External Funding for EFA

1
External Funding for EFA

• Is EFA-FTI living up to its potential?

2
Intent

• EFA-FTI to facilitate low income countries to
  achieve or make major progress towards achieving
  the education MDGs and therefore EFA itself
  
• To be understood, must be seen in context of the
  1990-2000 EFA experience
  
• Despite initial miscommunication (and a
  misleading name), there is growing recognition
  that EFA-FTI is not all about external financing
  
• Increased financing is critical, but in
  particular, the issue is one of more efficient
  expenditures
  

3

• Initial focus on financing almost derailed
  EFA-FTI, led to dissatisfaction on all sides
  
• Some plans were endorsed that on reflection, were
  not necessarily credible or sustainable (i.e.,
  plans that address data, policy and capacity
  constraints, in addition to financing)
• In spirit of learning by doing - and perseverance
  - the EFA-FTI Partnership is now clearly
  advancing progress at the country level
  
• Focus is on quality, efficiency and equity of
  basic education
  

4

• Neither is EFA-FTI all about budget support, as
  desirable as this may be
  
• Whats important is to end fragmentation
  semi-independent or parallel project
  implementation driven by supply rather than
  demand
• EFA-FTI is synonymous with a single national
  planning process and development of a national
  education sector plan
  
• Room for project approach when they support
  activities that are clearly within the national
  plan
  
• Project Approach used to complement a
  Program-Based Approach in line with the findings
  of Joint Evaluation of External Support to Basic
  Education

5
Consensus on External Financing

• EFA-FTI links increased external financing to
  country performance
  
• Country performance measured against EFA-FTI
  Indicative Framework benchmarks based on
  evidence of EFA success in on track countries
  
• Framework provides a guide for policy reform and
  analysis of costing and domestic financing
  
• If unit costs are too high (i.e. inefficient,
  therefore unsustainable) the national plan would
  not be considered ready for funding without a
  mutual examination of reducing those unit costs
• Similarly, Donors Indicative Framework offers
  opportunity to analyze donor performance
  

6
Financing Progress

• EFA-FTI lays claim to mobilizing 200m for first
  7 countries 50 increase
  
• Approximately 250m has also been committed by 5
  bilaterals to the Catalytic Fund for a three year
  period
  
• However, estimated that 4-5B per year is needed
  to achieve UPC in LDCs

7
Catalytic Fund

• Crucial, but not what its all about majority of
  external funds will come from a bilateral
  commitments
  
• Transitional fund of last resort - meant to kick
  start implementation of national plans in advance
  of bilateral funding commitments
  
• Yemen, Nicaragua originally lacked bilateral
  champions now getting behind national plan
  
• Mozambique with 26 donors, has no need
• Countries such as Uganda, Tanzania or Bangladesh
  would also not be eligible for CF

8
Example of Honduras

• Strong Government/Donor partnership made possible
  by hard work and EFA-FTI
  
• Result10 donors signed MOU with GoH defining how
  they will work together in support of a single
  program led by Secretariat of Education
  
• Endorsed plan based on 5 components
• Efficiency of basic education (improving the flow
  of student cohorts through the primary cycle)
  
• Strengthening pre-school
• Raising quality of classroom instruction
• Equity and access to bilingual education
• Rural educational networks

9
Flexible modalities of donor support (Honduras
contd)

• Pooled Fund (direct support to national plan
  using govt administrative systems)
  
• Projects (traditional bilateral projects
  articulated within EFA-FTI/national plan)
  
• Non-Project Technical Assistance (e.g. UNICEF)
• Co-ordination (e.g.. WFP school feeding)
• Working towards harmonization, but trying to
  ensure donor group did not break into inner and
  outer circles

10
Funding Results (Honduras contd)
11

• Similar examples of increased external funds to
  national plans in Nicaragua, Yemen and Vietnam,
  but also Tanzania and Bangladesh
  
• Commonality is not necessarily FTI, but strong
  donor collaboration working with strong MoE
  leadership (also key to additionality)
  
• Tanzania feels increased external support due to
  
  
• Political will and good governance
• Country ownership
• National policies which take into account local
  circumstances and local development plans
  
• (not by chance that these are all principles of
  EFA-FTI)
  

12
Wheres the Money?

• Continue to press for achievement of O.7 goal
• Nordics, NL led the way France, UK , Spain have
  made recent announcements USAs Millennium
  Challenge Account
  
• Canada is currently working on an 8 annual
  increase, but would need 10 to meet our share of
  the cost of achieving the MDGs. This will be
  dependent on priorities of future governments
• Strengthening Aid Effectiveness calls for
  concentrating resources in far fewer countries
  and reducing active sectors. This is a common
  approach will it increase donor darlings/donor
  orphans?
• What of unanticipated emergencies? --
  Afghanistan, Iraq and Haiti are top receivers of
  Canadian ODA despite the fact they had previously
  not been in CIDA plans
• Achievement of MDGs mean developing countries
  need long term predictable financing commitments,
  but this is extremely difficult when global
  situation itself is unpredictable

13
Conclusions

• Increasing external support dependent on
  increasing political support
  
• G8 Education Task Force helped create momentum in
  Canada to increase support
  
• We welcome the UK presidency which looks to put
  education back on the G8 agenda in 2005
  
• Explicit reflection on EFA-FTI by Development
  Committee Ministers also needed in order to
  generate renewed political commitment and
  momentum

14
Conclusions (contd)

• The real work takes place at the country level
  i.e., EFA Framework MOU in Honduras
  
• EFA-FTI principle of country-led process, based
  on reciprocal obligations, gives best chance of
  developing credible plans for meeting EFA
  targets
• Donor Political Will needed for the Big increases
  in ODA, but increased funding to national sector
  plans will be country by country, and will go to
  the country and the sector with credible plans