Final Draft December 2009 Bhavna Sharma, Marta Foresti and Leni Wild Table of contents

Section 7: Sector support for education: a case study

7.1. NSA and education

In this case study we aim to present how in practice NSA can be supported through a combination of different aid modalities, including GBS, SBS and complementary measures. The education sector is a good example of how a range of EC aid instruments have been used effectively to respond to the needs of the sector and the specificities of the context. Thus, the education sector provides a range of case study examples highlighting flexible and complementary use of EC aid instruments to achieve a variety of objectives and goals, which provide a host of opportunities to NSAs for engagement and influence in policy and service delivery processes.

NSA engagement in education has traditionally been high, in most contexts, conducting a variety of roles from provision and funding of education services to monitoring and accountability as well as a key role in influencing and shaping policy. NSAs are often a main provider of education services, including facilitating access for large proportions of the population, including the hardest to reach and most marginalised communities. They often directly provide teachers and schools as well as being a channel of funding for such resources.
NSAs have increasingly been involved in the monitoring of education services, with an active voice in debates over quality of education as well as serving an accountability function to ensure that government commitments are carried out. NSAs have also been active in policy and programme design processes providing inputs into structured processes such as reviews and sector reforms as well as engaging in participatory processes.
Crucially, NSAs have slowly begun to be involved in the monitoring and evaluation of donor development programmes either through mid-term and final reviews of donor programmes or Joint Review Missions of sector budget support programmes. However, this is a new and emerging area for NSA engagement but one with ample opportunity. The key added value in all of these roles is that NSAs provide the link with the grassroots and beneficiaries of education services, articulating their needs and views. Understanding the realities on the ground leads to greater efficiency and impact of education programmes, including innovative practices to include the hardest to reach segments of society

7.2 Examples of EC approaches and aid instruments to support NSAs in education

Given that NSA capacity and engagement in the education sector has traditionally been quite high, there are a number of entry points and opportunities for the EC to exploit using the full range of funding modalities at its disposal. These are further explored below. In some countries, sector budget support has not been possible due to capacity constraints of the state (e.g. Fiji) whereas in others sector budget support is recognised as being the next step in development cooperation but one that is not sufficiently mature in the current climate (e.g. Bangladesh). In countries where sector budget support is being chosen there have been a variety of ways of implementing it, with a range of performance indicators to agree upon - some of which explicitly include a role for NSAs in implementation (e.g. Morocco) or monitoring (e.g. Ecuador). In others, NSAs are seen as being the key partners in delivery of state sector programmes and therefore the EC has been able to use thematic instruments to support the national policy framework (e.g. India), whilst also identifying gaps in national policy where they might focus their efforts in agreement with the government (e.g. vocational training in India).

Fiji: project approach to support the state sector policy on education
Fiji is a good example of where the EC has used a project modality but one that supports the state sector policy on education. The Government of Fiji is interested in embarking in SWAps and has identified education as the pilot sector. Thus, the Fiji Education Sector Programme (FESP) was initiated. The education system in Fiji is unique being a partnership between the Ministry of Education and communities, religious and cultural organisations. The government pays a large proportion of teachers’ salaries and provides small educational grants, whilst NSAs manage the financial operations of the school, including infrastructure. Education has been identified by the government as one of the key sectors for poverty reduction and the EC’s support to Fiji is 100% focused on education with the annual plan (National Indicative Plan - NIP) identifying rural education as the single focal sector for the 9^th EDF, encompassing both the government and the NSA allocation (which is 15 % of the NIP). The focus on rural education supports the government’s sectoral focus on education for poverty reduction. The government believes that it is essential that the quality and provision of rural education improves to provide incentives for rural communities to remain and not to migrate to cities.
The key role for NSAs is to provide advice on the design and implementation of the approved project. Their advice is considered particularly important because of their grassroots links and NSAs are expected to report the views of the direct beneficiaries in matters concerning priority issues, location of facilities and the particular concerns of vulnerable groups. Critically, the project implementers are expected to provide feedback to NSAs regarding follow up and actions taken on the basis of the advice, otherwise provide justification when views or NSA advice has not be taken up.

Bangladesh: project approach in preparation for a sector approach
In Bangladesh the EC is currently implementing a project approach with the explicit aim of moving to a sector approach and budget support modality in the near future. In 2008 the EC Delegation carried out a pre-identification mission and although the primary recommendation was a basic education sector wide approach, this was overruled for a project approach to directly support non-formal education, given the lack of clarity regarding the successor to the government’s current state education programme. Wishing to make a significant and timely contribution to the achievement of Bangladesh’s education targets, the project approach using NSAs to support the government to meet its challenges was considered the best option. The idea is that this programme can then later be included in the state’s successor programme on education, if so desired.
The project approach as designed in this case offered the following advantages, clearly linked to the potential possibilities of a sector approach:

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  it represents the most efficient way to reach key target groups effectively in the short term;
  
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  it promotes learning in a way that can inform future policy and practice;
  
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  it encourages closer collaboration between NSAs and government as well as among NSAs;
  
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  it includes a strong capacity-building element which is likely to lead to a feeling of ownership at government;
  
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  it has the potential to interest other development partners in aid harmonisation;
  
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  it has the potential eventually to evolve and be subsumed within a sector-wide approach.
  

NSAs are active in education service delivery in Bangladesh and have been increasingly viewed by the government as key partners. NSAs have a key role to play particularly in the delivery of non-formal education in the primary sector aimed at reaching the most marginalised groups.

In the EC’s project on non-formal education NSAs are the strongest stakeholder and are seen to have a key role to play not only in supporting the state to deliver basic education, but also in the transfer of knowledge to state actors and their capacity development. The idea is that government officials and authorities will benefit from NSA knowledge and experience which will then improve the design of a future state education sector programme (SPSP with multiple donors or EC funding modality). Thus, NSAs will have a key role to play in the development and future design of a sector programme based on their current role, experience and knowledge.


Morocco and Ecuador: sector budget support with specific roles and indicators for NSAs

Both Morocco and Ecuador are interesting examples where NSAs involvement has been built into the design of the sector budget support programme. In the case of Morocco the sector budget support programme include specific indicators relating to the government’s partnership with Moroccan NSAs, particularly focused on implementation of certain aspects of the education programme, namely projects aimed at reducing illiteracy.

In Morocco NSAs, and NGOs and the private sector in particular, are in partnership with the government in the implementation of the education SPSP, with a focus on literacy projects. This reflects existing arrangements in Morocco where the state and NSAs collaborate at the local level in the delivery of non formal education services. In particular, the government body responsible for literacy programmes, the DLCA - Direction de la Lutte Contre l'Analphabétisme, works in partnership with local NGOs and the private sector in the development and delivery of non formal education initiatives. This is because it is recognized that NGOs and CSOs are best positioned to engage the local population which dropped out or do not have formal education.
It is anticipated that at least 50% of the funds available through the SPSP on literacy will be channeled through NGOs and a number of indicators have been proposed to monitor NSA engagement, including:

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  number of agreements signed with NGOs
  
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  proportion of beneficiaries enrolled in projects by the NGOs
  

A number of capacity development initiatives are also in place to support both state and non state actors involved in the programme. Finally a dedicated call for proposal of the thematic programmes on NSAs has been recently been published to, in part, complement the SPSP.

In Ecuador, a sector budget support programme to the education sector named PAPDE (€ 41,2 million) was agreed with the Government.
One of the key objectives in the government’s ten year education programme is to improve data gathering, reporting and analysis of information systems to improve the Ministry of Education’s (MoE) planning, implementation and monitoring of the education plan and strategy. Thus, the MoE has created a new national system of results and social accountability with data and indicators to be gathered for key subjects. This will form part of a new policy on social accountability and transparency with citizens having a greater role in monitoring policies and activities of the education sector. In Ecuador the capacity of NSAs to engage with policy processes and the government is high and therefore it was felt that NSAs would be able to fulfill this new accountability role effectively.
NSAs therefore have a key role to play in the monitoring of national education policy, as well as a participative role in the design, implementation and monitoring of education plans at the local level. Specifically, in the matrices of indicators for the education sector (which the government agrees to prior to the sign off of sector budget support) there are specific indicators relating to the role of key stakeholders as “citizen watchdogs”. Thus, key groups (such as the Observatorio de la Politica Fiscal, Grupo Faro and Contrato Social por la Educacion) are given a role in consultation and design of education policy.
In addition, an envelope of € 300.000 of the sector programme total budget has been put aside in order to support civil society monitoring of the implementation of the education sector policy and work programme.
This activity was contracted under the EC rules by the Delegation. A call for proposals was launched, with the Ministry of Education as an observer. The selected think tank participates in a high level technical coordination committee established by the Ministry of Education. This Committee has worked on the indicators of the education sector policy which will be monitored by the think tank. In this respect, the think tank was given access to information and statistics regarding the progress and completion of programme objectives and results.

India: sector budget support complemented by a thematic programme for enhancing NSA participation in dialogue and monitoring
India is a case where the government has been implementing its state education programme with the support of sector budget support provided by a small group of donors (EC, DFID, GTZ, USAID, GTZ and World Bank). The key issue in India is not a lack of funds for state programmes but a lack of state capacity to implement its programme in all of its territory and reaching all communities, including those geographically marginalised and socially excluded. Thus, the Government of India has a well-established relationship with NSAs, where NSAs are considered to be an important player in the implementation of state programmes and projects as well as generators of innovative and pilot projects that can be scaled up when success has been proven.
The EC delegation in India has gone to great lengths to use thematic budget lines to complement sector budget support in education. Their focus has been that thematic budget line projects and programmes must be relevant to the national policy framework. Thus, their recent call for proposals under the NSA and local authorities thematic budget line focused on engaging NSAs experienced in education (and health) and working closely with the national policy framework of the state education programme.
Internally, there is good communication between the sector budget (geographic instrument) and thematic people. The thematic calls for proposals have been designed in consultation with the sector budget support teams. Additionally, the education sector budget support programme manager was part of the evaluation team for the thematic calls for proposals. This ensured a high degree of complementarity in the projects chosen with the sector budget support.
A clear message is that the Indian government is not in need of additional funding from donors but requires technical expertise, know-how, best practices and lessons learned. The EC is encouraging NSAs to bring in that expertise and know-how (in-country and from abroad). Indeed, the next call for proposals specifically asks NSAs to link up with European counterparts to generate best practices and examples from Europe and India that can be applied to the Indian context.
Another entry point for increasing NSA engagement in sector budget support would be increased donor conditionalities on SBS that emphasise the need for the government to include NSAs in policy, design and monitoring more fully. This could help to ensure that NSA involvement in state sectors such as education moves beyond simply implementation of government programmes. Donors can help to create the space for increased dialogue between the state and NSAs by creating some conditions to that effect. Morocco and Ecuador are examples of such an approach.