Financing education in under-resourced contexts

Zimbabwe is a youthful nation. Just over 60 per cent of the population is under the age of 25 (UNFPA Zimbabwe, n.d.-a). Such statistics highlight the importance of social services such as education. Despite this, the education sector in Zimbabwe is beset with funding problems. This decades long challenge initially led to an influx of donor aid in the sector which has dwindled over time. Furthermore, the impact of past and current aid is difficult to isolate. In response to under-funding, the Government has allowed schools to generate their own incomes through commercial ventures. The resultant uncertainty of this novel situation invited enquiry into to what extent social entrepreneurship can be an alternative to donor aid in the education sector in Zimbabwe.This research was conducted using the mixed methods grounded theory methodology within the framework of a mixed methods design. Straussian grounded theory combined with Social Return on Investment analysis, as well as secondary data and literature were key features. This allowed for the generation and analysis of both quantitative and qualitative data. After identifying and analysing the conditions, strategies and consequences of both donor aid and social entrepreneurship, the research found that the origin and locus of an initiative determined the efficiency and effectiveness of the said initiative in the education sector in Zimbabwe as represented by the core category of this research. The origin and locus could be internal or external i.e. endogenous or exogenous.The Social Return on Investment analysis confirmed these findings through case-by-case micro analysis of individual initiatives and their cost-effectiveness and efficiency. Four categories helped to demonstrate how efficiency and effectiveness manifested in the study and ultimately revealed the core category. These were Managing Information, Individual Characteristics, Sustaining Initiatives and the Shifting Scope of Initiatives. As indicated above and as the rest of this thesis will show, what all four of these categories had in common is that they were all highly sensitive to the source of an initiative or its location and this was important for efficiency and effectiveness. As such the findings demonstrated that donor aid and social entrepreneurship are not as diametrically opposed as the initial research questions suggested. Thus, this theory proposes that initiatives to address education problems in Zimbabwe may benefit from thoroughly interrogating the origin and/or locus of said initiative and whether it fosters or hinders efficiency and effectiveness before and during implementation.