Boosting Afghanistan's Tertiary Education: The Impact of International Aid - Essay Sample

Introduction

Afghanistan initially was experiencing socio-economic problems such as education and poor infrastructure, among others. The United Nations based its project in Afghanistan to boost its development and especially the education sector. The IDA is responsible for the financial plan with assistance from the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF), and their concern is on tertiary education. The additional funding from IDA is required to boost up SHEP as academic professionals and scholars are increasing in Afghanistan according to the report by their government. All these programs are supported by the World Bank, and its goals are to promote equity in quality education, but women and ethnic groups are affected.

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According to the World Bank, this is a 5-year project, and they allocated $20 million to encourage other donors to join the project. The project has promoted the growth of Afghanistan, unlike the way it was before. The challenge still facing Afghans is the notion of security, which has reinforced the growth of Afghanistan into full development. According to a report by World Bank, "the overall revenue to GDP ratio increased from an extremely low base of 3.2% in 2002/03 to 8.1% 2009/2010" (World Bank). This was an impeccable economic shift but covers 56% of Afghanistan's government budget, so the remaining balance reimbursed by ARTF. Additionally, the World Bank denotes that even after a great economic shift in Afghanistan, they still experience a high rate of poverty contributed by persistent conflicts. Although the main purpose of the project was to support the basic education among training staff and to introduce a new curriculum.

The Taliban rule (1996-2001) denied females the opportunity to study, and that was perpetrated by continued conflicts. The war in Afghanistan during the Taliban rule left many families as refugees, and others were displaced. The boys were the only people allowed to have basic education, and according to research, only 3% of girls were allowed in schools. In the year 2001, the Taliban rule failed and who migrated to neighboring countries returned, and the population increased. The increased population saw the need for education to prevent their children from experiencing a hard life. Therefore, the project by the World Bank aimed at satisfying the needs of returned and increasing Afghans. Afghans needed quality education and equitable opportunities. Thus, their demand for equal education elicited their need for recovery and restoring development in Afghanistan.

The project does promote development since the decline of Taliban rule and programs were implemented to fulfil the needs of Afghans. Therefore, the majority of boys and girls were admitted to schools. It became successful since individuals believed education promotes socio-economic development among contributing to earning incomes in every poor household. Also, education helps mothers in understanding child health; that is, "educated mothers are less likely to have low birth weight babies, and these babies and these babies are less likely to die within their first year of life" (Auturupane et al.). Again, when women access education, they understand the required nutrition for better child health. Therefore, education was necessary for all kinds of understanding social and economic development. Ethnic groups and minority groups such as the disabled started to be considered in the new education curriculum both in rural and urban areas.

The term "Washington Consensus" was described by the scholar Williamson in the year 1990, which stated that "the lowest common denominator of policy advice being addressed by the Washington institutions to Latin American countries as of 1989" (T.N. Srinivasan). The notion of free-market was discussed by Williamson as ways to freedom globally, but this was reinforced by the U.S advocates such as the World Bank, which opposed the "Washington Consensus." It's discussed that the institutions such as the World Bank didn't understand what the consensus entailed, and therefore they thought it needed reexamination.

According to Williamson, the package entailed development strategies that were successful in Latin countries. For instance, despite the socio-economic growth in Afghanistan, they still experienced political conflicts among social issues like poverty. Countries such as Afghanistan saw these institutions as advocators of their development, but according to the scholar they limited development. According to the study, "the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and to a lesser extent, the Inter-American Development Bank as the chief advocates of free markets, these opponents of the free market would have attacked anything called the Washington Consensus." This resulted in conflict as the ideology of Williamson wasn't synthesized and understood by these institutions. Although it worked in Latin Countries for the aspect of market development, the World Bank was after improving the education sector in Afghanistan, which will after promoting socio-economic development as people will know about development.

I understand that the project was successful base on World Bank since women and minority groups got an education opportunity. It's argued that education is the pillar to development as people will understand ways or approaches required to complete development. In the year 2009/2010, Afghanistan developed than before with more than 1000 schools, including trained personnel, and this helped in other development such as infrastructure, marketing, security, and political development (World Bank). Finally, although Afghans were able to acquire knowledge of development through education, their rate of poverty was persistent due to continued conflicts.

Works Cited

World Bank. "Strengthening Higher Education Additional Financing." World Bank, 2010, projects.worldbank.org/en/projects-operations/project-detail/P121805.

Auturupane et al. Educational, Economic Welfare and Subjective Well-Being in Afghanistan. July 2013.

Srinivasan, T.N. "The Washington Consensus a Decade Later: Ideology and the Art and Science of Policy Advice". The World Bank Research. August 2000.