June 10, 2010
List of Attendees:
H.E. Lucy Molinar – Mnister of Education of Panama
H.E. Melanio Paredes – Minister of Education of the Dominican Republic
Rodrigo Arboleda – One Laptop Per Child
Carlos Arroyo Jiménez – Fundación Santillana
Basilio Baltasar – Grupo Prisa
Martin Benavides – Grupo de Análisis para el Desarollo
Louisa Benton – WorldFund
Ruben Berron – Brightstar Corporation
Cristina Burelli – Alliance for the Family
Beatriz Cardoso – Comunidade Educativa CEDAC
Adriana Cisneros de Griffin – Cisneros Group of Companies
Daniel Domagala – The Synergos Institute
Peggy Dulany – The Synergos Institute
Malú Edwards – El Mercurio
Agustín E. Edwards – El Mercurio
Joice Fernandes – Microsoft Corporation
Marta Lewis de Cardoze – Fundación Gabriel Lewis Galindo
Eneida López – Fundación Gabriel Lewis Galindo
Paulina Malo – Barclays Wealth Management
Jacques Marcovitch – Bunge Foundation
Greg Mauro – Revolution Learning
Juan Mendez – International Center for Transnational Justice
Silvia Miró Quesada – Empresarios por la Educación
Carlos Motta – Motta International
Andre Nakamura – Trevo Instituto Bandeirantes Seguridade Social
Heather L. Nesle – HSBC Bank, N.A.
Ariel Pacecca – Microsoft Corporation
Teresa Pontual – Secretaria de Estado de Educação, State of Rio de Janeiro
Pablo A. Pulido – Fundación Universidad Metropolitana
Luisa E. Pulido – Fundación Eugenio Mendoza
Jeffrey M. Puryear – Inter-American Dialogue
Jair Ribeiro de Silva Neto – CPM Braxis
Carlos A. Rodriguez Cocina – Telefónica Internacional USA, Inc.
Tom Vander Ark – Revolution Learning
Jorge Werthein – Instituto Sangari
Introduction and Summary:
The first roundtable discussion on Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) in Education
held at the Americas Society/Council of the Americas, in collaboration with the Ford
Foundation, brought together members and friends from the private sector, NGO
and foundation representatives as well as educators to discuss how PPPs can help
foster improvements to access and inclusion in education in Latin America. The
two-hour discussion included the education ministers of the Dominican Republic,
Min. Melanio Paredes and the education minister of Panama, Min. Lucy Molinar.
There were several consensus points that emerged from the ministers’ presentations and
the discussion that followed. First, everyone agreed that the private sector is playing
an important role in addressing the weaknesses in the educational systems but that it
could do far more. Second, participants detailed a number of ways that individually
and collectively the private sector can do more in the region to improve access to and
the quality of education, including: serving as a model for students; helping to promote
innovation and teachers in the classroom; developing a common agenda for PPPs
among the private sector and when possible with policymakers, within and outside
education ministries; and establishing a broad forum to collectively advocate for
progressive education reform and greater public sector attention to improving education.
Main Points of Ministers’ Presentation:
Each minister spoke about the current state of education, improvements in education
undertaken during their tenures, and goals to achieve in improving education. Both
ministers discussed the important role the private sector plays in assisting governments
evolve and adapt to new technologies and new styles of learning. These were some of
their recommendations:
Ministries and schools could use the private sector’s experience and knowledge
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on how to better incorporate technology into their operations;
Business leaders can play an important leadership role in schools, particularly in
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lower income areas, by highlighting the importance of education, serving as role
models, and in helping students see the opportunity afforded by education;
Business leaders and businesses should work with schools to help shape
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curricula and student orientation toward training and skills that they will need for
employment;
Businesses should also strive to reinforce the message that education is important
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among their own employees. Changing attitudes of citizens toward the
importance of education and educators should start at the workplace.
Discussion:
The bulk of the discussion that followed focused on the weaknesses in the educational
system, the need to improve and support public policy in this field, the role of the private
sector in supporting these challenges, and how to strengthen the effectiveness of public-
private partnerships (PPPs).
Educators and the Educational System:
All participants agreed that teaching methods must evolve to suit the needs of
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today’s children. But often, participants said, educators are resistant to learn and
implement new teaching methods making it further difficult to generate children’s
interest in schooling.
As well, education ministries are often underfunded and understaffed, further
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raising difficulties of sparking and implementing reforms and innovation in this
critical area of public policy.
This is often coupled with indifference from parents as to the benefits of
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education.
For this, participants proposed several initiatives:
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o Greater effort to recognize and reward innovative teachers, educators and
policymakers;
o Greater participation of the private sector in communicating their
occupational needs and the rewards of education to the community and to
educators;
o An enhanced and focused advocacy role of the private sector that
promotes the concept of education—generally—and engages
and mobilizes policymakers and educational technocrats on
specific reforms and policies and helps in their administration.
Funding and Educational Budgets:
The AS/COA’s initial research and the discussion with the ministers and
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educational organizations confirmed funding as a critical concern.
Public education is often underfunded by the state. When—in cases such
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as Brazil—public support for education is mandated by law it is often spent
inefficiently.
Participants also agreed that the funding constraints even by the private sector
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demand greater communication and cooperation across funders and organizations
to ensure effective targeted support. It was noted that with such a large number of
PPPs and other programs aiming to address the gaps in education, it is difficult to
decide which programs deserve additional funding.
As a result, most of the participants were in favor of compiling a database of PPPs
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in education in Latin America. Having a central repository of programs will help
to better address shortfalls by providing a way to categorize programs in various
ways.
Central to this effort should be an effort to measure the effectiveness of PPPs,
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understanding that these efforts are intended to promote a general public good—
education—and that success should be measured by the ability of PPPs to
accomplish that.
Participants discussed standardized measurements for gauging the success
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or failure of PPPs in education. Concerns surrounding the varied nature of
current measurements, and their validity in assessing the performance of
education initiatives, as well as their potential use in selecting programs to
fund and expand led participants to call for a list of best practices for PPPs in
education in Latin Americas—rather than a one-size-fits all test. This list of best
practices could then be used as a checklist by which initiatives can be evaluated.
Advocacy:
To increase public attention and value on education, participants all agreed that
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the private sector and business leaders need to play a central role in promoting
education as a value and policy reforms to improve education. This can be done
at a national and regional level, meeting with policymakers and speaking out
publicly.
Role of the AS/COA:
Participants spent a large part of the session and dedicated a separate session after the
lunch to discussing what could be a potential role of the AS/COA under this project.
Several specific recommendations emerged: developing and managing a database
of PPPs in education throughout the region; regularly convening a forum of national
and regional policymakers and businesses and private sector leaders to discuss PPPs
and policy reform in education; and serving as a platform in which businesses can
advocate regionally and locally for improved education and the need for public policy to
strengthen educational access and quality.
It was recommended that the task of compiling this database fall on the
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AS/COA or like organization and that this project be a continuous effort.
The role of the AS/COA in promoting PPPs in education in Latin America
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was also discussed at length by several members in attendance. Noting the
unique ability the AS/COA has in bringing together the private sector, NGOs,
foundations and the public sector to discuss matters of concern to the region,
several members urged the AS/COA to become a platform to raise awareness of
such concerns and to act as a liaison for member companies to advocate for social
concerns to the public sector in Latin America.
Participants also urged the AS/COA to continue on the effort of promoting social
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inclusion in Latin America through further discussion on the issues related to the
Ford Foundation collaboration namely, education, health care and market access.
Further suggestions for future discussions included creating an agenda that
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addresses specific points to raise to the public sector from the private sector (and
vice-versa) instead of simply recreating the agenda that summarily exists each
time.
Additionally, participants urged the AS/COA to include public sector
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participants beyond the ministerial level to participate in future discussion
so that more concrete steps can be taken towards reform and cooperation.
Next Steps:
For its part, the AS/COA is committed to encouraging further collaboration between its
member companies and the public sector and all interested parties. As such, the AS/COA
will:
Work to develop a working definition of PPPs in education in Latin America with
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a specific focus on increasing access and inclusion, formulate best practices for
PPPs.
Explore with participants a set of principles that can be used to focus the
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discussion of PPPs and define the foundation for evaluating best practices.
Develop a database of PPPs for general use.
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Integrate those active in PPPS (businesses, public policy officials, foundations,
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NGOs) into discussions and forums convened by the AS/COA.
Regularly convene policymakers to discuss the education and an agenda for
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improving education.
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