Education and Development
How the books were written

	Discussing problems of education in South Sudan

People from more than 30 countries were involved in producing them, and each reflects widely shared experience.

Marion initiated the series, designed the approach and coordinated the process. Save the Children staff with practical experience of the problems were invited to write about the challenges they faced and how their projects had tried to tackle them. This resulted in 50 ‘theme papers’ which could be shared with practitioners in other countries. Between 1995 and 2000 Marion led a series of cross-regional workshops involving several hundred people, many of whom had previously worked only in their own country and never before had the chance to engage with people from other parts of the world working on similar issues. Other participants were from ‘partner’ organizations with whom Save the Children worked, ranging from campaigning groups to ministry of education officials struggling to deliver education with few resources. There were intense controversies, a discovery of many areas of shared values, and an excited exchange of ideas on how to tackle particular problems. The material generated from these workshops and the detailed project documentation together provided a rich source of material which reflected the experience of those directly engaged with the problems.

	Launch of the Portugeuse edition of A Chance in Life

For each of the books Marion led a small team which analysed the issues and selected practical examples to illustrate them. For the first book in the series, Starting Young, Marion wrote the final text. For A Chance in Life Kimberly Ogadhoh worked with her as co-author. For Towards Responsive Schools she led a team of researcher/writers to produce the case studies, edited them and wrote the overall analytic sections. For Working for Change she and a group of co-editors planned the content and each wrote sections, and she finalized the text.