Evolving Partnerships:The Role of NGOs in BasicEducation in Africa

During the last decade non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have been increasingly tapped
to implement development programs. In recent years, growing amounts of development resources have been channeled to and through NGOs in all sectors. And, in turn, NGOs working to alleviate
poverty, improve social welfare, and develop civil society have become more dependent on
international donors, leading to an explosive growth in local NGOs in many countries.
This trend can also be found in the education sector, where most major donor agencies have increased the resources allocated through NGOs to implement their education programs. More and more, donors
use international and local NGOs for education service-delivery in both formal and non-formal
contexts. Most countries in Africa with a donorsupported program for the education sector have
NGOs playing a significant implementing role. NGOs have not limited their education activities to
service-delivery. They are also involved in lobbying and advocating for educational reform, working
individually and through networks to participate in policy dialogue in many African countries. In the
context of decentralization in Africa, NGOs are creating new spaces for civil society involvement in
education. Recent Education For All (EFA) meetings in Johannesburg and Dakar recognized the vital role
of NGOs in promoting universal and equitable quality of education. The EFA discussions have
heralded NGOs’ new roles as alternative education providers, innovators, advocates, and policy dialogue
partners. And donors have begun to engage in technical and institutional capacity-building programs
for local NGOs. What explains this shift to an increasing presence of NGOs in the education sector? A myriad of justifications and assumptions can be found throughout the development literature as to why
NGOs should play a growing role in the education sector, many that mirror the argument to increase the
role of NGOs more generally. NGOs work at the “community-level,” thus affecting social change
where others cannot; NGOs can represent and catalyze “civil society,” an element many consider
critical for sustainability and democratization; and NGOs are simply more “efficient” than other
partners. Trying to discern whether NGO interventions in the education sector have lived up to expectations is a complex task and is more theoretical than practical.
This paper responds to a more modest, but ultimately more useful concern. It presents a
comprehensive portrayal of how NGOs have in fact intervened in the education sector, how their
presence and relationships with governments and donor partners evolved, what implications their
presence has caused for educational systems and civil society, and which contextual factors have affected
NGOs’ interventions. Four major domains of NGOs’ involvement in the education sector are
analyzed in this study: the relationship between NGOs and government; the role of