Transcript Aid to education in Asia - ICAE

MDG2 on Universal Primary
Education Completion:
EXHIBIT A
DAVAO CITY, Philippines, 2007 -- A 12-year-old
girl, who became despondent over her
family's poverty, hanged herself inside their
makeshift house a day after her father told her
he could not give her the P100 ($2) she
needed for a school project.
Using a thin nylon rope, 12-year-old Mariannet
Amper hanged herself in the afternoon of
November 2.
She was a sixth grader at the Maa Central
Elementary School.
EXHIBIT B
Estimated out-of-school children, 2005, millions
Sub-Saharan Africa
32.8
Asia & Pacific
26.9
Arab States
6.1
Latin America & Carrib.
2.4
North America & Western
Europe
1.9
Central & Eastern Europe
1.9
TOTAL
72.1
Source: Global Monitoring Report 2008
Behind the glowing evidence…
In 1999 there were 96 million children not in
school.
In 2005, the number had gone done to 72
million.
The decrease in 6 years is about a fourth.
At this rate, the world will not achieve MDG2
in 2015.
Top reasons why children are being pushed
out of schools and learning centers:
From an Education Watch survey by ASPBAE in
2006-07:
• Families cannot afford school fees and informal
charges
• Children need to help family earn income
• Children needed to help at home (watch siblings)
• Distance of school to home
• Lack of interest in schooling
EXHIBIT C
On gender parity
• Only 18 out of 113 countries that
missed the gender parity goal at
primary and secondary level in 2005
stand a chance of achieving it by
2015.
• Boys’ under-participation and underachievement are of growing concern
in secondary education.
Impact of major threats on MDG 2 & 3
and EFA Goal 5
• Rise in poverty lead parents to pull or keep girls out of
school if choices need to be made on who to send to school.
But in some countries poverty may disproportionately affect
boys’ education as well (e.g. Mongolia Philippines.)
• Increase in food price may lead to poor nutrition level of
girls, especially when family preference is given to boys in
food sharing, decreasing their chances of schooling.(e.g.
South and West Asia)
• Girls and women are esp. disadvantaged in emergencies
context and at greater risk of exclusion from education and
exposure to unsafe environment and sexual abuse (e.g. the
Tsunami, cyclone Nargis)
From : UNESCO Asia-Pacific Office
EFA Thematic Working Group on Gender
Recommendations for
policy cohesiveness on gender
Broaden the scope of MDG 3 to include achievement of gender equality
in education by 2015. (MDG 2 and 3 are limited to gender parity.)
•
Articulate and strengthen links between gender issues in education and its
impact on gender equality in society at large
•
Move the discussion beyond parity (esp. in East, Southeast and Central Asia):
–
–
–
•
“Parity” often seen as “equality”. e.g. “We have no gender issues” .
Reducing the gender gap or achieving gender parity in education has not automatically
translated into equality between men and women.
There is a lack of indicators to measure gender equality in education (EFA Goal 5)
Mainstreaming and institutionalizing gender throughout the education
system and learning process at all levels:
–
–
–
School environments remain physically unsafe and gender insensitive – e.g. no separate
toilets.
Teacher attitudes and practices, curricula and textbooks continue to be gender-biased;
and fields of studies and occupational choices remain clustered by gender.
Gender responsive policy planning and budgeting in education is not institutionalized.
Profile of children missing an
education
Overall, children are more likely to be out of
school…
• If they are from poor households
• Live in a rural area, and/or
• Have a mother with no schooling
• Being a girl accentuates the probability of not
being in school for each of these categories
EXHIBIT D
Where is lifelong learning?
•
More than ¾ of the world’s 774 million adult illiterates live in only
15 countries, including eight high population countries:
Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Nigeria and
Pakistan. India alone has nearly 35% of the world total.
•
Of the 101 countries still far from achieving ‘universal literacy’, 72
will not succeed in halving their adult illiteracy rates by 2015.
Question: How can poverty be halved if adult
literacy is not halved?
Trivia: Men & women 60 years old this year
share their birth year with the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. How
ironic if their rights were violated!
Policy recommendation:
Youth and Adult literacy are nowhere
in the MDG targets and indicators
• Include Youth and Adult illiteracy
rates among the indicators tracked
under MDG1 on halving poverty
EXHIBIT E
Education in situations of displaced
and forced migration
• 35 ‘fragile states’ (failing
economic systems and countries
in conflict) identified by the
OECD15 accounted for roughly
37% of all out-of-school children
in 2005.
Policy recommendation for children
in emergency situations of conflict
and disasters
• Inter-government agreements and laws
enacted on the right to education of every
child within their territories, whether their
own citizens or not
• Provide registration for children to allow
them to attend public schools in recipient
countries, waiving documentation
requirements (e.g. birth certificates)
Strong advocacy proposal from
Latin America education coalition:
A Call to review and annul the “Return Directive of the
European Parliament on the return of nationals
from other countries that find themselves illegally in
their territory” allowing for detention for up to 18
months to Non-documented immigrants and
forbidding their readmission to Europe for the
period of 5 years. It also allows the expulsion of
18 underage not accompanied by their parents,
without considering their schooling and family
situation.
[The Return Directive was approved by the European
Parliament at the end of June and will be enforced
in 2010.]
On commitments by donors
To achieve UPE, $11 billion is needed per
year until 2015.
Since the Dakar Framework, total ODA
commitments for education rose rapidly,
• From $6.5 B in 2000 to $10.7 B in 2004
• 65% increase in real terms
On the positive side…
• The increases benefited low-income countries
• Regional distribution of aid for education changed
with more shares of total going to South & West
Asia (from 12% to 20%)
e.g. Bangladesh & India got 75% of UK aid to basic
education and 50% of IDA’s in 2004
• Basic education got more attention with 90%
increase from 2000 to 2004
EXHIBIT F
Reversals . . .
• 2005 saw severe decline in commitments by
$2 billion, going back to 2002-level
• The decrease is at odds with positive
statements made by donors in recent years
about their intentions to increase support to
education significantly
And more bad news . . .
• While aid to education was targeted to the
poorest countries as a group, it did not
necessarily go to the neediest among them.
• Among some largest donors, there was
dramatic reduction in aid to basic education
in 2005
e.g. UK and IDA decreased by 70% and 80% each
Countries
Bangladesh
OSC
Aid to Basic Educ per Aid to Basic Educ per
primary-age child
primary-age child
2004, in US $
2005, in US $
399,000
42
6
6,395,000
8
0
702,000
54
3
6,303,000
7
10
Sri Lanka
47,000
3
26
Cambodia
23,000
9
14
Indonesia
414,000
3
3
Philippines
648,000
5
3
1,007,000
67
124
India
Nepal
Pakistan
Vietnam
Source: GMR 2008
• The aid of largest donors to education represent only a
small share of their total ODA
• Donors to the FTI committed $570 M by 2006 and a further
$360 M by end-2007. As of June 2007, only $130 M have
been disbursed to 18 countries. (In Asia, only Vietnam,
Mongolia, Cambodia and Timor-Leste have FTI programs)
• Largest donors France, Germany and Japan allocate most
of their aid to funding large numbers of foreign students to
their universities
• ODA is packaged not only in grants but also soft loans and
therefore countries like Indonesia & Philippines add to their
already huge debt burdens when accessing assistance
• Spending of aid is restricted by IMF’s systematically
cautious conditions on government spending e.g. caps on
teacher salaries in a situation where 18 million more
teachers needed worldwide
On the real impact of aid to education
• Studies suggest that on average increasing aid to
education by 1% of recipient county’s GDP increases net
primary enrolment ratios by 2.5 to 5% and completion
rates by 2.5%
• But with poor governance, impact of aid to education may
even be negative (e.g. misallocation, corruption)
Partnerships for MDG2:
What do we need to see from governments and donors?
GOVERNMENTS:
•
Eliminate direct and indirect school fees in basic education, provide
alternative delivery modes (e.g. mobile teaching, learning modules,
flexible school calendar, etc.)
•
Adopt and adapt International Network on Education in
Emergencies (INEE) minimum standards to address issues related
to children in emergency situations
•
Target and direct innovative programmes for children of poor
families, incentives for disadvantaged groups (dalits, ethnic, those
with disabilities, etc) to complete primary and secondary education
and/or attend NFE programmes; set policy for easier re-enrolment
to formal system, especially for young parents; use of mother
tongue in initial grades/levels
•
Allocate resources for promoting gender equality in education and
other neglected goals of EFA2015 such as ECCE and adult literacy
•
Develop multi-year planning and budgeting process that would
assure budget predictability
DONORS:
• Increased, better quality, untied, and effectively-targeted
education ODA
• FTI to expand to more eligible countries and include
funding for non-formal and adult literacy apart from UPE
• Donors fund capacity-building of partner governments to
effectively spend and report on education ODA-funded
programs
• Set up a Civil Society Education Fund for them to more
effectively engage governments on education policy and
monitor progress of MDG2 and Education for All 2015
• Involve CSOs in education ODA policy & budget allocation
decisions in institutionalised formal forums
• Donors cancel debt (which is not counted as ODA); ODA
for education and health should be in grants and not loans
SIX WILL FIX
• 20% of National Budgets; 6% of GNI
to education
• 6% of education budgets to adult
education; 3% to adult literacy
• 15% ODA to spend on education and
60% of education ODA for basic
education
Thank you!
For the FTF-GCAP Poverty Hearing
UN MDG High Level Event
New York, 23 September 2008
On behalf of the International Council on Adult Education
Raquel Castillo
Asia Advocacy & Campaigns Coordinator
Real World Strategies for Education for All
ASPBAE / Global Campaign for Education