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

the growing political will and capacity of actors at various levels of the education
system and in the community toward implementing decentralization and
community participation. 3
Particularly in the case of USAID projects, the assistance has financed the
support of a number of international NGOs in providing studies/assessment,
technical assistance, in country and overseas training, and management support.
The active engagement of Egyptian and, in smaller numbers, international staff
and consultants hired by these organizations has contributed to the continuous
advancement of the education programs as they move between and among projects,
and in and out of the Ministry of Education. This fluid exchange of expertise,
experience, and perspective has contributed to a deepened base of expertise in
the country that is able to develop effective working relationships between the
government at all levels and the international community and projects.
This latter point is an important factor, in view of the fact that despite consistent
international encouragement and pressure for decentralization over this period,
it is only recently that significant progress has been made in instituting national
reforms in this direction. Earlier “interventions” in this regard in Egypt may have
been less effective because they were less concerted and sometimes contradictory,
or because more time was required for the contributions to accumulate. However,
it is also clear that national and local actors, and their relationships, collaborative
and conflicting, are an important part of the story of reforming education
governance and management in Egypt.
ExTERNAL FORCES AND gLOBAL TRENDS
In addition to the role played by international organizations within Egypt, we
should also note the role they played in organizing events and disseminating
associated declarations outside Egypt. Most notable in this regard are the
1990 Jomtien, Thailand, World Conference on Education for All and the 2000
Dakar, Senegal, World Education Forum. These events, in which high-level
delegations from Egypt participated, served as a) platforms for Egypt to share
its commitments and accomplishments, b) stimuli for government efforts to
engage in further reform activities, and c) catalysts for international organizations
to devote resources in support of the reform of educational governance and
management in Egypt. In Egypt and other countries, national government
officials have used select aspects of such international events to promote domestic
support when the international agenda coincides with their own.
3 Notice how the global level developments connect to the national level factors of “political will” and
“institutional capacity.”
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SECTION 2: lESSONS fROM COUNTRY CASE STUdIES