat as foreign aid budgets across the rich world face the axe. UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, anticipatesExternal link a $3.2 billion (CHF2.5 billion) drop in funding for education by the end of 2026 as state donors cut aid in favour of defence spending. The shortfall could put an estimated six million children out of school.

Behind this funding gap is the dismantling of USAID, the world's biggest bilateral donor in basic educationExternal link, by US President Donald Trump. Switzerland, which cut CHF250 million ($315 million) from its 2025 development assistance budget, will also stop funding basic education in low-income countries. In the United Kingdom, plans to reduce aid by about £6 billionExternal link (CHF6.35 billion) by 2027 will affectExternal link education programmes in several African countries, according to an official assessment.

Hopes pinned on philanthropies

Amid such drastic cuts, all eyes are on alternative sources of cash, such as charitable foundations, to sustain essential work. Philanthropies worldwide gaveExternal link $9.6 billion in development aid in 2020. In Switzerland, some 1,000 foundations are active in this area.

“Everyone is asking where we can get more money, and foundations are seen as a key source,” said Fritz Brugger, head of the NADEL Centre on Global Cooperation and Sustainable Development at the federal technology institute ETH Zurich.

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Working with foundations isn't new. In 2023 the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) had partnershipsExternal link with roughly 50 grant-making foundations. Helvetas, whose core financial contribution from the SDC is being cut by 10%, received funds mainly from the Liechtenstein-based Medicor Foundation for its teacher-training in Tanzania.

Now governmentsExternal link and NGOs are looking to such philanthropies to carry a heavier load.

“There are growing expectations that private foundations will fill some of the gaps left by reduced official development assistance,” said Sabrina Würmli, head of skills, jobs and income at Helvetas.“Their role in international cooperation will become even more significant.”

The world's richest charitable foundation, the Gates Foundation, saysExternal link philanthropy must now step up with targeted funding to have maximum impact. The foundation is injecting more than $240 million over four years in sub-Saharan Africa and India to cover basic, or foundational, learning for 15 million children.

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