Regional Approach

The Bank recognizes that HEST can promote regional integration and cooperation in Africa. Revitalizing higher education, science, technology and research in Africa can make skilled labor more mobile and overcome some of the problems of economic balkanization.

By supporting existing national and regional centers of excellence and promoting greater collaboration among institutions in and out of Africa, the Bank aims to position African training institutions among the best in the world and to make them attractive choices for students and families.

African countries have diverse needs for STI. Some have well developed quality basic education systems with high rates of completion and are quickly developing tertiary education systems; others are still essentially dealing with Education For All and at relatively early stages of tertiary education development.

Therefore, demand for support in STI ranges from capacity building to policy advice to building STI infrastructure and establishing national and regional centers of excellence. Few countries are ready to engage with the private sector in building innovation systems and developing public-private partnerships in HEST.