PASET – A World Bank takes initiative for developing skills

A workshop held in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa led by a minister of education, from nine African countries and four emerging economic power countries like China, Korea, India and Brazil.

The workshop was facilitated by the World Bank and hosted by the government of Ethiopia, aimed to create a Partnership in Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology called PASET between Sub-Saharan African countries and the emerging nations.

The partnership idea was induced by Makhtar Diop, the World Bank’s vice-president for Africa and a former Senegalese minister of finance, supporting to promote science and technology.

The PASET initiative

PASET – a partnership for skills development in Africa covering the whole spectrum of education, from Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) to higher education, in applied sciences.

The partner countries already make significant investments in Africa, to develop necessary human resources to operate and maintain the infrastructure being built and to maximize the return.

Though they already have engagements in human capital development in Africa, mostly through scholarships, may not have been focused towards the African countries’ human resources development plans.

It would be impossible for the World Bank to involve all Sub-Saharan African countries at the initial stage. For a first phase it will involve in nine countries: Ethiopia, Guinea, Liberia, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sudan and Tanzania.

The engagements proposed covered the following broad areas:

  1. faculty development
  2. agricultural training and research
  3. university-industry linkages;
  4. use of ICT
  5. training of TVET instructors and
  6. Infrastructural development. 

The partner countries highlighted their expertise in specific areas relevant to the PASET initiative. These included development in agriculture and training of TVET instructors by China; use of ICT in education by Korea; institutional and industry collaboration by India; and postgraduate training and research by Brazil.

The workshop in particular provided opportunities for bilateral meetings between the African and partner countries to discuss possible future collaboration.

There was unanimous support and commitment to PASET by the participating African countries. The need for mutual understanding, trust and benefits in all partnerships was emphasized again and again.

It was acknowledged that Africa was unfamiliar territory for most of the partner countries and PASET provided an opportunity for them to better understand the development needs of the African countries. Similarly, PASET would promote greater collaboration among the African countries themselves, enabling them to share experiences and make joint proposals to partner countries.

 

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