Frequently Asked Questions

Updated October 14, 2005

Section I: About EFA-FTI

1. What is the Education for All - Fast Track Initiative?
2. Why was the EFA-FTI created?
3. What is the context?
4. How Does FTI relate to the Millennium Development Goals & to Education for All?
5. What is the role of UNESCO?
6. Is there evidence that progress is possible?
7. Has the EFA-FTI been successful to date?
8. What makes FTI different from past education initiatives?
9. Is the FTI a global education Fund?
    

Section II: EFA-FTI Endorsement

1. Which countries can participate in FTI?
2. How does a country sector plan get endorsed?
3. Who decides on FTI endorsement?
4. What is the lead coordinating agency?
5. Can you explain the actual Endorsement Process?
6. How do the donors assess national education sector plans?
7. Is the focus of the assessment limited to primary education?
8. Does the endorsement process address gender equality and HIV/AIDS?
9. What is a credible education plan?
10. What is the FTI Indicative Framework?
11. How does FTI help coordinate and harmonize at the global and country level?
12. How does FTI actually help countries?
13. How does monitoring & evaluation work?
14. How many countries are currently in FTI?
15. Is FTI going to continue to expand?
     

Section III: EFA-FTI Trust Funds & Resources

1. What is the Catalytic Fund (CF)?
2. How does a country access the CF?
3. How many FTI endorsed countries will receive funding from the CF in 2005?
4. What is the Education Program Development Fund (EPDF)?
5. How does a country access the EPDF?
6. Who are the donors for the EPDF?
7. How are the two funds managed?
8. How much external aid will be required to finance universal primary education?
9. Will FTI help mobilize sufficient resources to reach the goal of UPC by 2015?
10. How much ODA goes to basic education?
11. Does EFA-FTI Support New Aid Instruments?
     

Section IV: Organization

1. How is the EFA-FTI organized?
    

Section I: About EFA-FTI            

1. What is the Education for All Fast Track Initiative?
 

In 2002, the Education for All - Fast Track Initiative (FTI) was launched as a global partnership between donor and developing countries to ensure accelerated progress towards the Millennium Development Goal of universal primary education by 2015. All low-income countries which demonstrate serious commitment to achieve universal primary completion can join FTI.
 

FTI is built on mutual accountability. Donors provide coordinated and increased financial and technical support, in a transparent and predictable manner. Conversely, partner countries have agreed to put primary education at the forefront of their domestic efforts and develop sound national education plans.

2. Why was the Education for All - Fast Track Initiative (FTI) created?
 

World leaders declared, at the Dakar education forum in 2000, that “no country seriously committed to Education for All will be thwarted in its achievement of universal primary school completion by 2015 due to lack of resources.”
 

Yet around the world, there are still over a 100 million children out of school, of which 58 million are girls. Despite overwhelming evidence that education – particularly for girls–can break the cycle of poverty and create more prosperous nations, Official Development Assistance (ODA) for education has only increased modestly since 2000.
 

Over 70% of the out-of-school children are in Sub-Saharan Africa and South & West Asia. Over 15% of children in developing countries do not complete a course of primary education. In Sub-Saharan Africa, less than 60% of children complete a course of primary education.

Around the World

• In Sub-Saharan Africa, at least 40 million children are out of school, of which 22 million are girls.
• In South and West Asia, 36 million are children are out of school, of which 22 million are girls.
• In East Asia and the Pacific, there are 12 million children out of school, of which 6 million are girls.
• In the Arab States, there are 7.4 million children out of school, of which 4.5 million are girls.
• In Latin America, there are 2.5 million children out of school, of which 1.2 million are girls.

3. What is the context of EFA-FTI?
 

The EFA-FTI partnership is grounded in the collective wisdom of the global conferences of the past few years.

• Education for All goals adopted at the World Education Forum, April 2000, Dakar, Senegal. 180 countries committed themselves to providing quality education for all the world’s children by 2015.
• Millennium Development Goals adopted at the UN summit, September 2000, in New York. World leaders agreed to 2015 as the year that all boys and girls should complete a full cycle of primary education.
• Monterrey Consensus forged at the International Finance and Development Conference, March 2002, Monterrey, Mexico. The consensus commits rich nations to boost trade and aid opportunities for countries with sound policies.
• Rome Declaration on Harmonization to improve aid effectiveness, February 2003. The development community committed to work towards aligning its assistance around country development priorities and to harmonize donor policies and priorities around country systems.

4. How does FTI relate to the Millennium Development Goals & Education for All?
 

EFA-FTI is a global partnership created to accelerate progress towards quality primary education for all children by 2015, which is both an Education for All and a Millennium Development Goal.
 

Throughout the first half of the 1990s, world conferences organized by the United Nations gave rise to eight Millennium Development Goals (MDG) to reduce poverty and achieve sustainable development. World leaders, at the 2000 Millennium Summit, pledged to work together towards achieving these goals, two of which coincide with those adopted at the World Education Forum -- achievement of universal primary education by 2015, and elimination of gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005.

Another MDG explicitly recognizes that eradicating poverty worldwide can be achieved only through a global partnership for development. This global deal makes clear that it is the primary responsibility of poor countries to ensure efficient use of resources and greater accountability to citizens. But for poor countries to achieve the MDGs, it is critical that wealthier countries increase support and do so more effectively.

5. What is the role of UNESCO?

UNESCO is an EFA-FTI partner and has a permanent seat on the EFA-FTI Steering Committee. It also provides annual statistics on progress towards EFA goals and related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) through the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS).

Progress towards the six EFA goals - of which universal primary education and gender parity are also MDGs - is monitored by the annual EFA Global Monitoring Report, produced by an independent team based at UNESCO Headquarters. Three reports have been published to date. The two most recent respectively focus on gender and education quality.

At the global level, UNESCO was mandated at Dakar to monitor progress towards EFA and maintain the collective momentum of the EFA movement through its coordination role notably through the High-Level Group on EFA (HLG) that meets every year. UNESCO is responsible for establishing linkages between the Working Group on EFA (WGEFA), the High Level Group on EFA, and EFA-FTI.

6. Is there evidence that progress is possible?

We have seen that progress is possible when political will and resources come together. In Sub Saharan Africa, the primary gross enrolment rate increased dramatically in recent years. Between 2000 and 2002, the enrolment rate rose from 83% to 95%, a 12 point increase in only two years. In comparison, the enrolment rate increased by only 10 points over the previous 10 years. This unprecedented growth demonstrates that universal primary education is possible to achieve. Our challenge is to sustain the increases while improving quality and ensuring that all children complete their schooling.
 

7. Has EFA-FTI been successful to date?
 

First, the fact that the FTI partnership and resulting framework exists represents a major step forward toward achieving universal primary completion.
 

Second, noteworthy progress has been made. FTI has evolved from a vertical program -- with decisions made at the global level, with access by invitation to countries meeting the FTI criteria, and with a focus on increased parallel financing giving the impression of a large global fund -- to becoming a country-based and country-led process of program development and resource mobilization, with all donors supporting the same country program.
 

The global partnership serves as a platform to support country level processes, innovation and resource mobilization, and steps in when regular bilateral and multilateral funding channels do not meet the needs.
 

FTI can provide support to all low-income countries endeavoring to achieve the goal of universal primary completion. External aid for the twelve FTI countries increased from about $300 to $350 million in 2004, closing the financing gap in five of the countries. FTI has disbursed $83 million dollars through the Catalytic Fund. Two other countries will close their gap through additional financing from bilateral donors in 2005-2006.
 

FTI is helping to:

• Define common indicators for assessing and monitoring education plans
• Develop sustainable financial planning within domestic budgets
• Improve coordination between government and donors
• Ensure alignment of donor priorities with country priorities and coordinate existing and new resources through regular funding channels.

While demonstrating concrete examples of progress takes time, in the education sector, it is important to recognize that there have been signs of country level progress:

• In Mozambique, Niger and Yemen, over the last 4-5 years, the share of education expenditure spent on primary education has grown by 4-5% points due to the incentive to prioritize primary education.
• In Mauritania, Niger and Vietnam, over the last few years, school repetition rates decreased by 2-3% points.
• As evidence of Nicaragua’s conviction that education is the key to development, the sector will receive the largest budget increase in 2005.

Moreover:

·         Globally, 47 countries have achieved Universal Primary Education.

·          Domestic spending on education has increased as a share of national income in about 70 countries.

·          After more than two decades below 80%, the primary school gross enrollment rate has increased in Sub Saharan Africa and South and West Asia sending nearly an additional 20 million more children to school in each region.

·          In 2005, Ghana abolished user fees across the country and saw primary school enrollments increase by 14 %.

Transitional funding from the Catalytic Fund is helping to place countries on track:

• In Nicaragua, the initial disbursement of $3.5 million from the FTI Catalytic Fund has enabled the country to make substantial improvements including sending an additional 70,000 6-year-olds to school, expanding and updating teacher training facilities and increasing the number of children receiving a daily meal in school from 200,000 in 2004 to 800,000 in 2005.
• In Gambia, the initial $4 million from the FTI Catalytic Fund is enabling the country to purchase thousands of textbooks for grades 1 to 4, resulting in a significant impact on the quality of education for poor schools in rural areas.
• In Yemen, the initial $10 million from the FTI Catalytic Fund will be used to increase the quality of education and the enrolment of girls (age 6-14), especially in rural areas, where only 30% currently attend school. This includes hiring female teachers, building a rural training institute, and providing teacher housing. Contracts are underway for building 86 new schools; student kits to encourage enrollment are being distributed; and 14,000 teachers have been newly trained.
• In Guyana, one of the first countries to receive endorsement by the Fast Track Initiative, the Government has said it will need approximately $3.5 million per year, over thirteen years, to achieve the education MDG. To date, the Catalytic Fund has distributed an initial $4 million and committed to another $4million. $4 million per year will make a huge difference in the lives of school children in Guyana. The resources should enable the country to increase completion rates of grade 6 from 65% to 100% in the remote areas and from 88% to 100% in the coastland by 2015. The money should also improve quality by supporting an increase of trained teachers in remote areas from 32% to 74% and from 53% to 68% in the coastland.

External Resource Mobilization

• External aid commitments for country plans in the 12 FTI countries (Ethiopia joined FTI as the 13th country in late 2004) has increased from about $300 in 2003 to $350 million in 2004.
• The increase of external aid commitments was sufficient to close the financing gap for primary education in five of the twelve countries in 2004: in Mauritania, Guyana, Gambia, Honduras and Burkina Faso.
•  Annual donor assistance to basic education in low-income countries more than doubled from an average of US$1.24 billion in 2002 to an average of $2.64 billion in 2004.

FTI is already improving quality

In Latin America, the Fast Track Initiative’s Education Program Development Fund is already strengthening the capacity of countries to develop education projects and programs, focusing on improvements in quality of education through the design of multi-grade teaching in particular for indigenous and isolated rural populations.

In Yemen, funds from the Education Program Development Funds are being used to strengthen institutional capacity for quality basic education. This includes conducting diagnostic studies on teacher training, school curriculum, textbooks and developing benchmarks for learning achievements.

In South Asia, the Education Program Development Fund is helping countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan strengthen the quality of their national education plans.

8. What makes FTI different from past education initiatives?
 

FTI is an evolving global partnership built on mutual commitments. Donors agree to provide coordinated and increased financial and technical support in a transparent and predictable manner. Conversely, partner countries agree to put primary education at the forefront of their domestic efforts and develop sound national education plans to accelerate achievement of universal primary education. In short, the very existence of the Fast Track Initiative represents a new step forward.
 

9. Is FTI a global education Fund?
 

No, FTI aims to help current and new donors provide increased, better coordinated, and more effective aid to countries through regular bilateral and multilateral channels or silent partnerships.
 

Two FTI Trust Funds (the Catalytic Fund and the Education Program Development Fund) were established to provide short term financing to help close the financing gap for countries with too few donors, and to help those countries lacking capacity to develop sound education strategies and share lessons learned.

Section II: EFA-FTI Endorsement

1. Which countries can participate in FTI?
 

All low-income countries, which demonstrate serious commitment to achieving universal primary education, can receive support from the FTI.

National governments demonstrate their commitment through preparation and implementation of a comprehensive education plan including an adequate level of domestic spending on education, accelerating the pace of enrolling children in school, improving the quality of teaching and learning, and ensuring that students complete a primary education. In return, donors provide financial and technical support, in a coordinated and a predictable manner.

2. How does a country sector plan get endorsed?
 

To receive FTI endorsement, a country must have the following:

• a poverty reduction strategy or equivalent and
• a sound education sector plan, endorsed by in-country donors

For those countries (often post-conflict) lacking the technical capacity to develop an education sector plan, the FTI can provide support through the Education Program Development Fund (EPDF).

3. Who decides on FTI endorsement?
 

Local donors at the country level endorse a country’s education sector plan. Among the donors, one agrees to act as the lead coordinating agency and takes responsibility for organizing the assessment of the country’s program, utilizing the FTI assessment guidelines and indicative framework, with the participation of all concerned donor agencies.
 

The lead coordinating agency takes responsibility for preparing a report of the assessment, with notification of endorsement, and submits it to the Government, the country development partners, and the FTI Secretariat.

4. What is the lead coordinating agency?
 

The lead coordinating agency heads up country level efforts to inform the FTI partnership through the FTI Secretariat of a particular government’s request. It takes responsibility for organizing the assessment by the local donors where the decision on endorsement of a country’s sector plan will be taken. It also takes responsibility for ensuring adequate reporting on country progress.

In the rare event that a local donor group has not been established or there is no clear lead agency, the government may contact FTI partners directly to request assistance.

5. Can you explain the actual endorsement process?
 

FTI endorsement is intended to give recognition to education sector programs prepared by countries and to signal to potential investors, whether they be international or domestic, public or private, that the program is credible, sustainable and, therefore, a good investment.
 

The process encourages collaboration and harmonization among those supporting the sector program to lower transaction costs and ensure that all sources of support converge in support of the same government plan.
 

The endorsement process is as follows:
 

The country has prepared a poverty reduction strategy and an education sector plan.
 

Local agencies involved in supporting the education sector nominate a coordinating agency to lead the FTI assessment and endorsement process and serve as the liaison with the Ministry of Education, other concerned agencies and the FTI Secretariat.
 

The coordinating agency liaises with the Ministry of Education and local agencies to organize the assessment and endorsement process. It is also responsible for inviting all relevant agencies to participate in the assessment and endorsement process and makes available the FTI assessment guidelines and Indicative Framework to the group to conduct the assessment. But each donor agency is responsible for ensuring that its representative consults with its Headquarters as needed throughout the process and has the appropriate technical expertise to contribute substantively.
 

The coordinating agency sends the sector plan and assessment to the FTI Secretariat. Subsequently, the FTI Secretariat sends it on to the full FTI partnership.

6. How do the donors assess national education sector plans?
 

The FTI has created a practical tool - the assessment guidelines – to help local education donors assess a country’s education plan.

The assessment should help identify funding gaps and other obstacles toward reaching the goal of universal primary education. The guidelines can be adapted by countries, but should consider the impact of AIDS, gender and other key issues.
 

When the in-country donors are satisfied that key issues have been adequately addressed, and sign off on their common assessment, the country’s sector plan is considered endorsed. This way the endorsement process brings a collective responsibility to mobilize funds and always within the priorities of the national plan and budget.

7. Is the focus of the assessment limited to primary education?
 

Although the focus is on primary education, the assessment takes a sector-wide approach, so that the issues relating to this level of education are put within a sector wide budget and process of prioritization.

8. Does the endorsement process ensure that the education programs adequately address issues such as gender equality and HIV/AIDS?
 

The FTI appraisal guidelines recommend that education sector plans should address the main constraints to accelerating universal primary education. Accordingly, the sector plan should provide an appropriate strategy for addressing HIV/AIDS, gender equality and other key issues.

9. What is a credible education plan?
 

A credible education sector plan should be comprehensive and address key constraints to accelerating universal primary education in the areas of policy, data, capacity, and financing. It should also align primary education priorities with those for pre-school, secondary, tertiary, and non-formal education.
 

Specifically, a credible education plan should include:

• a strategy, including budget requirements, for accelerated progress towards universal primary education;
• a strategy for addressing HIV/AIDS, gender equality, and other key issues;
  national policy actions designed to improve education quality, equity, efficiency and fiscal sustainability;
• implementation capacity constraints and strategies to address them;
• indication of how the country intends to carry out monitoring and evaluation and identify annual targets for measuring progress on key policies and outcomes, including those of the FTI indicative framework as locally adapted.

10. What is the FTI Indicative Framework?
 

The FTI Indicative Framework provides a set of indicators which partner countries are asked to use as monitors of progress towards universal primary completion. They include resource mobilization, student flows, number of teachers and teacher/student ratio, and enrollment. Countries may decide to use them along with their own benchmarks and indicators.

11. How does FTI help coordinate and harmonize at the global and country levels?

• EFA-FTI supports countries to achieve the education MDGs by encouraging sector wide approaches and the integration of national education programs within national Poverty Reduction Strategies.
   
• FTI donor partners (about 30 bilateral and multilateral agencies) have agreed to coordinate and harmonize the ways they do business in support of countries with solid education sector plans.
   
• FTI is anchored at the country level where the local education donors have the responsibility of supporting the country to develop a sound sector plan in order to accelerate achievement of UPC. In addition, they appraise and endorse the soundness and financial sustainability of the program, and mobilize resources. This facilitates alignment with country priorities. A lead coordinating agency helps to coordinate the donors around this process.
   
• The FTI provides support to countries to develop sound education plans including sustainable financial frameworks consistent with domestic budgets and priorities.
   
• FTI encourages common and simplified funding channels wherever possible, giving maximum flexibility to national government, particularly to finance recurrent costs, while also making efficient use of complementary modalities.

12. How does FTI actually help countries?

• While globally agreed upon, the FTI is implemented at the country level through country-owned programs, avoiding fragmentation and creating coordinated approaches.
   
• FTI enables new and current donors to confidently provide increased and more effective aid to country-led education programs – through their existing bilateral and multilateral channels.
   
• FTI endorsement signals to the world community, including potential investors, that a country’s education plan is sound, sustainable and, therefore a good investment.
  
  Therefore:
   
• FTI Countries with sufficient donors present, can receive increased and better coordinated aid directly from existing donors and from potential new donors.
   
• FTI countries with an insufficient number of donors (donor orphans) and good absorptive capacity are eligible to receive transitional funding from the FTI Catalytic Fund, for two to three years, until more donors come on board.
  
  Placing More Countries on Track:
   
• For those countries without education plans, and weak capacity, the Education Program Development Fund (EPDF) can provide technical support and build the capacity required to prepare a sound education plan. Assistance from the EPDF helps place a country on track toward receiving FTI endorsement for their education plan.

13. How does monitoring & evaluation work?
 

The monitoring of FTI targets and outcomes, donor financing flows, and progress in aid coordination and harmonization are built into the existing review process at the country level.

Annual reviews are expected to be conducted by the recipient country and its donor partners in a spirit of peer reviewing and learning. The results of each joint sector review are expected to be communicated to the FTI Secretariat in order to track progress at the global level and to foster cross-country sharing of lessons and good practice.

14. How many countries are currently in FTI?
 

FTI is open to all low-income countries demonstrating serious intent toward achieving universal quality primary education. As of January 2006, the following twenty countries have had their education plans endorsed, and are receiving support from FTI: Burkina Faso, Djibouti, Ethiopia, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guyana, Honduras, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mauritania, Moldova, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Niger, Tajikistan, Timor Leste, Vietnam, and Yemen.

15. Is FTI going to continue to expand?
 

FTI currently has 20 developing country partners. It is expected that over the next two years there could be as many as 40 countries within the FTI partnership. But successful expansion of FTI will require greater financial commitments by donors and greater action toward reform by recipient nations.

Section III: EFA-FTI Trust Funds & Resources

1. What is the Catalytic Fund?

• The Catalytic Fund (CF), established in November 2003 by the FTI donors, provides transitional short term funding (of two to three years) to help close the financing gap for countries with too few donors, while aiming to leverage more sustainable support through regular bilateral and multilateral channels.
   
• Given its transitional role, the CF is expected to remain small relative to support provided by the development partner community directly to the countries as a whole. However, the CF provides important backing to the FTI commitment that realistic financing needs in all qualifying countries will be met.

Donor contributions to the Catalytic Fund

• The CF became operational in 2004. Funds to countries from the CF are disbursed each year in two tranches based on receipt of progress reports provided by World Bank Task Team Leaders.
   
• Catalytic Fund pledges and receipts about US$ 445 million over 2003-2007, with US$ 83 million disbursed to date (November 2005). Pledges to the Catalytic Fund, for this period, have been made by the following nine donors: Belgium (US$ 6 million), Italy (US$ 4.8 million), the Netherlands (US$ 228.6 million), Norway (US$ 42.5 million), Sweden (US$ 15.7 million), the UK (US$ 64.8 million), Spain (US$ 6.1 million), the European Commission (US$ 76.2 million) and Ireland (US$ 1.5 million).  Note: these are estimated conversions from the respective currencies and are subject to change when the actual transfers are made.

2. How does a country access the Catalytic Fund?
 

First, local donors at the country level need to endorse a country’s education sector plan. Therefore, if a country is interested in FTI, its government should contact the local (lead) donor for education in country. Each year, the CF Strategy Committee (composed of representatives of donors to the fund and chaired by the World Bank) makes decisions on which countries, among those with endorsed sector plans, will receive a grant from the CF, and in what amount. The Strategy Committee decisions are based on their assessment of the countries most in need and where the CF resources would be used best.

3. How many FTI endorsed countries will receive funding from the Catalytic Fund in 2005?

To date, nine countries receive funding from the Catalytic Fund. They are: Gambia, Ghana, Guyana, Mauritania, Nicaragua, Niger, Yemen, Madagascar and Kenya.

4. What is the Education Program Development Fund (EPDF)?

• The multi-donor Education Program Development Fund (EPDF) was established by FTI in November 2004 to enable more low-income countries to access the FTI and accelerate progress towards universal primary education.
   
• For those countries without education plans and weak capacity, the Education Program Development Fund (EPDF) can provide technical support and build the capacity required to prepare a sound education plan.

5. How does a country access the Education Program Development Fund?
 

If a country is interested in accessing the EPDF, the government should contact the World Bank Task Team leader or the local (lead) education donor. The EPDF is intended for those countries without existing education programs and weak planning capacity. It can also support all low-income countries in sharing their knowledge and experience on education and how to reach the goal of UPC.

6. Who are the donors for the EPDF?

EPDF commitments total about US$ 30 million for the period 2005-2007, with pledges from the following donors: Norway (US$19.87 million), the United Kingdom (US$5.12 million), Sweden (US$2.6 million), Ireland (US$0.31 million) and Luxembourg (US$0.6 million). Norway is also contributing $10 million for 2005 into a trust fund for only African countries through the Norwegian Education Trust Fund (NETF).

7. How are the two funds managed?

The Catalytic Fund and the EPDF are administered by the World Bank, under the direction of Strategy Committees consisting of representatives of the participating donors. In general, meetings of the Strategy Committees take place twice a year. The FTI Secretariat reports regularly to the FTI Partners on the Funds’ activities.

8. How much external aid will be required to finance universal primary education by 2015?
 

Worldwide estimates indicate that it would cost anywhere from an absolute minimum of US$3.7 billion per year, in low-income countries, and an estimated $5.6 billion to US$10 billion of external donor financing to reach universal primary education in all developing countries by 2015.
 

Exact costs may vary and depend on national education plans. The variation in global estimates is due to different assumptions and inclusion criteria across the studies.

9. Will FTI help mobilize sufficient resources to reach the goal of UPC by 2015?
 

At the World Education Forum in Dakar, Senegal in 2000, countries from across the world vowed that “no countries seriously committed to education for all will be thwarted in their achievement of this goal by lack of resources.”
 

Responding to this commitment, in 2002, the Education for All - Fast Track Initiative (FTI) was launched as a global partnership between donor and developing countries to ensure accelerated progress towards the Millennium Development Goal of universal primary education by 2015. All low-income countries which demonstrate serious commitment to achieve universal primary education can join FTI.
 

But considering the number of children out of school, a considerable increase in donor resources will be required to help low-income countries achieve the goal by 2015.

• There is an estimated funding gap of US$ 500 million in 2006 to close the financing gaps in the current 20 countries with endorsed education plans.
• An estimated total of US$600 million was needed in 2005 to support the first 12 countries with endorsed education plans.
   
• Overall, donors are contributing an estimated $350 million in 2005 to the 12 countries, leaving a financing gap of approximately US$250 million.
  Source: FTI Secretariat. Note that the number of countries with endorsed education plans has increased to 13 (with Ethiopia) since these figures were compiled.

10. How much ODA goes to basic education?
 

It is estimated that current donor assistance for basic education in low-income countries is around US$2 billion annually. Source: World Bank estimates based on 2003 OECD DAC data.

Some donors should be recognized for their efforts to increase ODA for education, particularly the Netherlands, Norway, and France. The Netherlands have demonstrated both political leadership and financial commitment as the largest donor to the Fast Track Initiative, having pledged $230 million through 2007. They are planning to triple their ODA to basic education from Euro 236 million in 2004 to 625 million in 2007. Norway has doubled it ODA to basic education from approximately US$110 million in 2002 to US$220 million in 2005, and France is planning to double its ODA to Euro 160 million by 2007. However, overall ODA effort remains low relative to country GNI. Only Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Luxembourg and Sweden had net disbursements of ODA over 0.6% of GNI in 2003.

11. Does EFA-FTI support new aid instruments?
 

FTI supports increasing donor countries investment in primary education and it is likely that full financing of universal primary education will require substantial funds from all aid channels. The EFA-FTI partnership supports all new aid modalities that could help finance the education gap and allow for scaling up in countries with FTI endorsed education plans in the immediate future.

Section: IV Organization

1. How is the EFA-FTI organized?
 

FTI Secretariat
 

The FTI Secretariat is based at the World Bank in Washington, D.C. and is comprised of staff from donor partner agencies and from the Bank. It is managed by the World Bank under the direction of the FTI Steering Committee. It provides strategic, technical and administrative support to the overall Initiative including:

• Facilitating collaboration across andamong countries, donors and international development agencies
• Monitoring FTI implementation and supporting the development of cross-country performance measures
• Developing and providing basic advocacy and information materials on FTI
• Convening and preparing documents for FTI meetings
• Administration and reporting on the EFA-FTI Catalytic Fund and the Education Program Development Fund

FTI Steering Committee
 

The FTI Steering Committee provides overall policy guidance to the FTI, gives direction to the Secretariat between Partnership meetings and helps ensure coordination. The five standing members are the two current co-chairs, UNESCO, the World Bank, and the most recent out-going co-chair, for a six month period following its tenure.
 

FTI Co-Chairs
 

The FTI is co-chaired by two bilateral agencies. The co-chairs provide political leadership for the Initiative during their one year tenure, and serve as co-conveners of the FTI Partnership meetings.
 

The G8 president serves as one co-chair and a non-G8 country as the other co-chair. The rotation of the G8 co-chair is on a calendar year basis. To facilitate continuity, the non-G8 co-chair serves from July to June. The non-G8 co-chair has been selected by the non-G8 partners.

The current FTI co-chairs are: the United Kingdom and Belgium. Sweden is the out-going co-chair.
 

FTI Working Groups
 

In order to ensure that FTI truly is an evolving mechanism which encourages donors to exchange information on a regular basis, in 2004, the Initiative established four working groups comprised of education experts from the donor governments, to discuss high priority areas including harmonization, finance, communications, and ways to support countries in the preparation and implementation of their sector plans.
 

These working groups not only share information and their experience about the challenges and opportunities facing FTI but also propose and conduct new research that is then disseminated to the FTI partners, and make recommendations for strengthening the Partnership.
 

FTI Partnership Meetings
 

There is an annual meeting of the full FTI Partnership (donor & recipient countries, international development agencies and civil society) to discuss and assess progress to date including related issues such as gender, AIDS and other key concerns.
 

The FTI Partnership meetings set the strategic policy direction for FTI, and reviews and addresses issues affecting progress towards universal primary education. It can provide an advocacy function in relation to the commitment of resources to the FTI and identifies outstanding issues related to support in specific countries, global support for FTI, and projected country financing gaps that require the attention of FTI partners. It also identifies new mechanisms for increased resource mobilization.