The Power of Persistence: Education System ... - EQUIP123.net

• Partnership—specifically, within the context of MOE sector leadership and
its engagement with donor development partners; and
• Strengthening MOE Capacity and Systems—specifically, supporting
management, finance and administrative activities; data collection, analysis
and review; and policy and planning at the central and de-central levels
has strengthened.
The emphasis on privatization, community participation, and cost-sharing in
the education sector drew on the assessment of the broad mobilization required
to support the expansion of quality primary education within a context of
severely constrained resources. Focus on Learning (1992) notes, “Community
participation ...is not just an emergency stop-gap measure in times of financial
difficulty. It is a preferred alternative in its own right, promising greater
accountability and more efficiency.” Educating Our Future (1996) elaborates
on system support, noting, “[the MOE] will assist communities and voluntary
organizations that wish to develop their own schools.” The liberalization of
service provision overturned a 1972 Government of the Republic of Zambia
(GRZ) policy that had determined government as the sole provider of education,
and allowed civil society organizations, communities, and private entities to
open schools. Decentralization, as outlined in Educating Our Future, prioritized
devolution of power to decentralized levels, including districts and schools,
in an effort to support more effective and efficient planning, management,
and implementation of programs delivering basic education, reduce delay in
decision-making and implementation of policies, and cater for a greater degree
of democracy in system management and administration. Partnership goals are
elaborated in the next section.
Strategies
Educating Our Future provided foundation for subsequent sector programs,
arguably the primary vehicles for driving the reform agenda in Zambia: The Basic
Education Sub-Sector Investment Program (BESSIP), 1999-2002; The Ministry of
Education Strategic Plan (MOESP), 2003-2007; The Fifth National Development
Plan (FNDP) 2006-2010; and the Joint Assistance Strategy—Zambia, 2007-
2010. Over the reform period, donor agencies more often than not drove their
engagement and activities through MOE programs. However, many continued to
support activities outside of Ministry-led channels. Despite the hope for reform
embedded in the 1991 transition, the Chiluba era was marked by corruption
and continuing economic stagnation. One practitioner notes: “In 1995, it was
impossible to tell the number of teachers we had to the Ministry of Finance.”
Another recounts that even as donors were coming in, fresh examples of low
SECTION 2: lESSONS fROM COUNTRY CASE STUdIES
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