New Partnerships for EFA: Building on Experience by Alexandra Draxler Published jointly by IIEP and the World Economic Forum and to be launched at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, 23-27 January 2008. UNESCO and the World Economic Forum Global Education Initiative have launched a new programme, “Partnerships for Education”(PfE). PfE aims to create a global coalition for multistakeholder partnerships for education, including the private sector, in order to advance progress towards the objectives of Education for All (EFA). To this end, PfE will carry out studies and develop tools and frameworks for the establishment, implementation and evaluation of multi-stakeholder partnerships. It will build capacity for implementation at the country, regional and global levels, through decision support, sharing of good practice, advocacy, evaluation, and the mobilization of practitioners, donors, governments and experts. This study was commissioned to help lay the groundwork for PfE in complement to a set of case studies and the development of a database to document good practice. It defines basic concepts and surveys the hopes, expectations, needs and pitfalls in partnerships for education. It provides recommendations for action as well as avenues for reflection. It is intended for development practitioners at the international and country levels.

Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships for Education

The World Economic Forum and UNESCO's Partnerships for Education initiative was established in 2007 to identify and promote good practices in the implementation of Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships for Education. One of the main findings of this review of the existing literature on such practices is that there is insufficient reporting of the successes and failures of these initiatives. The lack of sufficient monitoring and evaluation has been one of the reasons why there has been so much duplication of effort in creating pilot projects, and why many of these have failed satisfactorily to deliver on the expectations of those involved.

As a contribution to the overall objectives of the PfE initiative, members of the Technical Advisory Group of Partnerships for Education have provided empirical examples of existing partnerships, that are intended to support and supplement the conceptual analyses embodied in the review.

Partnerships for Education works in large part through the active engagement of its Technical Advisory Groups, drawn from the private sector, civil society, governments and multilateral organisations. Members of the Technical Advisory Group working in support of this review were invited to choose case studies that they felt reflected the themes of the report in ways that had particular meaning and importance for them. While broad guidance was provided on the sorts of issues that might be covered, authors were encouraged to illustrate them through a diversity of modes of representation, thereby reflecting the range of experiences encountered in implementing such partnerships. In presenting these case studies here, we therefore do so explicitly in recognition that there is no single way to deliver effective partnerships, and that their implementation must take into consideration the particular circumstances pertaining in the situations where they are being introduced. This plurality of voices concerning the delivery of partnerships is further reinforced by including different perspectives on the same initiatives in both Namibia and Colombia .

The case studies are grouped by the broad region in which they are found, beginning with Africa . Namibia has seen very active participation of a diversity of stakeholders in its introduction of ICT in schools, and two contrasting accounts of the experiences involved are included here. First, Niamh Brannigan, from The Global e-Schools and Communities Initiative (GeSCI), highlights the role that a global initiative such as GeSCI can play in supporting such initiatives, and then Vanessa Shields from Juárez and Associates reports on a series of contrasting interviews that were conducted with various different partners who were also involved in delivering aspects of this programme of activities. Finally in the section on Africa, a private sector perspective on implementing partnerships is given by Reza Bardien from Microsoft, who describes the Partners in Learning initiative that they implemented with the Platinum mining company Lonmin in the Marikana region of South Africa .

The Latin American case studies begin with two rather different perspectives on the development of virtual schools in Colombia . The first is by Pablo Jaramillo, and traces the ten year development of the programme from its initial inception by the Coffee Growers Federation in Caldas to its roll out over a ten year period, whereas the second (by Graciela Mann, Daniel Pier and Katharine Yasin) draws wider conclusions from a range of experiences people have had in seeking to implement such multi-stakeholder partnerships in the country. The third case study, by Eduardo Monge, draws on the experiences of the Omar Dengo Foundation in seeking to encourage the development of entrepreneurship in Costa Rica , and the final Latin American example is a review by Kjell Enge of partnerships that have been created to support the enhancement of female education in Guatemala .

Three examples of MSPEs are then highlighted from Asia and the Middle East. The first of these was selected by the World Bank Institute and explores the creation and initial deployment of the GILAS (Gearing-up Internet Literacy and Access for Students) project in the Philippines , highlighting five key lessons learned, all of which have wider resonance elsewhere. This is followed by an example of the Intel® Teach Program drawn from Egypt , which draws on the individual experiences of particular teachers in using new technologies in the classroom. The third case is taken from the first of the World Economic Forum's Global Education Initiative activities in Jordan , and again emphasises five main success factors gleaned from its implementation as perceived by Michelle Selinger from Cisco Systems.

Finally, Sheila Aikman from Oxfam draws on experiences from a rather different type of partnership initiative, namely the Commonwealth Education Fund, which sought to implement activities in 16 different countries across the world.

These case studies have therefore been written from the contrasting experiences of people in the private sector, global organisations, civil society, foundations, and academic institutions. They deliberately reflect a diversity of styles and experiences, and it is our hope that they will not only encourage others to embark on similar initiatives, but also that such new partnerships may draw on the experiences and lessons learned from those that have already sought to bring together the public sector, private companies and civil society organisations to deliver on the Education for All goals.

Africa

Latin America

Asia and Middle East

Other