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1. AED and Education in Contexts of Fragility: Providing Support to Education over the Long Haul

Author

Academy for Educational Development and Alvarado, Felix

Abstract

The purpose of this document is to describe AED's extensive experience in six countries that have undergone periods of violent conflict or natural disaster followed by extended and complex periods of increasing resilience, and if possible extract lessons learned from it. The focus is on what we have learned about effectively and sustainably restoring education in a context of development. This paper is timely for two reasons. First, the number of low-income countries experiencing crises, especially war, continues to escalate (Collier 2009). Second, there is a growing consensus among countries and donors that restoring education systems should begin as soon as the security of teachers and students can be assured and not wait until the termination of relief efforts. Education should be part of the solution from the beginning of the rebuilding process. It is hoped that this paper will facilitate that work in the future. This paper begins by reviewing AED's work over the last two decades in six countries on two continents (El Salvador,Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua in Latin America, and Ethiopia and Namibia in sub-Saharan Africa), considering their history and education sector as they move from fragility and attempt to consolidate education reform. This section seeks to extract lessons concerning the actual relationship between the education sector and fragility or resilience and what this has meant for AED's role promoting change in the education sector through its interactions with governments and donors. A second section takes the findings and underlines the interaction between donor, recipient, and implementer. A final section suggests paths for conceptual and operational development to better integrate assistance in crises with assistance for development in the education sector, and considers how this may be related to the degree of fragility or resilience, and how this may be further examined. (Contains 9 tables, 7 figures, 43 footnotes, and 25 additional resources. An annex presents trends in education, assistance and investment in six countries.)

Published
2010

2. Literacy for Sustainable Development in the Age of Information. Language and Education Library 14.

Author

Rassool, Naz and Rassool, Naz

Abstract

This book examines literacy for sustainable development in the age of information. It begins by discussing the relationship between literacy and hegemony, social policy, national language policy, colonial relations, and postcolonial realities. Also discussed in the introduction are views and definitions of literacy and considerations in mapping a typology of literacy. Part 1 explores the theoretical frameworks of literacy and the disparate ways literacy has featured in academic discourse. Part 2, which focuses on older literacy discourses and practices within the framework of the nation-state, contains chapters devoted to the following issues: (1) literacy as a social practice in terms of its relationship with institutions, political systems, structures, and processes within the nation-state; (2) historical links between literacy and social development; and (3) lessons from the mass literacy campaigns that featured in the drive for modernization in the 1970s. Part 3, which considers the impact of globalization on literacy concepts and definitions, addresses the following topics: (1) technological and cultural transformations; (2) changing definitions of "text" within the information society; (3) conceptualizing literacy, knowledge, and power in the information society; and (4) moving toward "communicative competence" for democratic participation in the information society. (Ten tables/figures are included. The bibliography lists 317 references.) (MN)

Published
1999

3. Vulnerability of the agricultural sector to climate change: The development of a pan-tropical Climate Risk Vulnerability Assessment to inform sub-national decision making.

Author

Parker, Louis, Bourgoin, Clement, Martinez-Valle, Armando, and Läderach, Peter

Subjects
CLIMATE change, GEOGRAPHIC information systems, DECISION making, AGRICULTURAL climatology, CASH crops, DELTAS
Abstract

As climate change continues to exert increasing pressure upon the livelihoods and agricultural sector of many developing and developed nations, a need exists to understand and prioritise at the sub national scale which areas and communities are most vulnerable. The purpose of this study is to develop a robust, rigorous and replicable methodology that is flexible to data limitations and spatially prioritizes the vulnerability of agriculture and rural livelihoods to climate change. We have applied the methodology in Vietnam, Uganda and Nicaragua, three contrasting developing countries that are particularly threatened by climate change. We conceptualize vulnerability to climate change following the widely adopted combination of sensitivity, exposure and adaptive capacity. We used Ecocrop and Maxent ecological models under a high emission climate scenario to assess the sensitivity of the main food security and cash crops to climate change. Using a participatory approach, we identified exposure to natural hazards and the main indicators of adaptive capacity, which were modelled and analysed using geographic information systems. We finally combined the components of vulnerability using equal-weighting to produce a crop specific vulnerability index and a final accumulative score. We have mapped the hotspots of climate change vulnerability and identified the underlying driving indicators. For example, in Vietnam we found the Mekong delta to be one of the vulnerable regions due to a decline in the climatic suitability of rice and maize, combined with high exposure to flooding, sea level rise and drought. However, the region is marked by a relatively high adaptive capacity due to developed infrastructure and comparatively high levels of education. The approach and information derived from the study informs public climate change policies and actions, as vulnerability assessments are the bases of any National Adaptation Plans (NAP), National Determined Contributions (NDC) and for accessing climate finance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Published
2019
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