Partnerships for Capacity Building and Quality ... - ADEA

social, economic and political changes which could trigger problems and threatsto national cohesion. Such problems can be solved only by policies relevantto specific historical circumstance of the countries.! The education systems in Africa, inherited from the colonial times, wereill-adapted to the economic, social and cultural requirements they were supposedto fulfill. The Report stressed the crucial importance of relevant educationfor African development.! It is necessary to create the building blocks towards mutual trust and respectand the establishment of a better partnerships between the developed and thedeveloping countries. This requires dialogues about the ends and means, andthe meaning of development. The Report raised process to the same level ofimportance as objectives, and recognized the importance of what we now call“ownership”.We see that the idea of partnership—the striving for an enduring, mutuallyacceptable and beneficial relationship between the developed and developingcountries—is not new.There are, however, a number of factors that are new to the 1990s. All of us,South and North are living in a very different world than that in which ourinstitutions, institutional cultures and work habits, rules, accountabilities andprocedures have developed. Like it or not, we have to adapt to these new factors,and build them into our ways of doing business in partnership.Globalization—increasingly mobile populations combined with the lack ofcontrollable frontiers for the transfer of capital and knowledge—is profoundlychanging the way we live and work with one another. We are becoming increasinglyinter-dependent with different—but not necessarily equal—consequences.Although globalization is a universal phenomenon, the nuances of its meaningand impact differ from one country to another, and between groups of the samecountry. When seen as driven by technology, it may be viewed as the expansionof western material civilization, and with it the economic and technologicaldomination of the western countries over those lacking in the technology. Whenseen as a carrier of values, cultures and ways of life, globalization may viewed asimposing certain life-styles on the rest of the world. Indeed, one of the mostcommon criticisms (or fears) of globalization—on all continents—is expressedin terms of loss of national traditions and cultural uniqueness.The end of the Cold War has altered the legitimacy of development aid forthe governments and populations of the Northern countries. “Aid fatigue” is thebest known expression of this. This situation is already having a tremendousimpact on the nature of development aid where considerations of a geopoliticalnature (e.g., keeping alliances, maintaining blocs and political spheres of influence,ensuring votes in the UN) are yielding to considerations more germane todevelopment issues (commercial and market considerations, good governance,social development, girls’ education).This new situation is reflected in recent reports of the Development Assis-INTRODUCTION: MAKING PARTNERSHIP WORK 9