ODA Allocations for Education: An Examination of Donor Behavior and Configurations in MENA and South Asia by two Major Donor Agencies

• In Event: Education for Development

Proposal

This study examines the allocation patterns of Official Development Assistance (ODA) for education by the two major donor agencies, the World Bank (WB) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and South Asia (SA) regions and countries. This research specifically focuses on exploring whether ODA has been allocated based on recipient country educational and economic characteristics and needs (cause) or aligned with expectations based on the promotion of the Education for All (EFA) goals (symptom) or both.
After the World Conference on Education for All (EFA) in 1990, political and financial commitment to education had risen. Between 1990 -2015, the donor agencies demonstrated a promise to assist developing countries attain their educational goals, especially the internationally agreed upon EFA goals. Attaining universal primary education had become the WB’s end goal (Jones, 2004) consistent with the second EFA goal. The United States has also been contributing to the fund for EFA for over two decades (Butler et al., 2011). It was also emphasized that no country committed to education for all will be thwarted in its pursuit of these goals due to shortage of resources (UNESCO, 2015a). Yet, scarcity of finances emerged as one of the biggest obstacles in the attainment of the EFA goals (UNESCO, 2015b). In spite of current commitments to helping poor countries attain the MDGS and EFAs (World Bank, 2012), a decrease of 23% was noted in ODA to low-income countries between 2010 and 2011, even though the overall ODA to basic education increased by 13% in the same one-year period (UNESCO, 2014). This indicates that while the financial commitment to basic education has risen, aid to poor countries has not.
This research uses the recipient-need model which assumes that aid is given to compensate for shortfalls in domestic resources (Maizels & Nissanke, 1984) and empirically tests whether major donor agencies allocate ODA to an area where it is needed or to fulfil their political commitment to EFA. A multi-step exploratory data analysis (EDA) technique will be employed, using graphical and statistical procedures, to answer the following research questions:
1. What types of educational projects have been awarded assistance by the WB and USAID regionally and in each country in MENA and SA between 1990 and 2015?
2. Are there identifiable patterns in the allocation of ODA to different regions and countries by WB and USAID?
3. How is ODA for education aligned or not with expectations based on the promotion of the Education for All (EFA) goals in these regions and countries?
A dataset is being completed to include information on all projects in education receiving USAID or World Bank assistance in MENA and South Asia from the year 1990 to 2015, for the 19 developing countries in the two regions. Data on US aid will be obtained from the US Overseas Loans and Grants Greenbook, and data on the WB obligations will be obtained from the information available at online sources on the WB Projects & Operations. The units of analysis are the funds allocated to different educational development projects by WB and USAID. The dependent variables include funds allocated to individual projects educational projects and the independent variables are funded project characteristics (education level, curriculum type, socio-demographic group/intended beneficiaries and implementing agency type); recipient educational characteristics (EFA Development Index, Primary and Secondary Enrollment Ratios, Girls to Boys Education Ratio) and recipient economic characteristics (GDP/capita, spending on Education as a Percentage of GDP per capita).
Preliminary findings provide with a history of ODA allocation for each country indicating variations in aid allocated by the WB and USAID for educational development. It is also indicative of differences in ODA allocated to different levels of education with both donor agencies allocating greater amounts of aid to lower levels of education. It remains to be determined how ODA allocation is operationalized based on the promotion of EFA Goals in these two regions and countries.
This research is significant in the field of comparative and international education, in presenting how ODA allocated to countries in these regions by the two agencies has been consistent or not, with global commitment to education. Further, it will be important in empirically showing whether or not the agendas of both agencies are complementary, supplementary or work at cross-purposes with education policy priorities in these nations.
References:
Alexander, N. C. (2001). Paying for Education: How the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund Influence Education in Developing Countries. Peabody Journal of Education (0161956X), 76(3/4), 285–338. http://doi.org/Article
Butler, L., Barth, D., Lee, S., Kirby, M., Lubov, F., Marr, L., … Roen, E. (2011). EDUCATION: Opportunity through Learning. USAID Education Strategy 2011-2015. Washington D.C.: United States Agency for International Development.
Jones, P. W. (2004). Taking the Credit: Financing and policy Linkages in the Educational Portfolio of the World Bank. In The Global Politics of Educational Borrowing and Lending. New York and London: Teacher’s College, Columbia University.
Maizels, A., & Nissanke, M. K. (1984). Motivations for aid to developing countries. World Development, 12(9), 879–900. http://doi.org/10.1016/0305-750X(84)90046-9
Rights to Education Project. (2015). EFA, the MDGs & Post-2015. Retrieved from http://www.right-to-education.org/issue-page/efa-mdgs-post-2015
UNESCO. (2014). EFA Global Monitoring Report 2013/4. Teaching and Learning : Achieving Quality for All. UNESCO.
UNESCO. (2015a). A Growing Number of Children and Adolsecents are Out of School as Aid Fails to Meet the Mark, Policy Paper 22 / Fact Sheet 31. UNESCO Institute for Statistics and Education for All Global Monitoring Report.
UNESCO. (2015b). EFA Global Monitoring Report 2015, Education for All 2000-2015: Achievements and Challenges. Paris, France: UNESCO.
Valverde, G. A. (1994). International Development Assistance for Education: An Exploratory Study of Three Decades of World Bank and the USAID Project Assistance in Latin America and the Carribean. Phd Diss. The University of Chicago.
Valverde, G. A. (1999). Democracy, Human Rights, and Development Assistance for Education: The US AID and World Bank in Latin America and the Caribbean. Economic Development and Cultural Change, 47(2), 401–419. http://doi.org/10.1086/452407
World Bank. (2012). World Bank Education Sector Strategy 2020: LEARNING FOR ALL. Strengthening Education Systems to Improve Learning. Washington D.C.

Author

• Maria I Khan, State University of New York at Albany