Making the investment case for education doesn’t weaken the moral argument; it strengthens it.

Charlie Habershon has been appointed Partner at Dalberg Advisors. Based in Nairobi, he serves as the global Co-lead of the Education to Employment Practice. A qualified secondary school teacher, Charlie brings a distinctive perspective that bridges lived classroom experience with system-level strategy, working to ensure that education systems prepare young people for work, life, and an increasingly uncertain future.

Charlie works closely with governments, multilaterals, foundations, and private sector partners to design and deliver education system reforms and innovative financing solutions. His work spans supporting the Global Partnership for Education on innovative finance and partnership models, advising philanthropic foundations on scaling effective EdTech and AI-enabled solutions, and leading climate-focused education initiatives with UNICEF to strengthen system resilience and protect learning outcomes in crisis- and climate-affected contexts. He also leads the Education Finance Network, a global platform bringing together funders and practitioners to unlock better financing for education. 

Prior to joining Dalberg, Charlie set up and ran a social enterprise in Sierra Leone and taught History and Economics in a London secondary school through the Teach First program, experiences that continue to shape his focus on teachers, transitions, and the real-world outcomes of education. In this conversation, Charlie reflects on what education systems continue to underestimate, where the education-to-employment pipeline most often breaks down, and how financing, resilience, and emerging technologies must be rethought to ensure education keeps pace with the world young people are entering. 

You began your career as a secondary school teacher and now work at the level of national and global education systems. Looking back, what is the one truth about how students actually experience education that you think large-scale reforms still routinely underestimate?

What still feels most underestimated is the power of the teacher, and the adults around a child, in shaping how education is actually experienced. 

From a policy perspective, teachers are too often framed as the constraint in the system, something to be managed or fixed. But if you ask most students what they remember about school, they rarely talk about curricula or reforms. They talk about a teacher who believed in them, challenged them, or simply showed up consistently at a formative moment in their life. 

As a teacher, I saw firsthand how powerful positive role modelling and affirmation can be, especially during periods of transition. And alongside teachers, parents matter enormously. Where parents were engaged and supported, the difference in outcomes for their children was striking. 

If we are serious about improving education, we need to put teachers and parents at the center of reform, not as an afterthought, but as the core investment. Supporting them well is one of the highest-return investments an education system can make. 

Globally, we see rising school enrolment alongside persistent youth unemployment and underemployment. In your view, where does the E2E pipeline most often break down, and what kinds of reforms have you seen genuinely bridge that gap? 

One of the most fragile points in the education-to-employment pipeline is the transition from primary to secondary education. Primary education is often relatively well funded and protected, while secondary education receives far less attention, despite being absolutely critical for long-term outcomes. 

This is where we see large dropout rates, particularly for girls. As costs rise and prioritization shifts within households, girls are often the first to be pulled out of school. The consequences are profound, from early marriage to entrenched gender roles, with lasting effects on individuals, communities, and economies. 

Some of the most encouraging progress I have seen comes from models that combine financial support with strong social and role-modelling components. Organizations such as CAMFED, have shown how powerful it can be to surround girls with female role models who have navigated education and employment themselves. These kinds of interventions do not just keep girls in school; they help them see a future worth staying in school for.

You’ve worked extensively on innovative financing with partners like GPE and through the Education Finance Network. What’s one financing assumption in global education that you think needs to be fundamentally rethought to see real outcomes? 

I think we need to be much more explicit about education as an investment, not just a moral imperative. The right to education is non-negotiable, and that argument remains essential. But on its own, it is not enough to unlock the scale of financing the sector needs.

Too often, we avoid talking about returns, partly because it can feel uncomfortable. But ministries of finance and investors are making choices across many competing priorities. If we cannot clearly articulate the economic and social return on investing in education, capital will continue to flow elsewhere. 

We need better evidence, clearer narratives, and a stronger track record that links education spending to productivity, resilience, and long-term growth. Making that case does not undermine the moral argument; it strengthens it. 

Based on your work with UNICEF on climate-affected and crisis contexts, how should education systems be redesigned to remain relevant and resilient in a world of climate shocks? 

Our work with UNICEF in East and Southern Africa really underscored how exposed education systems already are to climate shocks. Since 2005, the region has experienced more than 700 extreme weather events, most of them floods, droughts, and storms, with around three quarters made more likely or more severe by climate change. 

The impact on education is significant. Between 2005 and 2024, climate shocks caused an estimated USD 1.3 billion in immediate loss and damage to education systems in the region, largely through damaged infrastructure and prolonged learning disruption. Over the same period, learning for around 130 million children was disrupted, translating into an estimated USD 120 to 140 billion in lost future earnings. 

What stood out to me is that resilience works and it pays. Between 2023 and 2025, UNICEF supported the construction and rehabilitation of over 1,000 climate-resilient classrooms. Despite the intense 2024 cyclone season, around 99 percent remained intact. In places like Mozambique, this meant schools could reopen quickly, or not close at all, protecting learning when it mattered most. 

Redesigning education for a climate-affected world means baking resilience into system design from the start. Investing early in resilient infrastructure is not just about protection, it is one of the clearest returns on investment education systems can make. 

As you step into the Partner role and continue leading Dalberg’s Education to Employment Practice globally, what is one uncomfortable question the sector needs to start asking itself? And what is a way to answer it? 

I think the uncomfortable question is whether our education systems are actually evolving fast enough for the world young people are entering. Education systems are understandably cautious and slow to change, but the pace of disruption is accelerating, from climate shocks to demographic pressure to the rapid rise of AI.

The answer is not radical upheaval for its own sake. It is about returning to first principles. What are the core skills and capabilities young people need to be resilient in an uncertain future? How do we build adaptability, problem-solving, and lifelong learning into systems that were often designed for a very different economy? 

AI, in particular, presents both risk and opportunity. Used thoughtfully, it could help address teacher shortages, personalize learning, and improve system efficiency. But it requires care, safeguards, and a clear focus on children’s wellbeing. The sector needs to be more open to experimentation, while staying grounded in the fundamentals of what good education is meant to do. 

Connect with Charlie to know more about Dalberg’s work in supporting Education to Employment pathways: