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workshop with representatives of both parties and civil society leaders that closed with a general working agreement about the continuity of the overall education policy. In this manner, USAID facilitated an important and influential countryled process, supporting it with funds and technical assistance and demonstrating the innovativeness and appropriateness of their partnership with MINED. ExTERNAL FORCES AND gLOBAL TRENDS A number of forces—national, regional, and global—influenced the course of El Salvador’s educational reforms. Nationally, there were movements outside the public and education sectors throughout the 1980s to focus more attention on education. These national dialogues were strongly influenced by other regional examples, such as Chile’s KAST program, which provided some of the conceptual foundations for EDUCO (Marques and Bannon, 2003). More importantly, this model of open dialogue and transparent decision-making influenced how MINED approached its strategic planning, designed its overall reform, and communicated policies to its stakeholders. Regionally, during the mid- to late-1980s there was impetus from neighboring Latin American governments to resolve the civil wars in El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Guatemala. The peace plans for Central America in 1987 and 1989 spurred governments to intensify negotiations and establish reconciliation processes with UN support. With regard to education, ambitions educational reform agendas were tested and implemented in Latin America, such as those in Chile and Argentina. These provided regional examples and expertise that enriched the dialogues and decisions for education in El Salvador. The fact that education reform advanced more swiftly in El Salvador was perhaps because that country managed to forge a national consensus on the reforms’ importance and priority, firmly supported by three successive ARENA party governments (the same Ministry of Education authorities having served throughout that period), and external donors who provided continued technical and financial support. —From Central America: Education Reform in a Post- Conflict Setting, Opportunities and Challenges by J. Marques and I. Bannon Global trends further inspired and reinforced El Salvador’s policies. The international community was shaping educational priorities with worldwide conferences such as Education for All in 1990, highlighting the need for improved education quality, efficiency, and equity, rhetoric that is similarly reflected in Salvadoran policy (Álvarez and Ruiz-Casares, 1997). El Salvador also participated in the International Convention for Children’s Rights in 1990 and elements of this discourse are clearly evident in MINED’s policies and priorities following the Peace Accords (Castro de Pérez, Meza, and Guzmán, 1999). SECTION 2: lESSONS fROM COUNTRY CASE STUdIES 79
Institutionally and organizationally, the push for decentralization and privatization was echoed by global processes of market forces and donor recommendations for streamlining bureaucracies and increasing participation and decision-making for local entities. All the major donors in El Salvador supported aspects of MINED’s decentralization efforts and the policy was largely adapted from priorities put forward by the World Bank, IDB, and USAID. The management style MINED adopted and the administrative restructuring that it spearheaded reflected the new government’s commitment to decentralization and was reinforced by global trends. CONCLUSION Over the past 20 years, El Salvador’s education sector has been characterized by consistent policies and steady improvement of institutional capacity and system outcomes. Enrollment and completion in the primary and secondary levels have increased substantially. In EDUCO and other initiatives, El Salvador has developed internationally recognized innovations in school governance. MINED’s institutional capacity is among the best in the region, and the country has maintained a high degree of commitment and consensus on education development. Key factors enabling sustainable and consistent progress over such a lengthy period include: • Strong and consistent Ministry of Education leadership enabled a country-led development effort. El Salvador demonstrated perhaps the most significant and sustained level of national ownership and leadership in the region. The country was living the Paris Declaration before the declaration itself, and because of national leadership rather than donor concessions. At times, this has created resentment from the donors. • The participatory development of a strategy, sector assessment, and two successive long-term plans provided a framework for working with donors and gaining societal consensus. The extent to which the donor community supported and recognized the plans’ importance was important. The consensus-based planning process was enabled by the continuity of MINED’s philosophy. • The stability of MINED’s mid-level leadership and technical expertise contributed to both continuity and deepening institutional capacity. This was evident in the continuous evolution and improvement of core initiatives such as EDUCO, student testing, curriculum, and information management. 80 SECTION 2: lESSONS fROM COUNTRY CASE STUdIES
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The Power of Persistence Education
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table of Contents Acknowledgments F
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generously granted us their time an
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Foreword The United States Agency f
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Executive Summary EQUIP2 Education
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local points of contact. In fact, b
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Namibia has successfully developed
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Sustainability in the context of sy
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• Manage policy engagement and re
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After more than 50 years of develop
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to the point of functional literacy
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An obvious question for donors is
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• Was the investment in education
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A final perspective on ownership, a
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and recipients. The World Bank has
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the term differently. Donors someti
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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
Page 78 and 79: El Salvador: Summary COUNTRy CONTEx
Page 80 and 81: financing, and ensuring adequate le
Page 82 and 83: Impact Structurally, the education
Page 84 and 85: CASE ANALySIS: DIMENSIONS OF REFORM
Page 86 and 87: 2005, USAID assistance further stre
Page 88 and 89: EDUCO’s success exemplifies a tec
Page 92: • The continuing commitment to th
Page 95: El Salvador Time Line Before 1988 1
Page 98 and 99: Strategies Especially in the early
Page 100 and 101: In terms of quality, the impact on
Page 102 and 103: The second aspect is that the profe
Page 104 and 105: • The complex and holistic nature
Page 106 and 107: efforts have been studied closely,
Page 109 and 110: NAMIBIA TIMELINE
Page 112 and 113: Nicaragua: Summary COUNTRy CONTExT
Page 114 and 115: ASP won the support of donor agenci
Page 116 and 117: Nicaragua Education Indicators Indi
Page 118 and 119: Though the strong leadership of Min
Page 120: eform. Starting from the early 1990
Page 123: Nicaragua Time Line Before 1986 198
Page 126 and 127: growth; primary enrollment expanded
Page 128 and 129: accountability and corruption led d
Page 130 and 131: Selected Reform goals, Policy Chang
Page 132 and 133: Increased sector leadership from MO
Page 134 and 135: it have to cope with major governme
Page 136 and 137: management and administration that
Page 138 and 139: 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
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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
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Crouch, L., J. Gillies, A. Florez.
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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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