The Sahel Countries Mobilize for Education
Conference of the heads of state of Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali, Niger,
Senegal, and Chad (Bamako, Mali, November 26, 2000)
The summit meeting of the heads
of state of Burkina Faso, Guinea,
Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Chad,
held in Bamako, Mali, on November 26,
2000, focused on the follow-up to the
joint commitments made at the Dakar
Forum in April 2000. The World Bank
and UNESCO organized the conference
as part of the United Nations Special Initiative
on Africa, with support from the
Norwegian Fund for Education. Four
heads of state, a prime minister, and ministers
representing their heads of state
took part in the summit; all six were accompanied
by their countries' education
and finance ministers. In addition to the
Director-General of UNESCO,
Mr. Koichiro Matsuura, and the World
Bank's Director of Human Development
for the Africa Region, Mr. Birger
Frederiksen, representatives of a number
of development agencies were present,
notably UNICEF, UNDP, UNFPA, the
French Department of Cooperation,
CIDA, and USAID.
A new context and objectives commensurate with EFA targets
Burkina Faso, Chad, Guinea, Mali, Niger,
and Senegal rank among the countries
with the lowest enrolment rates in Africa.
Gross enrolment rates in these countries
range from 32% to 65%, with markedly
lower rates for girls and for children in
rural areas. Only 28% of the school-age
population completes primary school,
and this figure drops to 10% for girls in
rural areas. By linear extrapolation of the
current rates, universal basic education
will be reached not in 2015 but in fifty
years-an unacceptable prospect, given
the economic, social, and human importance
of Education for All. To honor the
pledges made at Dakar, these countries
will therefore have to make unprecedented
efforts in the education sector.
This "major national project" or "crusade"
must engender and sustain an exceptional
degree of social mobilization
if it is to be crowned with success. The
goals adopted by the conference connected
with this challenge of increasing
the pace of educational development
were:
- making EFA the foremost priority on
the agendas of heads of state and their
governments;
- making education a national cause;
- fostering a sub-regional dynamic of
successful reform;
- mobilizing external aid on the scale
required to meet targets and fulfill
commitments.
Broad-based participation in the preparation process
The African countries were in charge of
both preparing for and running the conference.
Well before the conference, the
education ministers, in conjunction with
the finance and planning ministers, set up
national teams in each country to produce
documents taking stock of the education
situation and strategies with respect to
EFA, the resources available and to be
raised, and prospects for quality and equity.
These working papers provided the
basis for a preparatory meeting of experts,
which was held before the conference.
Each country was represented by
an education advisor to the head of state,
two education experts, and two experts
from the ministries of finance and planning.
Using a simplified simulation
model, the national teams developed
plans for attaining the goal of universal
basic education in 2015, incorporating
the domestic efforts needed to increase
resources and use them more efficiently
without compromising the quality of
learning or the effectiveness of schools.
These plans led to three draft documents:
a framework for action, a framework
for partnership, and a political resolution.
The day before the conference, a
ministerial meeting open to members of
Parliament, teachers' unions, parents' associations,
and NGOs was held to examine
these draft documents. In this way,
civil society institutions were able to participate
in the process and give their views
on the issues, especially on the reforms
they considered to be most important.
When this broadly participatory process
had been completed, the heads of state
discussed in detail the documents submitted
by the ministers, and adopted
them.
Promising political results
The political significance of the decisions
and commitments taken by the heads of
state made the Bamako conference a success.
Fully aware that educational development
is "first and foremost a question
of political will," the heads of state committed
themselves, in their final resolution,
to making Education for All a national
priority. This was reflected through
the formulation of a series of measures
intended to:
- substantially increase the proportion of
GDP devoted to education, with a target
of 4% of GDP by 2015 (it is currently
in the 2 to 3% range);
- allocate at least 50% of the education
budget to developing basic education;
- undertake reforms aimed, in particular,
at sharing responsibilities between central
and local authorities within a decentralized
management framework that
gives more autonomy to schools (while
stressing the central government's responsibility
for financing);
- gradually introduce the use of national
languages in school and promote their
development.
" The Bamako conference set
an example of the political
dialogue that should be
conducted within and
between countries and
development institutions in
order to meet the joint
commitments of the Dakar
Forum, and to quicken the
pace of educational
development. "
To make education
a national cause,
the heads of state decided
to develop communication
policies
capable of mobilizing
various sectors of the
population around
these objectives and
reforms, while continuing
those education
policies on which
a national consensus
has already been
reached. After calling
for the promotion of
new national and international
partnerships,
they set up a sub-regional
mechanism to
follow through on
their decisions and charged the President
of the Republic of Mali with ensuring that
the mechanism functions smoothly.
Specific actions to achieve EFA in 2015
The frameworks for action and for partnership
that accompany the political
resolution highlight the actions to be
taken by both the countries concerned
and development agencies. In addition to
the promised budget hikes, which should
substantially increase national funding
for education, governments intend to
make more efficient use of these resources.
The countries will strive to:
- reduce rates of repetition, which currently
range from 15 to 30%, to a
maximum of 10% of the children in
school;
- raise rates of pupil retention through
the end of the cycle to 80%;
- adjust wage expenditures to each
country's capacity, aiming for an average
wage cost of approximately
four times the country's per capita
GDP;
- combine control of the total wage bill
with measures to generate income
from school premises and staff so as
to devote a portion of investment to
improving quality and facilitating access
to schooling
for poor families.
Furthermore, they
should reinforce
the capacity to
manage and monitor
education programs
by introducing
performance-based
management,
greater accountability
of field personnel,
rational criteria
for allotting
resources and staff
to schools, quality
standards for
schools and pupils,
systematic assessment
of learning
results, and institutional
measures to deal with observed
malfunctions.
A new partnership agreement in support of EFA
"If the countries adhere to their commitments
and have credible Education for All
action plans, the financial resources
needed will not be lacking." On the basis
of this pledge made by development
agencies at the Dakar Forum, the six
countries clearly showed their awareness
of the domestic efforts required and laid
down seven criteria for a credible plan
suited to the context:
- strong political motivation, as shown
by substantial budgetary adjudications
in favor of education;
- creation of a national consensus
around the plan;
- a guarantee of sustainable financing;
- management and auditing mechanisms
ensuring precision, efficiency, and
transparency in the use of resources;
- institutional decentralization reforms
to get local communities involved in
management;
- evaluation and monitoring mechanisms
at all levels;
- relevant strategies to improve quality
and equity.
In return, the six countries asked the
development agencies to enter into a partnership
agreement meeting their external
aid requirements, estimated at
US$40-50 million annually per country
through 2015. The agreement stresses
that new partnerships must encourage
integration of external initiatives within
the framework of national education policies
and poverty reduction strategies.
They must also support African leadership
and the harmonization of procedures
with those in force at the local level, as
well as with jointly agreed auditing and
assessment procedures.
This brief report cannot do justice
to the richness of the dialogue that characterized
this major summit meeting.
Education was called on to help meet the
challenges facing the countries, such as
the fight against AIDS, the promotion of
a climate of tolerance and peace, and civil
society participation. The Bamako conference
set an example of the political
dialogue that should be conducted within
and between countries and development
institutions in order to meet the joint
commitments of the Dakar Forum, an
indispensable condition for attaining the
EFA goals within the specified
timeframe. It is therefore necessary to
begin at once and to put forth a massive
effort in order to quicken the pace of
educational development. It was on this
note that Mali's head of state closed the
conference, appealing to development
institutions to provide assistance on a
scale commensurate with the countries'
requirements, which greatly exceed the
resources freed up by the HIPC initiative.
He assured one and all that he would
not fail to discharge his assigned mandate
of scrupulously ensuring the monitoring
and assessment of the commitments
made at Bamako.
Mamadou Ndoye
World Bank
Coordinator,
United Nations Special Initiative for Africa
Previous Article: Mauritania: Debt Relief Will Facilitate Ten-Year Plan | Contents Page | Next Article: Children Out of School and Population Censuses
![[ADEA logo]](../../pics/top_main.gif)
![[Table]](../../pics/top_right.gif)
![[ADEA Newsletter Image]](../../pics/newsletter.jpg)
