Kampala – April 01, 2019: The World Bank has declared that conditions to access funding to coordinate the East Africa Skills for Transformation and Regional Integration Project (EASTRIP) have now been met for its Regional Facilitation Unit, the Inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA). On November 26, 2018 the World Bank and IUCEA signed a financing agreement of $8 million to host EASTRIP.
The objective of EASTRIP is to increase the access and improve the quality of TVET programs in selected Regional TVET Centers of Excellence and to support regional integration. The project supports the development of highly specialized TVET programs at diploma and degree levels for training of technicians and TVET faculty, as well as industry recognized short-term training, targeting regional priority sectors in transport, energy, manufacturing, and ICT.
In a letter to IUCEA Paul Noumba Um, World Bank Coordinating Director for Regional Integration, Eastern and Southern Africa said, “We are pleased to notify you that the World Bank confirms the conditions of effectiveness of the Financing Agreement have been met. Consequently, the Financing Agreement becomes effective today, March 25 2019.”
On October 30, 2018 the World Bank approved $293 million credit and grant to support Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutes and to support regional integration across East Africa. EASTRIP will support the development and delivery of demand driven TVET programs for technician training in Kenya, Ethiopia and Tanzania in transport, energy, manufacturing and ICT sectors.
Xiaoyan Liang, Lead Education Specialist, World Bank and Task Team Leader for EASTRIP said, “East African countries including Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania are experiencing rapid economic growth. However, shortage of specialized technician level skills is particularly acute in IT, transport, energy, manufacturing, and agro-processing and, if not addressed, could seriously dampen the industrialization and integration agenda.”
She added, “EASTRIP is designed to address challenges in skills shortage and mismatch, by providing technical, financial and industry partnership to increase the access and improve the quality of training programs in selected TVET flagship institutes. EASTRIP will also facilitate regional integration by providing a regional platform to promote exchanges of policies and practices, students and faculty mobility and harmonization of standards and qualifications. EASTRIP follows the successful higher education ACE model but moving down the education ladder to focus on the training of technicians. EASTRIP highly emphasizes development impact and results and adopts the disbursement-linked indicators. A total of 16 TVET colleges in STEM fields have been selected based on government nomination, national priority, and objective selection criteria and rating by independent technical experts.”
By the close of the project in December 2024, it is expected that the 16 TVET participating in EASTRIP will have developed up to 276 demand-driven training programs, at least doubled their capacity to collectively enroll 20,000 students on an annual basis in both long-term and short term training programs in the targeted disciplines. Cumulatively, the project will have directly benefitted close to 60,000 students. It is also projected that at least 30 percent of the enrollment will be female students. At least 310 staff will benefit from industrial attachment programs and 230 staff will benefit from foreign exchange program at the end of the project. Employers in the targeted industries will also benefit from an expanded and more qualified pool of skilled labor.
For more information, please contact
Abiye Alemu Ayele
Project Coordinator
EASTRIP
