Education in fragile states: capturing lessons and identifying good practice

The OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) categorises fragile states as follows:

• deterioration (conflict/risk of conflict; declining capacity and/or will)
• arrested development (lack of will; moderate or high capacity)
• post-conflict transition (risk of conflict; low capacity; high or low will)
• early recovery (may be post-conflict or not; high will but low capacity).

This paper examines how development assistance in these four environments can enhance access to quality basic education for the poor and vulnerable, at the same time improving governance and thereby mitigating the risks of fragility, and increasing the effectiveness of future aid. It introduces the concept of turnaround – how a state’s fragility may be sufficiently reduced to allow sustainable pro-poor growth – as well as the "rights" and "risks" considerations that impact donor decision making and effectiveness. It examines will and capacity in the education sector, explores political economy implications for sequencing and planning, and considers how education can support state-building from the bottom up. The paper also focuses on aid effectiveness in fragile states, where donor coordination instruments may be needed to sustain transitions to post-emergency support in environments still likely to be fragile.

Findings from the paper include:

• there is considerable momentum currently aimed at developing approaches to support education in fragile states
• a variety of evidence shows how education can fuel fragility. However, while there are anecdotal accounts, supported by intuition, there is very limited evidence of how education helps mitigate the risk of fragility, or can promote turnaround
• drivers of change in education vary, depending in part on the relative strength and authority of civil society and the state in a particular context
• an important challenge donors are now facing is in relation to the blending of immediate response to emergencies with the development of the sector in early recovery.

The paper concludes with recommendations, including:

• develop a compendium of case studies associated with education in fragile states, bringing together available (including unpublished) material, and drawing on the rich practitioner experience
• drawing on the INEE, DAC and FTI networks, the development of principles for supporting education in fragile states should take place
• there should be support to sector-specific drivers of change analyses in fragile states, based on existing drivers of change approaches combined with conflict analysis approaches, and informed by recent relevant studies on education
• there is a need to ensure that monitoring and evaluation is built into programmes to address both immediate educational outcomes and broader intended benefits such as promoting security, and supporting state-building
• consider further possibilities for developing a transitional trust fund for bridging support to fragile states between humanitarian and development phases
• develop approaches within and between agencies (including the involvement of NGOs) to ensure coordination between those responsible for governance and sector support, across humanitarian and development phases.