Partnerships for Girls' Education
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Partnerships for Girls’ Education Edited by Nitya Rao and Ines Smyth Partnerships for Girls’ Education Oxfam GB Oxfam GB, founded in 1942, is a development, humanitarian, and campaigning agency dedicated to finding lasting solutions to poverty and suffering around the world. Oxfam believes that every human being is entitled to a life of dignity and opportunity, and it works with others worldwide to make this become a reality. From its base in Oxford in the United Kingdom, Oxfam GB publishes and distributes a wide range of books and other resource materials for development and relief workers, researchers and campaigners, schools and colleges, and the general public, as part of its programme of advocacy, education, and communications. Oxfam GB is a member of Oxfam International, a confederation of 12 agencies of diverse cultures and languages, which share a commitment to working for an end to injustice and poverty – both in long-term development work and at times of crisis. For further information about Oxfam’s publishing, and online ordering, visit www.oxfam.org.uk/publications For information about Oxfam’s development,advocacy,and humanitarian relief work around the world, visit www.oxfam.org.uk Partnerships for Girls’ Education Edited by Nitya Rao and Ines Smyth First published by Oxfam GB in 2005 © Oxfam GB 2005 ISBN 0 85598 513 5 A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library. All rights reserved. Reproduction, copy, transmission, or translation of any part of this publication may be made only under the following conditions: • with the prior written permission of the publisher; or • with a licence from the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd., 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 9HE, UK, or from another national licensing agency; or • for quotation in a review of the work; or • under the terms set out below. This publication is copyright, but may be reproduced by any method without fee for teaching purposes, but not for resale. Formal permission is required for all such uses, but normally will be granted immediately. For copying in any other circumstances, or for re-use in other publications, or for translation or adaptation, prior written permission must be obtained from the publisher, and a fee may be payable. Available from: Bournemouth English Book Centre, PO Box 1496, Parkstone, Dorset, BH12 3YD, UK tel: +44 (0)1202 712933; fax: +44 (0)1202 712930; email: [email protected] USA: Stylus Publishing LLC, PO Box 605, Herndon, VA 20172-0605, USA tel: +1 (0)703 661 1581; fax: +1 (0)703 661 1547; email: [email protected] For details of local agents and representatives in other countries, consult our website: www.oxfam.org.uk/publications or contact Oxfam Publishing, 274 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 7DZ, UK tel: +44 (0)1865 311 311; fax: +44 (0)1865 312 600; email: [email protected] Our website contains a fully searchable database of all our titles, and facilities for secure on-line ordering. Cover image: Mashimoni Squatters primary school, Kenya (Geoff Sayer/Oxfam) Published by Oxfam GB, 274 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 7DZ, UK. Printed by Information Press, Eynsham Oxfam GB is a registered charity, no. 202 918, and is a member of Oxfam International. Contents Foreword vii Cream Wright Acronyms and abbreviations xi Acknowledgements xii Introduction: principles and realities 1 Nitya Rao and Ines Smyth Part One: Prestige and Profile 1 Keeping education on the international agenda: the Global Campaign for Education 23 Patrick Watt 2 Flying high: the Partnership on Sustainable Strategies for Girls’ Education 39 Adaeze Igboemeka 3 Pressure from within: the Forum for African Women Educationalists 49 Penina Mlama Part Two: Discourse and Practice 4 Emerging partnerships in the Philippine EFA process 67 Rene R. Raya and Raquel de Guzman Castillo 5 Complementary provision: State and society in Bangladesh 80 Ahmadullah Mia 6 Partnerships from below: indigenous rights and girls’ education in the Peruvian Amazon 94 Sheila Aikman Part Three: Scaling Up and Sustainability 7 Innovation and mediation: the case of Egypt 115 Malak Zaalouk 8 Seeds of change: community alliances for girls’ education 131 Lucy Lake and Angelina Mugwendere Conclusion 144 Nitya Rao and Ines Smyth Index 150 v vi Foreword Cream Wright This book provides a useful contribution to our understanding of the important topic of partnerships, which is rapidly becoming the most desirable as well as the most elusive variable in development work. Given the complex nature of partnerships and the current controversy surrounding the concept as a development ‘buzz word’,the contribution of this book needs to be placed in the context of the wider spectrum of issues and concerns relating to partnerships as a key factor in development work. In this regard we first need to distinguish between categories of partnership, at different levels, in order to increase our understanding of the issues involved. At one level there is the broad category of partnership between governments and external agencies/organisations, usually designated as external development partners.At a second level there is the category of ‘internal’ partnerships between governments and national groups representing civil society, the private sector, and other special interests. At a third level there is the category of partnership between external partners seeking to assist countries in development. This might best be thought of as partnership within and between ‘blocks’ of external development partners, such as the multilateral agencies (mainly United Nations agencies), the international financial institutions (mainly development banks), the bilateral agencies, the global private sector (mainly multinational companies), and the international development foundations that represent private-sector or other special interests. In addition to these three major levels and categories of partnership, there has also been a growing tradition of partnerships that link national groups directly with external partners. The links between international NGOs and national NGOs are probably the best illustration of this type. All these levels and categories of partnership are quite complex and challenging on their own, but new inter-relationships have emerged to complicate the field still further. For instance, there are new ‘partnerships between partnerships’,which require external agencies to work efficiently together as partners, in order to work more effectively in partnership with governments. In a similar vein, governments are increasingly required to work more effectively in partnership with national organisations in order to make more efficient use of the resources provided by external agencies as part of a new holistic partnership between a country and its external development partners. Generally then, as the contributions in this book indicate, partnerships have become increasingly complex and challenging as the drive for convergence and consolidation has intensified in an effort to build greater effectiveness and efficiency into development work at all levels. vii Partnerships for Girls’ Education There are a number of explanations for this increased emphasis on new ways of doing development work, which has in turn resulted in the growing importance of partnerships as a development imperative. First, as the number of external partners seeking to assist with development has increased, it has become obvious that there should be measures to avoid waste and duplication of efforts, as well as to reduce the high transaction costs to governments of servicing such a plethora of external assistance initiatives. Second, it has also become apparent that the main mode of providing external assistance in the form of development projects has severe limitations. Projects typically provide tied resources for achieving specific objectives within specified time frames. In this regard, even successful projects may leave unattended critical needs which are essential for development but were not part of the original project. They may also cause other areas of cross-sectoral work to be marginalised, while resources and attention are concentrated on project areas. In addition, projects tend to monopolise expertise and drain national capacity with their servicing requirements, which are not necessarily linked to the mainstream of capacity building for development. As a result, there has been a shift towards doing development work in a manner that strengthens national capacity, deals more broadly with the various sectors, makes inter-sectoral connections, and provides resources in a more flexible and reliable manner for development. Third, the tendency for external concerns and priorities to dominate external assistance has been viewed as counter-productive for development work. This has produced a shift towards clustering development efforts around central concerns and priorities that are defined by the countries themselves (governments with participation by other stakeholders), rather than by external development partners. These shifts and changes in emphasis point to the need for all development stakeholders to work closely with each other in collaborative patterns that promote greater synergy, improved efficiency, and increased effectiveness. In a word, partnership has become the name of the game in development work! Some of the consequences of these new ways of doing development are still unfolding, but we know enough to appreciate that partnerships are much more complex than the theoretical constructs and principles suggest. For