Dialogue in Pursuit of Development - Are you looking for one of ...

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holders are an important step that has the potential to lead to sustainable
government systems, sustainable economies, and meeting the development
needs of millions of people. As one works through the dialogues that form
the basis of poverty reduction strategies, sector-wide and direct budget support,
however, one can recognise traces of what has been. The commitment
to the international development targets made by the development community
has to be matched with a commitment to change its own institutions
as much as to strengthen those of its partners with whom the development
community is in unequal relationships. This is in order to be sure that
development institutions inculcate the appropriate competencies and attitudes
toward reform that are required to engage in strengthened dialogue
with those with whom they are in dialogue.
Dialogue surrounding an education ‘SWAP’: the Zambian BESSIP
Several of the issues noted here are exemplified by the case of dialogue surrounding
the establishment of a sector-wide approach (SWAP) in education in
Zambia, in the late 1990s. In Zambia, the World Bank had been in discussion
for some time with government officials attempting to establish the basis of
support across the whole education sector. Frustration with the difficulty of
coordinating the four ministries responsible led to the delimitation of subsectoral
support for ‘basic’ education, entailing only one ministry. Dialogue
between the Ministry of Education and the wider donor community led to a
‘joint appraisal’ of what became the “Basic Education sub-Sector Investment
Programme (BESSIP)”, the financial requirements of which needed to include
contributions from across the development community of some USD280m
for the period 1999–2002. Substantial, pooled budgetary support for the
programme was pledged by Britain, Norway, Ireland and Holland, all of whom
were committed to non-earmarked, programmatic funding.
The World Bank, however, was the first agency to enter into negotiations
with the Zambian Government on an IDA credit for BESSIP. Because of the
Bank’s procedural requirements, these negotiations entailed the specification
of certain management modalities. For instance, a Bank-approved financial
management expert was to be appointed, as well as a procurement
expert to lend support to the establishment of sound, Bank-vetted systems,
as well as to track IDA funds specifically. Various indicators, similarly, were
agreed by which the progress of the educational reform would be assessed.
Representation to the Zambian Government by the Dutch and British observers
to the IDA negotiations led to some modifications of the ‘conditions’,
given that this first agreement was likely to affect the whole of BESSIP
and thus to make the bilateral agencies beholden to certain Bank-specified
conditions of the agreement.
Further agreements between other development agencies and the Zambian
Government followed. Four of the like-minded agencies were willing to