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Corporation
News
FOR
FURTHER INFORMATION:
Carnegie Corporation of New York
Office of Public Affairs
(212) 207-6273
Progress in African
Higher Ed Reviewed by Key Foundation Funders.
New
York, New York, June 26, 2008— Presidents of the seven
foundations that comprise the Partnership for Higher Education in
Africa met on June 26, 2008 at Carnegie Corporation’s offices
to review recent progress and to discuss possible future directions.
Founded in 2000 by Carnegie Corporation and the Ford, Rockefeller
and MacArthur foundations, the funding Partnership focuses on strengthening
higher education to accelerate development on the continent. The
Partnership was created in response to an effort by African universities
themselves to reverse nearly two decades of decline by strengthening
their roles in society to help contribute to their respective countries’
social, economic and political needs.
The initial five-year $100 million commitment by the four foundations,
was expanded in 2005 for an additional five years with $200 million
of new funding collectively pledged by the four initial funders
and two new partners, the William and Flora Hewlett and the Andrew
W. Mellon foundations. In April 2007, the Kresge Foundation joined
the Partnership.
The Partnership is structured to harness each funder’s comparative
advantage and conforms to the foundations’ respective geographic
foci. Each foundation makes higher education grants to institutions
in the way that it chooses and in the country or countries in which
it has traditionally focused. While the nature of the activities
supported by the Partnership has varied, the foundations’
coordinated grantmaking and joint funding of a major initiative
to reduce the cost of internet bandwidth has brought greater attention
to African higher education in general.
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