What could countries spend the COD Aid payment on?
Anything. There would be no restrictions on the use of the funds. This is the essence of the “hands off” nature of the payment. The funds could be used for traditional educational inputs (e.g. textbooks, teacher training, school construction) but the true bottlenecks to making progress might be of a different nature. For example, the funds could be used to construct roads or provide bus transportation if travel costs are a key obstacle for certain students. Alternatively, the funds could be used to improve disbursement procedures if they are hindering educational progress. Ultimately, the COD Aid payment would provide the flexibility to address whatever particular obstacle is most problematic in the given country.
