Partnerships for Capacity Building and Quality ... - ADEA

Such is the overall context in which we observe increased efforts atcoordination among the development agencies. A major motivation for thesemoves is to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their development aid.ADEA—which began as a donors’ club for improved coordination—is an exampleof this. At the same time, we see an increase in coordination within Africaand dialogue on educational policy matters. OAU’s Decade for Education inAfrica attests to this. In other words, along with the recent emphasis put on“North-North” coordination between agencies, we see an analogous phenomenonin the South. This could provide a basis for increased and more effectivepartnerships between the two.Civil society is emerging all over Africa. People are organizing themselvesin various types of non-governmental organizations and establishing networksof relationships amongst themselves and with the international developmentcommunity. Government is no longer the only player and, increasingly, is sharingthe stage with NGOs and other actors from the civil society. As PresidentDiouf points out, civil society is demanding greater accountability and transparencyfrom their governments in the formulation and implementation of nationalpolicies. They demand participation in the policy formulation process and a rolein the implementation of development assistance. The role of the state is beingredefined and refined, and governments find themselves incapable of deliveringthe quantity and the quality of the services demanded by citizens.Information and communications technologies (ICT) are increasingly present.In addition to the rapid communications facilities inherent in these technologies,rapid access to information (for those who possess and master the ICTs) willconfer important developmental advantages.All of these factors have implications for organizational structures which arebecoming increasingly flatter—i.e., less hierarchical. This is not only a matter offad. Two factors play a central role: (i) the increasingly democratic access toinformation via the internet. This tends to undermine one of the major claims tolegitimacy of hierarchies whose authority has been based largely on its exclusiveaccess to information and the ensuing knowledge; and (ii) the speed andease with which people can communicate with one another without passingthrough intermediate levels. In many organizations equipped with e-mail, formalrequirements that communications between hierarchical extremes passthrough intermediates are losing ground. Increasingly, presidents communicatedirectly with staff and vice versa. For these reasons, traditionally structuredorganizations are losing ground to networks.At the same time, the development world has entered into an age of agnosticism.Yesterday’s “certainties” about “how to develop” have not worked accordingto expectations. 6 Everything, including the effectiveness of aid, is put intoquestion. 7 This has created something of a theoretical and conceptual void that6. For an overview, see L. Rodwin and D. A. Schön (eds.).7. World Bank, 1998.INTRODUCTION: MAKING PARTNERSHIP WORK 11