[lbo-talk] (Fwd) IMF v education in Malawi, Moz, Sierra Leone

[Patrick Bond]

(While the Wolf is being hunted, regrettably mainly for semi-prurient 
not anti-imperialist reasons, the Rat - IMF boss Rodrigo de Rato - has 
sustained the IMF's Grinch function: "Thanks to only about $3 in every 
$10 in annual aid increases were programmed to be spent")


*Confronting the Contradictions*

*The IMF, wage bill caps and the case for teachers*

http://www.actionaidusa.org/pdf/AAConf_Contradictions_Final.pdf

 

 

By Akanksha A. Marphatia, Rachel Moussié, Anne-Marie Ainger and David Archer

 

 

A new report by ActionAid's multi-country International Education Team 
and based on in-depth country case studies from Malawi, Mozambique and 
Sierra Leone, shows that a major factor behind the chronic and severe 
shortage of teachers is that International Monetary Fund (IMF) policies 
have required many poor countries to freeze or curtail teacher 
recruitment. The IMF may have varying degrees of influence in directly 
setting the wage bill ceilings. However, by insisting on overly 
restrictive macroeconomic policies that constrain government spending on 
wages, it is in part responsible for the persisting teacher shortage. In 
all three countries examined, the wage bill ceiling is too low to allow 
the government to hire the teachers they need to achieve the 
pupil-teacher ratio (PTR) of 40:1 recommended by the Education for All 
-- Fast-track Initiative (EFA-FTI). There is considerable evidence that 
the current ceilings compromise the quality of education in each of 
these countries. There is a growing contradiction between donors who are 
trying to "scale-up" aid and spending to train and hire enough teachers 
meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the IMF macroeconomic 
policies that are discouraging recipients from spending the new aid. 
This contradiction must by confronted by education advocates. For the 
full report, click here: 
http://www.actionaidusa.org/pdf/AAConf_Contradictions_Final.pdf

 


 

 

...See also: Related New Report from IMF's Independent Evaluation Office

 

ActionAid's concerns about overly restrictive IMF macroeconomic policies 
were affirmed among the key findings of new report by the IMF's 
Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) on "The IMF and Aid to Sub-Saharan 
Africa," which was recently discussed at the IMF/World Bank spring 
meetings in Washington DC. The IEO report analyzed 29 IMF loan programs 
between 1999 and 2005, and found that only about $3 in every $10 in 
annual aid increases were programmed to be spent, largely because of 
extremely conservative monetary policies in IMF programs. This IEO 
report and responses by the aid advocacy community are the subject of 
ActionAid International USA's latest newsletter, "Policies & 
Priorities": 
http://www.actionaidusa.org/pdf/PoliciesandPriorities-IFIs-Spring2007issue-1008.pdf

 

 

 

Rick Rowden
Policy Analyst
ActionAid International USA
1420 K Street, NW  Suite 900
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 370-9918 (tel)
(202) 835-1244 (fax)
www.actionaidusa.org <http://www.actionaidusa.org>

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