Supporting Education: Development Bank Lessons

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Johanna Steves


Our class recently had the opportunity to listen to Dr. Yael Duthilleul, technical advisor on education at the Council of Europe Development Bank. The CEB is the oldest multilateral development bank in Europe and supports social sector investments. Dr. Duthilleul has spent her career working on education policy around the world. Her presentation illustrated some of the dynamics that come into play when development banks invest internationally in education projects.

The current set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that target education (promotion of equity and quality in education and lifelong learning), as well as issues directly tied to education (gender equality, reducing inequalities, promoting peaceful and inclusive societies), has put in place a framework to guide countries as they implement new policies with the aim of reaching these objectives. Much can be learned from the experiences of development banks that help countries finance such improvements.

Evolving challenges and changing contexts

The spectrum of issues requiring attention is vast and relative to each country’s unique context. While a lack of professional opportunities triggers youth emigration in Portugal, Bangladesh faces an education gap that leaves many children without access to schooling. 

How can these diverse issues be tackled? Policy implementation is challenging, and requires analyzing and adapting to the specific contexts in order to reach its objectives. Prior to the economic crisis in Portugal, for instance, the priority of policymakers was to invest in education broadly, which has certainly been valuable. But many highly educated graduates are struggling to secure employment and, in many instances, are leaving the country in search of opportunities. It is important to be able to adapt to these challenges through shifting the policy target to account for changing socio-economic contexts – like identifying the skills to prepare students for new labor market demands.

Finding the right solutions

The technical expertise that funding institutions can offer to countries seeking support in education policy is valuable, though it is important to keep the focus on people. The successful approaches within policymaking are the ones that thoroughly incorporate stakeholders in the process. One of two development bank program examples presented to the class was a response to the high cost of education in Haiti and the 200,000+ children without access to schooling. Haiti’s Education for All Program covers fees so more children can attend quality schools. In Papua New Guinea, a training program to improve reading skills has helped teachers acquire new skills to teach reading more effectively.

A commonality between these success initiatives like these the integration of people in policymaking, from talking to parents, to consulting with teachers. Effective solutions are built out of the perspectives that are unique to each group of stakeholders.

Striking a balance: institutional development

A final takeaway from Dr. Duthilleul’s presentation was prompted by a question from a fellow classmate asking about lending to countries with weak institutions, to which she responded with valuable insight. She explained that while, ideally, investing in institutional development is a key step, in practice, there are many other factors that make this challenging. Not only do international investment projects usually have shorter timelines than what is required for efficient institutional development, but countries themselves are not always interested in borrowing for this purpose. It is important to be able to find ways to provide this support in addition to providing loans.

To tackle this issue, the CEB has sometimes mobilized EU grants, donor funds, or its own resources to support its loans with technical assistance for capacity development. For example, one of Dr. Duthilleul’s CEB projects in Montenegro went beyond financing new kindergartens, it also provided technical assistance to improve the building designs, making them more child-friendly and cost-efficient, as well as financed study tours from officials to learn from other countries.

Several key conclusions can be drawn through comparisons of Dr. Duthilleul’s presentation with Professor Pont’s lesson on policymaking and stakeholders. Each country operates in a unique context, with varying sets of actors, levels of government centralization, demographics, and beyond. That being said, successful policies can and should be shared across borders, as many practices may be relevant. But the key elements are the focus on stakeholder needs, especially actors and beneficiaries operating directly on-the-ground, and on the processes of implementation. Ultimately, policymaking can be viewed as exchanges between individuals — an art, rather than a science.

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