Financing Education / pdf - Unesco

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PROGRESS IN FINANCING EDUCATION FOR ALL What progress within the Framework for Action? Saharan Africa, South Asia, and among least developed countries and those emerging from conflict. Higher priority should be given to debt relief linked to poverty reduction programmes. Aid to education increased between 2000 and 2004 by 65% before falling back somewhat in 2005; aid to basic education increased by 90% before a similar fall-back. However, the Framework focuses on education’s share of aid. Within aid allocated directly to sectors, education’s share remained constant at 13% across all developing countries, and increased from 14% to 16% for the least developed countries. The share of education aid going to basic education increased from 40% to 46% across all developing countries, and from 52% to 59% for the least developed countries. With respect to geographical allocation, sub- Saharan Africa continues to receive the largest share of aid to education and to basic education (30% and 34% respectively in 2004–2005). South and West Asia received a large increase in the share for basic education, from 16% in 1999–2000 to 31% in 2004–2005. The share of aid to basic education targeted to low-income countries increased from around 65% to 71% over the same period. Debt relief for the thirty countries, potentially forty, that have become or are becoming qualified by preparing a poverty reduction strategy (among other requirements) has been broadened from bilateral debt to incude also debt owed to the IMF, IDA and the African and Inter-American Development Banks. (iv) Funding agencies should coordinate their efforts around sector-wide reforms and sector policies, and make longer term and more predictable commitments. Since 2000 the movement to improve the effectiveness of all aid through greater harmonization between donors and alignment between donors and governments has accelerated, and the 2005 Paris Declaration concretized it. One consequence has been the growing support of multiple donors for sector-wide programmes with sectoral budget support, such as for education or basic education. Across least developed countries, the share of total aid for basic education in the form of sectoral support increased from 13% to 35% and is now much higher than the share for individual projects. The Fast Track Initiative, proposed at Dakar and established in 2002, has taken up seriously the proposal that aid should be coordinated around sector-wide reforms and policies. Plan endorsement by in-country donor staff encourages alignment and harmonization across all sources of aid in addition to that from the FTI’s own Catalytic Fund. By end August 2007, education sector plans of thirty-two countries had been endorsed. As yet, there has been little concrete success in designing longer-term, more predictable aid in general, or for basic education. Potential improvements may exist through the European Commission’s consideration of long-term MDG contracts, the United Kingdom’s call for ten-year education plans in sub-Saharan African countries and the future development of the FTI Catalytic Fund. The final part of the Framework dealing with the financing of EFA states that: (v) No countries seriously committed to Education for All will be thwarted in their achievement of this goal by lack of resources. Keys to releasing resources will be evidence of political commitment and effective consultation with civil society in developing, implementing and monitoring EFA plans. Global trends in domestic expenditure on education, and changes in both the level and distribution of external aid for basic education, are positive. In each case, though, there are two provisos. The trends are not always very strong, and significant variations exist among countries and, in the case of aid, among donors. In the area of domestic education expenditure, while the data on basic education are too limited to draw any conclusions, measures of total education expenditure have on the whole been increasing, particularly for most countries in sub-Saharan Africa and for low-income countries overall. The second ‘key’ to releasing increased aid for EFA is effective consultation with civil society. Although no comprehensive review yet exists, certain patterns are beginning to emerge (Mundy, 2006). There have been dramatic shifts in both government and donor policies towards civil society organizations. Education sector policies in almost every country now call for some form of partnership between government and these organizations. Global trends in domestic expenditure on education, and changes in both the level and distribution of external aid for basic education, are positive 173
2 0 8 0 CHAPTER 4 Education for All Global Monitoring Report Some countries and donors have approached the compact made at Dakar within the framework of the FTI In addition, in contrast to the 1990s, the notion of partnership refers less to the expansion of a service delivery role and more to the importance of civil society participation in the formulation of national education sector policies. Donor organizations increasingly refer to the role civil society can play in holding governments accountable. On the other hand, the new call for partnership is not always straightforward. Governments clearly seek ways to manage and sometimes limit civil society participation in policy deliberations and to use organizations to legitimize rather than to influence the content of sector plans. Tensions and challenges arise particularly out of the dual advocacy/service-delivery role now expected from civil society organizations. The report card for donors is mixed. Overall, aid for basic education has been increasing and has been marginally better targeted to low-income counties. The doubling of aid by some donors is impressive. Yet, in spite of the increase, aid to basic education represents only 6% of sector-allocable aid and one-third of the DAC donors have actually reduced aid to basic education since 1999–2000. The message from Dakar was that if a government demonstrated commitment to basic education, donors would respond. A country-by-country assessment of the extent to which this has occurred is limited, as the contribution of aid to total expenditure on education in 1999 and 2005 is known for only twenty-one least developed countries. For this group the share of aid in total expenditure in both years was 11%, showing that increases in aid closely kept pace with increases in domestic expenditure. However, it is clear that the situation regarding domestic expenditure on education and the amounts of aid received vary greatly by country. Some countries and donors have approached the compact made at Dakar within the framework of the FTI. As of August 2007, thirty-two countries had developed education sector plans that local donor representatives had endorsed. Not all low-income countries have adopted this route for attracting more aid; for instance, large countries such as Bangladesh, India and Pakistan have not. However, many countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Central America have joined the FTI. While no causal relationships can be drawn between being an endorsed FTI country and having increased the Figure 4.18: Changes in the share of GNP devoted to education in twenty-one FTI-endorsed countries, 1999—2005 Gambia Nicaragua Mauritania Cameroon Mongolia Guyana Rep. of Moldova Guinea Niger Lesotho Madagascar Kyrgyzstan Cambodia Benin Ghana Mozambique Mali Kenya Tajikistan Senegal Ethiopia -1.0 -0.5 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 1999–2005 change (percentage points) Source: Annex, Statistical Table 11. priority for education sector domestic funding, it is interesting to see what happened to funding for education in these FTI countries between 1999 and 2005. Data are available for twenty-one of the thirty-two countries (Figure 4.18). The share of education in GNP increased in fourteen of these countries and fell in seven. Of the former group, the increase was equal to 1% of GNP or more in nine countries. Of the seven countries where the share fell, it did so by more than 1% in only one case. However, it is somewhat surprising that the share would fall in any of these countries. Figure 4.19 compares annual growth rates in domestic expenditure on education in thirty-two low-income countries with annual growth rates in aid to education between 1999 and 2005, to assess whether increased domestic spending has moved broadly in tandem with higher aid growth rates. While there is no necessarily causal effect and there are several outliers, this appears to be the case in most countries, particularly those with endorsed FTI plans, providing some tentative support to the notion that external financial resources, while still very limited, are beginning to move in the direction anticipated at Dakar. Since 2000 there has been a global acceleration in financial commitments made to EFA by both 174
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Financing Education / pdf - Unesco

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