The Proposal

An education-based initiative, or the preferred 'point of entry,' would be the physical presence of a school. Not so much a school as most would think of it, but an Education Center serving the entire local community. As opposed to the universal curriculum that is being developed today, I believe that a curriculum and educational resources extended out into the community through the internationally supported Education Center should be tailor-made to address local needs and interest. These Education Centers will enable us to focus on what matters: endowing a new generation of learners with knowledge, strength, and values. All of which, in the long-run, will translate into the wider population with positive effect.


For international interventions and aid to be more successful, it is extremely important to empower the local intellectuals and support development from within the given community. Over time, the Education Center will have empowered locals and formed vital contacts within the decision-making community. This sort of community integration will result in more fluid and influential management and implementation of future programmes and services. These Centers will enable the international aid community to build on local understanding and values to shape particular development projects, giving it a greater local 'buy-in.'


Education Centers provide a clear advantages in the field of research and sharing of strategies for meeting set objectives. As education is an ongoing process, so should we treat the monitoring, researching, and analyzing of the local community and development projects. The research and feedback mechanisms will benefit the most if it is incorporated as an integral part of the curriculum. If so, then the information obtained from particular communities will be more relevant and reflective of local values. The data will be more significant if locals work to obtain the information from other locals.


Provided this method, the UN can more cost-effectively and efficiently assess functional capacities as well as any particular systemic and institutional levels. Unlike the central planning today, the Education Center employs local ingenuity and participation to support bottom-up development within a given community. Moreover, these Education Centers can house and provide the technology adequate for voting.


The following six pages outline how Thor’s Proposal will address the most critical of problems evident in current practices of international intervention and foreign aid. It outlines how to improve: Accountability, Donor Incentives, Transparancy, Visibility, Monitorting, Independent Evaluation, Educational Material, and Feedback.