Educating out of Poverty? A Synthesis Report on Ghana, India ... - DfID

It also proved possible for our DFID research to be fed into the main donor agencies concerned
with the relationship <strong>of</strong> skills and poverty reduction. Both in the Working Group for
International Cooperation in Skills Development and in the European Training Foundation in
November and December <strong>of</strong> 2005 respectively, major presentations on Skills and <strong>Poverty</strong>
Reduction were made at these agency meetings in Italy. While a little earlier in the year, the
results <strong>of</strong> our DFID work were also presented to a meeting <strong>of</strong> all <strong>of</strong> USAID’s education advisors
in Washington.
The summaries <strong>of</strong> our six country studies along with many other articles on the Education-
<strong>Poverty</strong> Reduction relationship have been a key element in the Aid Policy Bulletin, NORRAG
NEWS NO. 37, which was published in May 2006. The theme <strong>of</strong> this special issue was ‘<strong>Educating</strong>
<strong>out</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Poverty</strong>? A status report’. This Bulletin goes to over 1200 individuals in academia, NGOs
and in policy circles around the world. No less than 40% <strong>of</strong> the readership is in the developing
world. A further opportunity to present the results <strong>of</strong> the research was in the biennial conference
<strong>of</strong> the African Studies Association <strong>of</strong> the UK in SOAS in September 2006.
The present monograph, and the accompanying summary which goes into the id21 process,
constitute the final <strong>out</strong>come <strong>of</strong> this two year research. Here, our purpose has been to look across
the six country contexts and synthesise some <strong>of</strong> the common lessons learnt and policy challenges
met in the research process.
We would thank colleagues in DFID, and especially Desmond Bermingham and David Levesque,
for the interest they have shown in the research, and for their readiness to participate in the
several different panels, conferences and feedback sessions on the research as it went through
these several stages. DFID, however, is not responsible for the views expressed here or in the
many other <strong>out</strong>puts <strong>of</strong> the research; these remain the responsibility <strong>of</strong> the research team.
We would also want to acknowledge our colleagues in the six countries, whether in government,
in NGOs, or in academia, who have given their time to discussing these research issues with us.
We would also want to thank them for giving us the opportunity on a number <strong>of</strong> occasions to
feed back our findings to them.
Finally, the Edinburgh team, which has taken responsibility for the synthesising <strong>of</strong> this final
report, would like to acknowledge the other members <strong>of</strong> the team <strong>out</strong>side Edinburgh, who have
been our research partners over these two years. These are Salim Akoojee (in Pretoria) and Simon
McGrath (formerly Pretoria, now Nottingham) who are the authors <strong>of</strong> the S<strong>out</strong>h Africa country
study, and Jandhyala Tilak (in New Delhi) who has been responsible for the India country paper
as well as a general review <strong>of</strong> the role <strong>of</strong> post-basic education in poverty reduction and
development.
Kenneth King,
Principal Investigator,
Centre <strong>of</strong> African Studies,
Edinburgh University
Preface and Acknowledgements
1 See International Journal <strong>of</strong> Educational Development 27/4 (2007) Special issue: Beyond Basic Education and towards an
Expanded Vison <strong>of</strong> Education for <strong>Poverty</strong> Reduction and Growth? (A full list <strong>of</strong> the papers in IJED are in the Appendix <strong>of</strong>
this report).
DFID iii