Support role of international community and funders for higher education in Angola
“The reconstruction of Angola is an immense task — one that does merit the support and involvement of the international community. . . . With a concerted effort on the part of both the government of Angola and the international community, Angola can achieve education for all.”
Global Survey on Education and Emergencies: Angola Country Report
Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children, December 2003Funders Support Africa’s Long Term Development by Investing in Higher Education
Recognition — by the international community, particularly the leading donor agencies and major lending institutions — that African higher education is a vital area for development is crucial. African higher education is at a turning point. Planning that takes into account a realistic assessment of the challenges faced by higher education along with effective leadership can lead to positive solutions.(1) Private funding of universities can also help to stem the chronic problem of faculty retention and emigration of those who are highly trained and educated.
Support Role of the International Community — Governments, Businesses and Foundations
Unfortunately, African nations have technical and financial resources too limited to tackle all the problems they face on their own. African people and governments need financial and technical assistance from foreign donors and organizations to alleviate their educational crisis.(2) Angola’s vast economic resources from diamond and oil industries coupled with concern over government corruption has made many donors reluctant to provide assistance. This reluctance is easy to understand. On the other hand, today in Angola over 2 million children do not have access to education in any form and almost 60 percent of the adult population cannot read or write. In addition, after more than 30 years of civil war, Angola has many other pressing problems, such as revitalizing its health sector in order to provide basic health services to all of its citizens and decrease infant mortality; providing safe drinking water throughout the country; rebuilding the country&rsqo;s infrastructure and revitalizing the country’s economic base, including its agricultural productivity, which depends in part on major de-mining operations. The reconstruction of Angola is an immense task — one that merits the support and involvement of the international community.(3)
ENDNOTES
1. Damtew Teferra and Philip G. Altbach, African Higher Education: Challenges for the 21st Century, Higher Education 47: 21-50, 2004. Copyright 2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands. Page 47. (This document also serves as a source for information used in the Statement of Need section.)
2. Samuel O. Atteh, The Crisis in Higher Education in Africa, 1996, The Journal of Opinion: Vol.24, No.1 Issues in African Higher Education. Page 41.
3. Lynne Bethke and Scott Braunschweig. Edited by Mary Diaz and Diana Quick. Global Survey on Education in Emergencies: Angola Country Report, Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children, December 2003. Page 25.
African people and governments need financial and technical assistance from foreign donors and organizations to alleviate their educational crisis.
