The Political Economy of Education Systems in Conflict-Affected Contexts in a Changed World Order 2021: A Narrative Literature Review. (with M. Novelli)

This report is a narrative literature review on “The Political Economy of Education Systems in Conflict-Affected Contexts in a Changed World Order 2021” and is aimed at scholars, students, development practitioners, and Ministry of Education policy makers working in conflict-affected contexts. In 2014, Novelli et al. published a rigorous literature review on The Political Economy of Education Systems in Conflict-affected Contexts, and this report seeks to update it, and reflect on what has changed since then. In the original report, (Novelli et al , 2014), they reflected upon some of the changes that had affected education in conflict-affected contexts in the post-Cold War and post-9/11 periods. In conflict-affected contexts, education is being shaped, changed and challenged by global agendas of security, stabilization, pacification, humanitarianism and international development (Novelli et al., 2014). The report highlighted how some of the educational challenges to meeting international developmental goals were most acute in countries affected by conflict (Novelli et al. 2014). Furthermore, it showed how obstacles to educational access were exacerbated by “serious governance and capacity deficits in conflict-affected contexts that make educational reform more challenging and make providing and administrating international development assistance more complex and problematic.” (Novelli et al. 2014, 5) The overall aim of this report “The Political Economy of Education in Conflict-affected Contexts in a Changed World Order” is to revisit, rethink and update the previous one, by incorporating in the analysis new changes, challenges and shifts in the world order and the global governance of education that have emerged since then, and have an impact on and interact with education in conflict-affected contexts. Some of these changes concern a world order that is constantly in the making and shifting to some form that contains both elements of liberal and post-liberal multilateralism, the rise of bilateral, regional and new non-state actors, the shift from liberal peacebuilding to a stabilization agenda, and the emergence of new global trends, threats and global challenges such as climate change, demographic shifts, health pandemics, food insecurity, rising authoritarianism and populism, among others. In line with the previous report, the current one is strongly interdisciplinary and incorporates debates from a range of international development, education and International Relations (IR) sub-fields.