Africa-U.S. Higher Education Initiative
Empowering African Higher Education for Africa’s Transformation
The Challenge
With growing interdependence it is critical that nations have the institutional capacity to interact globally to solve problems and create opportunities related to development, security, peace and justice. Economies and societies are now linked as never before and the ability to improve people’s lives rests substantially on the development of human skills and the capacity to develop and adapt technology appropriate to the needs of individual nations and local situations.
Broad-based development and transformation in Africa requires significant human and institutional capacity development. Higher education institutions are key to this process of developing and nurturing the human capacity, research capability and outreach programs required for equitable and sustainable growth and transformation.
In Africa, the demand for higher education is increasing rapidly due to a large 18-year-old population cohort and a growing proportion of that cohort achieving secondary level diplomas. In addition, economic growth in some African countries has also contributed to a growing demand for post-secondary education as more can now afford at least some level of higher education.
African higher education institutions face a number of challenges in trying to meet the demands of an ever growing student population, including:
- Severe financial constraints affecting faculty and infrastructure development;
- Significant faculty shortages and the need for increased advanced degree education;
- Isolation from global knowledge generation systems and lack of connectedness to the their national public and private sectors as well as NGOs and national research institutions;
- The need to reform education and curriculum to achieve competencies sought by employers and to develop entrepreneurs;
- Low levels of research and technology development or adaptation to address problems of local, national, regional and global concern;
- Uneven access along gender, ethnic and geographic lines; and,
- Inadequate training of leadership and management in advocacy, marketing, fundraising, the utilization of modern management processes and governance.
The severity of these challenges is compounded by the fact that over the last two decades external development assistance to higher education has declined significantly as donors have focused overwhelmingly on funding primary and secondary education. This donor perspective has shaped most of the sub-Saharan national Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers that influence national budgetary allocations. Furthermore, it has been difficult for most African countries to commit significant public investment to higher education due to other immediate problems and crises that require immediate attention and resources.
This imbalance in funding must be addressed. Indeed, the quality of primary and secondary education in Africa suffers from the lack of capacity of African higher education institutions to produce high quality teachers, education leaders, supervisors and curriculum specialists. The impact of higher education extends well beyond building teaching capacity, however. Broad-based development in Africa cannot happen without well-educated African leaders, a strong human resource base, and institutions that can produce the knowledge necessary to address critical local, national and regional problems and produce significant economic growth that in the future will sustain the education systems without donor assistance.
A Response to this Challenge
In July of 2007 Higher Education for Development (HED), the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC), the Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa, the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), and the American Distance Education Consortium (ADEC) came together to form an initiative to strengthen African higher education capacity in partnership with U.S. institutions of higher education. From the beginning, a number of other partners have been involved in shaping what is now called the Africa-U.S. Higher Education Collaboration Initiative and support for the Initiative continues to grow. During the short time the Initiative partners have been working together, significant progress has been made in moving towards a concrete plan of action.
The Initiative has received enthusiastic responses from African and U.S. leaders in higher education, development organizations and the diplomatic corps. At this stage, the Initiative has identified several broad goals and capacity building priorities based on initial research and stakeholder consultations with leaders in Africa and the United States. The primary goals of the Africa-U.S. Higher Education Collaboration Initiative are to enhance and empower higher education institutions in Africa and the United States to contribute more effectively to African development and transformation and to increase the competency of U.S. higher education institutions in global affairs related to Africa.
Ultimately the Initiative envisions:
- Higher education institutions in Africa with vibrant intellectual environments that advance Africa’s human resource needs, increase the development of new knowledge and technology, provide opportunities for historically disadvantaged populations and develop public engagement programs that will become a driving force for Africa’s development;
- U.S. higher education institutions knowledgeable about African affairs and deeply engaged in Africa, with strong relationships (involving both students and faculty) with African institutions of higher education;
- A well-funded program that provides competitively determined resources for mutually beneficial Africa-U.S. higher education collaboration within a time-frame consistent with successful institutional capacity development; and,
- An interactive web-based portal for African and U.S. institutions of higher education stakeholders to share information and learn from each other’s experiences, discuss issues relevant to increasing the development capacity of their institutions, and collaborate on advocacy.