Reaching the marginalized: EFA global monitoring report, 2010; 2010

THE AID COMPACT: FALLING SHORT OF COMMITMENTSAid for educationBox 4.4: Spain: political will behind increased aid to basic educationThe rapid emergence of Spain as a major donorhas given important impetus to the widerinternational aid effort. It has backed its increasedaid flows with a stronger commitment to equity,especially in education.Spanish aid has undergone a remarkabletransformation since 2000. The aid-to-GNI ratiohas doubled to reach 0.43%. Spain’s rapideconomic growth means this translates into alarge increase in real financial transfers. Moreover,an initially narrow focus (on Latin America) hasbroadened, and the country has curtailed its tyingof aid to Spanish exports and commercial interests.Since the adoption of the Second Master Plan(2005–2008) there has been a much strongerfocus on poverty reduction. The plan, which tookthe Millennium Development Goals as its keyreference point, set out a detailed strategy foraligning a wide range of policies and ministriesbehind Spain’s development cooperation goals.wider strategy for achieving the MillenniumDevelopment Goals, Germany has responded torequests from national governments to scale upsupport for skills development as a means ofraising wages and tackling youth unemployment(German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperationand Development, 2009). German aid plays animportant role in supporting the reform of technicaland vocational education, and there is scope forother donors to follow the lead provided. The widerchallenge for all donors is to find the right balance.In countries where poverty remains a huge obstacleto achieving universal primary education, the casefor investing the bulk of scarce aid resources inhigher education that overwhelmingly benefithigher-income students is not credible.Emerging donors, private givingand innovative financeOECD-DAC members continue to dominateinternational development assistance. Butimportant new sources of aid are emerging, someof which could give a significant boost to education.Overall aid from countries that are not DACmembers is on a strong upward trend. While oftenreferred to as ‘emerging donors’, many membersof this diverse group have a long history of providingThe plan placed Education for All squarely at thecentre of the aid agenda. At the time of the WorldEducation Forum, Spain directed most of its aid toeducation towards the tertiary level. Since Dakar,it has not only increased the level of aid but hasshifted it in favour of basic education. Total aidcommitments to education grew from an annualaverage of US$268 million in 1999–2000 toUS$316 million in 2006–2007, an 18% expansion.Over the same period, total aid to basic educationincreased by 79% to US$144 million, or just underhalf of Spain’s total aid to education.Leadership by the Spanish Government could playan important role in renewing and revitalizing theeducation aid agenda. In the first half of 2010,Spain assumes the presidency of the European Union.Spain is well placed to call on other EU membersto demonstrate a stronger commitment to aid foreducation, including a commitment to greater equitybetween sectors.Sources: Manzanedo and Vélaz de Medrano (2009);OECD-DAC (2009d).aid to developing countries. In 2007, aid fromnon-DAC donors reporting to DAC 15 amountedto US$5.6 billion – four times the level in 1999.The largest emerging donor is Saudi Arabia, whichspent US$2.1 billion on aid in 2007. Aid from Brazilhas been estimated at US$437 million and thatfrom India at US$1 billion. Official data are notavailable for China, but estimates point to a totalChinese aid budget of US$1-1.5 billion in 2006(OECD-DAC, 2009c).Strong economic growth, the size of the externalbalances available to major economies such asBrazil, China and India, and growing cooperationin areas such as trade and energy could drivea sustained expansion in aid from non-OECDcountries. This makes it all the more important toimprove the flow of information and coordinationbetween all donors (Manning, 2006). Achievingthat outcome will require a broadening of aidgovernance structures, which need to be reformedto ensure that the views of emerging donors aretaken into account when developing policies andidentifying priorities.Too little is known about the composition of non-DAC donors’ aid portfolios to assess their aid toeducation. China has supported school constructionLeadership bythe SpanishGovernment couldplay an importantrole in renewingand revitalizingthe education aidagenda15. Including the CzechRepublic, Hungary, Iceland,Israel, Kuwait, Poland, theRepublic of Korea, SaudiArabia, the Slovak Republic,Turkey and the United ArabEmirates.231