Commitment to African Higher Education - $350M by 2010

Presidents of the seven U.S. foundations comprising the Partnership for Higher Education in Africa today announced their unanimous decision to continue both their collaborative and individual grantmaking
aimed at strengthening higher education in Africa beyond their original ten-year commitment.

The Partnership was created to strengthen Africa’s institutions of higher education so that they can better contribute to poverty reduction, economic growth and social development in their respective countries.  Outcomes from partners’ investments range from more and cheaper Internet bandwidth for universities and the establishment of research and training networks in the sciences and social sciences to the launch of a new Internet gateway for the collection and dissemination of research.

The presidents noted with great pride that by 2010, $350 million in Partnership grants will have assisted universities and other African institutions and programs dedicated to improving higher education access, excellence, research and diversity for men and women at select universities in Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda.

Speaking on behalf of the seven foundation partners, Vartan Gregorian, the current rotating chair of the Partnership said, “By strengthening a core group of universities through collective and individual investments, the foundation partners have helped to nurture a rising generation of women and men who will contribute to the further development of democracy and civil society on the African continent.  To enable
universities to continue to address Africa’s many complex challenges, however, demands that we affirm our long-term commitment to build upon this progress.”

Launched in May 2000 by Carnegie Corporation of New York, The Ford Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and The Rockefeller Foundation, the Partnership for Higher Education in Africa represents both a belief in the importance and viability of higher education in Africa and a mechanism to provide meaningful assistance to its renaissance.

Between the Partnership’s establishment in 2000 and September 2005, the founding partners contributed more than $150 million to build core capacity and support special initiatives to further the development of higher education in six African countries: Ghana, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda.

The Partnership was re-launched for a second five-year period on September 16, 2005. The re-launch represented several milestones. Two additional foundations joined the Partnership: the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Together, the six foundations pledged a minimum of $200 million over the next five years. A major initiative to supply cheaper and more reliable Internet access to Partnership grantees through a bandwidth consortium was announced at the re-launch. At the same time, Kenya was added to the list of Partnership countries. In 2006 Egypt and Madagascar became Partnership countries.

In April 2007, the Partnership welcomed its newest member, the Kresge Foundation.