Helpdesk Report: Approaches to Improving the Quality of Education in Ethiopia
Abstract
Query
A summary of the evidence, preferably in education, comparing working through government systems with a number of partners and working bilaterally with one non-government partner in terms of impact and cost effectiveness. The report should include examples of USAID interventions in Ethiopia and summarise their scope, partners, costs, timeframe, and number of beneficiaries.
Summary
There are different ways of working with governments and partner organisations to improve the quality of education in developing countries, specifically Ethiopia. This report highlights these differences by using two different donor organisations as examples. AusAID advocates for working through government systems and their approach, including impact and cost effectiveness, is summarised in section 4. USAID's bilateral programme is also summarised in section 5 although it has undergone significant changes in structure over the past decade, and is currently under intensive strategic review. USAID prefers to balance bilateral agreements to government partners with the need to incorporate social, political, and institutional realities in structuring donor support over the long term and to enable long term reform. It also balances accountability for programme accomplishment and delivery schedules with the scheduling of process activities that require policy engagement and agreement of multiple partners. Their approach is also summarised, including some examples of USAID educational interventions.
This report also summarises the donor environment (section 2), USAID's work in Ethiopia (section 3), considers the role of NGOs in section 6 and looks at ways to pay salaries and the role of leadership in sections 7 and 8 respectively.
Citation
Holley, C. Helpdesk Report: Approaches to Improving the Quality of Education in Ethiopia. Human Development Resource Centre, UK (2011) 13 pp.
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