Target 4.a: Safe, inclusive school facilities
Build and upgrade education facilities that are child, disability and gender sensitive and provide safe, non-violent, inclusive and effective learning environments for all
Owners voting their values help. Others must carry most of it.
Why shareholder democracy is helpful
School buildings are financed by governments and donors but built and maintained by private contractors. Transparency International reports that corruption in construction raises costs, lowers quality and costs lives. It also reports that education procurement for facility maintenance, textbooks, cleaning and catering is exposed to overpricing and bribery. At Bridge International Academies in Kenya, the World Bank's CAO handled cases involving a student's death and a child's injury from alleged electrocution at school. Private operators' facility standards thus directly affect safe learning environments. Owners of construction, engineering and education-operator companies can vote for anti-bribery and safety disclosure. That documented lever helps at the margin while governments and donors finance and deliver the facilities themselves.
How this was scoredHelpful
Helpful. Owners voting their values help. Others must carry most of it.
We have not yet written down the two answers behind this rating. Recording them on every item, so a reader can check the reasoning and not only the conclusion, is work in progress.
Every rating is the higher of two answers, one for what companies do and one for what they spend to stop the outcome, because the same vote reaches both. See the full method.
Sources
- A world built on bribes? Corruption in construction bankrupts countries and costs lives, says TI report, Transparency International, 2005-03-16
- Topic Guide: Corruption in Education, Transparency International Knowledge Hub, 2017-09-01
- CAO Cases Regarding IFC's Investment in Bridge International Academies in Kenya, Office of the Compliance Advisor/Ombudsman (World Bank Group), 2023-10-04
No shareholder advocacy found yet
We looked and found nothing that met our standard, which is a source we opened and confirmed. No shareholder advocacy located on school facility construction, education procurement corruption, or safety standards at private school operators. Transparency International's construction and education procurement work is research and policy advocacy rather than action through ownership, and the World Bank CAO cases on Bridge International Academies are an accountability mechanism, not shareholder advocacy. Anti-bribery disclosure proposals at construction and engineering companies exist as a general category but we found none tied to education facilities that met the sourcing standard.
How this rating was made
Every item on every one of our maps is read against one question: how far does this depend on the people who own companies voting their values? We answer it twice, once for what companies do and once for what they spend to stop the outcome, and take whichever answer is higher, since the same vote reaches both. The score carries its reasoning and its sources so that a reader can check it rather than take it.
- Pivotal. Owners voting their values can deliver most of the outcome.
- Necessary. Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes, and others must also act.
- Helpful. Owners voting their values help, and others carry most of it.
- Independent. This moves without owners. Other levers carry it.
The advocacy record on this page holds only what a source we opened says happened. Where we searched and found nothing, the page says so rather than leaving a silence. Where a campaign names a filer the source does not name, it says that too. Ratings are ours; the list of subjects is UN Sustainable Development Goals's, and we link to their original.
How we score dependency, in full.