None

This review offers an evaluation of the World Bank's current efforts in Non-Formal Education for Adults (NFEA) and compares the Bank's experience with that of other agencies around the world. It also identifies measures in NFEA that will help achieve the Millennium Development Goals, more generally to reduce poverty and promote economic and social development, along with more democratic forms of governance. The review examines nine projects implemented in Bangladesh, Ghana, Indonesia and Senegal between 1977 and 2002. A major finding is that the priority was given to implementation, local ownership and local capacity building at the expense of developing reliable systems of monitoring, evaluation and research. As a result, educators, education policy makers and education planners still lack incontestable empirical guidance on almost all aspects of design, methods, implementation, costs and outcomes.