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The impact of funding and technical assistance modalities on power relations, localization, system strengthening and sustainable improvement in education outcomes.

Thu, March 14, 3:15 to 4:45pm, Hyatt Regency Miami, Floor: Third Level, Gautier

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

Financing and technical assistance are two of the most common inputs that donors of various types use to support system change and improved education outcomes. The type of finance and the form of technical assistance that supports it can have a major effective on the extent to which systems are able to be strengthened and education quality and learning outcomes improved.

This paper considers three very different types of donor funding and technical assistance and reflects on what each can tell us about how the type of financing and technical assistance can affect the power relations and localization of donor-funded projects and in turn their ability to drive sustainable systems change and improved learning outcomes. The paper consider bilateral and multilateral programmatic funding, funding aimed at catalyzing blended finance approaches including private investment and domestic education finance. It considers the value and challenges of each of these and what has been learned about the role of technical assistance in enhancing effective use of this financing.

In the first paper, we explore the Shule Bora program in Tanzania. This FCDO project, managed by a Cambridge Education-led consortium, contains two very different approaches to education financing and technical support within the same program. One approach uses a small technical assistance team to support the Government to achieve system improvement outcomes that activate disbursement of funds from a multi-donor trust fund. The other approach sees a large team work across all levels of government combining technical assistance and programmatic financing to CATALYZE system improvements and innovations. Both approaches have seen successes and challenges and this paper will reflect on each, as well as how the two different approaches can be used to augment each other.

In the second paper, we will explore the CATALYZE Edufinance program. This USAID financed program, managed by Palladium, develops private sector partnerships to facilitate innovations in financing and service delivery that increase access to low-cost, quality education. CATALYZE EduFinance mobilizes blended finance to crowd in private capital into non-state schools and education enterprises in USAID partner countries. As the low-cost private sector now represents a significant proportion of the education system in a number of countries, exploring how finance and technical assistance can effectively contribute to the non-state systems is becoming increasingly important to delivering equitable provision. This paper will review what has been learnt about the impact of innovative financing combined with global technical expertise to deliver low cost private sector system expansion and improvements.

In the third paper, we will explore the Learn to Read program in Nigeria. This USAID-funded program, managed by a Creative Associates-led consortium, is using technical assistance to help the federal government develop domestic financing incentives to support priority reading reforms. Technical assistance is then also being used to support effective use of existing domestic financing to help. This approach is helping to support immediate improvements but also support innovative domestic financing approaches to develop locally owned solutions to finance system reform.

Following these papers we will reflect on themes that unite the three very different financing and technical assistance contexts and identify what lessons can be taken.

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