ABSTRACT
Established in the diplomatic haze of the post World War II reconstructionist period with a mandate to support the postwar reconstruction of Europe, the World Bank (the Bank) has since served as an agent of international development and global poverty reduction. In this light, the Bank is known more for its activities regarding economic development than for its many spheres of influence in social and human development. Since 1963, however, the Bank has been actively involved in education programs, which focused, initially, on improvements to primary and, to a lesser extent, secondary education. This is no longer the case, as effective higher education is now recognized as fundamental to comprehensive economic and social development. Higher education serves as a core element of the Bank’s broad education sector and its holistic view of education. Indeed, the time when higher education was a controversial subject at the World Bank is long past. The 2002 publication of Constructing Knowledge Societies marked the culmination of a decade of growing attention to and investment in higher education in all regions of the world where the Bank is active. Not only is higher education seen today as a crucial element in the Bank’s development strategy, but the Bank’s thinking and actions in this area have begun to influence a number of bilateral donors into reconsidering their own prioritization of basic education as the primary focus of financial and technical assistance in the education sector. Higher education’s contribution to economic and social development is multifold. It exercises a direct influence on national productivity, which largely determines living standards and a country’s ability to compete in the global economy. Higher education institutions support knowledge-driven economic growth strategies and poverty reduction by (a) training a qualified and adaptable labor force, including high-level scientists, professionals, technicians, teachers in basic and secondary education, and future government, civil service, and business leaders; (b) generating new knowledge; and (c) building the capacity to access existing stores of global knowledge and to adapt that knowledge to local use. Higher education institutions are unique in their ability to integrate and create synergy
among these three dimensions. Sustainable transformation and growth throughout the economy are not possible without the capacity-building contribution of an innovative higher education system. This is especially true in low-income countries with weak institutional capacity and limited human capital. This chapter begins by presenting the progression of the World Bank’s position with respect to higher education and its contribution to development. It then reviews the different ways in which the Bank works with developing and transition countries in support of their higher education reform efforts, before concluding with a few observations about higher education’s prospects within the World Bank’s agenda.
