IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cdh/commen/349.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What CIDA Should do: The Case for Focusing Aid on Better Schools

Author

Listed:
  • John Richards

    (Simon Fraser University)

Abstract

The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) could improve its development aid impact by focusing on basic education. In the report, the author documents the importance of universal literacy in enabling countries to escape from extreme levels of poverty and identifies specific types of projects CIDA could fund. Over the previous decade, CIDA's budgeting has not reflected the very high rank afforded to education among the UN's Millennium Development Goals. The study examines a dilemma faced by all aid advocacy. Achieving universal literacy requires effective governments able and willing to assure the supply of adequate education services of reasonable quality - whether via government schools, schools supported by non-government organizations (NGOs), or for-profit private schools. But governments in poor countries are usually not effective in delivering basic services.

Suggested Citation

  • John Richards, 2012. "What CIDA Should do: The Case for Focusing Aid on Better Schools," C.D. Howe Institute Commentary, C.D. Howe Institute, issue 349, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:cdh:commen:349
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cdhowe.org/what-cida-should-do-case-focusing-aid-better-schools
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hanushek, Eric A. & Woessmann, Ludger, 2007. "The role of education quality for economic growth," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4122, The World Bank.
    2. World Bank, 2011. "World Development Indicators 2011," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 2315.
    3. Barbara Bruns & Alain Mingat & Ramahatra Rakotomalala, 2003. "Achieving Universal Primary Education by 2015 : A Chance for Every Child," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 15121.
    4. Alain Mingat & Barbara Bruns & Ramahatra Rakotomalala, 2003. "Achieving universal primary education by 2015 - a chance for every child," Post-Print halshs-00006556, HAL.
    5. Patrinos, Harry Anthony & Psacharopoulos, George, 2011. "Education : past, present and future global challenges," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5616, The World Bank.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ian Irvine & William Sims, 2012. "A Taxing Dilemma: Assessing the Impact of Tax and Price Changes on the Tobacco Market," C.D. Howe Institute Commentary, C.D. Howe Institute, issue 350, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Anne GOUJON & Samir K. C. & Markus SPERINGER & Bilal BARAKAT & Michaela POTANCOKOVÀ, 2016. "A Harmonized Dataset on Global Educational Attainment between 1970 and 2060 - An Analytical Window into Recent Trends and Future Prospects in Human Capital Development," JODE - Journal of Demographic Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 82(3), pages 315-363, September.
    2. Lay, Jann, 2010. "MDG Achievements, Determinants, and Resource Needs: What Has Been Learnt?," GIGA Working Papers 137, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
    3. Masechaba Nthunya & Nien-Tsu Tuan & Corrinne Shaw & Ian Jay, 2017. "A Systemic Exploration of Lesotho’s Basic Education through Interactive Management," Systemic Practice and Action Research, Springer, vol. 30(3), pages 257-276, June.
    4. Langsten, Ray & Hassan, Tahra, 2018. "Primary education completion in Egypt: Trends and determinants," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 136-145.
    5. Kilburn, Kelly & Handa, Sudhanshu & Angeles, Gustavo & Mvula, Peter & Tsoka, Maxton, 2017. "Short-term impacts of an unconditional cash transfer program on child schooling: Experimental evidence from Malawi," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 63-80.
    6. Nandi, Arindam & Haberland, Nicole & Ngo, Thoai D., 2023. "The impact of primary schooling expansion on adult educational attainment, literacy, and health: Evidence from India’s Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    7. Orazem, Peter F. & Glewwe, Paul & Patrinos, Harry, 2007. "The Benefits and Costs of Alternative Strategies to Improve Educational Outcomes," Working Papers 7352, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    8. Richards, John & Vining, Aidan R., 2015. "Universal primary education in low-income countries: The contributing role of national governance," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 174-182.
    9. Bennell, Paul, 2023. "How well paid are primary school teachers in Sub-Saharan Africa? A review of recent evidence," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    10. Glewwe, Paul & Kremer, Michael, 2006. "Schools, Teachers, and Education Outcomes in Developing Countries," Handbook of the Economics of Education, in: Erik Hanushek & F. Welch (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Education, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 16, pages 945-1017, Elsevier.
    11. Glewwe, Paul & Kassouf, Ana Lucia, 2012. "The impact of the Bolsa Escola/Familia conditional cash transfer program on enrollment, dropout rates and grade promotion in Brazil," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(2), pages 505-517.
    12. Meherun Ahmed & Kazi Iqbal, 2016. "Is There any Threshold in the Relationship Between Mother's Education and Child Health? Evidence from Nigeria," The Developing Economies, Institute of Developing Economies, vol. 54(3), pages 243-256, September.
    13. Tessa Bold & Deon Filmer & Gayle Martin & Ezequiel Molina & Brian Stacy & Christophe Rockmore & Jakob Svensson & Waly Wane, 2017. "Enrollment without Learning: Teacher Effort, Knowledge, and Skill in Primary Schools in Africa," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 31(4), pages 185-204, Fall.
    14. Andrew Zeitlin, 2021. "Teacher Turnover in Rwanda," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 30(1), pages 81-102.
    15. Lay, Jann & Robilliard, Anne-Sophie, 2009. "The complementarity of MDG achievements : the case of child mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5062, The World Bank.
    16. Delavallade, Clara & Griffith, Alan & Shukla, Gaurav & Thornton, Rebecca, 2017. "Participation, learning, and equity in education: Can we have it all?," IFPRI discussion papers 1627, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    17. Langsten, Ray, 2017. "School fee abolition and changes in education indicators," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 163-175.
    18. Santibañez, Lucrecia & Abreu-Lastra, Raúl & O’Donoghue, Jennifer L., 2014. "School based management effects: Resources or governance change? Evidence from Mexico," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 97-109.
    19. Paul Glewwe & Ana Lucia Kassouf, 2008. "The Impact of the Bolsa Escola/Familia Conditional Cash Transfer Program on Enrollment, Grade Promotion and Drop out Rates in Brazil," Anais do XXXVI Encontro Nacional de Economia [Proceedings of the 36th Brazilian Economics Meeting] 200807211140170, ANPEC - Associação Nacional dos Centros de Pós-Graduação em Economia [Brazilian Association of Graduate Programs in Economics].
    20. Monica J. Grant & Jere R. Behrman, 2010. "Gender Gaps in Educational Attainment in Less Developed Countries," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 36(1), pages 71-89, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Social Policy; Canada; Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA); education; foreign aid;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cdh:commen:349. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kristine Gray (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cdhowca.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.