Strategy
Education has an undeniable and measurable effect on revenues, growth, environment, demography, hygiene and the sanitary situation. It conditions change in social behaviour, production methods, productivity gains, economic growth and is a cornerstone for reducing poverty and inequalities. Education fosters the participation of populations in development, citizenship, good governance and therefore political stability. It is at the crossroads of individual fundamental rights and global issues.
International education agenda
The mobilization of the international community began in 1990 (Jomtien conference) with the ambitious priority objective for governments and international aid of achieving Education for All by the year 2000. Huge strides have been made, particularly in Asia and Latin America, but the mobilization of national governments and official development assistance has not lived up to the stakes. Ten years later, in 2000, the world still counted 875 million illiterate adults and 113 million children of primary school age were still deprived of any chance of going to school, including over 60% of girls.
During the Dakar Forum in April 2000 the international community reiterated its commitment to support the Education For All target. The Millennium Development Goals adopted by the United Nations the same year confirmed this orientation through two objectives for 2015: “to ensure primary education for all” and “promote gender equality”.
The Monterrey consensus in 2002 shaped a new development paradigm based on increased effectiveness and a true partnership between donors and recipient countries. Against this backdrop, the Fast Track initiative was born with the target of fast tracking progress towards universal primary education.
The time frame may certainly be more realistic than the one ten years before, but the challenge is still sizeable, particularly in Africa where lags are the highest and where new scourges have emerged (armed conflicts, HIV/AIDS pandemic).
AFD intervention strategy
Following an initial reform of French cooperation in 1998, AFD began operating in the education sector with two priorities: basic education and vocational training.
In 2004 the Inter-ministerial Committee for International Co-operation and Development (CICID) defined priority intervention axes and widened responsibilities entrusted to AFD which received the mandate to finance all French bilateral programmes for primary and secondary education and vocational training. In that capacity the corresponding projects of the priority solidarity fund (PSF) previously managed by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs ware transferred to AFD in 2005.
AFD’s operational intervention strategy is defined in the Strategic Intervention Frameworks (SIFs) drafted by AFD and reviewed every three years. It is based on both Partnership Framework Documents (PFDs) signed with all partner countries which “indicate the sectors – with a limited number for each country - which are a focus for the means of French cooperation and a strategic note approved by CICID en 2005 which defined four priority objectives for French aid in terms of basic education:
a) foster access to education by addressing the issues of both supply and demand in order to reduce disparities and ensure proper schooling for the most vulnerable populations;
b) improve the quality of education ;
c) support the design and piloting of effective sectoral policies;
d) support the implementation of a participative school management.
Cross-cutting problematics addressed in education feature education system management, capacity building for stakeholders and institutions, issues of teacher status and training and a better integration of linguistic issues (national languages, fluency in language used for teaching). Schooling for girls is also an objective which must be mainstreamed into national strategies to reduce disparities in the same way as HIV/AIDS prevention.
Priority is given to the development of programme approaches under the responsibility of recipient countries by ensuring aid harmonisation and the inclusion of the entire education system. This includes defining the best possible allocation between the different levels of teaching according to progress in Universal Primary Education and the absorption capacities of job markets.
The increase in the education portfolio, which rose from 136 million euros year end 2002 to 291 million euros year end 2005, bears witness to the boom in this sector. This funding concerns 47 projects including 35 in basic education and 12 in vocational training.
Priority in basic education is given to Sub-Saharan African countries with low schooling rates and coherent and credible sectoral programmes (Senegal, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali, Madagascar etc.). The main component for the first generation of projects (1999-2002) was infrastructure financing (Senegal, Burkina Faso, Mali, Guinea, Togo, Djibouti, Niger, Madagascar) and aimed at reducing disparities (choice of regions with the lowest schooling level) and accountability of local actors (promoting school projects, decentralization support). Since 2002, within the framework of the aid harmonisation process and the Fast Track initiative, AFD has given priority to programme aid by participating in “basket funds” (Tanzania) and sectoral budget support (Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Niger, Madagascar, Benin). This basic education priority is increasingly supported by a focus on post-primary education (secondary school, vocational training etc.).
AFD’s vocational training projects initially concerned emerging countries (Tunisia, Vietnam, Morocco) but have now been extended to LDCs (Senegal, Mauritania…). Vocational training has a central role in improving the link between training and employment in a global perspective of upgrading the economy and socially and professionally integrating young people. Such projects require an active partnership between the State and economic operators gathered and structured by sector. They encourage the introduction of modernized initial and adult training, including apprenticeship and workbased learning.