This report presents a series of data highlighting the tremendous financial commitment of African governments and the international community to achieve Education for All (EFA). Since 2001, real expenditure on education has risen by 6% annually across sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), according to the report. As a result of these investments, remarkable progress has been made in educational development in sub-Saharan Africa. The number of children in primary schooling has increased by 48% – from 87 million to 129 million – between 2000 and 2008. Enrolment in preprimary, secondary and tertiary education has also grown by more than 60% during the same period. Despite these significant improvements, many SSA countries are still a long way from achieving universal primary education (UPE) of adequate quality by 2015. While achieving UPE will remain the priority for most SSA countries, the report stresses that a more complex challenge in the region will be to design and implement appropriate policies for financing post-primary education. This report aims to provide governments and other stakeholders in SSA countries with a solid statistical foundation on education financing, while analysing related trends and policy trade-offs. It is hoped that this report marks an important step towards improved collection and use of education finance statistics for national planning, budgeting and monitoring.