Aid Effectiveness and the Role of Donor Intervention in the Education Sector in Pakistan – a Review of Issues and Literature

The objective of this paper is to explore the impact of donor aid in terms of financial, technical and political support on primary education outcomes in Pakistan by analyzing the existing literature and educational policies implemented. Data from various sources including World Bank and Government of Pakistan reveals that educational outcomes are generally unsatisfactory and this is attributable to the several inherent weaknesses within the system including bureaucracy, lack of management information systems, inconsistencies in policies, incoherent targets, and complexities in structure and low levels of public spending.

Although, donor aid has resulted in an inflow of funds for education sector, the effect of such aid on educational outcomes cannot be established as the aid largely comes in form of budgetary support and therefore forms a part of government spending making it difficult to ascertain separately the impact of donor aid. Donor aid has also influenced policy design, direction and implementation and although this has resulted in progress in certain key educational indicators it is difficult to establish a direct link at the macroeconomic level. The study therefore concludes that poor educational outcomes indicate that donor aid has failed to have any significant impact on the education sector of Pakistan.