The structure of this report is organized into 10 sections. Following the Introduction, section two discusses the country context in terms of demographic trends and potential dividends and the fiscal space in relation to the increasing social sector demand. Section three provides an overview of the education sector context and structure, together with a chronological order of the education sector's policies, goals, and priorities. Section four analyzes key education sector performance indicators. Section five analyzes the education sector financing such as the budget framework and budget process, main actors, sources of funding, trends in public expenditure, and budget allocation. Section six assesses the adequacy and sustainability of public spending. Section seven examines education sector management issues focusing on the efficiency and effectiveness of resources utilization. Section eight examines equity, affordability, and the role of the government in protecting equity. Section nine simulates enrollment growth and the associated human and financial needs and provides projections of the labor force by educational attainment under various scenarios. The analysis is followed by section ten, a summary of the main findings and policy recommendations. The annex is divided into four sections: a methodological note, supporting tables, figures, and a section on examples of evaluated interventions.

Recent economic performance in The Gambia was extremely poor, and undermined efforts to implement the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP). Laxity in fiscal and monetary policies, and low agricultural production resulted in low growth, high inflation, and rapid depreciation of the domestic currency. Key macroeconomic targets in the PRSP were missed by a wide margin, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) program has been substantially off track. Past expansion of the money supply necessitates tight monetary policies in the form of higher interest rates, which have in turn increased public debt service, and crowded other public spending, including PRSP priority spending. The fiscal and debt sustainability analysis indicates that the country's fiscal situation is unsustainable if the current situation persists, particularly since the country continues to be vulnerable to exogenous shocks, such as the low rainfalls in 2002. The present Public Expenditure Review (PER) seeks to analyze the reform agenda, while mindful of local capacity and incentives. However, even if the agenda is carefully designed, in the end the success of the reform agenda depends on a high level o f political commitment. It should be noted, though, that the validity of the analysis is only as good as the underlying data. Unfortunately, the quality, reliability, and comprehensiveness of data are generally acknowledged problems in The Gambia. The present analysis points out that the actual expenditure data have internal inconsistencies that need to be resolved in order to fully validate the analysis. Recommendations are summarized as follows: reduced debt service through fiscal discipline should be a top priority; PRSP priorities need to be further reflected in the national budget; major imbalances within the budget structure need to be adjusted; the quality of data should be improved; development and commitment to a time bound action plan on the preparation, and auditing of public accounts should be a priority; cash budgeting should be phased out, in line with improved budget management practices; and, recurrent expenditures for the social sectors should be increased, particularly for the Education Sector.

The objectives of this Public Expenditure Review (PER) update are to analyze public expenditures of the overall budget and the agriculture sector in greater detail. The authorities prepared sectoral PER of the agriculture and natural resources sectors in 2001. The second chapter of this PER update is a partial update of the 2001 sectoral PER. It focuses only on the agriculture sector and excludes the natural resource sectors, and it does not analyze the sector strategy or the latest sector developments. The macroeconomic environment continued on its stable path in recent years. The authorities have gradually tightened fiscal and monetary policies since the economic downturn in 2002, resulting in a resumption of growth, lowering of inflation, and stabilization of the exchange rate. The authorities are currently developing the agriculture sector strategy. This should be based on a comprehensive analysis of the latest sector developments, including identification of key sector constraints.

Bank experience with--and ways to improve--the analysis of education issues in public expenditure reviews (PERs).

Cet ouvrage présente une série d’orientations politiques, ainsi que leurs déclinaisons opérationnelles, permettant aux pays d’Afrique subsaharienne de relever le défi de l’amélioration de l’apprentissage tout en élargissant l’accès et en assurant l’achèvement d’une éducation de base pour tous. L’étude souligne l’importance de configurer le système éducatif de manière à ce qu’il soit constamment axé sur les résultats et à ce que tous les enfants aient accès à de bonnes écoles, du matériel d’apprentissage de qualité et d’excellents enseignants. L’approche de cet ouvrage est unique car elle caractérise les pays en fonction des défis auxquels ils ont été confrontés dans les années 1990 et selon les progrès accomplis en matière d’éducation au cours des 25 dernières années, ce qui permet ainsi aux pays de la région d’apprendre les uns des autres. Les auteurs présentent une revue de littérature et y ajoutent de nouvelles analyses tirées de multiples données provenant d’une trentaine pays de la région. Ils intègrent également des résultats de recherche sur ce qui influence l’apprentissage des enfants, leur accès à la scolarisation et les progrès accomplis grâce à l’éducation de base. Le livre tire des leçons sur la région pour la région à partir de ce qui fonctionne et de ce qui serait nécessaire d’améliorer. Le livre explore quatre pistes pour aider les pays à ajuster leurs systèmes éducatifs afin d’améliorer l’apprentissage : poursuivre les efforts inachevés visant à assurer une éducation de base universelle et de qualité, assurer une supervision et un soutien efficaces des enseignants, concentrer les priorités de dépenses et les procédures budgétaires sur l’amélioration de la qualité, et combler le déficit de capacités du système institutionnel. L’ouvrage se termine par une évaluation de la manière dont les prévisions de taux de fécondité et de croissance économique peuvent impacter les progrès futurs en matière d’éducation.

A sound education sector is fundamental for the economic, social, and political transformation of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The DRC has achieved significant progress in its education sector over the last decade, demonstrating strong resilience following a particularly violent period in its history. The DRC's development trajectory will depend on its ability to reap the benefits of it resource-rich territory, which will require large investments in human capital to transition to an economy based on improved productivity, innovation, and technology. The DRC's population has a very large youth cohort and reaping the benefits of the demographic dividend requires ensuring that sufficient funding is allocated to address priority issues at all levels of education. The three tenets of education investments can be summarized as follows: invest early, invest smartly, and invest for all. This report is organized into following sections: section one gives introduction, section two discusses the country context in terms of demographic dividends and available fiscal space for increasing social sector demand. Section three provides an overview of the education sector context including a chronological order of education sector policies, goals, priorities, and structure. Section four analyzes key indicators of education sector performance. Section five analyzes education sector financing including budget framework and process, the key actors, sources of funding, trends of public expenditure, budget allocation and execution, equity, affordability, and unit cost analyses. Section six examines education sector management issues focusing on efficiency and effectiveness of resources utilization. Section seven presents summary of main findings and policy recommendations. The annex section is divided into four segments including a methodological note, supporting tables, figures, and boxes for the sections. ["The Public Expenditure Review (PER) of the Education Sector in the Democratic Republic of Congo" was prepared by a World Bank Group team consisting of Kebede Feda, Tanya Savrimootoo, Élis ̌Wendlassida Miningou, and Sabiti Kalindula. This report was translated into French by Aude DiPaolantonio.].