1. Aiding Development: supporting education UvA, Amsterdam 22 October 2010

2. .... Netherlands spends more than three- quarters of its aid on education and healthcare.... Offering care to people may be noble, but does not lead in itself to self- sufficient countries or improve the prospects for future generations … even if it means more attention to the middle class economic growth and other activities that are less easily captured in mediagenic pictures.

3. Education for growth or education for poverty alleviation? Education for ‘development’ or ‘care’ ◦ It this a much needed policy choice and a corrective to current priorities as we approach 2015 or a false dichotomy that obscures rather than clarifies?

4. In this lecture I will first discuss the underlying assumption about ‘education as care’ – my thesis is that dichotomy between ‘care’ and ‘development’ is inaccurate and unhelpful However, there a case that education has to answer and it is the failure to tackle issues of inequality which I then discuss I will conclude by positing why the view of education as ‘care’ is becoming quite generalised in development thinking and suggest an alternative synthetic framework

5. THE REBUTTAL: THE CASE FOR EDUCATION AS A DEVELOPMENT PRIORITY

6. Non instrumental Activating citizen interest and action Developing freedoms Right to education UNHDRC, CRC)s Realising other Rights

7. Education and rights Education adds value and meaning to every individual and should be provided without any form of discrimination or limitation Rights don’t only matter when they contribute to growth and development – they are universal, public and simultaneously global and national goods UN Declaration on Human Right, UN General Assembly’s Declaration of the Rights of the Child in 1959, Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989 Realizing the right to education also enables people to access other human rights such as health, freedom and security. We diminish our right rights by ignoring those of others

8. 2008200920102011201220132014 2015 56 million 8 million 23 million Rest of the World South and West Asia 39 million Sub-Saharan Africa 45 million 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 Out-of-school children (millions) East Asia and the Pacific 2000200120022003200420052006 2007 32 18 9 6 3 72 million 1999 6 8 4 105 million Out-of-school children Arab States Latin America and the Caribbean Numbers of out-of-school children are declining East Asia and the Pacific Arab States Latin America and the Caribbean From GMR 2010

9. Education reduces fertility levels … From I IASA Policy Brief 2008

10. instrumental Skills and competences for growth governance 'Investing in Investing'

11. Why investing in education makes economic sense In Singapore, 95% of 8 th grade students score above the low benchmark In Ghana, nearly 90% of 8 th grade students score below the low benchmark From GMR 2010

12. Growth and performance From Hanushek & Woessman 2009

13. Knowledge economies: who is left behind

14. Literacy and earnings in Canada fromhttp://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/81-004-x/2004006/7780-eng.htm#b, 14.10.10

15. Education and the ‘resource frontier’ The argument of the plundered earth by Collier is that natural resources is the last opportunity for development and to be used effectively requires ‘investing in investing’ and that I take as requiring investing in education It also requires as he argues transparency and active citizenship which again needs education Without education, the last ‘resource frontier’ is not only likely to be ‘plundered’ but also ‘squandered’ – the case of oil in SSA in telling

16. EQUITY IS A DEVELOPMENT AS MUCH AS A MORAL & POLITICAL GOOD

17. There are financial cost to not focusing on equity There is a ‘talent pool’ argument – talent & potential is not restricted and limited to, inter alia, particular racial groups, genders, religious groups, classes

18. The economic costs of not educating girls … From Plan (2008) Children in Focus Paper

20. Richest 20% Poorest 20% Poor, rural Hausa girls Rich, rural girls Poor, urban boys Poor, rural girls Nigeria Rural Hausa Rich, urban boys Urban Rural Urban Rural Rich, rural boys C. A. R. Chad Bangladesh Cameroon Honduras Indonesia Bolivia Cuba Ukraine 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 Average number of years of schooling Education poverty Extreme education poverty 3.3 years 6.4 years 3.5 years 9.7 years 0.5 years 10.3 years 2.6 years 0.3 years Boys Girls 6.7 years 10 years The case of Nigeria From GMR 2010

21. Sub-Saharan Africa, average South and West Asia, average Latin America and Caribbean, average 20 40 60 80 100 Grade 1Grade 2Grade 3Grade 4Grade 5Grade 6Grade 7Grade 8Grade 9 Survival to grade (%) LAC, Richest 20% SSA, Richest 20% SWA, Richest 20% LAC, Poorest 20% SSA, Poorest 20% SWA, Poorest 20% Wealth & achievement Children in the poorest 20% of households more likely to drop out that those in the richest 20% OECD countries (Finland) Grade attainment From GMR 2008

22. OMISSIONS IN DISCOURSES OF EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT

23. The discourse of poverty in development terms was a corrective to  A narrow focus on tertiary  An attempt to place a rights approach at the heart of development  To put the poor at the heart of the devlopment process  Incorporated but continued to reflect the ‘moral/charity’ discourse in development Yet it was limited: poverty reduction and poverty alleviation became its defining leif motif

24. It fails to put at the heart of development a concern with inequality It assumes a disconnect between poverty and inequality Poverty and inequality are linked and in this lecture signal two interrelated process in development  Poverty is a much about structure as it is individual – the EFA goals and MDGs reduces concern for development to individual pathologies, deficits, endowment and efforts  Poverty is as much about understanding how elites form and (re)form and it is about the poor – poverty is relational requiring an analytic frame that gazes upwards as well as downwards

25. WHY HAS THIS COME ABOUT – THE VICIOUS CYCLE

26. Shifts in donor discourse Quick wins Value for money An impatient electorate in times of austerity Progress Slow rate of progress Not seen to be delivering Public perceptions Discourse of derision

27. Headlines in the UK local tabloids this morning  If we are so broke, why are we spending money overseas’

28. IS THERE A CASE TO MADE AND WHAT IS IT?

29. Still a financing gap Still far from realising a universal right

30. 3.2 3.4 4.5 5.6 4.0 5.5 4.3 3.2 8.2 7.6 7.9 9.5 10.4 12.0 9.9 12.3 12.1 199920002001200220032004200520062007 Constant 2007 US$ billions Total aid to basic education Total aid to education  Disbursements are rising, but...  Aid commitments to basic education fell by 22% in 2007, to US$4.3 billion Commitments  Currently US$2.7 billion in aid to basic education for 46 low income countries From GMR 2010

31. The EFA financing gap = 2% of bank rescue effort in the US and UK Additional aid to basic education if Gleneagles commitments are met In 2010 Current aid to basic education Aid shortfall $ 11 billion Estimated current resources $ 12 billion Additional resources from prioritization EFA financing gap $ 16 billion 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 $ 3 billion $ 4 billion Average annual resources needed to finance EFA (2009-2015) US$ 36 billion Additional resources from growth $ 3 billion $ 2 billion From GMR 2010

32. The unfinished aid quality agenda in education Narrow base of donor support Under-prioritization of basic education Limited support for conflict-affected countries New ways of financing needed From GMR 2010

33. THE DEVELOPMENT TRIANGLE FOR EDUCATION

34. InequalityGrowth Education as a development priority Poverty Structural Elites Basic need Rights Skills Capacity