Local Institutional Interplay: IDB, OECD, UNESCO, UNICEF and WB Linkages in the Context of Brazilian Education Sector

Abstract

This chapter explores the local institutional interplay among major intergovernmental organizations (IGO s) in Brazil’s education sector. Building on existing empirical studies in the field of education, the author elaborates on and adapts the institutional interplay conceptual perspective—originally developed in global environmental governance—to better understand the interconnectedness and interactions among IGO s in the education sector. Despite growing literature on global IGO interactions, local contexts remain underexplored. This study helps to fill this gap by investigating how global institutional interactions manifest at the local level by focusing on the interactions and linkages among IGO local offices. While global IGO interactions are increasingly collaborative, their local interplay in Brazil is sporadic and often limited to instrumental relationships. Interviews with IGO local officials reveal that these interactions are mainly driven by ideational linkages related to education quality measurement, with limited institutional collaboration. The findings suggest that global institutional clustering can foster local collaboration in lower-income countries, but Brazil’s socio-historical context as an upper middle-income country leads to more competitive local IGO interplay. This raises questions about the effectiveness of global strategies in complex socio-political settings like Brazil.