Partnerships

The Bank HEST interventions cannot, by themselves, meet all of the needs of educational systems. Scarce resources require the Bank to focus on activities that add value to its investments. Significant efforts will be devoted to dialogue with member countries so that they focus on science and technology. In addition, other donors with similar or varying fields of interest are being encouraged to support higher education because no single development partner or country can provide even the most basic requirements to enable the HEST sector to play a role in an African economic revival.

The private sector is therefore a strategic partner in African higher education, which is a fast growing segment of post-primary education on the continent. In many countries, private higher education operates in collaboration with foreign universities, including church/religious led partners. In most cases, however, inadequate legal provisions, high demand and poor monitoring on the part of governments have led to the mushrooming of unregulated private higher education.

The Bank thus supports the creation of regional regulatory bodies for quality assurance in higher education and will act as a catalyst to bring private sector financing for incubators and innovations that increase value in the production chain.

In addition to the private sector, the Bank will continue to strengthen its partnerships with other development and technical partners  in particular, the World Bank, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the Agence Française de Développement, the Department for International Development, the African Union & New Partnership for Africa’s Development, the Association of African Universities, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, the Association for the Development of Education in Africa, and the African Capacity Building Foundation, among other partners.