02 Aug 2012
Whose Development Results Count? By Fred Carden
By Fred Carden, IDRC. “It is not about your project; it is about my country”. This comment was made by a Mauritanian evaluator in response to a vigorous methodological debate between two expert evaluators who were exploring what methods should be used to evaluate development programming. What the quote points out is that we often ignore... Read More
30 Jul 2012
Value for Money in Education
By Chris Winch, Kings College London. The question of ‘Value for Money’ for education is rightly a matter of public concern. In recent years however it has come to be framed in terms that are overwhelmingly one-sided, namely not just in terms of the economic and social benefits that may accrue from education, which is... Read More
23 Jul 2012
Beyond the Impoverishment of Vocational Education and Training for Development
By Simon McGrath. Given this year is seeing both a major rethink of Vocational Education and Training (VET) and of development, it is timely to put the two notions together. What then is the current model of VET for development? Well, it is largely an implicit account, based in narrow and increasingly outdated views of... Read More
16 Jul 2012
Life After 2015: Who is Speaking, and Who is Listening?
By Barbara Trudell, SIL Africa Area. The existence and possible features of a post-2015 global education agenda is the hot topic in education and development circles these days. At least a score of different discussions are taking place on the shape of the EFA goals and the MDGs post-2015, in every corner of the international... Read More
11 Jul 2012
Training the Poor in Times of Unemployment
By Claudio de Moura Castro. Amongst respected researchers, there is ample consensus that training does not create jobs. Therefore, if in a given environment, jobs are not being created, there are perplexing issues concerning what to do with existing training systems and what to offer to those who are not finding good jobs. The best... Read More
05 Jul 2012
TVET for a Changing World: Global Developments, Local Resonance
By Qian Tang. After a period of neglect, technical and vocational education and training (TVET) is now firmly on the agenda of governments around the world. Youth unemployment, social exclusion and poverty have led many decision-makers to refocus their attention on providing skills development opportunities that respond to evolving social and economic demands. Far from... Read More
02 Jul 2012
Towards a New Global World of Skills Development? Or to Boldly Go Where TVET has Gone Before?
By Robert Palmer and Kenneth King. A few decades ago technical and vocational education and training (TVET) formed a central part in the development strategies of many developing countries and development partners. Due to the emphasis on basic education from 1990, TVET became marginalised within the educational landscape, and constrained by negative perceptions, which portray... Read More
23 Jun 2012
Why Professions and Higher Education (HE) Matter for Development
By Simon McGrath. Whilst the attention of the development field has been on Rio+20 this week, I have found myself reflecting on a far less fashionable, but I believe crucial, aspect of development: the role of professions and HE in development. On this blog, we have recently been arguing that any model of global development... Read More
07 Jun 2012
The Post-2015 Bus: Is there Room for Education?
By Michel Carton. On June 1st, a NORRAG–UNDP workshop, hosted by IHEID in Geneva, and attended by a range of international organisations (see below), took place to discuss the place of education in the post-2015 agenda. The combination of NORRAG, UNDP and IHEID in a place like Geneva – which houses many UN and international... Read More
04 Jun 2012
The Post-2015 Agenda: What Room for Education and Skills?
By Kenneth King. This was the title of the joint NORRAG-UNDP 1st June 2012 workshop in Geneva hosted by the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies. It was very well-attended by participants, including from WEF, UNRISD, WHO, IIEP, UNECA, ETF, INEE, AKF, ICRC, IFRC, Plan, SDC, UNESCO, and NORRAG. Getting into the queue for... Read More