Critical Perspectives on NGOs and Educational Policy Development ...

<strong>Critical</strong> <strong>Perspectives</strong> on NGOs and Educational Policy Development in Ethiopia 96hands of foreign “experts”, both as a result of the desires ofnumerous governments to educate the population in such amanner as well as the high numbers of foreign “experts”playing a role in decision-making. The educational system,with its plethora of foreign “experts”, did not meet the needsof the Ethiopian population. In 1972, the system wascritiqued as “wasteful as most students dropped out withouthaving employable skills” (Areaya, 2008: 48). According tothe goals of government and foreign “experts”, the educationsystem was failing as it was not giving students the skillsneeded to be successful in the work force or to be leaderswhose skills would lead to Ethiopia’s economic revival.Human capital theory/perspective is at the heart ofthe modern Ethiopian education policy (World Bank, 2008).On 20 November 2004 in a televised debate in EthiopianTelevision (ETV), the Capacity Building Minister, TefereWalwa (translated by and cited in Areaya, 2008: 66), stated:Every individual who completed grade eight will notnecessarily be admitted to secondary educationbecause since we have to make and allow every citizento complete grade eight for the purpose of rapiddevelopment, we then can’t afford for every grade eightcompleter to join secondary education. The countrydoesn’t have such capacity to absorb all primaryeducation graduates into secondary level. If we let allprimary school completers join secondary education,the majority of the people, in turn, will not get theopportunity of completing primary education. Themajority of primary education graduates will join somekind of post primary technical and vocationaleducation and prepare themselves for the world ofwork. Only a few will prepare for higher education. Atthe ends of grades 8 and 10, the majority of studentsare expected to embark on vocational training in orderto bring about rapid development and achieve ourgoals.It is the government’s intention that Ethiopian educationtrain individuals to enter the formal workforce in order to aidEthiopia’s economic development. Ethiopia is currentlyviewed as one the poorest nations in the world, ranking 171 st

Thashika Pillay, University of Alberta (Canada)97out of 182 nations on the Human Development Index(Human Development Reports, 2009). According to UNDPstatistics, 78% of the population currently lives on less than$2 a day (Human Development Reports, 2009). This is not anation which can afford to educate an ever increasingpopulation without foreign funds. The Ethiopiangovernment has mandated the need of a Westernizededucation system for development; by doing so they havealso invited international donor organizations and nongovernmentalorganizations into Ethiopia in order toguarantee the necessary funds to ensure access to educationand ensure that Ethiopia meets the millennium developmentgoals (MDGs).The Ethiopian government has an essentially top-downapproach to development and educational decision-making,as seen by Proclamation 41/1993 of January 20, 1993which stated that the Ministry of Education had the powersand duties to:• Formulate the country’s education policy andstrategies and, upon approval follow up andsupervise their implementation;• Determine and supervise the implementation ofthe country’s educational standard;• Determine the educational curriculum offered atthe level of Senior Secondary Schools, highereducation institutions. (Areaya, 2008: 56)This top-down approach to education has resulted in anationalized, non-local education system which is notmeeting the needs of students nor society at large.Furthermore, the Ministry of Education has beeninstrumental in allowing international NGOs to play asignificant role in educational policy-making decisions in thehopes that transforming Ethiopia’s education system into amore Westernized system will ensure faster development andeconomic stability. In a 2004 report to UNESCO, theEthiopian Government contends that the only way in whichto meet the first millennium development goal (MDG) – theeradication of poverty – is through increased literacy levels, agoal which the government alone does not have the capacityto ensure; therefore NGOs must be actively involved (The

<strong>Critical</strong> <strong>Perspectives</strong> on NGOs and Educational Policy Development in Ethiopia 98Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, 2004). Tobia (citedin Tefera, 1996) referes to a longtime Ethiopian educatorwho asserts that participation by a few passers-by does notmean that the people have been involved, and argues that aneducational document in which teachers have not beendirectly involved will not be of much use. Hailu (2007)reiterates the lack of community participation in thedecision-making processes of the selection of contents of thecurriculum. The opinion of the majority of the Ethiopianpopulation has not been solicited, bringing into question thebelief that NGOs support participatory development as wellas the democratic credentials of the Ethiopian government.3. <strong>Critical</strong> <strong>Perspectives</strong> on Development NGOs andEducational Advocacy and Policy DevelopmentNGOs have become dominant actors in thedevelopment sector over the past three decades, a meteoricrise to prominence with the simultaneous increases inpoverty, inequality and marginalization across the globe.They are part of a multi-billion dollar industry asinternational NGOs sit at the bargaining table withInternational Financial Institutions (IFIs) such as the WorldBank and International Monetary Fund, inter-governmentalorganizations such as USAID and CIDA and representativesof nation states. Riddell (2008) claims that NGOs hold anextremely privileged position and have the ability to influenceother organizations and agencies to change their policies andapproaches. Mundy and Murphy (2001: 128) assert thatNGOs:are frequently portrayed as the building blocks of aprototypical ‘global civil society’, with the power toinfluence, and perhaps democratize, the structure ofworld politics, both through increasing influencewithin existing international institutions and theircapacity to use this influence to leverage change inindividual nation states.NGOs, as described above, are now clearly seen as extremelypowerful organizations and hence the importance of taking a

<strong>Critical</strong> <strong>Perspectives</strong> on NGOs and Educational Policy Development in Ethiopia 100will allow NGOs to work in more appropriate contexts. Manyscholars attempt to find ways in which NGOs can continueto work in development as their work is seen as extremelyvaluable to the populations they claim to serve.Critics of NGOs view the NGOization 1 of education asthe cultural, linguistic and economic domination of theglobal South. Petras and Veltmeyer (2001: 132) argue thatNGOs are not “non-governmental” organizations since they“receive funds from overseas governments, work as privatesubcontractors for local governments and/or are subsidizedby corporate-funded private foundations with close workingrelations with the state”; furthermore, NGO programs areaccountable not to local people but to overseas donors.According to Petras and Veltmeyer (2001), NGOs reproducethe international and national power structure, therebyeffectively becoming a part of the decision-making process asthey neutralize political opposition at the bottom whilepromoting neo-liberalism at the top. According to Amutabi(2006), NGOs represent a new third sector initiative in theglobalization process in which governments are beingremoved from certain spheres of involvement while at thesame time allowing people freedom to initiate and choosewhat they want; this privileging of NGOs allows them to fillin the gaps left by governments in the development process,a process Amutabi refers to as ‘philanthrocracy’, arguingthat NGOs have become such significant actors indevelopment that little development occurs without NGOinput, as acknowledged by the Kenyan government’sinclusion of NGOs in government development plans. Shivji(2007: 21) claims that World Bank accusations with respectto the corruption of African states has led to a situation inwhich “decision-making and policy-making slipped out of thehands of African states as the West financed policy andgovernance consultants in their thousands to produce policyblue prints, poverty reduction strategies and manuals on1 NGOization, here, refers to the the role played by NGOs in encouraginga universalization of educational policies/approaches through theprovision of educational services, policy development and advocacy workwhich encourages the homogenization of educational systems across theglobe thereby promoting educational, cultural and linguistic colonizationand imperialism.

<strong>Critical</strong> <strong>Perspectives</strong> on NGOs and Educational Policy Development in Ethiopia 102advocacy and policy development. Supporters claim that theNGOization of education in the global South is necessary inorder for modernization and for countries like Ethiopia toachieve the MDGs; this can only be achieved through NGOinvolvement in policymaking. Critics respond that theNGOization of education results in a specific knowledgesystem being promoted, a knowledge system which regardsEuro-American knowledge as superior to indigenous/localknowledges and ways of living. International NGOs steereducational policy towards homogeneity, and local/nationalculture is considered superficially as part of what is often apublic relations exercise aimed at masking assimilationisteducational and developmental projects.4. The NGOization of Education in Ethiopia: Towardsa Preliminary <strong>Critical</strong> Analysis of NGOs andEducational Policy in Ethiopia (post-1990s)The defeat of the Communist government in 1991 andthe subsequent rise to power of the Ethiopian People’sRevolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) resulted in a shiftin focus for NGOs. Prior to 1991, the majority of NGOs inEthiopia were involved in humanitarian efforts; with thedefeat of the Derg regime, while many NGOs continue to bedevoted to humanitarian efforts, the vast majority areinvolved in service provision and advocacy work. Ethiopia isthe beneficiary of aid funds from intergovernmental donororganizations such as USAID, DFID and CIDA as well as IFIsand international NGOs. The current government is in needof a massive influx of capital in order to maintain itsmodernizing education system. Furthermore, thegovernment simply does not have the resources toimplement a massive overhaul of the education system. Thishas resulted in an avalanche of NGOs in Ethiopia aseducational service providers. The government has allowedNGOs into Ethiopia on the grounds that they will provide themuch needed infrastructure to modernize Ethiopianeducation, thereby hopefully leading to economic and socialdevelopment.In the aftermath of the widespread famine of the 1970sand 1980s, the number of international humanitarian and

Thashika Pillay, University of Alberta (Canada)103aid NGOs in Ethiopia ballooned (Clark, 2000: 4). With thevictory of the EPRDF and a decrease in the need forhumanitarian aid, many NGOs switched focus and becameemployed in the education sector (van Beurden, 1998).Mundy and Murphy (2001: 124) argue that NGOs, “venueshopping” in the mid 1990s, “chose education preciselybecause it was an issue already adopted by government andintergovernmental organizations and, thus, capable ofproviding them increased legitimacy and leverage”.According to Seboka (2004: 20), 35% of NGOs working inEthiopia are engaged in education, and this increasing trendof “NGO engagement in the education sector shows thatNGOs are now paying more attention to the development ofhuman resources in the country, putting education as one ofthe priority areas of intervention in their poverty reductionstrategies”. The Ethiopian government is willing to simplycontinue the modernizing education program of previousgovernments, having been convinced by the internationalcommunity that only “modern” education is the answer tothe problems facing sub-Saharan African nations.In January 2009, the Ethiopian Parliament passed the‘Charities and Societies Proclamation’, restricting theactivities of NGOs. Opponents of the proclamation argue thatthe new law will present severe obstacles to the provision ofmuch needed aid. Proponents respond that while it will limitthe ability of foreign funding agencies to influence policy,there is no restriction to the continued provision of muchneeded funding for programmes such as those aimed atimproving quality education. NGOs working in education areseen as service providers whose main role is the modernizingof the Ethiopian education system in order to ensureeconomic and social development. Unlike NGOs working inhuman rights and governance issues, it appears thateducational NGOs are not considered to be a threat to statesovereignty or to the present government’s rule. However, inreality, NGOs are not simply just service providers. Theywork with government officials and play a major role inpolicy making, thereby having an impact on millions ofEthiopians who are attending government schools and whoare learning a curriculum that has been influenced and oftencreated by foreign “experts”.

<strong>Critical</strong> <strong>Perspectives</strong> on NGOs and Educational Policy Development in Ethiopia 104While the Ethiopian government may view the role ofNGOs as that of service providers, numerous educationNGOs in Ethiopia do have an impact on policy. SC/Norwayand Action Aid Ethiopia have been successful in affectingpolicy by transferring their models into various othercontexts (Seboka, 2004). Furthermore, Clark (2000)contends that in recent years NGOs are increasingly beingcontacted on policy decisions, arguing that the frequency ofgovernment-NGO consultation has increased substantially inEthiopia between 1998 and 2000. The Ethiopiangovernment recognizes that NGOs are important partners intheir quest to modernize and is, therefore, attempting tocreate a climate conducive to ensuring that educationalNGOs can help the government meet the MDGs. However,believing that NGOs would be satisfied to merely remain asservice providers illustrates either the government’s ownnaiveté or the realization by the Ethiopian government thatallowing NGOs an increased role with regards to policymakingwould ensure that the MDGs are achieved at a fasterpace. The Ethiopian government and NGOs place muchfaith in international “experts” who can implement ideas“needed” to transform Ethiopian education.NGOs sell an image of themselves as acting only inconjunction with grassroots aspirations, an image that is ofgreat appeal to the Ethiopian government as the Ministry ofEducation (2009) has identified community empowerment asone goal for the government. The Ministry of Education hasidentified this goal in order to allow woredas (localgovernment) and communities to take responsibility forproviding education, not because government believes thatlocal populations should decide their own education systembut because local communities would then be responsible tocover the cost of assuring access to education and not thenational government. Furthermore, the Ministry ofEducation’s so-called commitment to participatory decisionmakingis called into question when one analyzes the extentto which policies are formulated based on a top-downapproaches to development. The current guidelines foreducational policy in Ethiopia are defined in the GeneralEducation Quality Improvement Program (GEQIP), whichwas first formulated by federal education officials includingforeign experts working with World Bank officials before

Thashika Pillay, University of Alberta (Canada)105being sent to regional and woreda officials for comments(World Bank, 2008). This belies the concept of participatorydecision-making as the process begins at the top and localofficials are asked to comment on policy already formulated.There is no inclusion in the decision-making process of localpeoples who will be the supposed recipients of these policies.Furthermore, there are no structures in place which wouldpermit local officials to alter central policies. NGOs are usedas a tool to sell an image, an image of a government whichwelcomes participation from grassroots organizations. NGOsthat aid the government in undermining the process ofparticipatory decision-making are in fact selling out the verypeoples they claim to represent.5. The Case of Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) inEducation Advocacy and Policy DevelopmentIn 2007, I accepted a placement in Ethiopia as avolunteer teacher through VSO. VSO had begun its programin Ethiopia in 1997 and chose education as the main sectorin need of VSO development “experts”, bringing in “expert”teachers from Great Britain and Canada to train Ethiopianin-service and pre-service teachers. This role of NGOs asservice providers is usually in line with the mandate of thegovernment. In 2005, the Ministry of Education stated thatit was the mission of stakeholders such as NGOs to “extendquality and relevant primary education to all school-agechildren and expand standardized education and trainingprograms at all levels to bring about rapid and sustainabledevelopment” (p. 5). Furthermore, the Ministry of Educationsees the role of NGOs as strengthening and supportinggovernment strategies and activities, not as active decisionmakersor policymakers (Ministry of Education, 2002).VSO Volunteers and Educational Policy-making/interventionsNGOs utilize several methods to influencestakeholders. Seboka (2004) argues that NGOs use variousstrategies – workshops, field visits, exposure tours andexperimentation of successful pilot projects – to illustrate thepositive effects of NGO led programs. VSO policy documents

<strong>Critical</strong> <strong>Perspectives</strong> on NGOs and Educational Policy Development in Ethiopia 106depict advocacy work as enabling NGOs to “draw on theirprogramme experience to show the impact of existing policieson the poor and marginalised, and to suggest improvements”(VSO, 2009c: 9). VSO encourages their staff, partners andvolunteers to be aware of the policymaking system in thecountries in which they operate, including the formal andinformal ways in which policies are formulated at differentlevels which helps those involved to better understand theopportunities that exist, including so-called “policy windows”(VSO, 2009c). VSO has no desire to remain as an educationservice provider, understanding modernization has littlechance of occurring if NGOs such as VSO cannot influenceeducational policy. In order to ensure that VSO continues tobe able to influence policy development decisions inEthiopia, it is integral that VSO not alienate the Ethiopiangovernment. Ethiopia is one of the few countries in sub-Saharan Africa in which VSO places volunteers or foreign“experts” in the Ministry of Education. VSO documentsclearly state that their core purpose in countries likeEthiopia is the provision of volunteers for the educationministry (VSO, 2009c).Foreign “experts” working in the Ministry of Educationin Ethiopia are best placed to effect policy change. NGOslike VSO understand this. Their main objective is policydevelopment and advocacy; therefore, they ensure that theirrelationship with government remains conducive tocontinuing in this policy development and influencing role.In May 2006, the Ministry of Education published a manualfor improving English language capability in TeacherEducation Institutions. Of the six authors of the document,two – Judith Altshul and Genevieve Holmes – were VSOvolunteers working in the Ministry of Education, two wereforeign “experts” associated with other institutions, and twoEthiopians. VSO understands that placing foreign “experts”within the Ministry of Education allows them to play anintegral role in policymaking decisions. Furthermore, VSOvolunteers have become integral members of curriculumwriting teams. In June 2008, I attended a Ministry ofEducation workshop on developing a new Englishcurriculum for all higher education institutions. There werea handful of VSO volunteers present and approximately tentimes as many Ethiopian university and college instructors.

Thashika Pillay, University of Alberta (Canada)107The workshop was facilitated by VSO volunteers working inthe Ministry of Education. In each of the subgroups, VSOvolunteers from universities and colleges facilitated thediscussions; they were the “experts”. Volunteers workingwithin the Ministry of Education ensured that volunteerslead the discussions and debates. Ethiopian teachers werestill involved in the process; however, this involvement wassuperficial as it was VSO volunteers who were the primaryagenda-setters. In March 2009, the Ministry of Educationheld a second workshop to discuss finalizing the new Englishcurriculum. VSO Ethiopia head office staff encouraged VSOvolunteers to attend by increasing the daily travel allowancegiven to VSO volunteers from ETB 70 (Ethiopian Birr) to ETB130. This consideration was not available for Ethiopiansplanning to attend the workshop, not even when VSOvolunteers themselves asked for their increased allowance tobe redirected to their Ethiopian colleagues. VSO Ethiopia iswell versed on the policy-making structures and ensuresthat those volunteers working within the Ministry ofEducation are aware of how to facilitate the inclusion ofother VSO volunteers in the policy-making process.VSO’s Top-down Approach to Development and EducationDaniel Hailu (2007: 53) argues that the Ministry ofEducation has enjoyed a monopoly over the formulation ofthe syllabus, a monopoly “largely responsible for thefundamental differences between the worldview and valuesystem of the community and what formal education seeksto inculcate”. VSO appears to be well aware of the fact that itis the Ministry of Education which controls policymakingdecisions. During 2007/2008, VSO had 138 foreign “experts”volunteering in Ethiopia. Of those, 113 were involved in theeducation sector (VSO, 2008). These experts were placed inpartner organizations; key partners include the Ministry ofEducation, the Institute of Curriculum Development andResearch, and the Higher Education Institutions, TeacherEducation Institutions, Regional Education Bureaus andCity or Zone Education Bureaus (VSO, 2009a). VSO partnerorganizations in Ethiopia are large governmentorganizations. VSO has effectively moved away from workingin communities and individual schools as they do not view

Thashika Pillay, University of Alberta (Canada)109This top down market-driven modernization approachto educational/development in Ethiopia ensures that inorder for NGOs to continue to influence the developmentagenda (and their concomitant indispensability), they mustseek to influence and remained involved with policydevelopment at the state level. Therefore, it is no surprisethat NGOs such as VSO have made strong engagement intop-down education/development policy development theirprimary development objective.How VSO Propels an AgendaThe failure to seriously commit to participatorydevelopment and decision-making is also made evident inother VSO documents. In March 2009, VSO held astakeholders meeting to discuss various problems facingEthiopian teachers. The ensuing report entitled “How muchis a good teacher worth? A report on the motivation andmorale of teachers in Ethiopia” concludes that teachers areundervalued, and want to see improvements in their pay,status and conditions of service. While the report asksteachers about possible improvements to the currenteducational system, no reference is made to an Ethiopian(indigenous) education system. VSO, in fact, recommendsincreased NGO influence as well as continued NGO anddonor support through training in cluster-based supervisionand other “innovative NGO-designed methods” andstructures, such as through teacher development 2 . VSOrecruits foreign cluster coordinators to facilitate the process.VSO would begin to advocate on behalf of teachers, workingin areas teachers and their families are marginalised, suchas HIV and AIDS, disability, gender and minoritydiscrimination, all areas in which VSO is already workingand which are part and parcel of their overall internationaldevelopment interventions (VSO, 2009b). The solutionalready exists and VSO owns the solution. There is no needfor teachers to look outside of VSO for help in improvingtheir situation; why would teachers do so when not only does2 In Ethiopia, universities and colleges are responsible for providingcontinuous professional development to all teachers in primary andsecondary schools located in specific areas closest to the higher educationinstitutions.

<strong>Critical</strong> <strong>Perspectives</strong> on NGOs and Educational Policy Development in Ethiopia 110VSO have an answer but also a policy in place to ensure anincrease in teacher motivation and happiness. The clusterprogram recommended by VSO is funded by the World Bankand other inter-governmental donor agencies such as USAIDand DFID. The funding has already been guaranteed and isin place; now all that the Ethiopian government needs to dois accept the report and the coinciding policy changes whichwill allow VSO’s recommendations to come into effect. Thequestion that must be asked is whether VSO’s solution toteacher motivation is the correct solution or simply in thebest interests of VSO in order to ensure continued funding ofthe cluster program. My experience as a volunteer inEthiopia has led me to understand that the cluster programhas been put into place to westernize the Ethiopianeducation system, with little concern for the culture andaspirations of local peoples.VSO policies are not policies which are determined bythose at the community level. These policies are determinedby those in positions of power. This is in direct contradictionto VSO’s own claims and volunteer training programs whichemphasize that all work done by VSO employees andvolunteers should be participatory and attentive to andinclusive of the local cultural context. In May 2008, VSOEthiopia held a workshop to create a country strategic plan.Invited members to the workshop included volunteers VSOfelt were performing well in their jobs and who were workingin sectors which VSO believed should be the focus for theirplan. VSO volunteers and Ethiopians from the Ministry ofEducation were present. Ethiopians invited to join theworkshop were mainly those from organizations andinstitutions which had had a long history with VSO, such asKifle Gebrekirstos (Dean) from Abi Adi College of TeacherEducation, a college in which VSO has been placingvolunteers since the start of VSO’s program in Ethiopia in1997 (VSO, 2008). Is the Dean of the college the rightperson to be invited to a session on strategic planning for thenext five years? Does this illustrate community involvementin policy-making decisions? The country strategic plan putinto place by VSO has since been used to direct thoseworking with the Ministry of Education.One result of the country strategic plan was thedecision that Ethiopian schools need to learn about

Thashika Pillay, University of Alberta (Canada)111inclusion and special needs education. This has since beentransferred to the Ministry of Education which is nowrequesting that teacher education institutions have a foreign“expert” come in who can teach in-service and pre-serviceteachers about inclusion. A colleague working at Abi AdiCollege of Teacher Education has informed me that the Deanof Abi Adi College has made a request for a VSO volunteerwho can work in the area of special needs education. As ateacher trained in the Canadian education system, I myselfbelieve that special needs education is important. Would thepeoples of Abi Adi believe that their schools should haveinclusive education? Is this a priority for these rural schoolswhen many go without desks and chairs for their existingstudents?In 2007, the Ministry of Education (MoE) developed aGeneral Education Quality Improvement Package (GEQIP), afive-year plan (2008/9 -2011/12) comprised of six pillars:Civics and Ethical Education, Curriculum, InformationCommunications Technology, Management and Leadership,School Improvement Programme (SIP) and TeacherDevelopment. One of the development partners is theDepartment for International Development (DFID).According to a 2008 VSO review report, VSO volunteersbased at the Minstry of Education have also been:directly and indirectly contributing to the developmentand realisation of GEQIP ... in the preparation of theimplementation plans, especially for the components ofthe Teacher Development pillar, such as the HigherDiploma Programme (HDP), English LanguageImprovement Programme (ELIP), ContinuousProfessional Development Programme (CPD), and Preserviceand In-service Teacher Training. (p. 3)For VSO to increase its influence in Ethiopian education, itmust become involved in educational policymaking and inadvocacy issues, as has been seen by VSO’s involvement inthe Minstry of Education’s GEQIP plan. Stagnancy willsignal the beginning of the end for development NGOs suchas VSO as continued engagement in service provision willnullify the influence VSO has and its ability to expand withinthe development sector. NGOs are businesses and like most

<strong>Critical</strong> <strong>Perspectives</strong> on NGOs and Educational Policy Development in Ethiopia 112business, believe in growth and in securing greater controlover their sector and for NGOs, this is the developmentsector. Furthermore, the NGO mantra that they areattempting to work themselves out of a job no longer holdsmuch truth, if it ever did. NGOs receive over $10 billionannually in official aid from governments to support andfund development and humanitarian activities. In 2004,NGOs spent over $23 billion for various projects (Riddell,2008). Development is a multi-billion dollar industry, andthose with power in the industry predictably have littledesire to self-destruct. Therefore it unsurprisingly followsthat continued NGO survival and growth makes it necessarythat NGOs become involved in policy development in order toremain relevant.6. The NGOization of Education and a Small Questionof Ethiopian Sovereignty: Some ConcludingObservations/DiscussionThe Ethiopian Societies and Charities Proclamationmentioned earlier which came into effect in January 2009illustrates the Ethiopian government’s full awareness as tothe influence NGOs can have. However, the Proclamation isrestricted to those NGOs working in human rights anddemocracy issues and does not extend to NGOs working inthe education sector. Is this the result of the power of NGOswhich work in the education sector or the result of thedeeply held belief by the Ethiopian government that atransformed education system is necessary for development?After all, according to modernization theorists, thedevelopment of society is a result of “literacy, education,increased communication, mass media exposure, andurbanization” (Huntington, 1971/2007: 63). Policymakers inthe global South seem to accept that they are in need ofdevelopment. Even a nation that has never been colonizedby a European power, a nation which retained its sovereigntyduring the scramble for Africa in the 1800s, is finally fallingprey to the known machinations of Western colonization.This colonization of the mind (a mono-culturalmodernization of the educational system) has “destroyed allpreviously established systems of cultural reference [and] ...systematically discredited all previously established

Thashika Pillay, University of Alberta (Canada)113mechanisms that different cultures had created throughouttheir histories for fostering knowledge and culture” (Ki-Zerbo, Kane, Archibald, Lizop & Rahnema, 1997: 158).Ethiopia, like other sub-Saharan African nations has boughtinto the notion that it is in need of Euro-determined moderndevelopment. This makes Ethiopia unique in that it is anation which is being colonized psychologically andculturally without direct militarial conquest and colonialcontrol. The Ethiopian example reminds us that colonialismis not dead and a thing of the past but is very much a trendof the present.Ethiopia has retained an extremely centralizededucation system. However, those with the power to designcurriculum and policy – both local and foreign “experts” –reside in the capital, Addis Ababa. The decision-makers inpower have little understanding of the educational needs ofthose in rural Ethiopia. “In a world consisting of dominatingand dominated cultures, some cultures are bound to beconsidered more equal than others” (Alvares, 1992: 220).There is no single homogenous group of Ethiopians capableof deciding policy for an entire population of eighty million.NGOs frequently claim that they wish to change policies theybelieve are bad for the poor, a claim which:assumes that ‘the poor’ comprise a single homogenousgroup, that policies affect all poor people in the sameway, and [usually] that only the immediate impact ofpolicies is of relevance. They also assume that the[external] policies that affect poor people can be simplyidentified. In practice, however, the issues are farmore complex. ‘The poor’ invariably consist of differentgroups who are affected by different policies indifferent ways over different time periods. (Riddell,2008: 300)Ethiopia has become a nation where a Westernizededucation system is being championed by the power-eliteand “educated” classes. This is the knowledge that is beingdisseminated through the national education system. NGOshave been instrumental and complicit in advocating for andhelping to shape implement just such a system. NGOsposition “themselves as ‘knowledge agencies’, attempting to

<strong>Critical</strong> <strong>Perspectives</strong> on NGOs and Educational Policy Development in Ethiopia 114enhance their role as intellectual actors and to be moreresponsive to ‘local knowledge’, the ‘voices of the poor’, andthe needs and realities of developing countries” (Utting,2006: 1). However, according to Senarclens (1997: 202),while:NGOs claim to defend the indigenous cultures andeven call for anthropological prudence ... it is easy tosee that, under this pretext of respect for indigenousculture, what they are really interested in is todisassociate the indigenous population from theireconomy based on reciprocity. To achieve this, theydefine the local ... in Western terms.This denial of local cultures, beliefs and heritage is leading tothe loss of language, culture and ways of living. It is slowlyleading to the cultural impoverishment of a diverse people.Not only do development projects usually reproduce“old power and knowledge asymmetries” (Escobar, 2008:175), but instilling new values and attitudes leads studentsto reject their own cultural and personal identity, therebyacquiring a false sense of superiority, turning them awayfrom manual work, and all unschooled people, whom theyperceive as ignorant and underdeveloped (Ki-Zerbo et al.,1997; Nyerre, 1968). The imposition of the knowledge of adominant culture leads to the subordination of otherknowledges as fewer and fewer people remain versed in localknowledge systems, threatening the “identity and selfperceptionof the African student” (Shizha, 2005: 66).Students are taught to value foreign knowledge over local,taught to devalue their own cultures and identities, taughtthat becoming more like those in the North is the answer tothe problems they may face. Development projects in theeducation sector “succeed” when they have managed tocleanse old knowledges and ways of knowing from educationpolicies, curricula and pedagogical practices. An educationsystem that defies the culture and history of nations such asEthiopia is put into place by such development. Amutabi(2006: xxvi) contends that:NGOs create images outside of history, and they dothis by doctoring and manipulating local scenes,

Thashika Pillay, University of Alberta (Canada)115images, pictures and annual reports, that oftenexaggerate poverty and helplessness in order to drawdonor attention and to justify their continued presencein Africa. ... therefore, NGOs strategically situatethemselves at the door of knowledge in Africa,managing information, releasing and ‘unveiling’ whatthey want and keeping out what is not useful to theircourse. They are gate-keepers, situating themselvesbetween Africans and donors, exercising so-calledbenevolent hegemony. They are used for the purposeof maintaining and extending Northern material,political, social and cultural influence while promotinga local comprador bourgeoisie, and yet there is noserious critique of these misrepresentations.The education system that has come into being in Ethiopia isa Westernized system not suited to the ways of the majorityof Ethiopians. This externally imposed and constructedhomogeneity-project denies the “capacity of people to modeltheir own behaviour and reproduce forms of discourse thatcontribute to the social and cultural domination” (Escobar,1995: 94). The belief that an entire nation must be educatedin a foreign language and using foreign teachingmethodologies and cultural philosophies makes a mockery ofNGO-claims to participatory development, grassroots actorand representative of marginalized majorities.The colonization of Ethiopia is an ongoingphenomenon as the colonizer is no longer only from withoutbut also emerges from within. The dominant elite that hasbeen educated using the colonial educational systemcontinues to reproduce colonial control/designs. “The localnotion of development includes the acquisition of those toolsof dominant knowledge systems that might empower them toenvision and implement a viable future” (Escobar, 2008:176). The consent of the dominated classes in accepting thehegemonic programs of the dominating classes furthermarginalizes the dominated classes (Kamat, 2002).NGOs ironically continue to be viewed as organizationswhich work with peoples at the grassroots in order to ensurethat people continue to have a role to play in theconstruction of their respective societies. However, asillustrated through the example of VSO Ethiopia which

<strong>Critical</strong> <strong>Perspectives</strong> on NGOs and Educational Policy Development in Ethiopia 116works closely with IFIs, government officials and highereducation institutions in the country, there is almost nocontact or conversation with community or grassrootsorganizations. VSO Ethiopia works primarily with the 18%of the population that is urbanized and formally educated.Furthermore, VSO openly admits that one of its main goalsis involvement in advocacy and policy development, in orderto ensure their lasting presence and influence, if notindispensability.NGOs are supported and funded by large numbers ofpeople in the North due to the misconception that they workwith and for the grassroots. NGOs such as VSO use thismisconception to legitimize their continued engagement inpolicy development and advocacy. In fact, the policiesadvocated for by VSO are not policies grassroots groups helpcreate and neither are they in the immediate interests ofthese groups. Furthermore, these policies are ofteninitiatives created mainly by IFIs and donor organizationswhich then provide funding to NGOs to operationalize andimplement these designs. It is hardly surprising then thatNGOs in turn, seek to have maximal influence on educationpolicy development in the recipent countries.Ethiopians are extremely proud of never having beencolonized. The European powers did not create a colony inEthiopia during the scramble for Africa; however, Ethiopiahas not escaped the tyranny of colonization. The difference isthat the colonization of Ethiopia is taking place today andthere appears to be little opposition to the devastation beingwrought by this kind of “neo/colonial development”. Theempire over which the sun never set no longer refers to theBritish Empire but to a world in which NGOs are now aidingand propelling the creation of a global knowledge empirewherein one national educational system will beindistinguishable from another.

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