Capacity Development for Education Systems in Fragile Contexts

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Capacity Development for Education Systems in
Fragile Contexts
Lynn Davies Centre for International Education
and Research, University of Birmingham in
collaboration with the European Training
Foundation (ETF) and Deutsche Gesellschaft für
technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ)
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Outline

• The fragility debate
• Education issues in fragile contexts
• Dimensions of CD improvement
• Choices in state-building
• Roles and positioning of donors
• Ways forward at country, regional and global
  level

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Category Scenario Scenario
Declining Arrested development Prolonged crisis or impasse stagnation with low levels of effectiveness and legitimacy
Declining Deterioration Declining levels of governance effectiveness leading to lower legitimacy, rising risk of violence or collapse
Stabilising Post-conflict transition Low levels of effectiveness, transitory legitimacy, recent violence, humanitarian crisis
Stabilising Early recovery Gradual improvement rising levels of effectiveness and legitimacy, declining aid needs, emergence from conflict or other crises
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Features of fragility

• Deficits in governance
• Inability to maintain security
• Inability to meet essential needs
• Polarisation of identities
• Opaque decision making
• Erosion of peoples trust in government and its
  institutions

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Two key gaps in fragile contexts

• Lack of capacity (territorial control and
  presence competence in economic and
  administrative management)
• Lack of political will to perform key functions
  for human welfare
• NB Capacity development is about both of these

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Education issues in fragile contexts

• Legitimacy of the state and state institutions
  competing goals for education
• Extremes of inequality and inequity
• Education governance, corruption
• Conflict and security the contribution of
  education to both

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Dimensions of CD improvement
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Which dimension to tackle?

• Organisational change (regulation, efficiency,
  budgeting, hiring of staff, job descriptions,
  decentralisation)
• Institutional change (hidden cultures of work and
  relationships, deference/authority patterns,
  nepotism, allowance cultures)
• Dis/enabling environment (political will,
  ethnic/religious tensions, community
  contestation, corruption)

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State-building

• Increasing difficulty as move from individual CD
  to political CD, but crucial that outer layer
  is not ignored
• State building has to be the major task
• CD is thus about delicate choices and
  combinations of dimension
• CD choices are also about which sector to focus
  on
• Building of social capital equally important to
  human/economic capital

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STATE
ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEMS EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS
Aim Ministry of Education efficiency and transparency Aim Locality efficiency and transparency Aim Trust and participation in government social capital Aim Building human capital
Regulation Accountability Planning and policy making Financial management Information flows Market analysis Monitoring and evaluation Local planning Regulation Citizen or community participation and ownership of education Accountability Innovation Political literacy Citizenship education Legal education Media education Human rights education Corruption education Non-violence Empowerment of females Literacy Generic technical skills Professionalism Problem-solving Entrepreneurship Health education Specific vocational training

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Administrative sites for CD

• Planning realistic national policies
• Drawing up workable regulatory and legal
  frameworks for schools
• Mechanisms for accountability, information flows
• Independent Service Authorities?
• Building local capacity and leadership,
  child-friendly schools/community initiatives

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Educational sites for CD

• Teacher professional development (pedagogy,
  professionalism, non-violence, incentives)
• Curriculum development (Disaster Risk Reduction,
  history, citizenship, rights, entrepreneurship)
• Skills and capital (youth, vocational education,
  women, adult literacy)

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Roles and positioning of donors

• Methodological responses
• Principles processes levels entry points
  assessment tools
• Building back better, spaces for intervention

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2. Choices around donor alignment

• Systems and policy alignment
• Systems alignment (where governments lack
  legitimacy)
• Policy alignment (where institutions have
  disintegrated, but government have embarked on
  reforms)
• Shadow alignment (institutional and political
  breakdown advanced)

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3. Working with non-state actors

• Representatives of civil society, change
  agents, unions, scholars, journalists, NGOs
• But may be conflict between stakeholders
  religion versus secular forces capital versus
  rural areas legitimacy of NGOs
• CD for opposition groups?

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Ways forward 1 Country level

• Analysis, identifying fragile characteristics and
  how education intervention and education CD might
  tackle them
• Standards, indicators and monitoring, for example
  of safe schools, non-violence, peace-building,
  vocational education

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Issue based CD across levels
Fragile feature Central level CD Local level CD Teacher CD
e.g.Inter-group conflict Creating education policy for ethnic and religious harmony Conflict analysis Monitoring and evaluation of peace education Civic education in schools and HE Child-friendly schools Training of disadvantaged or minority groups in school governance Civic education Teaching controversial issues Conflict resolution Inclusive education
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Issue based CD across levels
Fragile feature Central level CD Local level CD Teacher CD
Lack of govern-ment legitimacy and public disengage-ment Understanding of democratic governance Realistic target setting Equitable financing formulae Demands for, and use of information flows Citizen feedback Voter education Education for democracy Media education
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Ways forward 2 Regional level

• CD in dealing with refugees, cross-border
  movements, ex-combatants, labour migration,
  accreditation
• Establishing and supporting regional networks
• Regional initiatives can address national issues
  in a less politically sensitive way

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Ways forward 3 Global level

• Global networks
• Minimum Standards
• Cluster approaches
• CD in working with international organisations
• Networks of experts in CD?
• FTI, global conditionalities?

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ConclusionsPrinciples More sustainable CD
needs

1. Honest analyses of fragility across all
   dimensions and existing capacity
2. Initiatives linked to target of breaking cycles
   and amplifications of fragility and restoring
   core state functions coherence
3. Recognition that CD is social-psychological, not
   just systems, about behaviour, status and
   survival, agendas
4. Targeting people who can effect change
5. Having indicators of success, me, linked to
   wider state-building indicators research.

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Areas for action

• Tackling regulation, but also workplace culture
• CD for those in youth employment, womens groups
  etc, but also labour market analysis
• CD for teachers must include how to promote
  political literacy, media analysis and dealing
  with controversial issues

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Areas for reflection 1

1. Which dimensions, focus points, stakeholders,
   methodological responses?
2. How to put into place a research programme?
3. How can regulation of educational institutions be
   improved? Should there be new regulatory bodies?

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Areas for reflection 2

• 4. What are long and short term indicators of
  success in CD for state-building?
• 5. Could cross-sectoral CD be more effective than
  just education?
• 6. How can incentives be assured for recipients
  of CD people and governments?
• 7. Should FTI be extended to fragile states? Who
  owns CD?