Numeracy Programs Research and Development Initiative

The Gates Foundation recently launched their Numeracy Programs Research and Development (NRD) Initiative, a catalytic intervention that takes a targeted approach to generating new cost-effective education organizations. NRD partners with the national governments of low and middle-income countries (LMICs) to create programs that help improve mathematical education for children.

What problem are they trying to solve?

In sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, eight out of ten children do not meet minimum proficiency standards in numeracy. In 2023, the Gates Foundation published their Numeracy Learning at Scale report, a comprehensive analysis of foundational numeracy programs, which showed that there’s a severe shortage of proven, scalable numeracy interventions in LMICs compared to literacy programs. Even when a numeracy program works well in a specific country, there are very few organizations capable of effectively deploying large-scale funding to scale it across multiple countries.

What do they do?

NRD takes a comprehensive approach to transforming numeracy education by creating partnerships between governments and implementing organizations. Their model involves identifying national governments with a strong commitment to scaling numeracy interventions, then carefully matching these governments with the organizations most capable of implementing cost-effective programs at scale.

Another key aspect of NRD’s strategy is the creation of public goods—teaching materials and methods that can be freely adopted and adapted by both governments and other organizations working in numeracy education. The initiative will work with leading pedagogical experts to develop and refine these numeracy programs, building evidence through rigorous evaluation throughout the process.

Why do we recommend them?

The NRD initiative fills an important gap in the ecosystem trying to improve early-grade education in LMICs. This is a catalytic intervention that we believe can create immediate impact through direct implementation, as well as long-term change through system-level improvements.

NRD creates impact through multiple pathways: direct implementation through government partnerships, development of new scalable numeracy organizations, and the creation of public goods that existing organizations can deploy. Even when we apply conservative estimates—assuming learning gains less than one-third of their minimum target of 0.3 standard deviations, and modest probabilities of national scale-up—NRD remains significantly more cost-effective than typical education recommendations.

What would they do with more funding?

NRD is starting out with limited initial pilot programs in each participating country. Additional donations could help dramatically expand NRD's capabilities and reach, allowing them to expand beyond urban centers into rural districts, enhance their evaluation capabilities, and invest more heavily in building government relationships—all critical factors in increasing the probability of successful national scale-up. Your support can help create evidence-based numeracy programs to make a vital impact on children’s education worldwide.