Introduction

In recent years there has been growing interest across Governments, Multilateral and Bilateral Development Agencies in looking beyond the formulation of best practice policies and focusing on implementation and ‘getting things done’. At the heart of this interest has been a set of ideas and structures which can be termed the ‘Delivery Approach’. The Delivery Approach encompasses the set-up and operations of Centre of Government Delivery Units (at either Presidential, Prime Ministerial or Ministerial level) as well as the application of a set of best practice principles initially popularised in the early 2000s by the UK Government’s Prime Ministerial Delivery Unit (PMDU). The World Bank under the leadership of President Jim Yong Kim has played a key role in advancing thinking on the Delivery Approach or what it terms the ‘science of delivery’.1 Although as Dan Hymowitz from the Africa Governance Initiative (AGI) quite rightly points out achieving results through the Delivery Approach is as much of an ‘art’ as it is a ‘science’, requiring a shrewd understanding of politics and incentives. 2

In March 2014 Cambridge Education wrote a paper entitled “Delivery Units: Can they catalyse sustained improvements in education service delivery?”3. This paper provided a summary of the defining features, principles and practices of the Delivery Approach and examined how the approach was being applied within the education sector in Tanzania and Pakistan. At that time the application of the Delivery Approach in Tanzania, called the ‘Big Results Now! (BRN)’ Programme, was still in its infancy having been launched by President Kikwete in early 2013.

Tanzania’s BRN was a broad, transformational government programme which sought to adapt the successful Malaysian approach to economic development and improving service delivery. This involved a switch to ‘business unusual’, operating in a new, more open and accountable way and focusing on delivering tangible results in priority sectors. The BRN programme launched in 2013 focused on achieving a set of specific objectives by 2015/16 in six priority sectors: Education, Energy, Agriculture, Water, Transport and Resource Mobilisation.

1 In his inaugural address to the World Bank’s Annual Meeting in Tokyo in October 2012, President Kim said: “This is the next frontier for the World Bank Group- helping to advance a ‘science of delivery’. Because we know that delivery isn’t easy- it’s not as simple as just saying ‘this works, this doesn’t’. Effective delivery demands context-specific knowledge. It requires constant adjustments, a willingness to take smart risks, and a relentless focus on the details of implementation.”

2 Hymowitz, D. (2016)’Too much science, not enough art’, Tony Blair Africa Governance Initiative 3 Todd, R.; Martin, J. & Brock, A. (2014) “Delivery Units: can they catalyse sustained improvements in education service delivery?”

This paper is written as a follow up to Cambridge Education’s March 2014 paper. The two authors of this paper- Robin Todd and Ian Attfield- were both heavily involved in BRN Education from its inception in 2013 up to mid 2016. Robin provided embedded technical assistance within the Ministry of Education, Science, Technology & Vocational Training (MoEST) from 2013 through until 2016- initially in the Ministerial Delivery Unit (MDU) and subsequently, from mid-2015, within the Education Program For Results (EPforR) Coordination Unit.4 Ian Attfield was DFID Tanzania’s lead Education Advisor from 2012 until June 2016. In this role Ian was responsible for overseeing DFID’s financial support to Tanzania’s education sector, which included significant funds in support of BRN education activities. Ian also played a lead role in designing the BRN Education Programme for Results (EPforR) financing instrument which, co-funded by DFID, the World Bank and the Swedish Government, made over $250 million available to the Government of Tanzania’s education sector.

This paper provides a personal reflection on the achievement and challenges relating to the Tanzanian education sector and BRN from 2013 to 2016. It attempts to move beyond the rhetoric and public proclamations of success to examine the evidence and consider whether BRN was genuinely effective in delivering results and change within Tanzanian education.

The paper begins by summarising the key principles of successful delivery set out in the Delivery Approach literature; these principles then serve as the framework for analysing the successes and challenges of BRN education in Tanzania.

4 Prior to October 2015 the Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Vocational Training (MoEST) was called the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training (MoEVT). For the sake of consistency MoEST is used as the acronym for the Ministry throughout this paper regardless of the time period referred to. Likewise the Prime Minister’s Office for Regional Administration and Local Government (PMO-RALG) was renamed the President’s Office for Regional Administration and Local Government (PO-RALG) in October 2015. PO-RALG is used throughout this paper regardless of the period referred to.