Through the African Development Fund’s recent envelope of financial instruments, Malawi has received US$14 million for scholarships and infrastructure for its Higher Education, Science and Technology (HEST) program. The assistance will boost job creation and employment in the southern African nation. It also aligns with Malawi’s development goals.
Malawi’s Growth and Development Strategy III outlines education and human capital development as key priorities for the southern African nation. This focus on ‘human capacity development’ underpins the Government of Malawi’s vision to transform the nation from a predominantly agrarian, importing and consuming country to a net producer and exporter of goods and services.
Predictably, the main ingredients for actualizing this vision would be business growth and innovation through the creation of viable economic value-chains and skills development in the higher education (HE) and Technical, Entrepreneurial, Vocational Education and Training (TEVET) subsectors.
The HEST project has boosted higher school and post-graduate studies, targeting students and lecturers to actualize learning and training. Forty percent of beneficiaries are women. Recent studies show even just one more year of higher education increases wages in Malawi an average of 74 percent.
This intervention and subsequent reforms in Malawi’s HE and TEVET environment have helped transform the academic and professional fortunes of Malawians and institutions across the small, landlocked country. The benefits to society at large and fortification to the education sector through ADF-funded infrastructure upgrades and grey matter development also builds much-needed resilience for Malawi’s economy.
ADF financing and counterpart funds from the Government of Malawi enabled the construction of physical facilities (laboratories, ICT centers, e-libraries, workshops, classrooms) with furniture and equipment. It also covered training, scholarships, an impact evaluation, and baseline study, a bridging course and the establishment of a Labour Market Information Management System.
Based on these successful engagements, the Government of Malawi recently called for greater ADF and Bank participation in its knowledge-management, transportation, macroeconomic and policy reforms agenda.
Original source: AfDB
Published on 25 October 2018
