Partnerships are now pervasive in global education and development, but are they creating equitable, cooperative, and positive relationships? Through case studies of prominent multistakeholder partnerships—including the Education Cannot Wait Fund and Global Partnership for Education—as well as a comprehensive analysis of the global education network, this book exposes clear power imbalances that persist in the international aid environment. The author reveals how actors and organizations from high-income countries continue to wield disproportionate influence, while the private sector holds a growing degree of authority in public policy circles. In light of such evidence, this book questions if partnerships truly ameliorate power asymmetries, or if they instead reproduce the precise inequities they are meant to eliminate. “The use of partnerships for international aid and development has become ubiquitous, and their value has been too-little questioned. For education, Francine Menashy’s book remedies this with a detailed, probing analysis of such partnerships in theory and practice.” —From the Foreword by Steven J. Klees, University of Maryland “International Aid to Education is an urgent read for anyone working in international development. Menashy’s work points to ways in which all of us working in research, policy, and practice can rethink our own roles in perpetuating power imbalances and inequities.” —Sarah Dryden-Peterson, Harvard Graduate School of Education “Francine Menashy’s new book provides a fresh and innovative take on power and politics within multistakeholder partnerships in international development. It makes a strong new contribution to the study of global governance and education policy.” —Karen Mundy, chief technical officer, Global Partnership for Education

Funding and technical-assistance agencies

This book provides an Asian perspective on the timely, urgent questions of how international education aid and development should move forward and what development roles Asia should play, especially following the end of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Education for All (EFA) in 2015. To answer these questions, four separate but interwoven parts, which analyze and anchor education MDGs and EFA policies and practices by means of diverse case studies of donor states, recipient states, and states with a dual and transitional role in Asia, are addressed. On the basis of the analyses, a clearer and concrete direction for effectively and sustainably extending international education aid and development beyond 2015 can be derived.

Partnerships are now pervasive in global education and development, but are they creating equitable, cooperative, and positive relationships? Through case studies of prominent multistakeholder partnerships—including the Education Cannot Wait Fund and Global Partnership for Education—as well as a comprehensive analysis of the global education network, this book exposes clear power imbalances that persist in the international aid environment. The author reveals how actors and organizations from high-income countries continue to wield disproportionate influence, while the private sector holds a growing degree of authority in public policy circles. In light of such evidence, this book questions if partnerships truly ameliorate power asymmetries, or if they instead reproduce the precise inequities they are meant to eliminate. “The use of partnerships for international aid and development has become ubiquitous, and their value has been too-little questioned. For education, Francine Menashy’s book remedies this with a detailed, probing analysis of such partnerships in theory and practice.” —From the Foreword by Steven J. Klees, University of Maryland “International Aid to Education is an urgent read for anyone working in international development. Menashy’s work points to ways in which all of us working in research, policy, and practice can rethink our own roles in perpetuating power imbalances and inequities.” —Sarah Dryden-Peterson, Harvard Graduate School of Education “Francine Menashy’s new book provides a fresh and innovative take on power and politics within multistakeholder partnerships in international development. It makes a strong new contribution to the study of global governance and education policy.” —Karen Mundy, chief technical officer, Global Partnership for Education

Between 2000 and 2012, nearly US$161 billion in international aid was allocated to the education sector. As the deadline for the Millennium Development Goals quickly approaches, debate about the effectiveness of international donors and aid in general continues across sectors. With 58 million children still out of school and persistent gender disparities across all levels of schooling, education is no exception to this scrutiny. The central question in this report seeks to understand if international aid to the education is positively related to education outcomes in low and low-middle income countries. I provide a summary of progress in education in developing countries over the last two decades and a description of trends in international aid to the education sector. In an empirical analysis of 135 countries between 1990 and 2010, I find that aid to primary education is positively related to primary school enrollment for boys and girls. Using the findings from the analysis, I offer policy recommendations to improve international donor effectiveness in the education sector. Through this report, I hope to contribute to the conversation related to education and international aid in post-2015 Sustainable Development Goal agendas and strategies.