Education and Development: Some Lessons from the LINS Experience

1. Education and Development: Some Lessons from the LINS Experience Robert Smith Former Centre Leader, LINS, Oslo University College, Norway

2. All you ever wanted to know about education and development but were afraid to ask…….or …What is LINS and why was it created?What has LINS been doing for the past 10 years?What can be learned from the LINS experience?

3. ….and to draw out significant lessons from recent experience… A brief diversion into theory as explanation, e.g: • Development Theory • Post-development Theory • Contingency Theory • Ambiguity Theory • Inconsistency Theory • and Theory of Failure…….

4. The Rise of Official Development Aid • Colonial origins (consider self interest) • The rise of the notion of development • Post WW 2 reconstructionism: the UN agencies/the Bretton Woods institutions

5. The Rise of Official Development Aid (cont.) • Initial focus – hardware/infrastructure • The rise of the economists • The rise of the bilaterals • The dominance of the World Bank • Post-development thinking

6. NORAD starts to outsource… • Norad’s history of using external consultants • Increasing focus on aid to education in the 1990s • Assessment of the Norwegian environment by Jon Lauglo (1995/96) • Competitive bids for the work from several institutions • OUC/DECO awarded the contract: LINS created

7. The early experience….. • Consultants and academics…a shotgun wedding? • Expectations of the various actors • Co-operating with Norwegian partners

8. The early experience (cont.) • Nature of the environment and the tasks • LINS, NORAD and the Embassies • The technologizing of development aid • Learning to play with the big boys • The LINS record from 1997…..

9. Education as a focus for development aid: Job Number One? • Education seen purely as schooling? • Broader visions of education: ABEL • Cultural concerns & indigenous knowledge • Contrasting paradigms – rights versus human capital • Aid as people/experts/advisors?

10. Education as a focus for development aid: Job Number One? • Shifting modalities - from projects to programs, baskets, budget support, HIPC, CF, FTI and debt relief/forgiveness • Trying to make sure that what we do works…the place of research, monitoring and evaluation • Why is there always a gap between expectations and reality?

11. Reflections on the ‘Hour-glass Problem’ or why things don’t always go as planned….. • What filters down from the top and up from the bottom and if not, why not? • The crises of ideology, understanding, commitment and capacity

12. Reflections on the ‘Hour-glass Problem’ or why things don’t always go as planned (cont.) • What do we mean by ‘analysis’? Whose analysis and to what ends? • The widening gap between the practitioner, the researcher, the policy maker and the donor

13. What questions has the LINSexperience identified? • Is development merely a practical challenge or is it more complex? • Can theory guide us – if so where do we find it and what will it look like? • If we have 50 years of experience from development aid, why are we not better at it? • How do we deal with a constantly changing landscape?

14. ‘Change? Who wants change? Things are bad enough as they are….’ • Changes in educational finance since Dakar 2000: over 80% of educational finance in SSA comes from domestic sources • Changes in aid modalities, especially budget support & consequent decline in technical strength • Changes in the donor community – new funds, new modalities

15. ‘Change? Who wants change? Things are bad enough as they are….’ (cont.) • Shortening the development aid chain • New challenges for countries and DPs – ownership, national and regional capacity • Paramount importance of properly functioning states to work with – vampires and ruminants: autocracy and democracy

16. Some signs (rather than lessons or indicators…..) • Recipient responsibility as a critical factor – need to improve countries’ knowledge of how funding works and how Governments can maintain ownership • Make funding processes transparent (FTI/CF/ECF/EFA/ NETF/EPDF etc. etc)

17. Some signs (rather than lessons or indicators…..) (cont.) • Ensure that external funding focuses on technical support, knowledge generation, knowledge sharing not on policy and practice • Channel ODA through as few agencies as possible (NB there are pros and cons….) • Address the technical expertise gap using regional institutions/partnerships

18. More signs and indicators… • Address the ideological gaps between countries and DPs – whose notion of development is to dominate? • Focus analysis more on context, context, context…..building capacity on both sides

19. More signs and indicators… • Holism rather than technicism • Change seen as a two-way process, overcoming the asymmetry of aid • Evaluate, evaluate, evaluate & then apply the lessons

20. A personal post-script • LINS as a learning experience • LINS as a repository of knowledge & wisdom • LINS as a collegial experience • LINS as a commitment to helping poor people by getting their children into school • LINS as essentially Norwegian in values, concept and practice

21. Some key readings • Allen T and Thomas A (2000) Poverty and Development, Milton Keynes, Open University • Bignell V & Fortune J (1984) Understanding Systems Failure, Manchester, Manchester University Press/Open University • Breidlid A (2004) Sustainable Development, Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Education in South Africa, Journal of Teacher Education and Training, Vol 4, 2004 • Cassen R (1994) Does Aid Work? Oxford, Clarendon Press • Chun, Wei Choo (2004) Information Management for the Intelligent Organization, http://choo.fis.utoronto.ca • Earthscan (1998) The Reality of Aid, London, Earthscan • Jones P (1992) World Bank Lending to Education, London, Routledge • Morris P ( 1996) Asia’s Four Little Tigers: a comparison of the role of education in their development, IJED, Vol 32, No1. pp 95-109 • Rahnema M and Bawtree V (1997) The Post-Development Reader, London, Zed Books • World Bank (2000) Can Africa Claim the 21st Century?, Washington, World Bank