Africa education Tony Karumba/Getty Images

Investing in Africa’s Educators

When global leaders gather in Hamburg this week for the G20 summit, the new G20-Africa Partnership will take center stage. But those committed to helping Africa should focus squarely on the nuts and bolts of aid and development – and that means investing in local leadership.

JOHANNESBURG – Improving education is a slow, arduous, long-term undertaking everywhere, and nowhere more so than in Africa, where tight economic constraints often prevent sustained investment in human capital. Those who work in the education sector on the continent have to seek solutions that are faster, cheaper, and can be scaled up.

Too often, though, expedient approaches prove shortsighted, and fail to engage local leaders who hold the keys to economic and social progress. Too often, grassroots-level voices, reflecting firsthand experience addressing their communities’ problems, are ignored.

When global leaders gather in Hamburg this week for the G20 summit, the new G20-Africa Partnership will take center stage. But those committed to helping Africa should focus squarely on the nuts and bolts of aid and development – and that means investing in local leadership.

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