Achieving Better Service Delivery Through Decentralization in Ethiopia

Abstract

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The implications of school improvement and school effectiveness research for primary school principals in Ethiopia

“…Improving schools' internal conditions requires the involvement of all levels of the school community (Rudduck et al 1996;Hopkins 2001), demanding leadership of change for organisational and professional learning (Pedder & MacBeath 2008;Bryk et al 2010). Key elements of SI are:Self-evaluation -with inputs from all levels of the school community for the purpose of identifying barriers to learning (MacBeath 2010);  Development planning -with broad participation in decision-making, to foster ownership (Bryk 2010) and ensure impact across all levels of the school (Hopkins 2001);  Continuous professional development (CPD) -which emphasises that schools are 'places of learning' for staff as well as students (Mitchell 2013 (Pillay 2010), and reflects both the SI tradition's focus on learners, self-evaluation and development planning (Hopkins 2001), and the World Bank's push for financial decentralisation (Garcia & Rajkumar 2008). Implicit in SIP is a repositioning of the principal from an administrator to a leader of the school.…”

Data-Driven Decision Making in Fragile Contexts: Evidence from Sudan

“…Political decentralization has been explored as a tool for democratization and formation of political oppositions (Green 2011) and the way it may take into account cultural and ethnic diversities (Duany 1994). With regard to decentralization and service delivery, there is plenty of literature on other Sub-Saharan countries (Conyers 2007;Dafflon and Madies 2012;Garcia and Rajkumar 2008). One of the reasons might be the difficulty in obtaining reliable and timely data on service delivery because of Sudan's multiple, severe, and protracted conflicts.…”

The Politics of Inclusive Development

“…In the education sector, central government finances services through intergovernmental transfers, but retains control over curriculum and overall policymaking while other aspects of the stewardship role-namely, planning, standard-setting and accreditation, evaluation, monitoring, and allocating local discretionary budgets-are devolved to woreda education offices (Garcia and Rajkumar 2008).…”