Today’s increasingly technological world and labor market require technical know-how. Consequently, science and technology are fundamental subjects and disciplines in every child’s education. The foundations of the skills and knowledge required to address today’s challenges, for example, to adapt agriculture to climate change, to prevent epidemiological disasters or use the Internet productively, are laid early on in the educational process.

The African Development Bank supports every phase of education, the cornerstone of the health-employment-social wellbeing architecture. It views education as a long-term process that requires long-term investment. The Bank contributes to international efforts to provide a quality education to all children by supporting its regional member countries in building schools, training teachers and providing learning materials and equipment.

The focus on infrastructure also extends to fragile states where the Bank supports considerable school construction and reconstruction as part of its efforts to provide these countries with viable public services.

The thrust of the Bank’s Higher Education Science and Technology Strategy is to promote excellence, and to target the transition from school to work. Given the growing needs and demand for high-level skills and research in science and technology and insufficient resources, the Bank focuses its support on national and regional centers of excellence such as the Kigali Institute of Science and Technology and the Benin’s Regional Public Health Institute.

Since 2008, the Bank also houses the Association for the Development of Education in Africa, which promotes African education research and evidence-based policy advocacy.