Education and Development: The Issues and the Evidence

been funded anyway, thus releasing funds for other activities - the so called fungibility
problem. In extreme cases this has further impoverished countries when high placed
officials have accumulated vast wealth at the expense of those they claim to serve.
Cases have been publicised where personal fortunes appear to approach levels which
are significant proportions of national indebtedness and where the source of the income,
and the reasons for concealing it in secret bank accounts, are obscure. Repeated
scandals related to commissions paid on large government contracts to officials and
politicians out of proportion to legitimate services provided suggest another kind of
malpractice. These kind of events have prompted UNDP to call for an Honesty
International (UNDP 1992:89) that would draw attention to corrupt and fraudulent
practices and publish information that would discourage large scale abuse of public
funds.

Corruption and fraud are fortunately not characteristic of most development assistance.
Where they are endemic they are likely to diminish the effectiveness of aid. But good
government depends on far more than good intentions. It depends on good practices
which are able to undertake effective management of public resources and deliver
services according to publicly agreed policy in an efficient manner. Low motivation,
poor accountability, inadequate record keeping, and underinvestment in infrastructure
to support the machinery of government all contribute to poor governance. To the
extent that this is deliberate, condoned, or merely convenient to those who have the
responsibilities for using public funds this represents a serious problem which can
compromise aid effectiveness. And to some degree it may be thought to exacerbate the
conditions that educational assistance seeks to mitigate. Thus concern for good
government has become an important feature of the policy dialogue between donors
and host governments. Though it can be seen as undermining the sovereignty of
national governments, since it questions internal administrative practice, it can also be
presented as a problem where there is a common interest in a solution.

Measuring human freedoms is not an easy task. The indicators that can be used have to
be widely understood and accepted. There is scope for much ambiguity when devising a
new measurement scale outside familiar territory but a consensus is beginning to
emerge. Personal security, the rule of law, freedom of expression, free participation in
politics, and equal opportunity legislation are widely valued. Without them
development will be impaired especially if these are considered part of the definition of
development. It is not possible to establish a direct link between economic well being
and such freedoms there are examples of autocratic regimes that deny most of these
freedoms whose economies have grown substantially, equally there are many such
regimes which have experienced economic decline. Foster (1987:99) argues that
existing data do not establish an empirical base for pursuing educational policies based
on the presumption that greater investment will necessarily lead to greater stability and
more democratic forms of government whilst accepting the possibility that this may be
so. The World Bank (1991) has put the case that more popular participation may

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