Uncommon Knowledge: World Bank Policy and the Unmaking of the Knowledge Economy in Africa

Abstract

The World Bank is clearly one of the most influential global intergovernmental operators for international development assistance. In recent decades, the Bank and other agencies have invested immense technical and financial resources in a troubled and unprecedented mission of revitalizing and restructuring the development of education in Africa. A growing body of critique has emerged that articulates the failures of the revitalization mission, framing these exchange relationships as representing nothing but new patterns of embedded neocolonialism, dependency, and geopolitical asymmetry. The aim of this paper is to contribute to and disrupt these unfolding debates by examining how a set of theoretical paradigms have shaped the World Bank's priorities and approaches to education and development policy in developing countries at different times. The paper argues that the Bank embraced the neoliberal economic ideology and a narrowly defined interpretation of the 'rates of return' calculations to promote higher investment in basic education while systematically marginalizing higher education. The paper asserts that this polarized policy paradigm persisted within the Bank at least until the 1990s and has partly fuelled the preponderance of the critiques of neo-colonial dependency and hegemony. This paper opens a new analytic territory by examining the coordinates of two recent and increasingly significant World Bank policy paradigms: the 'innovation systems' and 'global partnership' approaches.

Neoliberalismo Y Educación Superior en Chile

“…Es importante relevar que la política educativa del Banco Mundial ha sido ampliamente criticada por razones ideológicas y metodológicas (COLCLOUGH, 1996;CORAGGIO, 1994CORAGGIO, , 1995JONES, 1992;KLEES, 2012;KLEES, SAMOFF & STROMQUIST, 2012;LAUGLO, 1992LAUGLO, , 1996MCGINN, 1997;MCNEELY, 1989MCNEELY, , 1995OBAMBA, 2011OBAMBA, , 2013SAMOFF, 1993SAMOFF, , 1996SAMOFF Y CARROL, 2004A, 2004TORRES, 1995;ZIDERMAN Y ALBRECHT, 1995). Desde un punto de vista ideológico, algunas de las críticas dirigidas a las políticas del Banco Mundial sostienen que esta agencia internacional ha continuado con el intento de institucionalizar una ideología, estructura y práctica uniforme en los Estados-nación en la prestación de educación, con la idea de servir a los intereses particulares de los países ricos (BUJAZÁN, 1987;CORAGGIO, 1994CORAGGIO, , 1995HEYNEMAN, 2012;KLEES, 2011;MCNEELY, 1995;OBAMBA, 2013;SAMOFF, 1993;TORRES, 1995).…”

“…Desde un punto de vista ideológico, algunas de las críticas dirigidas a las políticas del Banco Mundial sostienen que esta agencia internacional ha continuado con el intento de institucionalizar una ideología, estructura y práctica uniforme en los Estados-nación en la prestación de educación, con la idea de servir a los intereses particulares de los países ricos (BUJAZÁN, 1987;CORAGGIO, 1994CORAGGIO, , 1995HEYNEMAN, 2012;KLEES, 2011;MCNEELY, 1995;OBAMBA, 2013;SAMOFF, 1993;TORRES, 1995). La crítica focaliza la atención en seis limitaciones principales de la política educativa del Banco Mundial asociadas a cuestiones metodológicas, incluyendo: a) apoyo empírico…”

“…En contraste, durante la segunda etapa el foco de las políticas del Banco en educación ha estado centrado en la educación privada, la provisión privada, el autofinanciamiento, los esquemas de créditos, la recuperación de costos, y la focalización del gasto público en los sectores pobres vía vouchers. Tempranamente, en la década de 1960, las políticas educativas del Banco Mundial estuvieron fuertemente influenciadas por la teoría del capital humano (BECKER, 1964;BOWMAN, 1968;SCHULTZ, 1961SCHULTZ, , 1981 y por los análisis basados en las tasas de retorno (ESPINOZA, 2002(ESPINOZA, , 2008OBAMBA, 2013;PSACHAROPOULOS, 1973PSACHAROPOULOS, , 1980PSACHAROPOULOS, , 1994NG, 1992). La teoría del capital humano considera que tanto la educación como la experiencia han de ser concebidas como inversiones que permiten incrementar la productividad de los individuos.…”

International Collaboration for Capacity Development in Higher Education Leadership and Management: the Uganda-Finland Initiative

“…This implies the need for a systemic approach so that the outcome is co-owned by a range of stakeholders with the added advantages of stronger decision making and accountability (Brinkerhoff and Morgan, 2010;Obamba, 2013).It is increasingly apparent that funding for international cooperation activities is conditioned by the composition and complementary roles of the stakeholders involved.…”

Re-imagining Africa as a Knowledge Economy: Premises and Promises of Recent Higher Education Development Initiatives

“…Enabled by shifts in global aid policy, which now embraces support for HE after decades of neglect, and in the face of exponential growth in undergraduate enrolments, the focus is now on increasing the capacity for research within Africa. HE and, by extension, advanced research capability, have been re-cast from the 'luxury' that African countries could not afford (Samoff and Carrol, 2004;Obamba, 2013), to a vital and enabling factor for participation in the global knowledge economy (TFHES, 2000). Clear evidence of the discursive re-positioning of Africa in the global knowledge economy came in July 2015 during the visit of US President Barack Obama to Kenya and Ethiopia, in which the trajectory of African development from aid dependency to entrepreneurialism was re-iterated in public addresses by Obama and the African leaders with whom he met.…”