Refugee girls are one of the most marginalized groups in the world when it comes to school participation, and they are half as likely to enroll in secondary school as their male peers. Gender disparities can be made worse by conflict and displacement, and they often increase as children get older. As many low- and middle-income host countries move toward more inclusive models of refugee education, it's critical to identify barriers that may differentially limit the inclusion of refugee girls. I use two unique household surveys, conducted in Ethiopia, to examine the household and community factors that shape participation in secondary school. My findings suggest that the magnitude and sources of disadvantage vary across groups. Domestic responsibilities and concerns about safety in the community are more likely to limit secondary school participation for refugee girls than for refugee boys and host community girls. Other factors, including parental education and exposure to gender-based violence, are less likely to differ between refugee and host community girls. These findings have implications for education and social protection policies that target girls' education and wellbeing in both refugee and host communities.

In 2018, the Government of Ethiopia committed to large-scale, donor-supported reforms aimed at improving equitable learning in the basic education system—the General Education Quality Improvement Program for Equity (GEQIP-E). In this paper, we examine the reform design process in the context of Ethiopia’s political environment as a strong developmental state, assessing the influence of different stakeholder priorities which have led to the focus on equity within the quality reforms. Drawing on qualitative data from 81 key informant interviews with federal and regional government officials and donors, we explore the negotiation and power dynamics which have shaped the design of the reforms. We find that a legacy of moderately successful reforms, and a shared commitment to global goals, paved the way for negotiations of more complex and ambitious reforms between government actors and donors. Within government, we identify that regional governments were only tokenistically included in the reform process. Given that regions are responsible for the implementation of these reforms, their limited involvement in the design could have implications for success.

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Summary Motivation The Government of Ethiopia has a long‐standing commitment to improving the quality of education. In recent years, this has shifted to include a more explicit focus on equity in learning outcomes. In this paper, we examine the education reform design process in the context of Ethiopia’s political environment which is widely recognised as a strong developmental state. Purpose The article examines how federal, regional, and international donor actors negotiate their interests in relation to Ethiopia’s national quality education reform programme, the General Education Quality Improvement Programme for Equity (GEQIP‐E). Methods and approach We conducted 81 semi‐structured, key informant interviews with federal and regional government officials and international donors who were involved in the design of GEQIP‐E. Findings We find that federal government was able to leverage considerable political influence over high‐level priorities and the framing of GEQIP‐E. Large donors leveraged financial influence to exclude some specific priorities, while smaller donors were able to draw on social influence and technical expertise to include priorities aligned with their interests. Regional governments—which are responsible for policy implementation—were largely excluded from the reform design process. Policy implications Our analysis highlights the importance of recognizing and understanding different forms of influence in the dynamic process of negotiating reform between government and donors. It identifies that both government and donor voices counted in the process of negotiations, but in different ways and to varying degrees. Understanding how different actors draw on their relative political, financial, and social influence is vital for ensuring successful implementation and sustainability. Importantly, we identify that voices of local actors are left out.

Reforms striving to bridge the humanitarian–development divide in refugee-hosting countries can alter the status quo related to refugee management and service provision. Such changes can result in obstacles to sustainable refugee inclusion when they challenge vested interests. In this paper, we propose a theoretical framework outlining the conditions under which government bureaucracies are likely to cooperate in donor-initiated refugee integration reforms as well as when and how they resist with a focus on the role of governance structures. We draw on archival data, observation, and key informant interviews to apply our framework to the case of Ethiopia as the government and international partners engage in reform efforts to include refugees in the national education system and to move from a humanitarian- to development-oriented model of financing. In this case, we find that reforms backed by international donors fundamentally challenged the vested interests of existing bureaucracies and that the resulting resistance substantially narrowed the original policy goals and will likely have implications for bridging the humanitarian–development divide going forward.