19 April 2002

Wolfensohn to Present Plan to Achieve 2015 Education Goal

World Bank president aims for universal education

During the World Bank/International Monetary Fund spring meetings April 20-21, Bank President James Wolfensohn will present a plan to achieve universal primary education by 2015, according to an April 19 World Bank press release.

The plan outlines what donor countries and "at-risk" countries can do so that all children receive primary education, the release said.

It said 60 of 89 at-risk countries can reasonably be expected to meet the 2015 education goal if they bring their education systems in line with those of better performing countries and if they receive more external financing and technical support. An at-risk country is one with a low rate of children who complete primary school, the release said.

The release added that when a country has the right policies, institutions and governance it can use aid effectively to achieve national priorities such as providing education and reducing poverty.

Last week, the release said, the Netherlands pledged 135 million euros in initial financing for the education plan. The country's minister of development cooperation, Eveline Herfkens, said "the evidence is overwhelming" that basic education reduces poverty.

The release said a child needs at least 5-6 years of schooling to receive even modest benefits in terms of future health and income.

Jozef Ritzen, World Bank vice president for human development, added that a quality education for every child will "make his or her economy more dynamic and competitive in the global marketplace."

One hundred twenty-five million children currently are not in school, two-thirds of them girls, the release said.

Following is the text of the World Bank press release:

Every Child in Primary School By 2015

125 million children don't go to school, nearly two-thirds of them girls; nearly a billion adults are illiterate

April 19, 2002 -- Two years ago at the World Education Forum in Dakar, Senegal the international community promised to work together to get all the world's children, girls as well as boys, into primary school by 2015, a goal known as Education For All (EFA). The 180 governments, UNESCO [U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization], the World Bank and other organizations that committed themselves to the 2015 goal also promised that no country seriously committed to education for all would be thwarted in their achievement of this goal for lack of money.

In the two years since Dakar, while many countries have made great strides towards universal primary education, the World Bank now estimates that 89 countries will not achieve universal primary education by 2015, and that a new development compact for education is needed to get all children into primary school by 2015.

This Sunday in Washington D.C., World Bank President, James D. Wolfensohn will present the new compact to development and finance ministers attending the Spring Meetings of the World Bank and IMF. In keeping with the spirit of Monterrey, the compact, which maps out responsibilities for both donor countries and those countries at risk of not making the 2015 goal, has drawn strong support from the international development community as a highly effective action plan to help developing countries get all their children, girls as well as boys, to complete primary school. For example, OXFAM, and its [nongovernmental organization] NGO partners in the Global Campaign for Education have called the World Bank action plan "the best chance in a generation to get all the world's children into school."

In a wide-ranging description of the prospects for achieving EFA by 2015, the World Bank estimates that if the development community now measures this goal in terms of children successfully completing primary school, instead of just enrolling in classes, then the task becomes more daunting. Whereas only 32 countries were formerly believed to be at risk of not achieving EFA on the basis of enrollment rates, the number rises dramatically to 89 countries if completion rates are used as the criterion of success.

Research shows that for children to receive even modest benefits from education for their future livelihoods and health, they need a minimum of 5-6 years of schooling.

The World Bank believes that for the majority of "at risk" countries, EFA is achievable -- with the right policies and the right support from the international community. 60 out of the 89 countries at risk can reasonably be expected to achieve universal primary completion by 2015 if they bring the efficiency and quality of their education systems into line with benchmarks observed in higher-performing systems and receive significant increases in external financing and technical support. The 29 countries lagging farthest behind will not reach the goal without historically unprecedented rates of progress, but these rates are attainable with creative delivery solutions, including the use of information technologies, nimble and targeted foreign aid, and fewer people living in poverty.

The new development compact for education maps out how developing country governments would demonstrate their commitment to education by transforming their education systems sometimes with substantial changes while external partners, such as wealthy donor countries and the international financial institutions, would provide financial and technical support in a transparent, predictable and flexible manner.

The compact assumes that while developing countries bear the responsibility of providing quality primary education, some countries, especially the poorest, would be unable to raise enough of their own domestic finance to accelerate their Education For All (EFA) progress and therefore they would need external assistance in the short term.

A key lesson of experience about development effectiveness, and recently amplified again at the UN's Financing for Development Conference in Monterrey, Mexico, is that a country's capacity to use development finance effectively depends heavily on its policies, institutions and governance. Where a country scores well on these criteria, foreign aid can be highly effective in achieving national priorities such as education, and in reducing the numbers of people living in grinding poverty.

According to the Netherlands Minister of Development Cooperation, Eveline Herfkens, who last week in Amsterdam pledged 135 million euros to jumpstart a financing framework for the new compact, those countries at risk of not making the Education For All goal by 2015, will need international financial and technical help to achieve universal primary education. She sees investing in basic education as one of the best ways of reducing poverty.

"The evidence is overwhelming. In Uganda, farmers who have four years of primary education produce seven percent more than those who have had no education. If a Zambian mother completes her primary education, her children have a 25 percent better chance to surviving. In Bangladesh, women with a secondary education attend political meetings three times as often as women with no education. Girls who have completed their schooling are far less likely to contract HIV. Many other findings could be added to the list."

The suggested price tag for achieving EFA in 47 poor countries analyzed by the Bank suggests that average yearly education spending for these countries would need to increase from $7.4 billion to $16.4 billion between 2002 and 2015. The bulk of this money could be generated by countries themselves with increased national commitment to education, but many of them would require significant external support for the recurring costs of education during the transition period while the countries reform their education systems on a sustainable path of quality and equity. Such a transition period could be anywhere up to 15 years.

For its part, the World Bank has warmly welcomed the Dutch initiative, and says it hopes that other donors will now quickly follow suit.

"This is a very important first step in reducing the more than 120 million girls and boys who are not in school around the world," said Jozef Ritzen, the World Bank's Vice President for Human Development, and a veteran Dutch education minister, 1988-99. "Let's keep our eyes on the prize, and one of the most potent weapons against poverty...a quality education for every child, one that is relevant to the child's community, and helps to make his or her country's economy more dynamic and competitive in the global marketplace."

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