EQUIP End of Project Review EQUIP2 Policy and Systems John Gillies November 8, 2011

Washington consensus and international dialogue: Country-led rhetoric and new modalities Accountability, transparency, assessment Trends: decentralization, community schools, SBM Evolving questions: 1.What works? 2.What is the recipe for scaling up and sustaining innovations 3.What modalities are most effective? Why were these questions so hard to answer? Why is the answer so unsatisfying? Evolving Context and Questions

The Questions What is the problem? Simple: What is the recipe? Complicated: What is the plan? OMG

Sustainability and scaling up requires sound interventions, but does not have a technical solution Development is about people, relationships, trust, credibility These are earned – and not transferable. USAID’s comparative advantage to accompany national leaders in solving hard problems. Respect! Constructed Serendipity –create opportunities by investing in structures, processes, and leadership Evaluate and measure the right things – not just the easy things. Managing change – not change management Informing the future

EQUIP – 2012 Research in education policy, systems, and management

Implementing within country led development  Building Trust and Partnership– not activities  Accept inevitable slippage and down time  Accept that the national decision makers are the decision makers  Accept inevitable staff changes  Include hard but realistic indicators of country commitment - have a plan  Evaluating for country led development - process indicators that measure alignment  Accept – changing activities within a big goal Lessons Learned

Designing for country led development  Allow for considerable time to gain consensus, develop trust, integrate with national plans  Build in broad parameters to reduce the need for time consuming and difficult contract changes  Prioritize process – and structures. Emphasize development  Identify and measure development indicators – not just outputs Lessons Learned