Showing papers by "Deon Filmer published in 2011"

Making Schools Work: New Evidence on Accountability Reforms

Abstract: This book is about the threats to education quality that cannot be explained by lack of resources. It reviews service delivery failures in education: cases where programs and policies increase inputs to education but do not produce effective services where it counts in the classroom. It documents what we know about the extent and costs of such failures. It argues that a root cause of low-quality and inequitable public services is the weak accountability of providers to both their supervisors and clients. The central focus of the book is that countries are increasingly adopting innovative strategies to attack these problems. Drawing on new evidence from 22 rigorous evaluations in 11 countries, this book examines how strategies to strengthen accountability relationships in school systems have affected schooling outcomes. The book provides a succinct review of the rationale and impact evidence for three key lines of reform: (1) policies that use the power of information to strengthen the ability of students and their parents to hold providers accountable for results; (2) policies that promote schools' autonomy to make key decisions and control resources; and (3) teacher incentives reforms that specifically aim at making teachers more accountable for results.

School-Based Management

Abstract: This volume is a product of the staff of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank. The fi ndings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this volume do not necessarily refl ect the views of the Executive Directors of The World Bank or the governments they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work. The boundaries, colors, denominations, and other information shown on any map in this work do not imply any judgement on the part of The World Bank concerning the legal status of any territory or the endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries. Rights and Permissions The material in this publication is copyrighted. Copying and/or transmitting portions or all of this work without permission may be a violation of applicable law. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank encourages dissemination of its work and will normally grant permission to reproduce portions of the work promptly. For permission to photocopy or reprint any part of this work, please send a request with complete information to the vii Preface School-based management (SBM) has become a very popular movement over the past decade. Our SBM work program emerged out of a need to defi ne the concept more clearly, review the evidence, support impact assessments in various countries, and provide some initial feedback to teams preparing education projects. During fi rst phase of the SBM work program, the team undertook a detailed stocktaking of the existing literature on SBM. At the same time we identifi ed several examples of SBM reforms that we are now supporting through ongoing impact assessments. An online toolkit providing some general principles that can broadly be applied to the implementation of SBM reforms has been developed and can be accessed on Mackintosh provided excellent editing of the content and Victoriano Arias formatted the document. The team received very useful feedback from Ruth Kagia and Robin Horn. The peer reviewers for this task were Luis Benveniste and Shantayanan Devarajan. Excellent comments were received for an informal, virtual review from Erik Bloom.

Cognitive Development among Young Children in Low-Income Countries

Abstract: Early childhood development encompasses children’s cognitive development as well as their physical growth and well-being and socioemotional development. While endorsing the broad view of early childhood development highlighted in the introduction to this book, this chapter focuses on the cognitive domain, refl ecting recent advances in the measurement of cognitive development in low-income countries. The objective of this chapter is to review the evidence that cognitive delays in early childhood can quickly accumulate among the poorest children and that indicators of cognitive development in early childhood strongly correlate with socioeconomic status. The fi rst part of the chapter takes stock of existing evidence on cognitive development in early childhood. A large share of evidence originates from developed countries, with more recent evidence coming from lower-middleincome countries in Latin America (in particular Ecuador and Nicaragua) as well as Madagascar. The second part of the chapter presents new evidence on patterns in cognitive development in Cambodia and Mozambique, two low-income countries. The chapter documents that young children in Cambodia and Mozambique are exposed to large cognitive delays that increase with age. It shows that cognitive development is associated with socioeconomic status as proxied by wealth and caregiver education, and Cognitive Development among Young Children in Low-Income Countries

Trends and Socioeconomic Gradients in Adult Mortality around the Developing World

Abstract: The authors combine data from 84 Demographic and Health Surveys from 46 countries to analyze trends and socioeconomic differences in adult mortality, calculating mortality based on the sibling mortality reports collected from female respondents aged 15-49. The analysis yields four main findings. First, adult mortality is different from child mortality: while under-5 mortality shows a definite improving trend over time, adult mortality does not, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. The second main finding is the increase in adult mortality in Sub-Saharan African countries. The increase is dramatic among those most affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Mortality rates in the highest HIV-prevalence countries of southern Africa exceed those in countries that experienced episodes of civil war. Third, even in Sub-Saharan countries where HIV-prevalence is not as high, mortality rates appear to be at best stagnating, and even increasing in several cases. Finally, the main socioeconomic dimension along which mortality appears to differ in the aggregate is gender. Adult mortality rates in Sub-Saharan Africa have risen substantially higher for men than for women—especially so in the high HIV-prevalence countries. On the whole, the data do not show large gaps by urban/rural residence or by school attainment.

Trends and Socioeconomic Gradients in Adult Mortality Around the Developing World

Abstract: The authors combine data from 84 Demographic and Health Surveys from 46 countries to analyze trends and socioeconomic differences in adult mortality, calculating mortality based on the sibling mortality reports collected from female respondents aged 15-49. The analysis yields four main findings. First, adult mortality is different from child mortality: while under-5 mortality shows a definite improving trend over time, adult mortality does not, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. The second main finding is the increase in adult mortality in Sub-Saharan African countries. The increase is dramatic among those most affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Mortality rates in the highest HIV-prevalence countries of southern Africa exceed those in countries that experienced episodes of civil war. Third, even in Sub-Saharan countries where HIV-prevalence is not as high, mortality rates appear to be at best stagnating, and even increasing in several cases. Finally, the main socioeconomic dimension along which mortality appears to differ in the aggregate is gender. Adult mortality rates in Sub-Saharan Africa have risen substantially higher for men than for women - especially so in the high HIV-prevalence countries. On the whole, the data do not show large gaps by urban/rural residence or by school attainment.

Making Schools Work : New Evidence on Accountability Reforms

Abstract: This volume is a systematic stock-taking of the evidence on school accountability reforms in developing countries. It provides a measured and insightful review and assessment of the results of a variety of approaches that developing countries are experimenting with in their quest for better schools. It is not the final word on the subject, but will hopefully contribute to better policy choices, grounded in the evidence currently available. This book is about the threats to education quality that cannot be explained by lack of resources. It focuses on publicly financed school systems and the phenomenon of service delivery failures: cases where programs and policies that increase the inputs to education fail to produce effective delivery of services where it counts-in schools and classrooms. It documents what authors know about the extent and costs of service delivery failures in public education in the developing world. And it further develops aspects of the conceptual model posited in the World development report 2004: that a root cause of low-quality and inequitable public services-not only in education-is the weak 'accountability' of providers to both their supervisors and their clients (World Bank 2003). The central focus of this book, however, is a new story. It is that developing countries are increasingly adopting innovative strategies to attack these issues.