Education in Fragile States: Capturing Lessons and Identifying Good Practice

Inter-and intra-agency coordination-The accountability, will and capacity of donors 25 6.4 A new sector financing strategy in education-transitional trust funds .. 1.1 Structure of the Paper The DAC characterises fragile states as countries with poor governance as identified by a lack of political commitment and/or weak capacity to develop and implement pro-poor policies; fragile states also often experience violent conflict. The DAC framework categorises fragile states as follows: 1-Deterioration (Conflict/risk of conflict; Declining capacity and/or will)-Arrested development (Lack of will; Moderate or high capacity)-Post-conflict transition (Risk of conflict; Low capacity; High or low will)-Early recovery (May be post-conflict or not; High will but low capacity). This paper examines how development assistance in these four environments can enhance access to quality basic education for the poor and vulnerable, at the same time improving governance and thereby mitigating the risks of fragility, and increasing the effectiveness of future aid. 2 Section two introduces the concept of turnaround – how a state's fragility may be sufficiently reduced to allow sustainable pro-poor growth – as well as the 'rights' and 'risks' considerations that impact donor decision making and effectiveness. Section three examines will and capacity in the education sector; section four explores political economy implications for sequencing and planning; and section five considers how education can support state-building from the bottom up. Section six focuses on aid effectiveness in fragile states, where donor coordination instruments may be needed to sustain transitions to post-emergency support in environments still likely to be fragile. The paper concludes with recommendations in section seven. 3 1.2 The Study Context It has been estimated that as many as a third to one-half of children out of school live in fragile states, and that gender inequalities in these states are greater than elsewhere. 4 Even in countries where overall enrolment appears reasonably high, reaching excluded groups such as children with disabilities, orphan/separated children, demobilised children, and un-schooled youth may be particularly important in addressing a country's causes of fragility. Moreover, education is seen to play an important role in influencing fragility, positively or negatively, and schools may be targeted in efforts to undermine government legitimacy. 5 Agencies working on education recognise that the 'relief-development dichotomy is an artificial one', 6 and that as 'a long-term endeavour, [education] needs to be planned in that [long-term] way.' 7 This highlights the importance of planning beyond the immediate in supporting education interventions, but does …