Although international organizations are often seen as an important transformative power on the
international arena, we know less about how and when they promote better domestic institutions.
Using data on education outcomes in 53 African countries from 1994-2008, we show that IOs use
several empirically distinct channels through which they influence domestic outcomes: conditionality,
rankings and international integration. We find that integration and high international rankings
have a positive impact on education outputs, while IOs have a negative influence when they use
conditional aid. Our findings have implications both for the diffusion of the quality of government
agenda, and for advancing our knowledge of IO power
