Donor coordination in an uncoordinated development environment: the case of education in Pakistan.

Abstract

Long before 9th September 2001, there were already some key structural issues in the environment of development assistance in Pakistan that would make it particularly difficult to align with the criteria of the Paris Declaration, such as increasing the proportion of programme aid and reducing the number of delivery mechanisms running parallel to those of government. We shall look at one of these which seems likely to continue strong pressures towards the ‘projectisation of aid’ even when it might appear that there is increasing use of programme based approaches (PBA) and budget support (BS). We shall also look at a cluster of initiatives which illustrate the current climate of donor coordination. These would include the trajectory of the hesitant moves towards an education sector-wide approach (SWAP) and the current status of the Fast Track Initiative (FTI). Both these initiatives are closely related to the presence, absence and influence of the Donor Education Group (DEG).6. We shall end with a note on the increasing interest of donors in results and in outcomes, and how this may impact on the appropriate modalities to reach there. In particular we shall mention the current debate about the aid modality of budget support and its relations to educational outcomes.

Citation

Mimeo, 24 pp.

Donor coordination in an uncoordinated development environment: the case of education in Pakistan.

Published 1 January 2008