9/25/97

Introduction

An effort to decentralize state governments is one of the many goals in macro level political and economic development in eastern and southern Africa today. Decentralization movements, which are driven by the twin forces of democratization and dec lining resources, require an increase in the number and capacity of alternative systems to meet societal needs. These alternative systems are developing out of necessity, but also from changing attitudes about how states should be run. Participation fro m all levels, from the macro to local level, is now understood to be an integral part of a country’s working toward satisfying the demands of its civil society.

The effect of decentralization efforts occurs at a variety of levels. There are attempts to install decentralized systems at the policy or macro level, the sectoral level, and at the micro or community level. It is important when considering decentra lization issues to remember that all of these levels do not work independently. They must complement each other and work collaboratively to achieve successful decentralized systems.

In the process of using more decentralized systems, the issue of education is indirectly affected. This is because decentralizing government functions, in general, requires greater responsibilities and skills on the part of civil society. Thus, inter national donors and African states are now emphasizing alternative means for educating citizens for the following two reasons:

1. they have no other viable options due to the lack of resources available to them (education is often one of the first types of funding that is cut in an economic crisis);
1. it is an attempt to expand the democratic responsibilities of citizens.

Consequently, there is an increase in the level and need for nonformal education (NFE) to help train people in the necessary skills and how to take on new responsibilities. For these reasons, as the issues of collaboration and complementary system s are considered, the role of NFE is also increasingly discussed. NFE and adult education are experiencing a resurgence of interest in Africa. For this reason, the NFE Working Group of the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) ha s funded research specifically to look at the following three themes concerning NFE in eastern and southern Africa:

1. Decentralization’s effect on NFE;
1. Collaboration in NFE systems; and
1. Formal and nonformal complementarities.

ADEA’s initial investigation of the above themes in education has demonstrated ample evidence that these subjects are significant. Studies concerning these three themes were conducted by 10 African researchers from eastern and southern Africa. They p roduced 11 papers which investigated issues relevant to NFE in Kenya, Uganda, Botswana, South Africa, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe. (For a complete list of research reports, see Appendix A.) Because decentralization is one of the driving forces for consideri ng changes in the current education systems in Africa, it is the overarching theme in all of the research. However, decentralization is buttressed by collaborative and complementary efforts.

Collaboration can be between the public and private sectors, the state and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), NGOs and the local community, or wherever there is a need for partnership. The state is dependent upon working with alternative systems co llaboratively to begin shifting their once assumed responsibilities onto these other sectors. Without the initial sharing of responsibility, the transformation to a decentralized system will be more difficult. In addition, much of these decentralized ef forts require more flexibility and innovation to see them through. One way of handling the increased responsibility that decentralization brings, upon the local level especially, is to allow for more complementary formal and nonformal systems. This enab les already existing systems, that may not have been previously recognized by the state, to work with the formal systems. Because the formal education system often does not reach all of the population, nonformal systems help to meet societal needs. Thes e nonformal systems must be recognized as legitimate partners by the state. Without this recognition, nonformal systems will not progress in their ability to contribute to the efforts of formal systems. The importance of establishing collaborative and c omplementary systems in education is clear. Moving forward in decentralization efforts without first building collaborative and complementary systems is like trying to construct the roof of a house before the foundation has been laid.

The following is a discussion of the researchers’ findings. The studies vary in their focus and at which level (the macro, sectoral, micro, or a combination of levels) they are investigating. The discussion examines the papers as an entirety organize d by the five themes which emerged from the findings.

These themes are:

1. the need for increased collaboration and complementary systems;
1. the need for clarification in partner roles;
1. the need to underscore the importance of participation in program planning and implementation;
1. collaboration at the community and sectoral level is less problematic than at the state level due to fewer obstacles; and
1. training people for decentralization is essential.

1. The need for increased collaboration and complementary systems

One of the key issues that becomes clear in many of the ADEA studies is the call for increased collaboration and complementary systems in NFE activities. More specifically, the studies identified existing collaborating systems in literacy and a dult basic education, family health education, and basic education for rural women. An examination of complementary systems was researched in the areas of basic education for "at risk" students, adult basic education and training, and mature ag e entry schemes.

First, the studies on collaboration will be discussed. It was discovered in these studies, that collaborating organizations have a wide and strong presence in both rural and urban areas. However, the extent and effectiveness of collaboration among th e private, public and NGO sectors varies. An example of an effective system of collaboration is given in a study done in Zimbabwe which examined skills training for income generating projects for women. In this study, it was found that systematic collab oration existed in terms of what each key player provided. The government was responsible for the development of the curriculum and teaching and learning modules, and for paying adult literacy tutors. The partner NGO involved in the program of study pr ovided the training for the adult literacy tutors. International donor agencies funded the program through either the NGOs involved in the program or the government. Using clearly defined expectations for collaboration helped to prevent a duplication of activities and, in this case, it led to increase productive work with the women involved in these income generating programs. It is clear that collaboration for the provision of services is well-defined in this program.

However, this was not the case in Botswana. A researcher here looked at the national adult literacy program and discovered that the mechanisms for collaboration at the macro level were not well-defined and more haphazard. He discovered that collabora tion was highlighted in a policy document as the mechanism for delivering the literacy program more effectively and to increase coverage in the country. Although collaboration has been incorporated into the program’s policy, it did not outline how to acc omplish this. Despite the presence of collaboration in other governmental programs, there was no such effort to do the same in the national literacy program. (Still need to find out from Juma why) Collaboration remains a concept rather than a practice in this program.

Another researcher examined family health education in Swaziland. He found collaboration occurring at all levels in the provision of this service. Collaboration existed at the public, private and NGO level, but varied in its effectiveness between par tners. These organizations were collaborating in the following areas: training, production and delivery of educational materials, message delivery, distribution of commodities to clients, transport, facilities, funding, and advocacy for policy formation . Unfortunately, collaboration was perceived to be weak, or to not be an integral part of the working relationship, between the following combination of groups: a) NGOs themselves, b) the state, NGOs and private organizations, and c) private organiza tions and NGOs. The only groups that were perceived to be working well together were private organizations. The author stated that the strong collaborative effort between the private organizations was anchored in the similarities that existed in: a) t he nature of their work culture, b) their business operations, c) their goal to set up medical centers, and d) the conditions of work for their employees. Clearly, understandings of this nature encourage partnership.

The weak collaboration between NGOs revolved around the issue of competition as a result of trying to gain donor attention. Government red tape, bureaucracy, and the absence of national policy or mechanisms for collaboration also inhibited partnership efforts between the public, private and NGO sectors. Centralized decision-making by the state, which created the bureaucracy and red tape, was an obstacle to collaboration efforts.

Turning now to a discussion of complementary systems, our studies found, as expected, that there are complementary systems in demand for marginalized people. The effectiveness of these programs varied depending, in some cases, on whether planning was participatory. For example, in Uganda, a Complementary Opportunity for Primary Education (COPE) program was examined in two different districts. These programs were designed for "at risk" students, especially girls. COPE is an alternative bas ic education strategy designed to equip out-of-school children with literacy, numeracy, and life coping skills. The goal for COPE students is to return to the formal school system after "catching up" to the same level as the students in the loc al school. The researcher found that when this program was set up properly, with clear collaborative roles and community participation, that it works very well. Students who went through the COPE program were able to integrate back into the formal schoo l system successfully.

Another complementary system that seems to be working well at the sectoral level is the mature age entry scheme used in southern African Universities. A researcher in Botswana examined these schemes and found that the nonformal requirements (work expe rience, good entrance exam scores, extra-mural training) demanded of mature age students were complementary to the formal requirements. The mature age entry students (twenty-five years or older) were able to return to college and they exhibited the same academic capacity as the formal entry students. Interestingly, despite this positive finding, there is still some resistance among University administrators in using mature age entry schemes. This is attributed by the researcher to their seeing, rightly or wrongly, these schemes as a back door entrance for failures of the school system. The rigid outlook by some administrators as to why some students do not succeed in secondary school is not flexible enough to take in factors, such as economic or socia l ones, for a student’s not finishing this level. A similar phenomenon also exists in a study done in South Africa which looks at curriculum development in formal and nonformal education, but at the macro level.

The study done on curriculum development in formal and nonformal education in South Africa reviewed the past 5 years of attempting to coordinate these programs. The challenge for these policy makers is to eliminate the rigid division between the forma l and nonformal sectors which stems from historical racial segregation. Though there is agreement at the macro level that these two sectors should be working together, there is resistance to actually implementing their own strategies. In this case, as i n the mature age entry scheme one, there is an uncertainty about change which is proving to be an obstacle to developing complementary systems.

This section stressed the prevalence of already existing collaborative efforts and complementary systems for educational purposes across the countries in our study. The following themes discuss more of the specific issues that arise when working towar d decentralization with collaboration and complementary systems.

2. The need for clarification of partner roles

Some of the studies identified problems that stemmed from a lack of clarification in partner roles. This is a major obstacle to collaborative efforts. As a result, important responsibilities are not carried out due to the ad hoc nature of collaboratio n, the lack of formal structures, lack of policy, and lack of decentralization in decision-making. The following studies highlight this problem.

As seen in the Botswana study on the national literacy program, without distinctly outlining the roles and responsibilities of program partners in policy, there is no initiative to start partnerships. The word "collaboration" is used without a clear understanding of how to implement it as an activity. This researcher suggested that structures for coordination need to be set up by committees at the national, district, and village level to clearly determine the roles and responsibilities of e ach organization. Once every partner knows what is expected of them, then they can begin to work in unison.

It is important to know what obstacles exist in order to get a clear sense of what roles each player should concentrate on. The study in Swaziland that looked at the nature of collaboration between public, private, and NGO sectors of family health edu cation identified some potential obstacles to collaboration. The state’s inability to understand their role was the main obstacle to collaboration. It became clear that the state has not thoroughly thought out what decentralization means to them. It do es not understand what to do in its role as a "decentralized" organization.

It is important to think about the state’s role in the process of decentralization. In the review of adult basic education and training in South Africa, it was difficult to create a national curriculum because of the issue of power which became an obs tacle for the state. Even though there have been enthusiastic players in favor of the national curriculum, it has been slowly developed in the adult education sector. It was found that those involved in the formal education sector did not want to be dir ected in any way by those in the nonformal education sector. Their historical standing as the "dog" led them to not want to be "wagged" by nonformal education efforts. The politically changing context of South Africa is influencing t he state, but it is a difficult and slow process to change old habits and relinquish previously held power.

Understanding the role one plays in a collaborative effort is key to its progression. There needs to be an emphasis on creating a collaborative process as a whole, but also individually so that there is no confusion about the roles and responsibilitie s of each player.

3. Importance of Participation

It seems unnecessary to make the above point because participation is suppose to be a given in program planning and implementation. Everybody knows that participation is essential for the success of a program. Yet, it was discovered in many of the AD EA studies that no mechanism for participation was provided. This led to obstacles in the collaborative and complementary efforts being made. It needs to be made clear that participation in the design, implementation, and management of a project by all of the stakeholders is key to its success.

The (COPE) program for youths in Uganda provides a good example of the harmful effects that overlooking participation can have on a program’s intentions. As mentioned earlier, this researcher compared COPE programs in two districts, one being more suc cessful that the other. The more successful COPE program had better collaboration among its participants. Its success was attributed to a high level of community participation, adequate district political support (enough to keep things progressing), and the utilization of existing political structures. This community understood their role in the management of the COPE program, had power to make decisions, and recognized political avenues to help them succeed. The less successful program did not have a ny of these elements and suffered from misadministration of the program, a lack of support and will from policy makers, low community participation, and failure to a recognize and use existing political structures.

It needs to be emphasized, once again, that participation is needed from the onset of a project. Otherwise, as in the unsuccessful COPE program, a dependency is created that should not exist in decentralized, collaborative or complementary efforts. T his study also demonstrates that participation at the community and village level is an essential element in decentralization efforts.

However, in order to have participation, there is a need for active collaboration. The study in Botswana on the national literacy program demonstrated that if this is not the case, then participation in program management will not occur. Collaboratio n and participation need to be initiated concurrently from the onset of a program.

It can also be deduced from the study on curriculum development for formal and nonformal education in South Africa, that there needs to be some thought about the level of participation and at which stages participation fits in best in a project. In So uth Africa, efforts to increase participation, in a formerly racially segregated country, have actually led to too much stakeholder input at the national level which has led to a standstill in the implementation of newly developed education programs. Her e is a case of the antithesis of participation, too many players at the state level created an "over owning" of the policy process. Based on this evidence, the researcher suggested a two-tiered approach to maintain a more participative policy f ormulation. At the broadest level, all stakeholders must be involved to determine the overall goals and benchmarks. At a more detailed level, in which more profession and technical issues are dealt with, policy formulation must be delegated to specialis ts with the same expertise. He feels that this would make the development of national curriculum a more successful endeavor.

4. Collaboration and complementary systems at the community and sectoral levels are less problematic

Both collaborative and complementary systems take time to install. This is often simpler at either the sectoral or community levels because they are less complex and a smaller environment than the state level. The untangling of how to collaborate or use complementary systems becomes a less daunting process. At the state level, there is less flexibility to work out cooperative agreements.

The South African research on formal and nonformal education demonstrated the difficulties encountered when creating complementary systems at the macro level. It is clear from the review of the past five years of policy in this area that paving the ro ad for complementary education systems can be a slow process. Of the many issues to solve before this process can be addressed, the major challenge has been to design a national curriculum that addresses both the broad skills needed at the formal level w hile concurrently addressing the needs for specific life experiences. At the community level, this would be an easier task.

The researchers in South Africa point to the fact that few countries take the idea of unification as far as South Africa has in attempts to develop a national framework for adult basic education and training. For example, in another study done in Sout h Africa, determining the allocation for resources for NFE and adult education programs given regional and racial disparities was a problem. South Africa provides an example of how literacy and adult basic education and training have been very closely as sociated with the political transformation of the country. Redirecting funding in an attempt to close the gap in racial disparities for education has been a tricky issue to discuss. The researchers here feel that South Africa may prove to be a good case study for other African countries with disparities between the rural and urban areas and how to direct funding to these areas from the national level, once they begin to solve this problem themselves.

The above has led to the observation that complementary systems may be easier to form at the community or sectoral level. The Botswanan researcher who examined mature age entry schemes in southern African Universities to see how well they complement f ormal entry requirements discovered that complementary systems of entrance qualifications are possible at this sectoral level. The nonformal system was complementary to existing entrance qualifications and not too expensive or time consuming. Mature age entry students were succeeding at the tertiary level even though they seemingly did not have the same abilities during secondary school.

It was also evident in the Swaziland family education study that collaborating at the private sectoral level was much easier than collaborating between other levels and with the state. The flexibility and similarities that other levels share in compar ison to the state makes collaboration much easier to install.

Also, it is perceived to be easier to collaborate at the village or community level. The professionals involved in the national literacy program in Botswana were asked where they saw collaboration to have the strongest potential. The majority of resp ondents indicated that they saw collaboration to be the most effective at the village or community level where both the beneficiary and direct implementers are located. This researcher does reinforce the idea of clearly determining roles and responsibili ties at this level to maintain effective collaboration.

In another study done on outcomes-based education in South Africa for adults, the researcher also found that it is necessary to clearly define the goals of a program for it to be effective. In this case, the South African government was attempting to c reate a more holistic approach and support efforts for adult basic education and training. For this reason, they decided to implement an outcome-based education program to develop skills and strategies in adults which can be applied to real-life contexts . As part of this process, though, they did not define "outcomes-based education," nor did they alter the curriculum to adhere to this new goal. In his pilot study, this researcher discovered that many of the teachers involved in the program d id not have a clear idea of what outcomes-based education means, making it difficult to collaboratively work towards the goals of the program. This led to confusion among the teachers as to what it really was suppose to achieve. Also, it would have been helpful to the overall development of such a program if the teachers assisted the government in the planning and creating of program goals. Here is a case where attempts to increase decentralization by improving local skills that are more relevant to peo ple’s lives fell short because the main players in the programs, the teachers, were not part of the process of the program development, nor were they trained in this new strategy.

In summary, collaboration is not easy. But it appears that collaborative efforts are less problematic at certain levels, due to greater flexibility at the micro level such as in the village and community. At this level, there are less expectations of the roles and responsibilities of people or organizations. From the ADEA studies, there is an indication that at the smaller, less complex levels (or at the community and sectoral levels) there is naturally more opportunity to work cooperatively.

5. Training people for decentralization is essential

In the example presented in the study of an outcomes-based education program for adults in South Africa, it became clear that there needed to be some sort of training to give the teachers involved in this program a better idea of what this concept mean s. This is why training is essential in decentralization efforts. Program administrators cannot assume that people will know what to do with the new responsibilities that decentralization brings, even, for example, if this means less responsibility at t he state level. There needs to be some effort to help everyone understand their new roles, responsibilities, and the new skills that are expected of them. With decentralization comes many responsibilities and new roles for people as the government slowl y transfers these services from the national to the sectoral or community level.

It was found that training is favorably looked upon in the study on mature age entry students. One of the most important requirements for mature age entry students is that they are already trained in some skills in their profession. It is important t o keep people up to date with the skills that the workplace is requiring.

The above statement is true even for employees in the informal sector. One researcher in Kenya looked at training for Jua Kali artisans that sell their wares in the informal sector mostly. He discovered that in all of the national training manuals th at he reviewed, the issue of decentralization is implied. The government is playing a more facilitative role and leaving issues of intervention to NGOs, local associations, etc. This has led to more outreach training programs and more control of the loc al associations over their own funding. The emphasis of training is on both improving artisan skills for the modern workplace and also how to take more initiative in promoting one’s craft. There are still many wrinkles to iron out in this program, but t he efforts to reach people with training are recognized as very important.

There were also two other studies that looked at training, but in the community context. These researchers were interested in examining how local knowledge can play a role in the training of village people in more scientific disciplines. One study in Kenya focused on herbalists and their training and how it complements medical doctor training. The researchers premise was that drawing from herbalists’ training would be beneficial to the medical practitioners. It was discovered that herbalists learn mostly through practical experience. There is little use of books and few theoretical discussions for an herbalist apprentice. He or she is trained more on an individual level, often learning through observation and trial and error. The medical intern employs more books and classroom discussion in their training, although it was indicated by the interns that the most valuable part of their training was the actual practical experience. The researcher found that the medical interns were open minded abou t herbalist practices. Thus, he concludes that their is potential for collaboration between herbalists and medical interns to help meet the needs of rural areas which are often neglected due to a lack of resources by the central government. The herbalis t benefits from the introduction of more scientific processes into their training, such as understanding chemistry to mix medication. The medical intern learns the art of self-training and listening to their patients from the herbalist. This is not yet happening in Kenya, but it does lead one to recognize the potential of working collaboratively in training efforts and how complementary systems can support each other by drawing from another system’s strengths.

The other study, done in Zimbabwe, examined how community participation can be increased and incorporated with the research done by environmental scientists. As part of her investigation, this researcher did a pilot study to see if the training of loc al community members would be feasible in assisting chemical researchers in determining water pollution. After minimal training in how to collect water samples and recognize certain chemical substances in the water, the participants not only provided the chemical researchers with the information that they desired, but enlightened them on activities that were occurring in the area that also contributed to water pollution (illegal gold panners were leaving high levels of certain inexplicable metals in the water). This is a case where the use of local knowledge helped to increase scientific knowledge.

In this section, it becomes clear that training is not only essential in decentralization efforts, but it also offers potential to help build complementary and collaborative systems which can contribute to the goal of meeting societal needs from all le vels. Also, it offers encouraging results on the benefits of local participation and knowledge to the sectoral and state levels.

Five themes emerged from these 11 studies. We elaborated these themes with relevant examples from the studies themselves. Among these themes are:

• the need for increased collaboration and complementary systems;
• the need for clarification of partner roles;
• the need to underscore the importance of participation in program planning and implementation;
• collaboration and complementary efforts at the community and sectoral level are less problematic due to fewer obstacles; and
• training people for decentralization is essential.

Decentralization seems to be a prevalent theme in Africa today in the area of education, particularly in NFE issues. It is motivating the need and interest in collaboration and complementary education systems at all levels. Decentralization, whether purposeful or de facto, appears to be driving increased collaboration and interest in the development of complementary systems. As seen in the studies, there are benefits and obstacles along the road to effective decentralization. Some of these benefits include:

• more skills and responsibilities in the hands of the people
• collaboration can help to prevent a duplication in organizational activities and it potentially increases productive work in programs
• complementary systems can be used to meet the needs of marginized populations inexpensively
• participation from the community and village level can increase the probability for success of decentralized efforts and can add to the knowledge of the other levels.

Obstacles that still need to be overcome include:

• how to resolve the issue of power
• how to rid uncertainty and resistance to change
• how to allow for the time and flexibility that it takes to develop collaborative and complementary systems
• how to get all of the key stakeholders to participate in the design, implementation, and management of a program without "over-owning" the process
• how to clarify the roles and responsibilities of organizations at the more complex, higher levels and between sectors.

• There needs to be some participation at all levels. This includes people being able to see that their input is being taken seriously and having an effect in the design, implementation, and management of a program, such as in the successful COP E project.
• There needs to be more of an effort to discuss issues at the state level, such as the process of relinquishing power and training for people to understand their new role and responsibilities. This should include discussion on the benefits of changing the current system and this change is a slow and difficult process.
• When collaboration is part of a policy, a process to clearly identify how this is to be done and the roles and responsibilities of each partner needs to be put into place. A forum for discussing the development of complementary systems is also needed to consider issues such as how to work together using the strengths of each system.

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Aitchison, John. Uncertain Outcomes: Pilot Study for an Investigation of the Effects on Teaching Practice of the Introduction of Outcomes-Based Education in Adult Basic Education: Two Independent Examinations Board Site Case Studies

Kajula, Peter Waalwo. Reaching Children Out of School in Uganda: A Case Study of Complementary Opportunity for Primary Education Programme (COPE).

Magagula, Cisco. The Nature of Collaboration Between the Public, Private, and Non-Government Organization Sectors in the Provision of Family Health Education in Swaziland.

Matsgalaga, Neddy Rita. Government,.NGOs, and International Donor Agencies’ Initiatives in the Provision of Basic Education to Rural Women in Zimbabwe: Systematic Collaboration or Separate Involvement? Lessons of Experience.

Maundu, John. Towards Meeting Local Training Requirements of Jua Kali Artisans in Kenya: Some Lessons of Experience.

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Mukono, Tendai. Towards A Participatory Water Quality Management Program: The Case of Cap Mine, Zimbabwe.

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