School Construction Strategies for Universal Primary Education in Africa: Should Communities Be Empowered to Build Their Schools?

African countries have made significant progress in expanding access to primary education, and particularly since the year 2000, due in large part to commitments of aid made by developed countries through such agreements as Education for All (EFA), the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and the Education For All-Fast Track Initiative (EFA-FTI). Yet these achievements have placed great stress on school infrastructure, which has not grown fast enough to accommodate all school-age children. School facilities are often inadequate and unsuitable for learning. The development and creation of school infrastructure is too often hampered by poorly allocated resources, inefficient planning norms and practices, unsuitable construction technology, and non-cost-efficient management and implementation processes.
School Construction Strategies for Universal Primary Education in Africa
examines the scope of the infrastructure challenge in Sub-Saharan Africa and the constraints to scaling up at an affordable cost. It assesses the experiences of African countries with school planning, school facility designs, construction techniques, and procurement and implementation arrangements over the past thirty years. It reviews the roles of the various actors in the implementation process: central and decentralized administrations, local governments, agencies, social funds, NGOs, and local communities. Drawing upon extensive analysis of data from over 250 projects sponsored by the World Bank and other donor agencies, the book draws lessons on promising approaches to enable African countries to scale up the facilities required to achieve the EFA goals and MDGs of complete quality primary education for all children at the lowest marginal cost.