The promise of e-learning in Africa: the potential for public-private partnerships

The report is based on the premise that e-learning is now a viable tool for addressing the significant education challenge in Africa. The report argues that adopting e-learning in Africa will increase education access and quality, as well as lower education cost. There are now an increasing number of success stories with e-Learning throughout the African continent. This report describes models and approaches of public-private education partnerships that are now in place. While e- learning is not a cure for all the problems related to education in Africa, it is clearly a tool that now must be taken into serious consideration by policy makers and donors. Introducing e-learning technologies in primary, secondary, and higher education in Africa will clearly present many challenges. Thus, partnerships with the private sector will be an essential part of any strategy to bring e-Learning into Africa in a systematic and costeffective way. There is now considerable potential for expanding public-private partnership activities in e-Learning, including the delivery of services, private finance initiatives, demand-side initiatives, and strategic partnerships.