Series - Director and Front Office records

Education Action Plan - Fiscal Year 1997 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization [UNESCO] - IBRD - Cooperative Pr...

Identity area

Reference code

WB IBRD/IDA WB_IBRD/IDA_88-01

Title

Director and Front Office records

Date(s)

  • 1964 - 1992, 1995 - 2013 (Creation)

Level of description

Series

Extent and medium

27.46 linear feet of textual records

Context area

Name of creator

Archival history

Most records were transferred directly to the Archives by the Human Development Network, Education Team (HDNED) and previous units between 1992 and 2014, in accordance with approved records retention schedules. Other records were maintained in the Non-Regional Information Center (NRIC) that centrally managed records created by sector departments, until its closure in 1987; these centralized files were accessioned into the Archives' holdings in 1994. Elizabeth King chronological files (1987 - 1992) were brought with her when she transferred to a new position in the Poverty and Human Resources Division (PRDPH) in 1993. In 1994, these files were sent to the Archives by PRDPH with other unit records.

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer

Content and structure area

Scope and content

Series consists of records created and maintained by the front office of the Human Development Network, Education Team (HDNED) and predecessor units between 1964 and 2013, beginning with the Education Department (EDP) in existence from 1968 to 1972. The records document management oversight and strategic planning; directing research, policy work, and sector programs; managing the Bank's relationship with external partners in the sector; and, to a lesser extent, donor coordination activities. The records also provide information about the units' structure and communication between the director and advisers in the front office. The department's front office initially consisted of a senior adviser, economic adviser, implementation adviser, training adviser and education adviser from at least 1968 until the creation of the functional units, later divisions, under the Education Department (EDC) beginning in July 1977. The Training Unit (EDCTR) was established in 1977 followed in July 1983 by the Education Research Program (EDCRS), Education Operational Policy Program (EDCOP), and Education Project Related Training Program. The units were elevated to divisions in 1985 led by division chiefs and acronyms were changed. This structure changed again in the 1987 Bank-wide reorganization and the formation of the Population and Human Resources Department, Education and Employment Division (PHREE).

Records cover the tenure of the following directors: Duncan Ballantine (tenure 1964 - 1977); Aklilu Habte (1977 - 1987); WadiD. Haddad (1987 - 1988); Maris O'Rourke (1995 - 2000); Ruth Kagia (2001 - 2008), and Elizabeth (Beth) M. King (2009 - 2014). There is a gap in the records of directors and managers between 1989 and 1994. The tenures of O'Rourke and Kagia are the most widely represented. Between 2000 and early 2001, Senior Advisers Bruno LaPorte and Marlaine Lockheed served as acting directors, and they are also creators of records in this series.

The series is comprised of subject files, chronological files, and a small number of briefing books for the Bank's senior officials. A sizeable portion of the subject file records reflect the development and oversight of the sector's policy, research, and training programs and activities, particularly in the early period between 1965 and 1988. The earliest records consist of correspondence and data sheets related to diversified secondary curriculum (Discus) projects (1964 - 1976).

Education policy

The series includes records related to the preparation, dissemination, and promotion (1974 - 1980) of the 1979 Education Sector Policy (PUB2680). Files were created and accumulated by EDC Director Aklilu Habte, Implementation Adviser David H. Lewis, Senior Adviser Mats Hultin, and others. There is some overlap amongst these files maintained by various personnel in EDC with separate roles in the development of the policy paper. Internal memoranda are between senior management and staff, regional educational divisions, and other Bank staff regarding comments on the sector paper and internal discussions on developing stronger policy for the sector, and discussion on work program and priorities. There are also cables and incoming and outgoing letters with colleagues external to the Bank documenting their collaboration on reviewing the drafts and responses to external requests for policy information and previous publications.

The policy paper correspondence is filedwith draft outlines, data tables, preliminary and final drafts of chapters for discussion, Policy Review Committee revised version and committee minutes, list of commenters including a summary of seminars and discussions held on the draft, draft foreward prepared for President McNamara, summary of Board discussion on sector policy paper, copy of the bound publication issued September 1979 and a copy of the earlier sector policy paper published in 1974.

The Education Sector Policy dissemination and promotion records include: prepared remarks by Habte (October, 1979); memoranda regarding discussion of the policy at a regional senior staff meeting; draft and final board paper on cooperation between the World Bank and other organizations in the education sector in follow up to the sector paper; copies of press releases in English, Spanish, French, and Arabic; and copies of articles, journal and book reviews, and editorials documenting reactions to the policy. There is also a substantive 1980 report submitted by Wadi D. Haddad to Habte, summarizing procedures followed in the preparation of paper, consultations, policy gaps and procedure for future policy work, and proposal for a policy information system.

The sector policy files also include reference to the External Advisory Panel appointed by President McNamara in 1977 to review the status of education in the developing world including the Bank's education and training projects and recommend areas for future action. Files contain copies of memoranda from Vice President, Central Projects Warren C. Baum to Vice President of Operations (SVPOP) Ernest Stern regarding the panel report which contains Stern's notations. There is also correspondence addressed to panel Chair David Bell, Ford Foundation detailing external individual's comments on the 1978 panel report and items for discussion with the panel prepared by Habte.

Other records relate to the Task Force on Issues and Strategies for Meeting Needs of High-Level Agricultural Training in Africa (1986 - 1987) including Terms of Reference, meeting summaries, draft and final reports, and draft report and progress report regarding the Special Program for African Agricultural Research (SPAAR) initiated by the Bank to bring together multilateral and bilateral donors to develop a special program on agriculture research. These records were mostly accumulated by Education Policy Division (EDTPD) Operations Adviser Ralph W. Harbison and EDTPD Agriculture Education and Training Adviser J. Price Gittinger.

Sub-Saharan Africa education policy

Records also relate to the development, collaboration, and dissemination of the Bank's Sub-Saharan Africa education policy paper (1982 - 1988). Background preparation included the formation of an External Advisory Panel to advise on the policy paper. There are memoranda between Habte, Haddad, Policy Division Senior Economist Peter R. Moock and Adviser J. Price Gittinger concerning Gittinger's attendance at a meeting of donor agency representatives to discuss the implications for donors of education in sub-Saharan Africa. There are also: Terms of Reference and other records related to a meeting of the advisory panel and seminar program in Dijon, France in 1985 attended by Habte and other staff from EDT, the Regions and other Bank divisions; Dijon meeting background reports and World Bank Staff Working Papers by various authors; consultants' papers, and back-to-office report (BTOR). Other records are related to the African ministers of education meeting in 1987 attended by PHREE Division Chief Haddad, and conference of European donors to education in 1987 attended by Moock that includes a conference report and BTOR.

Correspondence and other items also pertain to the dissemination of the Sub-Saharan African education policy paper largely handled by Moock. There are letters to government officials from Wadi Haddad Chief, Education and Employment Division, (PHREE). 1987. The paper issued in 1988 was titled "Education in Sub-Saharan Africa: policies for adjustment, revitalization, and expansion"..

Project Related Training program and other training seminars and activities

The series contains records of the front office and divisions (1980 - 1987) regarding training programs and seminars organized by the sector, some in collaboration with other Bank divisions. Records primarily document staff training programactivities of the Project Related Training Division (EDTPT, in existence 1983 - 1986). Most of these records were maintained by the front office for reference purposes and contain copies of training material.

There are several seminar files that contain a schedule or agenda, list of participants, course materials consisting of concept papers and case studies, and evaluation form. Topics of seminars include issues in education projects, tools for sector analysis, financing of education, education policy analysis, mass communication, and others. Three training files relate to a staff seminar on preparation and design of project-supported institutional development components and contain handouts, outlines, exercises, case studies, and evaluation form. There are also draft seminar modules for a seminar in agriculture projects, project related training and institutional development in agricultural lending training material, BTORs of senior training advisers, and announcement memoranda to other Bank departments.

Records of Senior Adviser Richard K. Johanson, Director's Office (EDTDR) and others contain reports in the form of memoranda addressed to division chiefs including evaluation report on staff seminars and training, and summary of a Bank seminar on the quality of education in development countries with a list of consultants and credentials, agenda, session outline, and keynote address. Also included are a seminar report, background papers and externally printed material on a school quality and education project management course developed under Implementation Adviser Adriaan Verspoor.

Research program

A small volume of research program records relate to the International Fund for Education Research (IFER, 1973 - 1984). Included are internal memoranda within the Education Research Program unit (EDCRS), BTORs, Terms of Reference, and outgoing letters from EDC Senior Sociologist and later Chief, Education and Training Design Division, Education Development Institute, Stephen Heyneman. Correspondence discusses budget allocation, paper proposals, financial assistance to countries, and comments on the education research strategy paper.

There is a large bound volume of correspondence (1973 - 1979) consisting mostly of internal memoranda of Senior Adviser Mats Hultin and copies accumulated including memoranda from Vice President Ernest Stern to President McNamara regarding the Bank Group research program and education research activities. Memoranda is also addressed to Director Ballantine including an original memo from the Development Policy vice president. Draft research project papers (RPO), Board reports, and project proposals are also filed in the volume.

Also included is a file on a joint United Nations Educational, Scientific, Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Bank education study with background papers (1973).

Knowledge and information products

Series contains World Bank Education Newsletters (WBEN, 1986 - 1987) issued beginning in April 1986 to report on challenges of education investment and Bank efforts to support education. The newsletters were edited by EDTDR Senior Adviser Richard K. Johanson. The newsletters inform about news of country policies, summary of education projects, recent papers and books published, education research updates, and policy notes features. The file also contains memoranda from Johanson.

A retreat file contains background papers and publications that are mostly external.

HDNED Subject files

Also included in this series are subject files maintained by Human DevelopmentNetwork, Education Team (HDNED) Directors O'Rourke and Kagia from 1995 to 2004 mostly relating to unit activities and programs and the strategic direction of the sector and its partnerships and global programs. A single item dated 1973 is a copy of an education project appraisal in Costa Rica found in the 2002 file pertaining to education and technology. Correspondence includes mainly internal memoranda, letters, and hard copy emails. There are memoranda from Kagia to the Bank managing director regarding partnership proposals and hard copy emails concerning the arrangement and proceedings of meetings. Other records filed with the correspondence are internal draft and final reports or concept papers, some annotated; report outlines; agenda, list of participants and reports from various conferences; Poverty Reduction Strategy papers (PRSP); lists and inventory of Human Development Network (HDN) and partnerships; education action plans outlining country information and goals and progress; press releases; and speeches. Topics covered in the files include but are not limited to: Dakar World Conference outcomes; sector lending; grant and trust funds for education; partnership selectivity and oversight; and user fees.

Several subject files relate to the Education for All Fast Track Initiative (EFA-FTI) program and reflect the sector director's support to, or representation at, high level program or partnership meetings, conferences, and working groups. Records include a briefing note and talking points for Bank President Wolfensohn prepared by Kagia, meeting summaries of the G-8 Education Task Force and PRSP Task Force, and committee activities and comments regarding an EFA concept note and financing paper. Also included is a file on the EFA-FTI donors meeting (2002-2003) coordinated by the sector director's office which contains correspondence prepared for the vice president, HDN regarding FTI funding and donor pledges, presentations, agenda, list of participants, and draft summary of discussion and agreements.

Other HDNED subject files relate to the delivery of presentations or addresses given by the director at Bank meetings or externally organized events. Several of these files contain transparency slides and, occasionally, the hard copy presentation and notes on topics such as the Bank's role and strategy for education (1998).

HDNED Director chronological files

Series also consists of mostly outgoing chronological correspondence records that reflect the wide range of management and liaison functions of MarisO'Rourke (HDD senior advisor and later HDNED director, tenure 1995 - 2000), HDNED Director Ruth Kagia (2001 - 2008) and HDNED Director Elizabeth (Beth) M. King (2009 - 2014). There is a gap in correspondence in 2008 which could be the result of Kagia's promotion to country director in the Africa Regional Vice Presidency in August 2008. King's correspondence as director covers her tenure only until 2013.

Correspondents within the records include other Education Sector colleagues, Bank staff in the regions and the Office of External Relations, government officials, United Nations agency officials, and representatives of other external organizations. The correspondence covers various topics such as: visits with education professionals and academics; responses to invitations to conferences and UN governance meetings; comments on external education reports and initiatives; proposals for collaboration or Bank funding; external projects in member countries; small grants program; supervision of project components; sector strategy concept paper and sector policy; research projects; consultants' activities; staffing; adult learning, girls education, and other thematic areas; database development; the Education for All (ETA), Fast Track Initiative (ETA-FTI) and the Bank's Learning for All programs, and ETA-FTI successor, the Global Partnership for Education (GPE).

Correspondence is in the form of all-in-1 notes and email hard copies and incoming and outgoing letters and is sometimes filed with various records such as: trust fund agreement copies; draft and final discussion papers; program or study proposals; meeting or conference agenda and outlines; BTORs; summaries of meetings or conferences attended; speeches and statements; curriculum vitae (CVs); copies of external articles; United Nations agency reports; and other external annual reports.

The series also contains external correspondence files (2000 - 2007) concerning replies prepared for the Office of the President and Office of the Vice President and Head of Network (HDNVP). These files contain correspondence logs or cover sheets indicating correspondence details and action instructions that are filed with the original incoming letters mostly addressed to Bank Presidents Wolfensohn and Wolfowitz, and, to a lesser extent, Zoellick. The outgoing responses were prepared by or on behalf of Directors O'Rourke or Kagia. The HDNVP incoming external correspondence files are primarily addressed to the HDN vice president and occasionally to the Bank president. Topics include: financial contributions of the Bank; invitations to conferences, symposia, roundtables, and other events; Development Grant Facility (DGF); partnership and liaison activities with international organizations and the private sector; and other matters.

There are also a small number of files titled "deadline logbooks" maintained by O'Rourke that contain correspondence log sheets with the attached letters addressed to President Wolfensohn for reply by the sector or by the HDN vice president.

The series also consists of chronological correspondence (2005 - 2006) prepared for Nicholas Krafft, Office of the Vice President (HDNVP). Many of the letters were drafted by Director Kagia or other HDNED senior staff to be sent by the HDN vice president or the Bank president.

Economist Elizabeth King chronological file

The series contains a chronological file which was maintained by Beth King while she was an economist, later senior economist of PHREE between September 1987 to March 1991 and July1991 to March 1992. The file includes both her incoming and outgoing correspondence. Much of the correspondence is with economists and educators external to the Bank, but the files include her correspondence with other sector and department employees. Among the correspondence are copies of her Terms of Reference, travel documents, and back-to-office reports regarding her missions and attendance at conferences; copies of draft papers on which she commented; drafts of her own publications with comments from others; and copies of research project proposals she drafted. The correspondence also documents her role as part of the World Development Report 1991 team and her drafting of the chapter on human resources in the report.

Briefing books

The series also consists of a small set of briefing books (1997 - 2002, 2009) prepared by the sector primarily for senior officials including President Wolfensohn at the World Education Forum held in Dakar in 2000, for Wolfensohn's meeting with the Bureau of African Ministers of the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA, 1997 - 2000, and a quarterly briefing book for Managing Director Mamphela Ramphele (2002). There are briefing books (1998 - 2002) for HDNED director external meetings and events and a briefing book of Director King (2009).

NRIC correspondence and related records

Also included in the series are several correspondence files (1975 - 1986) authored by department senior management, division chiefs, and advisers that were originally sent to the Non-Regional Information Center (NRIC) and arranged under the Bank-wide classification. Files are titled "general" and "agriculture modular instruction" and include mostly internal memoranda, letters, and cables that cover the various sector activities such as policy work, project related training and workshops, unit work program and objectives, education lending and economic and sector work reviews, and liaison with partners. Study outlines and papers, Terms of Reference, meeting summaries, proposals, final reports, and bound publications are sometimes filed with correspondence.

Most records in the series are in English. However, a small amount of correspondence and other items are in French and the 1979 Education Sector Policy press release is also in French, Spanish, and Arabic.

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling

Accruals

Accruals are expected.

System of arrangement

Most files are arranged by subject. Chronological records are arranged chronologically by year and a portion of these files are further arranged by month.

Certain "series" of records originally maintained in the semi-centralized Non-Regional Informatoin Center (NRIC) that relate to a specific function or unit, in this case the Education Sector "general" files, were arrranged in this functional department series.

Conditions of access and use area

Conditions governing access

Records are subject to the World Bank Policy on Access to Information.

Conditions governing reproduction

Records are subject to the Copyright Policy of the World Bank Group.

Language of material

  • English
  • French
  • Spanish
  • Arabic

Script of material

Language and script notes

Physical characteristics and technical requirements

Finding aids

An inventory list is available here.

Allied materials area

Existence and location of originals

Existence and location of copies

Related units of description

  • See Records of the Education Sector - Education Sector Board records (WB IBRD/IDA WB_IBRD/IDA_88-04) for chronological records of the sector board staff including the sector manager, as well as subject files and meeting records regarding sector strategy, partnership collaboration, and other oversight matters.

  • See Records of the Education Sector - Operations research (WB IBRD/IDA WB_IBRD/IDA_88-10) for records regarding collaboration between the department's Research and Education Policy Divisions and preparation of the sector policy study on education in Sub-Saharan Africa.

  • See Records of the Education Sector - Policy and best practice development (WB IBRD/IDA WB_IBRD/IDA 11-07) for records related to the development of sector policy and strategy papers, as well as the establishment andproceedings of external advisory panels.

  • See Records of the Education Sector - Partnerships and program collaboration (WB IBRD/IDA WB_IBRD/IDA_88-02) for more records related to the management of partnerships with external organizations and collaborative programs.

  • See Records of the Education Sector - Knowledge and learning events (WB IBRD/IDA WB_IBRD/IDA_88-01) for records related to senior management and staff participation and presentations at conferences and other learning events.

  • See Records of the Education Sector - Knowledge management products (WB IBRD/IDA WB_IBRD/IDA_88-09) for records maintained by the knowledge management unit that include director presentations and papers.

  • See Records of the Education sector - Budget management (WB IBRD/IDA WB_IBRD/IDA_88-05) for related records of fiscal year business planning and reviews.

  • See Central Files - Operational sector files (WB IBRD/IDA ADMCF-07) for records related to the Bank's Educator Sector that were managed in the central files system from the time of the Education Division, Projects Department (PRJED), and successor departments from 1965 to mid-1987.

Related descriptions

Notes area

Alternative identifier(s)

Access points

Subject access points

Place access points

Name access points

Genre access points

Description control area

Description identifier

Institution identifier

Rules and/or conventions used

Internal World Bank Group Archives rules based on ISAD(G).

Disclosure status

Level of detail

Dates of creation revision deletion

26 May 2021

Language(s)

Script(s)

Sources

Accession area