How the Private Sector Can Help Achieve Education for All

Svava Bjarnason, International Finance Corporation, writing for the World Bank’s Education for Global Development blog, makes the case for private sector involvement in public private partnerships to extend access to quality education.  The International Finance Corporation (IFC) is the World Bank Group’s private sector investment arm and has been supporting private sector participation in education for the past decade.
Bjarnason makes the case:

The World Bank Group’s new Education Strategy 2020 champions learning for all and recognizes that global progress towards this goal will require the commitment of all actors – including governments, communities and private entities. The strategy acknowledges the vital role the private sector can play in helping expand and improve educational opportunity. Private sector participation in education is a growing part of education systems and has helped make significant educational advancements possible in many countries.

She outlines the strategy and points to resources

Education Strategy 2020 provides a platform for increased dialogue between government and private sector providers. This will create a greater understanding of the private sector’s potential to meet demand for high quality education across the entire education landscape – from early childhood education to tertiary education and beyond. This dialogue begins with working purposefully together to identify opportunities for sharing knowledge and developing country assistance strategies that embrace elements of both public and private provision.
The strategy also brings World Bank Group leadership together to identify specific instruments that will enable us to create new approaches to funding that meet growing country-level demand.  The recently launched Education for Employment (e4e) initiative in the Middle East and North Africa is a concrete example of a project that brings together efforts to achieve a common goal.

And, in conclusions:

As the implementation of our new Education Strategy evolves over the coming decade, there will continue to be significant changes in the global education landscape – and a more collaborative approach between the public and private sectors than in the previous decade will be necessary to achieve learning for all.

For more see:

• Leveraging the Private Sector for Results in Education seminar
• The Evolving Regulatory Context for Private Education in Emerging Economies publication and related colloquium
•  The Role and Impact of Public-Private Partnerships in Education