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The 5in5 Impact Alliance is a bold, results-driven initiative to halve learning poverty for five million children in five years. In the world’s most fragile and vulnerable regions, the inability to read is not just an education crisis—it is a fundamental barrier to economic growth, security, and stability. Learning poverty traps entire nations in cycles of poverty and conflict, yet proven solutions exist. NewGlobe’s evidence-based education model has already transformed learning outcomes at scale, delivering the largest gains ever recorded in rigorous global studies. By partnering with governments in crisis-affected, post-conflict, and fragile states, 5in5 will implement this proven model rapidly and cost-effectively—achieving 10 times the impact at one-tenth the cost of traditional interventions. This is not a pilot or experiment. This is a scalable, research-backed transformation with a clear and urgent mission: to break the cycle of learning poverty and unlock the economic and social potential of millions of children in the hardest places on earth.

Learning Poverty: The Hidden Barrier to Progress

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To halve learning poverty, we must first grasp its devastating scale and consequences. Today, 89% of 10-year-olds in Sub-Saharan Africa cannot read and understand a simple text. This is not just an education statistic—it is a life sentence to economic hardship and vulnerability.

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What does this mean in practical terms?

  • Children who cannot read cannot learn. Without the cognitive skill of foundational literacy, students fall behind in every subject, from science to vocational skills.
  • Adults who cannot read struggle to escape poverty. They cannot read job applications, understand medical instructions, read and understand the laws of their country, or directly read their religious texts.
  • Nations with high learning poverty remain in perpetual crisis. Low literacy means weak economies, higher crime rates, and greater susceptibility to manipulation and misinformation.

Education is the Key to Economic Prosperity, Security and Stability

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Education is not just a social good—it is the foundation of economic growth and national security.

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Improving a nation’s cognitive skills is the strongest driver of economic growth, contributing more to GDP differences between countries than infrastructure, trade, or governance. Reducing learning poverty is the foundation of this transformation.

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Differences in cognitive skills of a nation drive over 73% of GDP growth differences between nations—more than differences in infrastructure, trade, or governance. South Korea and Sub-Saharan Africa had similar GDP per capita in 1960, but through effective education, South Korea elevated its cognitive skill levels, transforming into a high-income nation with a GDP per capita nearly 25x that of Sub Saharan Africa.

But education is not just about economics. Security is also at stake. In conflict-prone regions like Northern Nigeria, extremist groups recruit uneducated youth, exploiting their vulnerability. Research shows that improving educational outcomes reduces the likelihood of voluntary recruitment into armed groups by 13% for each additional year of schooling.

Crisis-Affected and Fragile States: The Epicenter of the Crisis

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While some nations in Sub-Saharan African and the Global South are advancing in education, the areas most in need remain the most challenging to reach – where system barriers and resource constraints of government leave millions of children in Learning Poverty.

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Today, conflict, fragility, and insecurity are expanding at an alarming rate, further entrenching learning poverty and blocking entire generations from opportunity. 5in5 focuses on these areas that are the hardest places to deliver education—where the need is greatest and the impact is transformative.

  • Conflict Zones: In the Central African Republic, over 70% of children are non-readers, making them more vulnerable to recruitment by armed groups.
  • Post-Conflict Regions: In Liberia, following a civil war and the Ebola crisis, learning poverty exceeded 80% before interventions began.
  • Extremely Economically Vulnerable States: In Jigawa, Nigeria, 99% of students lack foundational literacy, leaving an entire generation locked out of future economic opportunities.

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The 5in5 Impact Alliance exists to solve this problem—bringing transformational education to the hardest places, at scale, with little implementation risk.

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The NewGlobe Approach: The Breakthrough That Makes This Possible

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NewGlobe partners with governments to rapidly transform education systems at scale, using an evidence-based, technology-driven approach that tackles all core education challenges. Its model integrates technology-enabled tools, evidence-based structured pedagogy, real-time teacher coaching, and advanced data analytics, all designed to function effectively in even the most remote and resource-constrained environments. By developing local talent, strengthening government capacity, and up-skilling educators, NewGlobe ensures sustainable impact—empowering fragile regions to build resilient, high-quality public education systems at scale.

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The 5in5 Impact Alliance changes this leveraging NewGlobe Education’s proven model:

  • A Proven Solution, Not an Experiment: Unlike most development projects, this is not a test. It is backed by 15 years and $250M of R&D and has delivered the largest learning gains ever rigorously measured on the historical record.
  • Works in the Most Challenging Environments: This model has been proven at national scale in fragile contexts like Liberia and Northern Nigeria, where education is most at risk. Technology functions with limited power/connectivity.
  • No Implementation Risk: Governments don’t need to invent solutions—they need to adopt what is already working at scale. Built for Sustainability: Its model of local government ownership, white-labeled implementation, capacity-building and developing local talent enables it to thrive in fragile regions.
  • Radical Cost Efficiency: $20-$40 per student/year at scale, compared to typical development-funded programs at $200 per student/year. The program delivers 10x the impact at 1/10th the cost.

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Record-Breaking Learning Gains: The Largest Ever Measured at Scale.



In 2022, Nobel Laureate Prof. Michael Kremer released a groundbreaking paper on education that found NewGlobe generated among the largest learning gains ever measured at scale (Research was based on a multi-year, gold-standard randomized control trial – RCT). Kremer measured NewGlobe’s impact at between 0.8 and 1.3 SD, exceeding the 99th percentile of education interventions. This is not just theory—it works.

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This model has been rigorously tested and proven to deliver transformative learning gains even in the most fragile, conflict-affected regions, making it one of the most effective large-scale education solutions ever measured:

  • Liberia: Post decades of civil war and Ebola crisis, NewGlobe HALVED learning poverty from 95% to 41% as education performance shifted from levels comparable to Burundi to middle-income country levels (such as Malaysia) in a short number of years. The program also reduced teacher absenteeism by 80%.
  • Northern Nigeria (Kwara State): Implemented in areas at risk of violent extremism, tripled the rate of learning in the first year in literacy, and leapfrogged international results in mathematics.
  • Edo State, Nigeria: Tripled rate of learning in 4 months. Rebuilt public trust in public education (+40% enrollment public schools) and significantly reduced human trafficking rates.
  • Lagos State, Nigeria: Learning Poverty halved in four years, as education performance shifted from levels comparable to Chad and Niger to middle-income country levels (such as Malaysia).
  • In the Central African Republic, after decades of political instability, coups, and violent conflict, the programme in its first three weeks, tripled the amount of productive teaching time for students.

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5in5 Impact Alliance: A Bold Opportunity to Halve Learning Poverty

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Our Goal is Simple: Halve Learning Poverty for Five Million children in Five Years

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We are raising a fund that uniquely focuses on this historically intractable problem in fragile and vulnerable countries. This alliance will HALVE LEARNING POVERTY in five years for five million children in target crisis-affected, post-conflict, fragile, and economically vulnerable countries where learning poverty is extreme and transformation will have the greatest impact.


By working in partnership with local governments, the 5in5 Alliance will deploy NewGlobe’s proven education transformation model. This model, backed by rigorous research, ensures rapid learning gains and equips fragile states with the tools to halve learning poverty in less than five years. Examples of priority regions include the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Central African Republic, Guinea, Rwanda, and Northern Nigeria.

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Research-Driven Accountability

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To ensure impact, 5in5 will mobilize top-tier global researchers to drive accountability and ensure impact. We don’t just claim success—we rigorously measure and validate it with some of the world’s foremost education economists and impact evaluators.

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NewGlobe has worked with Nobel Laureate Prof. Michael Kremer and Stanford’s Prof. Eric Hanushek, among others, to evaluate and implement large-scale education transformations. These partnerships ensure that our interventions are backed by gold-standard research, producing some of the largest learning gains ever recorded.

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An Opportunity to Fund Transformative Impact


With just a handful of committed partners, we can drive historic educational transformation in the world’s most fragile and vulnerable countries. For $20-$40 per student per year, we can achieve one of the most lasting economic impacts by halving learning poverty in five years for five million children.


For every $100M committed (disbursed over five years), the 5in5 Impact Alliance will immediately implement and commit to Halve Learning Poverty for 1 Million students over five years. We expect to start in 2025-26, and scale to five million within two years.

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This is not another pilot experiment.
This is proven.
This is scalable.
This is urgent.

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