How pro-poor is Ethiopia's education expansion? A benefit incident analysis of education since 1995/6

Pro-poor and pro-urban education expansion in Ethiopia must go further

By: Woldehanna T & Jones N
Published by: Young Lives , 2006
Via: Eldis

How has Ethiopia’s emphasis on investment in human capital for poverty reduction fared? The paper finds that, since 1996, its education policy has been pro-poor, pro-rural and has significantly narrowed the gender gap at the primary school level. Yet, absolute enrolment levels are still very low and wealth, geographic and gender disparities remain considerable. To make further inroads into tackling wealth, gender, and regional disparities in educational access, authors highlight the following policy recommendations:

• secondary education should be made more accessible to children from poor families
• to ensure that current pro-poor emphasis is sustained over time, monitoring and evaluation of education policies is essential
• to tackle social factors that constrain poorer households from investing in girls’ education, a cross sectoral approach is important
• to address gender inequalities an affirmative action plans, targeting female children from rural and poor households, is required
• a more concerted action is needed to further reduce the inter-regional educational gap
• data on per capita expenditure should be integrated into education monitoring, as it elucidates the links between expenditure and school quality.