Purpose: To assess the extent to which privatised extension service, which is premised to be demand-driven, delivers downward accountability to smallholder farmers who are both owners and users of agricultural services. Design/methodology/approach: The research collected data through focus group discussions with smallholder tea farmers and key…

This paper examines the increasingly diverse range of roles played by the corporate sector in shaping education policy. While a growing body of scholarship has documented the deepening embeddedness of the corporate sector within policy-making processes, empirical research on the strategies mobilized by corporate actors remains unsystematised and…

Much development has happened in the education sector in African countries. In Kenya, there has been a proliferation of institutions of higher learning. Severe cuts in government funding for public higher education have resulted in the privatization of higher education and the need for adjunct faculty as a way to cut costs. Research suggests that…

This ethnographic study examined the (un)intended consequences of increased privatization of Early Childhood Education (ECE) in Nepal and Kenya. Qualitative data showed overreliance on high-stakes standardized tests increased competition for 'good grades or examination scores', thus (un)intentionally creating ideal conditions for proliferation of…

Low cost private schools are becoming more prevalent in developing countries as governments fail to meet the demand for quality education (Heyneman & Stern, 2014). For-profit private schools are systematically being promoted by supra-national organizations such as the World Bank. Bridge International Academies (BIA) is one such low-cost,…

Over the last two decades, education privatization has become a widespread phenomenon, affecting most education systems and giving place to a consistent increase in private school enrolment globally. However, far from being a monolithic phenomenon, privatization advances through a variety of context-sensitive policy processes that translate into…

In the face of increasing social demand and cutbacks in state budgetary support, universities in African countries are now turning towards a multicampus system strategy. As African governments have adopted neoliberal education policies that place premium on entrepreneurialism, profit making, privatization, and markets as drivers of university…

This article examines the emergence of the public university in Kenya as a key provider of private higher education, characterised mainly by the phenomenon of the "private public university student." It probes the broader socio-economic reforms circumscribing the privatisation of Kenya's public universities and the local and global…

In most developing countries, as the young population increase in number and consequently, the demands for higher education rise, the governments cannot respond to all demands. Accordingly, they develop private higher education sectors as an alternative solution. In developed countries, some moving factors are influential in creation and the…

This volume begins its global tour with the case of Mexico. The Mexican case is significant because of its original importance in defining the primary types of private higher education. It shows trends that reflect rapid transformations in the country and tensions in developing countries at the intersection of resource constraints, relatively weak…

Private extension system has been at the centre of a debate triggered by inefficient public agricultural extension. The debate is anchored on the premise that the private sector is more efficient in extension service delivery. This study evaluates the private extension system in Kenya. It employs qualitative and quantitative methods. The results…

This paper identifies, examines and discusses higher education funding policy shifts that have taken place in Kenya. The paper argues that even though Kenya's higher education funding policy shifts, from free higher education to cost-sharing, and privatisation and commercialisation, are (to a greater extent) products of the country's encounter…

In this study, the transformation of a Kenyan public university through marketisation and privatisation was investigated qualitatively. By focusing on senior university administrators, deans, department heads, union leaders, student leaders and senior scholars at Kenyatta University the study identified the reasons for, and strategies used to…

Examines some of the rationales for financial diversification and partial privatization of state universities in Kenya and the different manifestations of market-driven approaches to university education. Explores whether the market model can address increased demand while maintaining educational quality. (EV)

More than one billion people do not have access to an adequate water supply. In Gambia and Haiti, people live on less than 4 liters of water per day. By contrast, most toilets in the West use several times that amount of water for a single flush. The global distribution of water is making it increasingly difficult for poor people to access it, and…