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Among the central strategies that have been implemented during the past two decades have been decentralization to improve accountability and efficiency, expanded community and parent involvement, curriculum reform and provision of learning materials, teacher training, increased funding for education, language policy, school based management, achievement testing, and establishing standards, among others. Virtually all donor programs have supported each of these initiatives at some point, but the present focus on improving quality places the burden on donors to concentrate on the most effective mechanisms, modalities, and strategies. Multiple studies indicate that the most necessary improvements require system changes rather than only resource transfers. Glewwe and Kremer (2005) found that while access and enrollment can be increased at relatively low cost and largely on the basis of increased resources, there is little evidence that merely adding education inputs has an impact on learning outcomes. Furthermore, because systems in developing countries are weak, financial transfers may create distortions in funding allocation and fail to address the more significant issues of incentives, accountability, appropriate curriculum, and effective teachers (Glewwe and Kremer, 2005). This is consistent with the findings of Hanushek and Wößmann, who identified key system issues of capacity and policy gaps, efficiency and management as major constraints to improving learning outcomes. A challenge for donors is to identify ways of helping partner countries to create sustainable effective improvements in access, completion, and learning outcomes on a national level. Over the long term, sustainable improvements require more than subsidies, technical solutions, and filling financial gaps. As important as the resource limitations are in many countries, the heavy lifting required for sustainable improvements in education quality is not financial so much as institutional and political. More mature and effective systems of introducing and implementing changes in a complex system must be developed, and donors and recipients must move beyond the rhetoric of ‘owned’ reforms, and ‘country-led’ development to effective means of accompanying partner countries in strengthening their systems. This report first considers how changes take hold in education systems, what factors impede or support changes, and what role donor activities can play. The next two sections of the report deal with two crucial aspects of reform: First, understanding what we mean by ‘aid effectiveness’ in the context of education, and; second, the value of a systems approach to education reform as a means of identifying appropriate and effective roles for donors. 16 SECTION 1: INTROdUCTION
An obvious question for donors is—how can support be more effective What are the means and measures of effective aid Therefore, a starting point for this discussion is to explore some of the elements in the aid effectiveness dialogue and their implications for accompanying reforms in education systems. EvALUATINg AID EFFECTIvENESS IN EDUCATION REFORM: ExPLORINg CONCEPTS At the broadest level, the national debate within the United States about foreign assistance is over what role, if any, foreign aid should play in US foreign policy and national security considerations. The current consensus within the development community is that the formulation of a Three-D strategy—defense, diplomacy, and development—is essential, and that the development arm of the triangle has been relatively neglected. A more particular set of questions for the development sector deals with whether aid is effective, what form it should take, and how it should be allocated. The researchers and authors of this report examine a sector subset of the question of effectiveness—whether international assistance is effective in improving education systems abroad, and if so, what strategies or approaches are most effective. Effectiveness is an elusive concept, and needs to be unpacked. Within the term ‘effectiveness’ are several concepts that are sometimes used interchangeably or as proxies for effectiveness—sustainability, capacity building/institutional development, ownership, and scaling up. In this section the authors seek to define these terms, which will be useful in understanding the case studies. Effectiveness After more than 50 years of experience in various forms of bilateral and multilateral international assistance, one would think that the answer to the relatively straightforward question, “Is aid effective” could be quickly and easily forthcoming. But it is surprisingly difficult to answer with certainty. The literature on aid effectiveness has gone through multiple cycles of theory, revision, evaluation, seminal research, refutation, and renewal. The current development bookshelf has many notable, and contradictory, studies by serious development economists. William Easterly, in White Man’s Burden, argues that, overall, foreign aid has had little positive impact, and actually creates as many problems as it solves. He attributes this to a “big plan” mentality that overlooks or undervalues seeking local solutions (Easterly, 2006). Jeffrey Sachs, in An End to Poverty, argues that aid has been and can be successful, and that much greater investment is needed SECTION 1: INTROdUCTION 17
Page 1 and 2: The Power of Persistence Education
Page 4 and 5: table of Contents Acknowledgments F
Page 6 and 7: generously granted us their time an
Page 8 and 9: Foreword The United States Agency f
Page 11 and 12: Executive Summary EQUIP2 Education
Page 13 and 14: local points of contact. In fact, b
Page 15 and 16: Namibia has successfully developed
Page 17 and 18: Sustainability in the context of sy
Page 19: • Manage policy engagement and re
Page 23 and 24: After more than 50 years of develop
Page 25: to the point of functional literacy
Page 29 and 30: • Was the investment in education
Page 31 and 32: A final perspective on ownership, a
Page 33 and 34: and recipients. The World Bank has
Page 35 and 36: the term differently. Donors someti
Page 37 and 38: Country commitment to improving pol
Page 39 and 40: The importance of these insights, b
Page 41 and 42: Table: Simple, Complicated, and Com
Page 43 and 44: Basic principles of systems thinkin
Page 45 and 46: Among the many aspects of systems t
Page 47 and 48: EQUIP2 Education Systems Reform Fra
Page 49 and 50: may or may not be influenced by the
Page 51: • There are no magic bullets. Par
Page 55 and 56: These case studies look at educatio
Page 57: El Salvador Egypt Namibia Nicaragua
Page 60 and 61: eform support during the 1980s and
Page 62 and 63: system. In the same year, the USAID
Page 64 and 65: CASE ANALySIS: DIMENSIONS OF REFORM
Page 66 and 67: increased during this period, parti
Page 68 and 69: militant groups (at least until 199
Page 70 and 71: the growing political will and capa
Page 72 and 73: political will and experience in bo
Page 75 and 76: EgyPT TIMELINE
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El Salvador: Summary COUNTRy CONTEx
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financing, and ensuring adequate le
Page 82 and 83:
Impact Structurally, the education
Page 84 and 85:
CASE ANALySIS: DIMENSIONS OF REFORM
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2005, USAID assistance further stre
Page 88 and 89:
EDUCO’s success exemplifies a tec
Page 90 and 91:
workshop with representatives of bo
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• The continuing commitment to th
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El Salvador Time Line Before 1988 1
Page 98 and 99:
Strategies Especially in the early
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In terms of quality, the impact on
Page 102 and 103:
The second aspect is that the profe
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• The complex and holistic nature
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efforts have been studied closely,
Page 109 and 110:
NAMIBIA TIMELINE
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Nicaragua: Summary COUNTRy CONTExT
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ASP won the support of donor agenci
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Nicaragua Education Indicators Indi
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Though the strong leadership of Min
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eform. Starting from the early 1990
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Nicaragua Time Line Before 1986 198
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growth; primary enrollment expanded
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accountability and corruption led d
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Selected Reform goals, Policy Chang
Page 132 and 133:
Increased sector leadership from MO
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it have to cope with major governme
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management and administration that
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the education system and have limit
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help an overextended MOE to meet se
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ZAMBIA TIMELINE
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3 summary Findings and Conclusions
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In addition to an EFA-inspired emph
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from political changes. After 15 ye
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ased management, but were limited t
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is not necessarily limited to indiv
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sector limited the agenda-setting m
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and every new government seeks its
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8. USAID and other donors have been
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CONCLUSIONS This review of five cou
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Ownership It is a central tenet of
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actors is a never-ending process. T
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was beyond the mandate of the Minis
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IMPLICATIONS FOR USAID POLICy AND P
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Bibliography general References Alv
Page 175 and 176:
UNESCO. 2007. EFA Global Monitoring
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Healy, F. & Crouch, L. (2007, Novem
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Sidhom, S. & Al-Fustat, A. (2004, J
Page 181 and 182:
Crouch, L., J. Gillies, A. Florez.
Page 183 and 184:
LLECE, “Conclusiones del estudio
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Miller-Grandvaux, Yolande and Karla
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1875 Connecticut Ave., NW Washingto
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