Last month, 70 representatives of Burkina Faso’s education sector partners met for four days in Koudougou, a city 1-hour drive west of Ouagadougou, the capital. The reason: the joint annual sector review, convened by Jean Martin Coulibaly, the Burkinabè Minister of National Education and Literacy (MENA).
According to all participants, the joint sector review is the most important annual event for planning and monitoring the sector. For some participants, the joint review is a unique opportunity to take part in the policy dialogue and share the reality of the challenges and successes of implementing the sector plan on the ground.
From planning to monitoring
The Global Partnership for Education was founded in 2002 as a multilateral framework to strengthen partner country education sector plans, improve aid effectiveness, coordinate external support, and raise the funds necessary to achieve the objectives of Education for All. Since 2002, these objectives have been the central focus of the partnership. In 2014, the GPE changed its funding model to put more emphasis on the quality of education sector plans.
The criteria for the new funding model strengthen the sector planning stage, but as in everything, monitoring of sector plan implementation is as crucial. That is why GPE recommends that partner developing countries prepare an annual report on the implementation of their sector plans and on the progress made in the sector. It is preferable to prepare this report prior to the joint sector review or use of a similar mechanism for monitoring implementation of the strategy.
Always innovating to improve the quality of meetings
Attendees at the Burkina Faso annual Joint Sector Review
Photo Credit: GPE/Marc Antoine Percier
For nearly 15 years, the Burkinabè Ministry of National Education and Literacy (MENA) has been convening all development partners in the sector to take part in the joint sector reviews.
Based on lessons learned from past experiences, MENA continues to renew its approach and think innovatively about the preparation and organization of these annual meetings. For this year’s review, the number of participants was decreased (from 180 to 70) to enable more in-depth discussions, based primarily on documents distributed in advance to the participants. A new meeting structure that encourages dynamic exchanges between the thematic groups created was introduced as well.
After the annual physical and financial execution reports on implementing the sector plan for basic education were presented in the plenary on the first day, the organizers divided the participants into five thematic groups to address in detail issues of access, quality, nonformal education, financial management, and system management.
Each thematic group spent the second working day evaluating the implementation status of the recommendations of the previous sector review and identifying the recommendations and themes to be considered as a priority for 2016. On the third day, two representatives from each group presented their conclusions to the other groups.
The recommendations of each thematic group, recorded in final reports, were consolidated by a drafting committee in the aide-mémoire of the review and submitted to Jean Martin Coulibaly, Minister of Education, for validation and signature.
Joint sector reviews as the central focus of the GPE model
The joint sector reviews are part of a broader framework of policy dialogue and sector monitoring which, in Burkina Faso, includes the local education group, the thematic working groups, and the pooled fund monitoring group.
Although there are major differences in the type and format of joint sector reviews in the GPE partner countries, all sector stakeholders consider them an essential mechanism for monitoring performances and assessing the implementation of development strategies.
The recommendations issued during the reviews to correct the course of the different reforms carried out on a national scale also inform decision making with a view to adjusting education policies and bolstering their effectiveness.
In this regard, the joint sector reviews are the central focus of the GPE model, serving as essential instruments for inclusive policy dialogue based on empirical data, for mutual accountability, and for support to the implementation of quality education sector plans.
Over the past few years, the GPE Secretariat has carried out a variety of initiatives and studies related to the joint sector reviews, and the country leads at the Secretariat attend, to the extent possible, the sector reviews organized in the countries they cover.
Although the Secretariat mission can attest to the Burkina Faso experience in conducting these reviews, it should also be recognized that there is a growing demand by many partner countries for better support to strengthen their effectiveness. In consultation with its partners, the Secretariat will develop a technical guide for preparing and holding joint sector reviews in the coming months. Burkina Faso’s long and vast experience, as well as the information we collected during this mission, will be useful in this project and may benefit many other partner countries.