The World Bank and higher education reform in Ethiopia: knowledge aid and its undesirable effects

This chapter critically examines World Bank (WB) support for Ethiopia, specifically for its higher education (HE) system. It is now almost commonplace for support for developing nations from International Organizations (IOs) such as the WB to be the subject of analysis and critique. Reasons for this are not difficult to discern, particularly in relation to the WB 's activities. This is because the WB is the largest external financial source for educational expenditure in developing countries in general and in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) in particular (Jones 2007). In fact, the Bank provides about a quarter of all external funds for education in low-income countries (LICs) (Domenech and Mora-Ninci 2009). In twenty years (1990-2010), the WB committed a total of nearly US$42 billion for education (Molla 2013b). Poor countries with low annual per capita income are eligible for the WB 's financial aid, which includes concessional outright grants and interest-free long-term loans (World Bank 2007a).