Our experience (backed by considerable research evidence) is that education development programmes typically have a number of stages:

• Catching the vision.  This often involves some internationally acclaimed gurus or other inspirational speakers who illustrate how education is changing.

• Identifying funding to support development and transformation   Whether this is local funding or is a package supported by external funding from the EU, the Development Banks or other philanthropic organisations, this will often involve setting broad objectives and targets for the programme.

• Creating the strategy and programmes that will deliver the vision.  This is the single most important stage, and the one that can determine how effectively the programme delivers the vision, yet this is the stage that is often unsupported by the expertise of senior educationalists who have conducted similar programmes in other countries.  A number of senior educationalists are now referring to this as The Strategy Gap and would argue that it is the single greatest waste of funding in education development programmes worldwide.

• Commissioning the programmes through policy statements, tenders and contracts.  Some of these these tenders will be won by local companies, but many will be won by large international companies or partnerships between local and international companies.

 We support all of these development stages, bringing expertise and experience that reduces expenditure by ensuring funds are used effectively.