Background
Education is a human right and drives sustainable development. Yet despite successes over recent decades, around 57 million children are still denied access to education. Too few students make the transition to secondary or tertiary education or to vocational training. And the number of adults who are illiterate has remained virtually unchanged over recent years.
Many education systems around the world face the twin challenges of inadequate access and poor quality. Despite attending school for a number of years in some cases, around 250 million children and young people lack basic literacy and numeracy skills, while curricula often lack relevance to everyday life and to employment. Restricted access to education and poor quality of education are often the result of inadequate educational planning and of underfunding of the education sector.
To tackle these challenges, BMZ has made education a key area within German development policy. Germany is supporting partner countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America in implementing national and international education goals and is increasingly positioning itself in the global education agenda. BMZ has therefore adopted an education strategy with a holistic approach; its education priorities are to enhance quality and equal opportunities for all in all areas of education.
Objective
BMZ’s enhanced positions on education within development cooperation are promoted at all levels of German and international development policy.
Approach
The sector programme Education provides advisory services to respective BMZ divisions. These services cover all areas within the education sector except technical and vocational education and training:
• Core issues (gender equality, quality of education, inclusion, strengthening the education system, new approaches to education finance, and the use of information and communication technologies)
• Multilateral thematic areas
• Regional and country group-specific thematic areas, in particular education in fragile contexts
• Wider basic education including early childhood-, primary- and secondary education, non-formal education, and literacy training
• Higher education and research
Policy and strategy development
Support for BMZ in revising and coordinating its education strategy
Advice regarding education in the Post-2015 Development Agenda
Technical advice
• Provision and updating of background papers on current education topics
• Expert technical advice on BMZ position papers
• Commissioning and supervising research
National and international coordination and events
• Support regarding the design and implementation of national and international events
• Involvement in national and international coordination- and working groups on behalf of BMZ
Cooperation with multilateral actors
• Advising BMZ on its engagement in the Global Partnership for Education
• Support for cooperation with the Association for Development of Education in Africa
• Support for the International Task Force on Teachers for EFA
• Cooperation with the Learning Metrics Task Force and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development on measuring learning outcomes in developing countries
Regional analyses and cooperation with donors
• Support in creating a database on key educational data of partner countries and individual country profiles
• Advice to BMZ on potential cooperation agreements with other donors
Example from our thematic portfolio
Education in fragile contexts
Violence, conflict and fragile statehood pose substantial challenges both internationally and in individual partner countries. Conflict-sensitive education can make a major contribution to opening up prospects for children and young people and to the development of peaceful societies. The sector programme is involved in national and international networking and provision of knowledge resources, in developing the skills of German organisations and local partners, and in enhancing the technical base of the thematic areas.