By: Walter Wafula


Global Education Alliance (GEA) is new body initiated under the World Economic Forum's Global Education Initiative (GEI), collaborating with the Education For All Fast Track Initiative (FTI) to use the strengths of the private sector and foundations to achieve education for all in low-income countries.

A statement from the forum said, “Working within the FTI framework, the GEA will initiate an unprecedented collaboration between corporations, the national government and the local donor group to obtain the greatest efficiencies and sustainable, long-term results … the first country to be piloted under this framework will be the Republic of Rwanda.” The decision was taken at the on going global talks in Davos, Switzerland, on January 24th.

“Rwanda was chosen as a pilot country given its track record of creating effective public-private partnerships and the emphasis the government is placing on the development of human capital, science and technology,” the statement said.

Rwanda's President, Paul Kagame, welcomed the development.

Kagame said that successful socioeconomic transformation can be achieved by a shared responsibility among GEA players. “… I have no doubt that they will make a significant contribution to our development endeavours,” he said.

This new pilot program in Rwanda is a perfect complement to 50x15, a global initiative founded by AMD to enable affordable, accessible Internet connectivity and computing capabilities for 50% of the world's population by the year 2015.” Up to 77 million children are reported to be out of school, of whom 38 million are in sub-Saharan Africa.

“Broadening access to quality education for all children is a critical building block of sustainable and prosperous societies. Microsoft is committed to the ideals of Education For All and believe participation through our Unlimited Potential initiative in the Global Education Alliance partnership can help to transform education in the Republic of Rwanda and deliver improved opportunities for all students,” said Bill Gates, Chairman of Microsoft Corporation.


AMD, Cisco, Edelman, Intel and Microsoft among other partners have strongly expressed their wish to explore effective ways of collaborating with the FTI to help the government of Rwanda and others achieve their priorities in education. Other countries in the region with universal education programs include Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.

[29 Jan 2008 06:35]

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