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

EDUCATION AT RISK: THE IMPACT OF THE FINANCIAL CRISISThe international response: missing a human dimensioneffective and current monitoring of governmentbudgets, school attendance and dropout rates.UNESCO should take the lead in this area,working through national education and financeministries and coordinating a wider donorresponse. It is particularly important that theimplementation of 2009 budgets, real educationspending and 2010 budgets are subject to closescrutiny. Beyond outright cuts in public spending,monitoring should focus on disparities betweenplanned spending in education sector strategiesand actual spending.Ensure that IMF support is provided on aflexible basis that is consistent with achievingthe Education for All goals. Statements by theIMF leadership pointing to greater flexibility inloan conditions on fiscal deficits, inflation andpublic spending are welcome, but concernsremain over whether this flexibility will bemaintained in 2010 and beyond. In drawing uploan conditions, IMF staff should be required toreport explicitly on consistency with the financingrequirements for achieving the core Educationfor All goals by 2015. Special priority should beput on the costs associated with teacherrecruitment, training and remuneration.Increase support through the InternationalDevelopment Association. IDA is the mostappropriate multilateral financing vehicle formitigating the effects of the economic downturnin the poorest countries. While the World Bankhas demonstrated a capacity for innovation infront-loading IDA financing, transferringresources from other facilities and redirectingexisting country allocations, this approach isneither a sustainable nor a credible responseto a systemic crisis in financing for internationaldevelopment goals. Front-loading also raisesuncertainty over future financing for educationand other high-priority sectors. To guard againstthis uncertainty and place IDA financing on amore balanced footing, donors should undertakea binding commitment to increase the resourcesavailable during the next replenishment. Donorsshould pledge to increase their support for WorldBank concessional loans from US$42 billion inthe fifteenth IDA replenishment to US$60 billionin IDA-16, which begins in 2010.Make social protection a high priority.Protecting education budgets is just one of therequirements for sustained progress towards keyEducation for All goals. Rising household povertylinked to the economic crisis brings with it theprospect of increased child labour, deterioratingnutrition and reduced capacity for investmentin education. Social protection, through cashtransfers, nutrition programmes and targetedsupport in other areas, has been shown in manycountries to build the resilience of vulnerablehouseholds and strengthen their ability to copewith economic shocks without resorting todamaging measures such as withdrawingchildren from school. As Chapter 3 shows,government and donor support can makea huge difference in this area.UNESCO shouldtake the leadin the monitoringof governmentbudgets,school attendanceand dropout rates37