Are we on-track to make aid more effective though open transparent dialogue?
The new EFA FTI Monitoring and Evaluation Strategy, specifically its Results Framework, tries to constructively engage in this discussion by providing solid evidence from the education sector writ large.
The Results Framework, currently being developed, builds on four outputs to increase literacy rates in EFA FTI partner countries. The EFA FTI Partnership agreed to monitor progress in these four areas to determine whether countries are on-track to provide more children full, quality basic education and verify that:
- sound sector policies are in place
- external and domestic financing is increased to adequate and sustainable levels
- aid is delivered and managed effectively by donors and partner governments, and
- service delivery to school is improved
Data still need to be integrated into the EFA FTI Results Framework, and the process of monitoring the respective indicators at the global and country level needs to be aligned across the board. This remains a challenge for global development partnerships like the EFA FTI Partnership, but evaluating these indicators is a necessary step for the Partnership to understand the extent of its impact on education development.
EFA FTI’s partner organizations regularly collect data but, so far, there has been no such process for aid effectiveness data indicators within the education sector. EFA FTI based its process and methodology on the well established OECD 2011 Survey on Monitoring the Paris Declaration and then rolled out its own 2011 Monitoring Exercise.
The FTI Secretariat sent questionnaires to Local Education Groups in 61 countries, including 44 EFA FTI developing partner countries and 17 low income countries eligible for funding from the EFA FTI. Data collection took place at the country level and was coordinated through donor and Ministry of Education focal points between February and June 2011. The FTI Secretariat is now developing country profile documents based on this data and Local Education Groups will validate them in July.
In total, 42 countries participated in the exercise with support from 30 bilateral and multilateral donor agencies. This exercise will inform the EFA FTI Partnership about its performance on overall aid effectiveness principles, and more specifically on:
- how well integrated civil society is in the sector processes
- how learning outcomes are monitored
- how predictable aid is
- and how Local Education Groups function.
Local Education Groups initially expressed concern about the additional work incurred by the exercise, but eventually acknowledged that it generated useful discussions on the importance of aid effectiveness monitoring and data sharing.
Preliminary data from 29 countries is consistent and shows that ownership, joint technical cooperation, joint missions and analysis, results management and mutual accountability are areas whose performance is close to or beyond the Paris targets. The most challenging areas remain the use of a country’s financial management and procurement systems and harmonization. Encouragingly, in the majority of the countries (18 out of 29), aid effectiveness targets are agreed between the Ministry of Education and the donor partners. The awareness of the need to adapt aid effectiveness principles and concrete targets in the sector work has increased. However, only 12 countries have so far included the monitoring of these targets in joint sector reviews.
The results of this exercise will inform the upcoming OECD report ‘Progress since Paris’ and will inform the 4th High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (HLF 4) in November 2011 in Busan, South Korea. The EFA FTI has already started discussions on how to engage with other global partnerships such as The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation, Cities Alliance, International Health Partnership, and the Global Environment Facility in the Global Program Learning Group. The Global Program Learning Group met on 16-17 June 2011 in Washington, DC, to agree on joint messages and activities.
The HLF 4 is a unique opportunity to revisit the current global aid architecture and will be a forum for the EFA FTI Partnership to showcase its adaptability to the challenges of aid cooperation in the 21st century. As proved by its recent governance reforms and the inclusion of more country partner governments, civil society and the private sector, EFA FTI has proved to be on-track to deliver on what is expected of a modern global development partnership. However, with the 2015 MDG deadline almost around the corner there is an urgency to improve aid effectiveness and the effectiveness of development.
