At its founding in 1946, UNESCO put literacy at the top of its education and human rights agenda. More than six decades later, UNESCO maintains the mission statement: "UNESCO is at the forefront of global literacy efforts and is dedicated to keeping literacy high on national, regional and international agendas." This chapter briefly describes how…

The shifting ideological winds of foreign aid donors have driven their policy towards governments in poor countries. Donors supported state-led development policies in poor countries from the 1940s to the 1970s; market and private-sector driven reforms during the 1980s and 1990s; and returned their attention to the state with an emphasis on…

The goal of Education for All (EFA) is in jeopardy, and the cause is widely perceived to be a lack of political will. But we lack an accurate definition of political will. In this article, I offer a definition that determines beforehand whether a government will have political will. In contrast to current academic work and popular discourse, which…

The nonprofit organization One Laptop per Child (OLPC) has a mission that is easy to articulate but very challenging to achieve: Provide laptop computers to the almost 2 billion children who live in parts of the world where poverty and the lack of a structured educational system deprive them of an adequate education. To further complicate the…

Learning is valuable, but in Africa it is more than that: It is prohibitively expensive. In Ethiopia, where the per-capita income is about $100 a year, a single textbook at Addis Ababa University can cost $50. To get more textbooks to students in developing nations, two people are leading an ambitious project to produce and freely distribute 1,000…

The McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program (McGovern-Dole program) helps support education, child development, and food security for some of the world's poorest children. It provides for donations of U.S. agricultural products, as well as financial and technical assistance, for school feeding and maternal and…

Norwegian official development assistance to education has been profoundly shaped by the political and ideological attitudes of successive national governments. Yet successive coalition governments of highly-contrastive kinds can alike be seen to have been strongly influenced by the policy content, language and underlying assumptions of World Bank…

In one generation, development progress has transformed the prospects for humankind, and international cooperation has been a catalyst. Technical assistance for developing countries through two predecessor organizations of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) had small beginnings in 1950, and grew to become a multimillion dollar…

Outlines trends in assistance strategies and types of international organizations as sources of information transfer for development. Highlights include impact of development policies (modernization theory, basic needs policy, dependency theory, adjustment theory), telematics and technical assistance (transborder data flow, information policies),…

This overview of the activities of the Section for Africa begins by tracing the growth of the section in 1982 and 1983 to 100 African members and 22 members from other continents. Participation by the section in International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) preconference seminars is briefly discussed, and it is noted that the section…

The educational needs of blind youth in developing countries are beginning to be met with training programs offered by such agencies as Helen Keller International of the United States, the Christoffel Blindenmission of West Germany, and the Royal Commonwealth Society of the Blind of the United Kingdom. (Author/DB)

Describes a process of training for a transition economy in Uzbekistan. Looks at the problems encountered and offers keys to successful transition training. (JOW)

The world scope of assistance to developing countries and Australia's official contribution are reviewed, the part of Australia's contribution affecting higher education is described, and some administrative issues resulting from expanding developmental assistance programs in higher education are outlined. (MSE)

Professors at two universities are proposing that an institute without walls be established by America's black colleges and universities to provide technical assistance on economic, social, and educational programs to 69 developing nations in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific Islands. (MSE)

This study explores the recent trend where African countries have shown a decline in expansion of their school systems and in replacing expatriates engaged in vital public and private activity. The study explores policy options and traces the evolution of World Bank ideas and actions to help practitioners design policies and programs better…