Paying for Education: How the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund Influence Education in Developing Countries

The 1980s are sometimes described as a lost development decade. School enrollments slumped. The tremendous progress made toward universal primary education in the 20 years from 1960 to 1980 was arrested or reversed in many countries. In 1990, the Education for All (EFA) Conference in Jomtien, Thailand, made an urgent appeal to governments, donors, and creditors to address the decline in basic education. Donor governments and creditors, including the World Bank, made commitments to help developing countries achieve education for all. In June 1996, a conference was convened in Amman, Jordan, to assess progress since the EFA Conference in Jomtien. The United Nations