Sir:
In their excellent contribution on U.S. policy toward Pakistan ("America must broaden its policy on Pakistan," November 9 - subscription required), Teresita Schaffer and Karl Inderfurth propose an increase in U.S. economic and social development aid to Pakistan, especially for education.
The idea appears eminently sensible. School enrollment in Pakistan is far below that in India and in much poorer Bangladesh, with only 43 percent of rural boys and 33 percent of rural girls enrolled in primary school. In the absence of decent public education for the poor, extremist Islamist factions are competing among one another to expand and radicalize the madrassas, where full room and board alone are more than enough to attract an unlimited supply of boys from Pakistan's poorest households.
Yet Pakistan has had bottomless credit from the World Bank and other donors for over a decade for education. Sadly, the country has little to show for it. Given the enthusiasm about the economic reforms and higher growth the Musharraf years have brought and the primacy of geo-politics, the donor community is now prepared to finance even more education and other social programs.
The United States should join in only if it prepared to insist that new spending on education frontally attacks the deeply political nature of an education system riddled with patronage and corruption, which reinforces the power of feudal landlords and perpetuates insidious dealing between provincial politicians and bureaucrats over construction siting, contracts, and jobs -- not easy to manage, even for Pakistan's reformers within government. Because Pakistan's education system reflects Pakistan's undemocratic political institutions, U.S. aid might better be directed to any activities that would strengthen the hand of Pakistan's champions of political reform, especially given that the United States may be the only outside power able to exercise the necessary leverage for progress on politically difficult moves toward more democratic arrangements.
Nancy Birdsall
President, Center for Global Development
Washington D.C.