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Full
report :  |
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| Funding
Agency Contributions to Education for All |
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First
Draft
Clare Bentall, Edwina Peart, Roy Carr-Hill and Aidan Cox |
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The Declaration and Framework of the World Conference
on Education for All (henceforth 'Jomtien') focused attention
on basic education. Agencies were asked to consider ways to
assist with basic education through budgetary support; the provision
of technical co-operation, revitalised partnerships and a supportive
policy context. |
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This study examines what has happened to funding agency
contributions to EFA since Jomtien, focusing on financial contributions
to basic education, as well as policy and practice. It is based
on the responses to a survey of funding agencies, supplemented
by data from the Development Assistance Committee of OECD, as
well as a review of literature. |
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Agencies vary in their definitions of basic education.
In part this variation simply reflects a lack of agreement,
but can also be related to their own perceived expertise, their
foreign policy goals and their concerns about their status within
the agency community. It is also a consequence of the inclusive
nature of the consensus reached at Jomtien. Whilst agreement
across agencies is neither feasible nor necessary and agreement
between agencies and partner countries can be on a bilateral
basis, this does pose problems for reporting and comparison,
both nationally and internationally. |
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The data that has been received from is described
and analysed in Chapter 5; supplemented by data from the Development
Assistance Committee. The context is that the overall volume
of bilateral aid commitment has dropped in absolute terms during
the 1990s (although the high level at the beginning of the 1990s
is partly due to exceptional commitments at the time of the
Gulf War). Aid Commitments to education as a proportion of overall
aid have remained steady at around 15%. For those countries
providing disbursements data, proportions of overall aid to
education have increased over the decade. For multilaterals,
aid to education has varied throughout the decade, although
overall, it tends to remain less than 10%. The total absolute
volume of bilateral aid commitment to education has remained
roughly the same throughout the decade. Multilateral commitments
to education rose from $1000m in 1990, to nearly $2000m in 1994,
falling back to $1,300m in 1998. |
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Bilateral aid commitments to Basic Education (as a
percentage of commitments to all education), have increased
from a very low level at the beginning of decade to an average
of 25% in the latter part of the decade. For those countries
providing disbursement data, there has been a similarly dramatic
increase. Multilateral aid commitments to basic education (as
a proportion of their commitment to the education sector) have
been high throughout the 1990s at between 75% and 100%, although
disbursements have remained between 30% and 50%. The total value
of bilateral aid earmarked for basic education has increased
to around $500m at the end of the decade and disbursements (for
those countries providing it) have increased from almost zero
in 1990 to $170m in 1998. Among multilaterals, aid commitments
to basic education have increased from $550m to an average of
$1500m in the second half of the decade. |
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Perhaps the main message is the difficulty of collating
data not only for this survey but also for the national and
international reporting systems that already exist. In part
this has been exacerbated by the recent emphasis on joint funding
and sector programmes, but there appears also to be a generic
problem of accountability that was remarked upon at the beginning
of the decade; the situation does not seen to have improved
since then. |
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The Jomtien Conference called for targeting of countries
and of groups within countries. Based on what agencies have
sent us there is a clear commitment to human rights and poverty
reduction. Within that overall framework, there does appear
to be a focus on basic education (and especially primary education).
This has paralleled a focus on Africa and, within that region,
a focus on the most highly indebted countries, although different
agencies do this in different ways. Some other agencies focus
on countries "in transition", others have preferred to concentrate
their aid on a small number of countries. However, there has
also been the issue of education programmes specifically for
marginalised groups. The impact of this targeting on the overall
pattern of aid and upon countries in greatest need is less clear;
and the implied conditionality may be unhelpful. |
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Since Jomtien, there has also been an implicit debate
over the relative priority as between quantitative expansion
to ensure access and efforts to improve quality. On the whole,
where formal education has been firmly established for some
time, the emphasis tends to be on quality and relevance in order
to stop parents becoming disillusioned and keeping their children
away from school and to avoid disenchantment with education
on the whole. Where formal schooling has not been established
for such a long time, quality and relevance are indeed essential
to attract people but, in addition non formal solutions are
also promoted. Increasingly the solution are seen to be context
specific so that decentralisation is the key. |
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Adult education was highlighted as an area of neglect
in the Declaration. From the documentation, we have received,
although most of the agencies claim to be involved, the actual
level of activity is quite low. Moreover the impression given
is that any involvement is reactive rather than part of a longer
term strategy. |
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Language was another issue raised explicitly in the
Jomtien Declaration as having an important effect on access
and retention. However apart from the clear position of UNESCO
in favour of the use of mother tongue as the vehicle for as
long as possible, very few have a stated policy. Partly this
appears to reflect a view that languages policy is a political
issue on which it is not appropriate for agencies to intervene. |
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Conventional delivery systems, such as projects and
programmes, are seen to have failed and often not to have been
adopted by the host government when funding stopped. Instead
the emphasis has shifted to policy dialogue and partnership
to ensure that aid is used in accordance with host governments
policy priorities. Combined with the necessity to take a longer
term view of financial sustainability, this has led to the progressive
adoption/promotion of 'Sector Wide Approaches' by some agencies.
However, others are less sure, either because of restricted
staff or because of difficulties of identifying their own agency
contributions or because the situation in the countries which
they aid is not appropriate. From the partner governments point
of view, basket funding has to be handled by a financial system
creaking under the strain of managing the current inadequate
budget. Decentralisation simply adds to the complexity of administration.
From the agency side, the problem of accountability to their
own tax payer is ever present and the more intensive policy
dialogue required imposes strains on existing agency staff. |
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The profile of monitoring and evaluations has been
raised over the last decade. Firstly there have been increasing
attempts to introduce assessment and testing procedures into
schools in developing countries for monitoring purposes although,
in practice, agencies have resorted to baseline surveys; secondly
there have been increasing professionalisation in the organisation
of evaluation at the agency level, although the timelines still
leaves a lot to be desired. |
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There appears to have been a conclusive move away
from scholarships in the North and, to a lesser but still substantial
extent, away from counterpart training via long term TA/TC.
The majority of agencies now emphasise institutional capacity
building, strengthening etc., although exactly what this entails
is not always clear. In practice, many focus on strengthening
the (financial) management and planning systems. There is only
limited evidence of successful capacity building throughout
the system. |
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Overall the picture is mixed: a greater emphasis on
Basic Education but within declining commitments overall; clarification
of aims and policies but also some divergence; and continuing
difficulty in accountability. |
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