Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper considers the example of Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) and education as a means of exploring the question of whether poverty reduction strategies of the International Financial Institutions (IFIs) merely 're-brand' damaging structural conditionality principles inherent in neoliberal development paradigms. Specifically, the case of frustration in ameliorating the prevalence of school fees as a barrier to equity of access to education as well as preference for austere social policies and spending will be explored as ongoing systemic dilemmas of development. The author argues that PRSPs represent an attempt at discursive 'shape-shifting' and 're-branding' on the part of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, who remain the sole arbiters of any and all development aid and loans approved through nominally 'participatory' processes. In the continuing ideological focus on market mechanisms as preferred and more 'efficient' means of allocating public spending resources, IFIs and donor governments continue to impose neoliberal policies in development strategies in social sectors such as education, while bilateral commitments for aid remain unreliable and inconsistent, as well as inadequate. On the basis of an interrogation of this dynamic, acting as a systemic dilemma affecting educational development in some of the world's poorest countries, the author will argue that until neoliberalism?s normative preference for 'marketized' modes of development is effectively challenged and alternatives are acknowledged, frustration toward theachievement of basic goals of equity of access to education and other forms of social rights in heavily indebted states will continue to fester.