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

After more than 50 years of development assistance to developing
countries, the rationale and structure of international assistance
mechanisms is under intensive critical review. The role of donors in
coordinating intervention within recipient countries and between one another,
and ownership of interventions and accountability for managing support by
recipient countries are under scrutiny as international and bilateral issues.
The need for meaningful insight into effective donor support for national
education systems has never been greater.
The U.S. bilateral program has undergone significant changes in structure over the
past decade, and is currently under intensive strategic review. The technical and
management capacity in USAID, the U.S.’s primary implementing agency, has been
under-resourced for years.
The World Bank has been criticized by some recipients as ineffective and heavyhanded;
the Fast-Track Initiative is undergoing an extensive international evaluation,
and major European donors have increasingly moved away from project assistance
to work through pooled funding, Sector Wide Approach (SWAp), and direct budget
support (DBS).
Recent studies of donor support to education (World Bank 2006, Chapman
and Quijada, EQUIP2 2008) raise questions about overall program impact and
sustainability, particularly in relation to learning outcomes and education quality.
The 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness promotes country-led development,
and focuses on the role of recipient nations in managing aid.
In 2008, the High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Ghana raised pointed
critiques of aid programs, in particular the inefficiencies and lack of coordination
among donors.
To a surprising extent, changes in aid modalities and other issues have not been
well informed by empirical data about what works and does not work — and
why — in particular contexts. A common finding of both the World Bank and
EQUIP2 education studies is that too few programs have rigorous evaluations,
particularly in terms of the impact on student learning. The Evaluation Gap
Working Group has highlighted the lack of solid evaluation as a significant
shortcoming in foreign assistance programs.
SECTION 1: INTROdUCTION
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