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Contributions from
the Column
Facts and trends
Basic education for all threatens to fail
Technology alone cannot close the digital divide
Deutsche Welle Academy: advanced training under one roof
Germany promotes Israeli-Palestinian contacts
Two-thirds of GTZ projects are successful
Development budget: Ministry satisfied, NGOs disappointed
Unexploded bombs
Climate protection: poor countries get more attention
Hunger in the world
1/2004
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[ Poor marks for the donor countries ]
Basic education for all threatens to fail
In its latest ‘School Report’, the Global Campaign for Education (GCE) gave most of the 22 rich OECD countries poor marks for the quantity and quality of the aid they provide for primary education in poor countries. The GCE, a broad coalition of NGOs and trade unions, ranked the countries from A to F. It awarded Germany an overall mark of 40 out of 100, which gave it an overall grade of D and put it in 10th position out of 22. The German government received a ‘good’ B mark for its commitment to the Fast Track Initiative (FTI) ‘Education for All’, which put it in sixth place. But Germany scored only an F for its total financial input towards achieving the Millennium Goal of basic education for all by 2015. The Netherlands, Norway and Sweden received the best marks, while the USA, Greece and New Zealand did worst. The German Development Ministry (BMZ) reacted to the GCE grading by saying that UNESCO’s FTI Report 2003 put Germany among the six leading donors in the primary education sector. To 2007, the German government would increase its annual pledges for primary education as part of development cooperation from a present ¤ 72 million (2002) to ¤ 120 million.
The GCE presented the reports at a FTI donor conference in Oslo in mid-November. They are aimed at spurring the rich countries to keep their promises and increase their funding as far as possible in order to expand the recipient group, which initially is limited to 18 countries. Norway, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands actually announced that over the next four years would together pay a total of US$ 241.2 million into a ‘Catalytic Fund’ for developing countries that have so far not been considered, provided these presented convincing plans for improving primary education. The GCE commented that it was “a step in the right direction”, but still far too little. The opportunity for a decisive impetus had been lost in Oslo.
The Global Campaign for Education warned last September that the goal of basic education for all by 2015 would be missed if more money was not provided. In its ‘No-Progress Report’ on the Fast Track Initiative it said this threatened to become merely a “better petty cash fund”. If the trend continues, says Jörn Kalinski of Oxfam Germany, the goal will not be achieved in sub-Saharan Africa by 2015, but at best in 2150. Johannes Wendt
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