Partnership Paradox The Post-Conflict Reconstruction of Liberia’s Education System Partnership Paradox The Post-Conflict Reconstruction of Liberia’s Education System Editors Christopher Talbot and Aleesha Taylor Foreword Ellen Johnson Sirleaf President of the Republic of Liberia December 2015 Education Support Program Copyright © 2015 by the Open Society Foundations. All rights reserved. This publication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 license. You may copy and distribute the document only in its entirety as long as it is attributed to the authors and used for noncommercial, educational or public policy purposes. Photographs may not be used separately from the publication. ISBN: 978-1-940983-56-1 Published by Open Society Foundations 224 West 57th Street New York, NY 10019 USA www.opensocietyfoundations.org For more information contact: Aleesha Taylor at [email protected] Education Support Program Open Society Foundations Cover and layout by Judit Kovács l Createch Ltd. Cover photograph: Students in school for internally displaced people, Liberia, 2008. © Jim Goldberg l Magnum Acknowledgements Many people have been indispensible in the development of this publication. Not least among these are the 15 chapter authors whose documentation of their experience forms the core of this volume. Special thanks go to colleagues and former colleagues in the Open Society Education Support Program, who encouraged this project from the start, and especially to Jonathon Fairhead, Virginia Kozemczak, and Trine Petersen, who supported the research and writing process throughout, and to Tawnya Switzer, who provided invaluable editorial inputs. We are also deeply grateful for editorial suggestions from Suzanne Grant Lewis, Anton de Grauwe and Jeannine Kidza of UNESCO’s International Institute for Educational Planning, for the support of William Kramer and Annick Shen, from the Open Society Foundations’ Office of Communications, and for the guidance and encouragement of Massa Crayton and Abdul Tejan-Cole of the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA). Finally, thanks go to the many Liberia-based organizations and individuals who infor- med the authors, both for their generosity with their time and sharing of information. More than this, they deserve credit for their daily dedication to the cause of Liberian education. * In mid-2014 an Ebola epidemic struck Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. The resulting humanitarian crisis crippled economies and shuttered schools in ways that are reminiscent of the conflicts that each country has endured. Pupils in the already-struggling systems likely lost a full year of schooling. It has taken an immense level of effort and financing to not only reopen schools, but to strengthen the respective governance and education systems. PARTNERSHIP PARADOX 3 This book perhaps foreshadows the paradoxes of some of the partnerships that followed the Ebola outbreak. Regardless of whether it is rebuilding and reforming education in the aftermath of a war or an epidemic, this book is dedicated to those whose futures depend on us getting it right. 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Preface Any serious effort to rebuild a country after years of conflict faces great difficulties; buil- ding a peaceful, fair, and open society after a protracted civil war in what was an already underdeveloped and poor country presents even greater challenges. The devastating effects of Liberia’s two civil wars between 1986 and 2003 were huge, affecting infrastructure and all aspects of life and culture, leaving their mark on every community, school, and family. Partnership Paradox, describes the efforts of Liberia and its international partners in the post-conflict reconstruction of education. As the title suggests, the partnership was a complex one, revealing inadequacies and strengths, collaboration and contradiction, inno- vation and rigidity, commitment and carelessness. The book thus sets out a range of vital lessons for building partnerships around the planning, financing, implementation, and monitoring of such educational reconstruction efforts, rooted in the lived realities of Liberia between 2006 and 2010. The youth of Liberia deserve an honest account of these efforts. The Open Society Foundations are committed to building open and just societies, working to strengthen accountability by governments and participation by citizens. Our efforts have focused on supporting the rebuilding of education systems in several conflict and crisis-affected countries, strengthening critical thinking, promoting equal education and inclusion for marginalized groups, developing a critical political economy of education, and helping teachers, parents, students, and civil society groups work together to improve education quality. In addition to education justice and reform, the Foundations work in over 100 countries to advance public health, rights and equality, youth engagement, governance and accountability, and media and arts. Hugh McLean, Director, Open Society Education Support Program PARTNERSHIP PARADOX 5 Contents Acknowledgements 3 Preface 5 List of abbreviations 9 List of tables, maps and boxes 11 About the authors 13 Foreword 21 Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Chapter 1. Introduction 27 Aleesha Taylor Chapter 2. Ethnography of post-conflict financing: partnerships and the Education 41 Pooled Fund in Liberia Cream Wright Chapter 3. UNICEF’s role in the development and implementation of the Liberian 73 Education Pooled Fund Eleanor Stella Kaabwe PARTNERSHIP PARADOX 7 Chapter 4. A partnership of unequal partners: rebuilding education sector governance 89 in post-conflict Liberia James Emmanuel Roberts Chapter 5. The experience of the Ministry of Education’s planning department 115 Anthony A. Nimely and Eugene Jappah Chapter 6. The “Liberian boy”: the role of international consultants in Liberia’s 127 educational reonstruction Batuhan Aydagül Chapter 7. The role of local civil society in the post-conflict reconstruction of the 145 Liberian education system T. Michael Weah Chapter 8. The Liberian Education Trust: a history 159 Deborah Harding Chapter 9. Diverse partnerships: designing and implementing the Liberia Teacher 165 Training Program Mark Ginsburg and Brenda Arrington Chapter 10. Selection, procurement, and distribution of textbooks and teachers’ guides 181 Keith Burchell Chapter 11. Building the foundations: early childhood development in Liberia 199 Yukhiko Amnon and Tina Hyder Chapter 12. Conclusions about the partnership paradox in Liberia’s post-conflict 211 educational recovery in the light of international experience Christopher Talbot Bibliography 235 Appendix: Historical background to Liberia’s civil war 251 Mark Ginsburg The book 253 The editors 255 8 CONTENTS List of abbreviations ADEA Association for the Development of Education in Africa AED Academy for Educational Development COTAE Coalition for Transparency and Accountability in Education CPC Country Program of Cooperation CSO Civil Society Organization DfID United Kingdom Department for International Development ECE Early Childhood Education ECD Early Childhood Development ECSEL European Commission Support to Education in Liberia EDP Education Development Partner EFA Education for All EFA-FTI Education for All—Fast Track Initiative EMIS Education Management Information System EMT Executive Management Team EPDF Education Program Development Fund EPF Education Pooled Fund EQUIP Educational Quality Improvement Program PARTNERSHIP PARADOX 9 ESDC Education Sector Development Committee GoL Government of Liberia GPE Global Partnership for Education IIEP International Institute for Educational Planning (UNESCO) INEE Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies INGO International Non-Governmental Organization IP Implementing Partner IRC International Rescue Committee LACE Liberia Agency for Community Empowerment LET Liberian Education Trust LET-M Liberian Education Trust—Monrovia LIPACE Liberia Institute for the Promotion of Academic Excellence LPERP Liberia Primary Education Recovery Program LTTP Liberia Teacher Training Program MCID Mississippi Consortium for International Development MoE Ministry of Education MPEA Ministry of Planning and Economic Affairs NGO Nongovermental organization OECD Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development OMEP Organisation Mondiale pour l’Education Préscolaire (World Organization for Early Childhood Education) OSIWA Open Society Initiative for West Africa PFMU Project Financial Management Unit PTA Parent Teacher Association RoL Republic of Liberia RTTI Rural Teacher Training Institute SADAD Students Against Destructive Actions and Decisions SWAp Sector-Wide Approach UNMIL United Nations Mission to Liberia 10 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS List of tables, maps and boxes Tables Table 3.1 Objectives and achievements of the EPF, 2008–11 84 Table 4.1 Ministry of Education 150-day deliverables guidelines and projects 93 Table 4.2 Ministry of Education budget summary, 2006/2007 97 Table 4.3 Donor pledges to the Government of Liberia, 2004–07 102 Table 4.4 Total funding breakdown by sector, 2004–06 (in U.S.$) 111 Table 6.1 Liberia Primary Education Recovery Program (LPERP) Components 132 Maps Map 1 Liberia Country Map, 2004 12 Map 2 UNICEF offices and counties of focus in Liberia, 2007 58 Map 3 International NGOs in Liberia, 2008 98 Boxes Box 1 Extracts from the New Education Reform Act of 2011 207 Box 2 Summary of attributes of a good pooled fund in Paris Declaration terms 221 PARTNERSHIP PARADOX 11