Capacity building and education statistical information systems in Sub-Saharan Africa: International policy coordination and national program development in the National Education Statistical Information Systems (NESIS) capacity building intervention in S

Educational development in Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries has long been delayed due to weak capacities in the production and management of relevant knowledge. The lack of adequate and reliable education management information systems continues to impede the formulation and implementation of informed and sound educational development policies. As a result, there has been considerable interest within the international community, including organizations such as the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (AREA), the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), SSA Governments and other multilateral and bilateral institutions in "building capacities" in SSA countries. However, research and several initiatives have addressed the issue differently and there has been criticism of varied efforts in this area.; This dissertation is designed to contribute to our understanding of how to build capacity. It examines international policy coordination and national program development in a case study of an attempt to build capacity in a specific area, the National Education Statistical Information Systems (NESIS), in two SSA countries, Senegal and Zambia.; Based on the implementation literature I constructed an analytical framework to identify key factors facilitating and/or hindering international policy coordination and program development as regards NESIS in Senegal and Zambia. I developed the analytical framework drawing on those developed by Donald Warwick et al. (1992) and Gunn (1978) to investigate how factors related to the "political context", "initial intelligence", "implementers", and "clients/beneficiaries" of NESIS have facilitated and/or hindered its international coordination and development in Senegal and Zambia. I collected data through documents analysis, and formal and informal interviews of key individuals within the NESIS program at international level and within relevant government agencies in Senegal and Zambia.; The findings of the research indicate that "conflicts" at the sponsorship level of NESIS has been a key impeding factor to the international coordination of NESIS and its development in Senegal and Zambia. Further, the research found that the nature and level of "initial intelligence" and "degree of readiness" are important for program development at national level. The interrelationships of these findings provide further interesting conclusions. The problems of international coordination combined with the lack of adequate initial intelligence and degree of readiness have hindered the successful development of NESIS in Zambia. At the same time, adequate initial intelligence and acceptable degree of readiness have contributed to mitigating the hampering effects of conflict and interdependency and have further contributed to facilitating the development of NESIS in Senegal.; These findings suggest important implications for capacity building and the current debate over the top/down and bottom/up methods of the planning, delivery and impact of international development policies/programs in developing countries. They also suggest questions for future research, and provide useful insights for policy makers, experts, scholars and practitioners as regards how to build capacity.