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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.

5in5 works with technical service providers that have demonstrated measurable impact at scale. NewGlobe, as an inaugural partner, has already delivered some of the largest learning gains ever recorded in rigorous global studies. By partnering with governments in resource-poor and crisis-affected states, 5in5 will implement this proven model and achieve lasting learning gains at one-tenth the cost of traditional programs.

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 ten-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 of economic hardship and vulnerability.

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 training.
  • Adults who cannot read struggle to escape poverty. They cannot read job applications, understand medical instructions, interpret the laws of their country, or understand their religious texts directly.
  • Nations with high learning poverty remain in perpetual crisis. Low literacy leads to weak economies, higher crime rates, and greater susceptibility to misinformation and manipulation.

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.


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 therefore the foundation of this transformation.

  • Differences in cognitive skills drive over 73% of GDP-growth variation 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 25 times that of sub-Saharan Africa.
  • Education is not only about economics – security is also at stake. In conflict-prone regions such as 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 Africa and across the Global South are advancing in education, the areas most in need remain the hardest to reach — where systemic barriers and limited government resources leave millions of children in learning poverty.

Today, conflict, fragility, and insecurity are expanding at an alarming rate, further entrenching learning poverty and blocking entire generations from opportunity. 5in5 focuses on the areas where education is hardest to deliver, where need is greatest and impact is most 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 decades of civil war and the Ebola crisis, learning poverty exceeded 80% before interventions began.
  • Economically vulnerable states: In Jigawa, Nigeria, 99% of students lacked foundational literacy, leaving an entire generation locked out of future economic opportunities.

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

The Breakthrough That Makes This Possible

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Many governments are partnering with NewGlobe to transform education systems at scale, using an evidence-based, technology-driven approach that addresses core education challenges holistically. The model integrates technology-enabled tools, structured pedagogy, real-time teacher coaching, and advanced data analytics, all designed to function effectively even in the most remote and resource-constrained environments.

By developing local talent, strengthening government capacity, and upskilling educators, NewGlobe ensures sustainable impact, empowering fragile regions to build resilient, high-quality public education systems at scale.

Key strengths of the model include:

  • A proven solution, not an experiment: Unlike most development projects, this model is not a pilot. It is backed by 15 years of research and $250 million in R&D and has delivered some of the largest learning gains ever recorded in rigorous global studies.
  • Effective in the most challenging environments: The approach has been proven at national scale in fragile contexts such as Liberia and Northern Nigeria, where education is most at risk. Technology functions reliably even with limited power and connectivity.
  • Low implementation risk: Governments do not need to reinvent solutions, they can adapt and adopt proven models already working at scale.
  • Radical cost efficiency: Compared to development-funded programs costing $100–200 per student per year, the model delivers ten times the impact at one-tenth the cost.

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


In 2022, Nobel Laureate Professor Michael Kremer released a groundbreaking paper on education showing that NewGlobe-supported schools generated some of the largest learning gains ever measured at scale. The research, based on a multi-year, gold-standard randomized control trial (RCT), measured impact between 0.8 and 1.3 standard deviations, placing it above the 99th percentile of education interventions worldwide.

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:  Following decades of civil war and the Ebola crisis, the program halved learning poverty from 95% to 41%. Education performance shifted from levels comparable to Burundi to those of middle-income countries such as Malaysia. The program also reduced teacher absenteeism by 80%.
  • Western Nigeria (Kwara State): Implemented in areas at risk of violent extremism, the program tripled the rate of literacy learning in the first year and surpassed international results in mathematics.
  • Edo State, Nigeria: The program tripled the rate of learning within four months, rebuilt public trust in education (+40% enrollment in public schools), and significantly reduced human-trafficking rates.
  • Lagos State, Nigeria: Learning poverty was halved within four years, as education performance improved from levels comparable to Chad and Niger to those of middle-income countries such as Malaysia.
  • Central African Republic: After decades of political instability, coups, and violent conflict, the program tripled productive teaching time within the first three weeks of implementation.

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5in5 Impact Alliance: Halving Learning Poverty

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Our goal is simple: halve learning poverty for five million children in five years.

We are raising a dedicated fund focused on tackling this historically intractable problem in fragile and vulnerable countries. This alliance aims to halve learning poverty within five years for five million children across crisis-affected, post-conflict, fragile, and economically vulnerable states where learning poverty is most severe and transformation will yield the greatest impact.

By working in partnership with local governments, the 5in5 Alliance will partner with NewGlobe to scale a proven education-transformation model. This model, backed by rigorous research, ensures rapid learning gains and equips fragile states with the tools needed to halve learning poverty in under five years.

Priority regions include Northern Nigeria, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Rwanda, India, and Pakistan.

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Research-Driven Accountability

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To ensure measurable impact, 5in5 will engage top global researchers to strengthen transparency and accountability to drive impact. We don’t just claim success; we rigorously measure and validate it with the world’s foremost education economists and impact evaluators.

Nobel Laureate Professor Michael Kremer and Stanford’s Professor Eric Hanushek, have evaluated large-scale education transformations. These partnerships ensure interventions are backed by gold-standard research and rigorous evidence.

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Funding Transformative Impact


5in5 is structured as a catalytic platform that will work, over time, with multiple governments, multiple service providers, and a range of funders to deliver measurable learning gains at scale.

Together, we can drive historic educational transformation in the world’s most fragile and resource-constrained countries. At one-tenth the cost of traditional education programs per student per year, we can achieve one of the most lasting economic impacts imaginable — halving learning poverty in five years for five million children.

For every $100 million committed (disbursed over five years), the 5in5 Impact Alliance will implement programs to halve learning poverty for one million students over a period of five years. We expect to start in 2026 and impact five million children over five years.

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

Download overview here
info@5in5.education