A Conceptual Model for “Indigenizing” Education Reforms and Capacity Development in Developing Countries

After the mid-1990s, the World Bank, the UK, and some other donor countries and agencies undertook a policy change from structural adjustment initiatives based on the neoliberalism of the 1980s to placing poverty reduction in developing countries at the top of the agenda. To achieve this goal, the developing countries' governance had to be strengthened and the best route to the creation of good governance needed to be explored. This switch in policy encouraged the emergence of a poverty reduction framework which placed emphasis both on developing countries' “ownership” of the development process and on greater collaboration among donor countries/ agencies in allocating and administering aid.

Regarding aid modalities, the conventional cost–benefit/effective approach that was based on the “production function model” which used efficiency as the chief criterion divulged certain limitations. Thus, under the poverty reduction regime with the aim of realizing good governance, conventional project-type aid decreased and was increasingly replaced by general or sector budget support. Support for sector programs, using the sector-wide approach (SWAp), also increased with the explicit goal of reducing poverty, and often included a sectoral focus on education or health.