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Education
Crises and increasing fragility require structural and sustainable solutions to overcome them. Vocational education and training can make an important contribution to stabilisation and economic development, especially if it pursues an integrated approach. In fact, however, vocational education and training measures in fragile contexts often aim to achieve short-term (employment) effects, which prevents their full potential from being exploited.
The current issue of Development in Brief therefore advocates an integrated approach to vocational education and training in fragile contexts that is closely linked to economic development and employment promotion adapted to local conditions.
It is often not possible to guarantee access to education in conflict situations. However, particularly in these situations, it is especially important for children and young people to be able to go to school where they are offered both economic prospects for the future and mental stability.
The current edition of Development in Brief explains the reasons why access to education is restricted in crises and highlights the approaches used in international development cooperation and humanitarian aid to prevent the creation of a "lost generation" and thus reduce the risk of an ongoing cycle of conflict.
Education in the context of conflict situations – How we can avoid a "lost generation"
KfW has been active in vocational training on behalf of the German Federal Government for many decades and has achieved considerable success in the process. Vocational training will become an even more important part of KfW’s future portfolio as the partner countries’ demand increases. Many have come to understand that good vocational training pays off.
Access to education is often more difficult in crisis situations. However, it is precisely during crises that children and young people need to go to school, thereby preventing -the emergence of a lost generation and improving the prospects for development in the countries affected.
Forecasts relating to global population growth vary widely, but experts all agree on one thing: the global population will continue to grow significantly over the next few decades and this will make it more difficult to achieve global Sustainable Development Goals (climate and environmental protection, peace, satisfying basic needs such as food security, education, health, etc.).
The latest edition of Development in Brief explains why improving education for girls in particular can make a significant contribution to solving the problem via various parallel impact channels.
Educating girls: an opportunity to counteract rapid population growth
Education provides the ignition to spark socio-economic progress. Education for girls in particular decreases the risk of poverty for entire families in the medium term. It improves the health of mothers and their children while helping women to avoid premature, unwanted pregnancies. This is essential for putting the brakes on population growth, primarily in parts of Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) defined in 2000 were only partially achieved in education. The target was to enable every child to attend primary school by the year 2015, as well as to boost gender equality and the rights of women. Although considerable progress was made, 58 million children still have no access to education despite intensive international efforts, according to a comprehensive UNESCO report (2015). This disproportionately affects girls, poor and disabled children as well as marginalised groups.
Portfolio Analysis Education 2016 (PDF, 177 KB, non-accessible)
Despite all the success the fight for gender equality has produced in many areas, there are still considerable shortcomings in equality between men and women in many countries. The causes often lie in deep-rooted traditions, social norms and unequal power relations. But there are also examples of how these factors can sometimes adapt to changing conditions and needs in a relatively short time, and that the labour market often plays a central role in these changes.
This edition of Development in Brief shows that vocational training for women can be an effective lever not only for greater equality in the labour market, but on various parallel impact chains also for promoting equality in the broader social and political sense – an area in which it is otherwise particularly difficult to find appropriate approaches for development cooperation.
Gender equality: Vocational training can serve as a central lever
Are non-governmental primary and secondary schools a solution to reaching those children that are still left behind? Or do they rather aggravate and perpetuate existing inequities in access to quality education? Do private education providers offer education of sufficient quality or do they actually just evade public control? These questions are the subject of international debate, especially in light of profit-oriented so-called low-cost private schools. The objective of development cooperation is to help all children gain access to free basic education of good quality. The question of whether or not or under what conditions non-governmental schools should receive financial support is thus of central importance for policy design and implementation.
The aim of the study presented in this summary is to provide a nuanced and balanced overview of this topic, as, to our knowledge, no such documentation yet exists. Furthermore, recommendations will be drawn on how to deal with non-governmental schools, regarding, for example, the conditions under which it appears reasonable to finance so-called private schools with development cooperation funds. The study was prepared by the University of Bamberg in close cooperation with the Education Sector Programme of the Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). Conceptual and content-related support was provided by experts from the Bread for The World (Brot für die Welt), German Association of Adult Education (DVV e.V.), the German Union for Education and Science, the Global Campaign for Education, KfW Development Bank, the Kindernothilfe, and Oxfam.
Education is a prerequisite for sustainable development. In light of this, the Millennium Development Goals formulated the aspiration to ensure access to education for all school-aged children. In fact, access to education has improved considerably in recent years. However, it has now become clear that access alone is only part of the story. Even after having attended primary school, many children are unable to read and write or do mathematics sufficiently well. This is why the Sustainable Development Goals are increasingly focusing on improving the quality of education.
This edition of Development in Brief outlines the main challenges in education and sets out the future spheres of activity in terms of development policy, given the current state of education.
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Challenges in the education sector: improving access and quality
A rising number of school children in developing and emerging countries are completing their primary education and look further to increase their chance of a higher future income by attending secondary schools, vocational training facilities or universities. The increasing demand further stems from a growing population. Since public education budgets are often tight, however, this trend is leading to a decline in standards or a charge of tuition fees. This in turn deprives a vast number of talented but indigent young adolescents of attending higher education, which is fatal for the nation´s development.
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Materials on Development Finance - Education should not be a privilege
This year sees the end of two important development policy goals for the education sector: the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) ratified in the year 2000 and the "Education for All" (EfA) movement launched by UNESCO. Despite the significant progress made with regard to both sets of objectives, neither was fulfilled entirely.
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