Finance and Education
The overall goal of the Working Group on Finance and Education (WGFE) is to improve educational planning, financing and management in sub-Saharan Africa. The Working Group is a forum where African educational planners and economists and funding agencies exchange information, develop tools and elaborate policies that will lead to the better management of education financial resources. Case studies exploring policies and practices related to the financing of education are an important component of WGFE's work program. WGFE also emphasizes capacity building within ministries of education and finance in the areas of planning, and budgetary and financial management.
Case studies explore policies and practices
Since 1998 the Working Group has been conducting national case studies that explore policies, practices, and mechanisms relating to the financing of education in the countries of sub-Saharan Africa. The studies also examine the institutional agreements between ministries of finance and education where planning and budget allocations are concerned. The teams conducting the studies are composed of nationals of the countries, such as representatives of the ministries of education, economy, and finance, and scholars from universities and research institutions.
The purpose of the studies is to provide an initial analysis of the way education is financed; financing mechanisms are reviewed and the constraints, bottlenecks, and weaknesses of these mechanisms are analyzed. This analysis will serve as a basis for deciding on specific actions to improve the financial and budgetary management of the country's education system.
Dissemination seminars
When the case studies are completed, national dissemination seminars are held to disseminate the results of the case studies to the major stakeholders in the education system of the country concerned (decision-makers, development organizations and NGOs, teachers' trade unions, parent-teacher associations, etc.) and make them aware of the issues and problems involved in financing education. To date, six studies have been completed in Benin, Niger, Senegal, Swaziland, Tanzania, and Mauritius. Six more were initiated in 2000, including Burkina Faso, Burundi, Kenya, Mauritius, Mozambique, and Egypt.
In 2000, about thirty people participated in the dissemination seminar for Kenya-academics, representatives of the ministries of finance and education, representatives of civil society, UNICEF, and NGOs. Members of the national study team presented the results, which provoked wide-ranging and constructive discussions at a time when the country is drafting a document to serve as the basis for mapping out a strategy for poverty reduction. At the end of the seminar, it was suggested that the study be adopted as a reference guide and regularly updated. The team also received several recommendations: (i) the data should be analyzed in greater depth and the analytical approach based on unit costs should be extended to all levels and types of education, in order to provide a basis for specific budget proposals; (ii) the study should be supplemented by an analysis of the system of student grants and loans as well as of private-sector participation in the financing of education; (iii) the medium-term expenditure framework should be analyzed in greater depth, along with the problem of coordinating external aid.
Implementation seminars
The Working Group also helps to organize implementation seminars, which provide an opportunity for the countries conducting case studies to discuss the recommendations of their national teams in greater detail. The seminars are supposed to lead to strategies for implementing the recommended actions. An implementation seminar was held in Mbour, Senegal, on July 17, co-chaired by Abdoul Aziz Fall, permanent secretary to the Minister of Education, Technical Education and Vocational Training, and Mr Alé Lo, chairman of the Association of Community Based Organizations and Rural Communities (Association des collectivités locales et des communautés rurales). Some thirty participants attended the seminar, most of whom were representatives of the ministers of education and finance and of civil society organizations. Participants discussed means of implementing certain recommendations. To date, several short-term recommendations have been adopted by the ministry and are beginning to be implemented. In addition, the recommendations concerning long-term strategy were taken into consideration in the drafting of the country's Ten-Year Plan for Education and Training (Programme décennal de l'éducation et de formation - PDEF).
Modules are developed for training seminars
One aim of the Working Group is to help education and finance ministries develop and implement policy on planning and on budget and financial management, in order to ensure optimal management of the funds allocated to education. To this end, training modules have been developed to contribute to the technical upgrading of the staffs of these ministries.
The modules, which were developed in collaboration with the International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP), cover the theoretical aspects of planning, and budgetary and financial management, as well as practical exercises. They refer to actual situations described in the Working Group's national case studies such as: an analysis of the evolution of education spending in Mauritius; Sources of financing for education in Swaziland; Budgetary procedures in Senegal; Budgetary procedures in Tanzania; Planning and budgeting for education in Swaziland; Education budget preparation and implementation in Mauritius.
In 2000 two regional training seminars based on these modules were held in collaboration with the International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP), with the participation of planning, administrative, and financial directors of ministries of education and budget directors of the ministries of finance.
The first seminar, for the French-speaking countries, was held in Grand Bassam, Côte d'Ivoire in April. Eleven countries were represented: Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Burundi, Burkina Faso, Niger, Senegal, Chad, Togo, Guinea, Congo and Madagascar. The second, for the English-speaking countries, was held in Quatre-Bornes, Mauritius, in September. It brought together 23 participants from Mauritius, Kenya, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Botswana, Uganda, and Gambia.
In addition, two national training seminars were organized in 2000. The first was held in Lomé, Togo, in October, for the six regional directors of the national education system and 24 officials from the ministries of education and finance. The second was held in Koudougou, Burkina Faso, in November, for the managers of the Regional Departments for Basic Education and Literacy (Directions régionales de l'éducation de base et de l'alphabetisation-DREBA) and officials from the central departments of the ministries responsible for education in Burkina Faso.
Activities for 2001
In 2001 the national case studies will be continued and dissemination seminars held. Several reports on the case studies will be published, and some countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi and Mozambique) will be in a position to organize national implementation seminars. The Working Group will also organize training seminars-two or three at a national level and one at a regional level-in collaboration with the IIEP. In addition, a sub-regional seminar will be organized on the topic The Challenges of Higher Education Financing in Africa. The objectives of the seminar, which is intended mainly for ministers of education or higher education in French-speaking Africa, will be to discuss the various problems raised by the financing of higher education in Africa and to analyze successful solutions from both Africa and other regions of the world.
Lastly, the Working Group will address the AIDS problem, which has affected education both directly (costs of absenteeism, of hiring and training new teachers, etc.) and indirectly (draining away part of the social sectors' share of the central government budget). A team will be set up to analyze the impact of the AIDS epidemic on the effort to finance education in Africa.
Coffi Remy Noumon
Coordinator of the Working Group on Finance and Education
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