Determinants of education attainment and development goals in Yemen

Yemen is off track to achieve the Millennium Development Goal of universal primary education by 2015. Its net enrolment ratio in primary education is far from being satisfactory, especially for females. The empirical analysis of this paper suggests that there is ample scope for Government intervention, though, so as to enable the attainment of education goals, including for higher educational cycles. A key finding is that both development of rural public infrastructure to facilitate travel to school and building of more schools and hiring of more (female) teachers would strongly promote attendance in all educational levels, particularly for females. Interventions that improve child health would also raise enrolment in primary education. Finally, education goals would be achieved faster if economic conditions improved, especially at the higher levels of education. JEL Classification: H52 (Government Expenditures and Education), I21 (Analysis of Education), O12 (Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development). 1 Background paper elaborated in support of the UNDP/UN-DESA/World Bank project “Realizing the Millennium Development Goals through socially-inclusive macroeconomic policies”. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the institutions with which they are affiliated.