Browsing by Subject "Aid effectiveness"
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Item Does international aid to education improve education outcomes?(2015-08) Carvalho, Shelby Frances; Weaver, Catherine; Lincove, Jane ABetween 2000 and 2012, nearly US$161 billion in international aid was allocated to the education sector. As the deadline for the Millennium Development Goals quickly approaches, debate about the effectiveness of international donors and aid in general continues across sectors. With 58 million children still out of school and persistent gender disparities across all levels of schooling, education is no exception to this scrutiny. The central question in this report seeks to understand if international aid to the education is positively related to education outcomes in low and low-middle income countries. I provide a summary of progress in education in developing countries over the last two decades and a description of trends in international aid to the education sector. In an empirical analysis of 135 countries between 1990 and 2010, I find that aid to primary education is positively related to primary school enrollment for boys and girls. Using the findings from the analysis, I offer policy recommendations to improve international donor effectiveness in the education sector. Through this report, I hope to contribute to the conversation related to education and international aid in post-2015 Sustainable Development Goal agendas and strategies.Item Machina ex deos. Successes and challenges of implementing mobile computing technologies for development. The experience of nine Indian village health projects using a project-issued mobile application(2016-05) Schwartz, Ariel, Ph. D.; Weaver, Catherine, 1971-; Densmore, Melissa; Heinrich, Carolyn; Lentz, Erin; Ward, PeterAs mobile computing technologies become increasingly functional and affordable, global donor and local development organizations find ways to justify and fund their use in grassroots development work. This dissertation asks two questions: (1) In resource-constrained social sector settings, what project features govern and structure use of work-issued mobile devices? And: (2) How do decision-makers adjust to maximize the benefit of newly-introduced devices while minimizing new burdens to the project and project staff? More simply, what variables under social sector projects’ control might promote successful use of information and communication technologies in development (ICTD) projects? This research represents systematic, qualitative comparison of nine extended deployments of a popular mobile health application, CommCare. Each studied project deployed devices loaded with CommCare to health workers in India as a supportive job aid and/or a data collection tool to help monitor beneficiary populations’ health status and frontline workers’ work. This dissertation examines the conditions under which these health workers were able and willing to use CommCare devices in their jobs, and whether and how they deviated from the use of those devices prescribed by their supervisors. Primary data for this study come from 62 in-depth, semi-structured interviews, extensive review of project documents, and personal observations from field study in India over six months in 2013. Employing a sociotechnical lens and a principal agent model, my data support expectations that use of CommCare devices would help align community health workers’ behavior with their supervisors’ organization and mission-related priorities. Use of the devices improved health workers’ professional competence and improved communications, data quality, and data access. These improvements facilitated project supervisors’ monitoring of health workers and beneficiaries, and funders’ monitoring of projects. Contradicting expectations, use of CommCare devices also weakened organizational oversight and control through new data challenges and increased health worker autonomy in their personal and professional lives. These dual benefits and challenges ultimately served the overall projects’ missions.