literacy for life; EFA global monitoring report, 2006 - Institut de ...

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118 / CHAPTER 4
2
Education for All Global Monitoring Report
A significant
EFA external
financing gap
remains
Long-term, predictable aid is essential
Although aid data on education are problematic,
some broad global conclusions can be drawn
(Table 4.7). Between 1999 and 2003, a period that
straddles the World Education Forum and the
Millennium Summit, overall aid to education
averaged US$5.5 billion, of which US$1.5 billion
went to basic education. The figures in 2003
for both education and basic education were
significantly higher than the average for both
categories (US$6.3 billion and US$2.1 billion
respectively), signalling a potentially important
upward trend.
In addition, for the reasons noted above, these
figures excluded aid to education through budget
support and the category ‘education, level
unspecified’ and both of these types of aid have
been expanding. Table 4.7 also excludes non-DAC
bilateral donors and non-concessional lending
by the multilateral donor agencies, private flows
and aid to education in other sectors. If the FTI
estimates of budget support adduced above were
added to the totals in Table 4.7, overall aid to
education in 2003 would increase by
approximately US$800 million. If half of this
is assigned to basic education, and if all of
‘education, level unspecified’ from DAC bilateral
donors (based on 1999-2003 averages) is
allocated to basic education – the FTI Secretariat
proposition – a further US$1.2 billion would
accrue to basic education in 2003, giving a total
of about US$3.3 billion. However, these figures
should be treated with the utmost caution for
the reasons given earlier.
Regardless of whether the low or the high
estimates are taken, a significant EFA external
financing gap remains. In 2002, this Report
estimated that US$7 billion was needed each year
for the universal primary education (UPE) and
gender parity goals to be achieved. This required
an additional US$5.6 billion annually on top of aid
Table 4.7: Total ODA to education and basic education, five-year annual
averages for 1999—2003 and 2003 (constant 2002 US$ billions)
Bilateral donors (DAC Countries)
Major multilateral donors
Total ODA
1999–2003 average
Education
Note: Multilateral donors are those included in Table 4.5.
Source: Aid data annex, Tables 1.1 and 2.
Basic
education
2003
Basic
Education education
4.22 0.91 4.65 1.16
1.31 0.59 1.66 0.94
5.53 1.50 6.31 2.10
levels at the beginning of this decade. Thus, even
the higher figure for basic education in 2003 is
still well short of the estimated need for meeting
two of the EFA goals, let alone for adult literacy
and the other EFA goals (UNESCO, 2002b).
Aid is not the miracle cure for achieving
EFA; domestic resources are key. But aid is
important, and since Dakar there has been a
welcome increase in commitments for basic
education. Nevertheless, there is a considerable
way to go before the Dakar commitments will
be met in full and needy countries will be able
to rely on a predictable flow of aid to ensure
their necessary recurrent costs can be met
(Sperling and Balu, 2005).
This is especially important in those African
countries with tax revenues insufficient to
achieve UPE, provide publicly financed secondary
education and meet the other EFA goals, as well
as to generate the modern sector jobs that school
graduates seek. A low skills base is a constraint
on economic growth, while low growth limits both
the financial opportunities to improve skills levels
and the political opportunities to introduce
reforms to achieve EFA (Fredriksen, 2005a).
In circumstances such as these, aid can assist
governments in taking politically sensitive
sector-reform decisions, as long as it is
predictable, long-term and can be used to
meet recurrent costs. Such decisions include:
School fee elimination: Aid can enable
governments to finance the transition to
free primary education that is key to the
achievement of UPE.
Budget trade-offs: Aid (combined with policy
dialogue on poverty reduction) can permit
governments to make difficult budgetary tradeoffs
that allow more equitable allocations to
basic education, particularly in rural areas.
Teachers’ salaries: Aid can help satisfy
demands from teacher unions to increase
salaries, which have declined in real income
over the past thirty years (UNESCO, 2004a),
and enable governments to recruit badly
needed additional teachers. Where new
contract teachers have been recruited
at salaries below civil service pay scales
(e.g. in francophone Africa), aid can finance
the professional development of these new
and usually under-qualified teachers.
Secondary and higher education: Aid can facilitate
an expansion and financing of secondary and
tertiary education that does not adversely affect
the financing of basic education. (Major policy