Although important financial sacrifices have been made in favor of education since the United Nations launched its first Development Decade in 1961, it seems increasingly difficult today to mobilize financial resources in proportion to the needs or the demand. The extension of schooling throughout the world is confronted with such constraints that the budgetary limitations of educational financing policies must be acknowledged. UNESCO's Division of Educational Policy and Planning has launched a preliminary inventory of innovative funding experiments carried out by member states. This document offers a synthesis of earlier national studies. Chapter 1 discusses the economic context of educational finance, focusing on major educational objectives (the total eradication of illiteracy and universalization of primary education); the major obstacle (greater than expected population increases in developing countries); rising costs; and educational financing problems exacerbated by the balance of payments deficit, the Third World's debt, unemployment, poverty, and famine. Chapter 2 discusses innovation problems, and chapter 3 describes the material, financial, and human resources for education. Chapter 4 discusses governmental and organizational structures and functions, and chapter 5 examines the school's output in relation to resource allocation. The last two chapters offer conclusions and recommendations for devising successful innovation projects. (38 references) (MLH)