Universal primary education (UPE) is one of the main aims of Official Development Aid (ODA). In the last years, the issues of aid effectiveness were widely discussed in the literature. Little empirical evidence of its effectiveness exists, particularly for fragile states. In these countries, mainly in Sub-Saharan Africa, universal primary schooling will be off target for 2015, so invalidates the Millennium Development Goals. By means of a panel database, we attempt to measure the effects of official development assistance in education over a sample of 17 fragile states in Africa from 1999 to 2010. We use the most disaggregated and reliable data existing. On one hand, our results indicate that aid to primary education has a positive and significant effect on school enrollment, particularly for gender equity. On the other hand, generally, a non significant impact on primary completion can be observed. Nevertheless, concerning gender analysis aid has a positive and significant effect on girls' primary enrollment and completion rates. Finally, our models show that governance variables appear to have an impact on the relationship between aid toward education and educational participation.
