An Analytical Framework of Educational Development and Reform in Developing Countries: Interaction Among Actors in the Context of Decentralization

Abstract

Effort toward diffusing basic education in developing countries is a widely shared international agenda through the designation of the Education for All (EFA) goals and the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Diverse actors of the international community are promoting educational development aid. Influenced by such international debate and support, many developing countries are upholding as their policy goals such issues as the diffusion of primary education and the elimination of the gender gap relating to educational opportunities. Education reforms aimed at realizing these outcomes are ongoing. What has become accepted more recently as the model for international cooperation in the education and other sectors is the effort to harmonize aid and to make it compatible with the plans and strategies of the developing countries themselves, thereby attempting to establish the ownership of developing countries and the partnership among actors, as was encapsulated in the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness adopted in 2005 (OECD High Level Forum 2005), and discussed in Chapter 1. Nevertheless, it has to be said that in many developing countries there remains a long road toward achieving these goals. The reasons for this are multifarious, depending on each country’s particular circumstances, but a common thread among all countries is the frailty of the capacity of the education sector in terms of its systems, organizations, and human resources. To achieve the educational development goals as typified by the EFA goals, the key issue is how to strengthen such capacity. In educational development aid today, it has become essential to consider the capacity development of the entire education sector. To encourage capacity development and to improve the learning environment in a sustained manner, what we need is improvement of