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‘One size fits all.’ How much does donor influence in setting educational policy in poor countries lead to improved quality outcomes?

This paper explores the extent to which Donors influence educational policy and the implications this has for education quality in low income countries. The author assesses the evidence using a conceptual framework developed by combining the ideas of several key researchers in this area, to present a clear way of defining ‘quality’ in education.

It aims to demonstrates that donor influence has not led to improved quality and the author will utilise the framework themes to structure possible new visions of education and how it could be harnessed to bring about development.

This paper was submitted in part of the MSc in Development Management at the Open University.

Author:Ashten Regan-Denham  

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Why has the Peru One Laptop Per Child program failed to live up to its promise?

The One Laptop Per Child Foundation is a US-based charity established by Nicholas Negroponte in 2005 to “empower the world’s poorest through education”. OLPC set out to achieve this by designing a laptop computer specifically for the conditions in developing countries, and partnering with the governments in these countries to roll-out the laptops to all their schools and children.

Over 2,000,000 children and teachers in Latin America are part of an OLPC project, with another 500,000 in Africa and the rest of the world but how should such projects be evaluated? This paper uses the ‘Design Reality Gap’ framework to look at the OLPC project in Peru in more detail, demonstrating how delivery problems have obscured much of the potential of its innovative underlying approach. It concludes that radical changes are necessary for future phases of the project in order that the potential social impact of OLPC can be properly assessed and evaluated.

Author:Matt Haikin  

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The Intersection of Gender, Education and Health: A Community-level Survey of Education and Health Outcomes for Women in Southeastern Togo

Gendered education and health outcomes are of great importance for developing regions of the world where low standards of human health and low levels of education persist. Low levels of female education are common in low-income countries, where priority is often given to educating boys. The literature demonstrates that, in the African context, gendered education affects family health. This research examined gendered education and health outcomes at the community level in southeastern Togo. Very few studies document the socio-economic realities for women in southeastern Togo, and fewer still evaluate community-level data for these variables.

Data from the community of Ganavé, Maritime, Togo were collected by way of a household survey– administered home-to-home by field researchers. Data was analyzed using SPSS. Chi-square tests were used to assess the relationship between levels of maternal education and several measures of family or community health. This study found that levels of education were much lower among mothers than they were among fathers, but that education levels were very low for both. Maternal education, in particular, was found to be a significant determinant of family hygiene and sanitation, identification of intestinal worms as a health problem, and home birth rates. Analysis of child labor, school attendance, and child mortality variables was precluded by our small sample size. This data seems to support the idea that higher rates of female education in the West African sub-region would be expected to have a positive effect on maternal health, as well as family and community health. This study’s data from Ganavé, a village community in southeastern Togo, support the findings of other studies in sub-Saharan West Africa, that maternal education affects family health. Further research, with samples from a broader range of economic strata and possibly degrees of urbanization, may assess the strength of the relationship between female education and family health in West Africa.

Authors:Trevor V. Mattos, Miranda Adams MacKinnon & Dorothy F. Boorse

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Inter-Organisational Cooperation of Haitian NGOs in Education – A Haitian Perspective

In Haiti, around 90% of the schools are operated by non-public providers. Many NGOs are active in the domain of education. Coordination and cooperation is a big challenge, especially in the transition phase from humanitarian relief to development, one year after the devastating earthquake in January 2010.

In this project report submitted in part of an MSc in Development Management the author – after an exploration of the problem from a theoretical perspective – the outcomes of semi-structured interviews with NGO directors and education coordinators in Haiti provides an insight into six different inter-organisational cooperation trajectories with NGOs.

The reasons why organisations enter and participate in inter-organisational cooperation trajectories include objectives in the following domains: improved coordination, increased effectiveness, more technical capacity and shared curriculum development, shared policy development, stronger advocacy and increased chances for fundraising.

However this report highlights the fact that the most important condition for inter-organisational cooperation is the development of a shared vision.

Report Author: Marike de Kloe

HD PDF NewInter-Organisational Cooperation of Haitian NGOs in Education – A Haitian Perspective (3596)

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