Back to Home Page of CD3WD Project or Back to list of CD3WD Publications

PREVIOUS PAGE TABLE OF CONTENTS NEXT PAGE


Principles to Guide Action


Education for the Elimination of Poverty
Better Education for Poor People
Education: A Human Right
Education for Human Development
Partnerships in Support of Education
Long-term Support for Major International Education Goals

DFID's commitment to education is guided by six major principles:

· Education for the elimination of poverty
· Better education for poor people
· Education: a human right
· Education for human development
· Partnerships in support of education
· Long-term support for major international education goals

Education for the Elimination of Poverty

Creating opportunities to acquire and apply knowledge and skills for the elimination of poverty underpins DFID's policy on education.

Nearly one quarter of the world's population live in extreme poverty, on less than the equivalent of US$ 1 per day. 70% of these people are women. 39% of the 1.3 billion people live in South Asia, 34% in East Asia and the Pacific and 17% in Africa. For the poorest one fifth of the world's population, their share of the worlds income fell from 2.3% to 1.4% in the 30 years from 1960.

Besides inadequate access to such basic essentials as personal and community security, food, health and assured basic income, poor people are deprived of adequate educational opportunities for themselves and for their children. It is estimated that over 900 million adults are illiterate; two thirds of whom are women.

The elimination of extreme poverty requires action on many fronts. For economic growth to enable large numbers of people to escape poverty will require changes in the distribution of assets in favour of the poor; better distribution of the benefits of economic growth; macro-economic stability to create the environment for investment; economic policies to encourage employment; and social policies to ensure adequate levels of investment in education and health. And an active civil society is essential if the voices of the poor, including children, are to be heard in debates about their own future.

Poverty is a substantive barrier to sustainable development. It limits the potential for economic growth and denies many people the opportunity to acquire knowledge and skills to enable them to participate fully in the social, economic and cultural life of their communities.

The lack of educational opportunity is a manifestation of poverty, a denial of individual and social rights and needs. Conversely, poverty limits access to education and is a barrier to the development of the knowledge and the skills needed to help in its elimination.

"...there are new ways to enable those who are poor, marginalised, illiterate and excluded to analyse their realities and express their priorities; that the realities they express of conditions, problems, livelihood strategies and priorities often differ from what development professionals have believed; and that new experiences can put policy-makers in closer touch with those realities."

Robert Chambers 1998

Better Education for Poor People

DFID will support policies and programmes that are responsive to the educational realities and expressed needs of children, poor households and disadvantaged communities.

The design of effective and sustainable education strategies should be informed by an understanding of the nature and the causes of poverty. Poverty and education interact at different levels; within families and households (women and men, boys and girls), within communities and nationally. There is vulnerability and uncertainty at each level. The poor are most at risk.

For children in poor households or those obliged to fend for themselves, the relationship between education and poverty is likely to be a vicious circle. The poverty of their families means that children share the stress and the burden of both lack of income and social exclusion. There may be little time for informal education. Distance from schools may limit access, as do the hours children contribute to household survival. This affects girls more than boys and involves caring for siblings, fetching water and fuel, preparing food, or working on city streets, all of which can be exploitative and dangerous. Lack of nutritious food and safe water compromises health and development.

It is relatively unusual for national education strategies to take close account of poverty assessments and tailor programmes accordingly. DFID will support governments which decide to match both policy and practice more closely to the realities and expressed needs of poor people. Many civil society organisations and NGOs are able to offer helpful, innovative and nationally relevant experience in this regard.

It is equally important, to have clear analysis of the macroeconomic context within which governments approach pro-poor reform. Developing realistic, sustainable, and protected expenditure frameworks to meet the educational needs of the most disadvantaged is a necessary component of economic and social development policy.

Education: A Human Right

Many developing countries are signatories to international conventions and have enshrined the basic right to education in national constitutions and policy statements. These commitments provide a strong basis on which to build supportive international partnerships.

The DFID White Paper, Eliminating World Poverty (1997) endorses the emphasis of the World Summit on Social Development (Copenhagen 1995) that sustainable development is not possible unless human rights are protected for all, including the poorest and most disadvantaged.

The right to education is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human. Rights (1948) and in more recent conventions, notably the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) which has been ratified by 191 countries. The World Conference on Education for All (Jomtien 1990) signalled the emergence of a new international consensus, founded on the need for a quality basic education for all, which extends beyond schooling into adulthood.

DFID subscribes strongly to the Jomtien World Declaration on Education for All (EFA) when it states:

The most urgent priority is to ensure access to, and improve the quality of, education for girls and women, and to remove every obstacle that hampers their active participation.

Education is a basic human right which provides the individual with the opportunity to learn, a process of intrinsic human value. It is also a means of helping to realise human rights. It enables people to participate more fully in civil society and democratic processes; to be proactive in their own development.

Education for Human Development

Education contributes to both the means and the ends of human development. DFID will support programmes designed to strengthen productive linkages between education and other sectors and disciplines.

Education is central to human development. It is a key part of the process of expanding human capabilities. In meeting basic learning needs it provides:

"Education is a human right with immense power to reform. On its foundation rest the cornerstones of freedom, democracy and sustainable human development.... there is no higher priority, no mission more important, than that of Education for All"

Kofi Annan 1998

"...for some developing regions, achievement of DAC poverty targets depends critically on the pattern as well as the rate of growth."

Hanmer, de Jong, Kuman and Mooj 1998

"A study of 45 developing countries found that the average mortality rate for children under 5 was 144 per 1,000 live births when their mothers had no education, 106 per 1,000 when. they had primary education only, and 68 per 1,000 when they had some secondary education."

World Development Report 1998

"....essential learning tools (such as literacy, oral expression, numeracy and problem solving) and the basic learning content (knowledge, skills, values and attitudes) required by human beings to be able to survive, to develop their full capacities, to live and work in dignity, to participate fully in development, to improve the quality of their lives, to make informed decisions and to continue learning"

(World Declaration on Education for All 1990).

It has both direct and indirect effects:

"The expansion of human capabilities (including through education) has both "direct" and "indirect" importance in the achievement of development. The indirect role works through the contribution of capability expansion in enhancing productivity, raising economic growth, broadening development priorities and bringing demographic changes more within reasoned control. The direct importance of human capability expansion lies in its intrinsic value and constitutive role in human freedom, well-being and quality of life"

(Amartya Sen 1997).

Conceived in this way, education encourages thinking across sector boundaries, promotes the idea of linkage and continuity, recognises the social, economic and human welfare benefits that flow from education and provides a framework for education within the wider domain of sustainable human development. Figures A and B demonstrate some of these linkages.

LINKAGES: INDIVIDUAL AND COMMUNITY

LINKAGES: EDUCATION AND SOCIETY

Partnerships in Support of Education

DFID will assist the strengthening of education systems through partnerships that build in a sustainable way on local and national initiatives.

DFID will help to build and sustain partnerships for the elimination of poverty. We will support governments which have a clear commitment to meeting the International Development Goals (IDGs) for education and a willingness to involve primary stakeholders in the definition and development of educational change. We will work to strengthen existing systems and structures and help to build the capacity of key institutions. We will support innovation and risk taking where this is directed to the search for ways to effect nation-wide change. We will be informed by, and give support for, research, and will promote the sharing of national and international experience.

Country programmes will be underpinned by country strategy agreements, the product of a consultative process with governments and informed by discussions with civil society organisations and international partners. Defining support for education will be part of this process.

"We want to work with governments who are committed to poverty eradication targets in their country......We are talking much more about working with governments sectorally to get big changes in their development, and working with civil societies to support these changes"

Clare Short 1998

Relationships with education ministries are taking new forms. Partnerships are being forged with government, NGOs, civil society organisations and other bilateral agencies in support of sector wide change and reform. Local level partnerships are critical for the success of this process. New codes of conduct, instituted by governments and development agencies together, are being put into place. In some countries, where there is a supportive environment, short-term project commitments are being replaced by long-term budgetary support.

Sustaining commitment and support for education for all requires strong international consensus. We will enhance DFID's capacity to influence and support multilateral and regional organisations and programmes, including the World Bank, the European Union and the UN system.

The UK possesses a rich resource of individuals, institutions and organisations dedicated to pro-poor education policy and practice. This resource needs to be engaged with us in ways of working which have the potential to help realise international education objectives.

Long-term Support for Major International Education Goals

As part of its commitment to promoting education for all and better education for poor people, DFID will give particular emphasis to national and international efforts to meet the education-related goals of Education for All and the International Development Goals (IDGs) set by the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Priority will be given to meeting the International Development Goals (IDG) of:

· Universal Primary Education (UPE) in all countries by 2015

· Demonstrated progress towards gender equality and the empowerment of women by eliminating gender disparity in primary end secondary education by 2005.

DFID will also help to promote adult literacy, lifelong learning and the acquisition of practical skills for development, for women and for men. All of these priorities are in line with the International Declaration on Education for All (EFA Jomtien 1990) and other international commitments (New York 1990, Rio 1992, Vienna 1993, Cairo 1994, Copenhagen 1995 and Beijing 1995).

The relationships between better health and better education will receive more focused attention. The impact of HIV/AIDS on education systems and the importance of education in promoting changes in attitudes and behaviour will be given priority, especially in Africa. The pandemic seriously threatens UPE and is having a major negative impact on human development. Links between nutrition, safe water and effective sanitation will inform primary education programmes. Strengthening national capacities to provide the skills and the knowledge to promote and sustain education for poverty elimination will remain a key DFID strategy.

These priorities will receive attention in the knowledge that national education systems and their constituent activities, formal and nonformal, are inextricably linked. Development in one part of the sector has almost immediate implications for other sub-sectors - professionally, economically and developmentally. The need to act within an overall sector context will strongly inform DFID's approach.

Strategies to attain the major international goals need international support. DFID will continue to argue for enhanced financial resources for basic education. In some countries this may be linked to debt alleviation strategies, enabling governments to increase spending on pro-poor development including education.


PREVIOUS PAGE TOP OF PAGE NEXT PAGE