The global education agenda and the delivery of aid to Pacific education

Abstract

In recent years the international development community's concern to redress the apparent failure of half a century of ‘development’ efforts, has given rise to a number of global initiatives aimed at both reducing worldwide poverty and enhancing international security. One outcome of these initiatives has been a refocusing on the importance of the education‐development relationship within the dominant development discourse, and on enhanced ‘partnership’ within aid relationships. There has also been a growing convergence in donor perspectives on the redirection of educational aid to particular sub‐sectors. The Pacific Islands region consists of a vast expanse of ocean within which are found a number of the world's smallest states, the populations of which are predominantly indigenous. The remoteness and smallness of the countries of the region are widely recognised by the international development community as posing particular challenges for the elimination of poverty. The region is also facing complex security challenges which have led to an increased emphasis on regional integration and cooperation. Education in the Pacific is therefore seen as a critical mechanism for addressing both poverty reduction and conflict prevention, regionally and nationally. This article draws on the analysis of a regional Pacific initiative in exploring the tensions between the ‘global’ education agenda of international development agencies and the contextual realities of education within small Pacific states. It focuses on the process of designing a Pacific basic education project, and specifically on how the basic education issues identified as important by Pacific educators were, or were not, addressed.