ABIDJAN, December 20, 2022 — The World Bank today announced an ambitious operation targeting 8.4 million preschool and primary school children and more than 66,500 basic education teachers. To help Côte d’Ivoire achieve its objective of building its human capital, this operation supports the implementation of recommendations of the National Forum on Education and Literacy (EGENA) and will help strengthen the education system by improving access to and the quality of learning.
With financing totaling $364 million—$350 million from the World Bank and $14 million from the Global Partnership for Education—this Program-for-Results (PforR) operation focuses primarily on improving inclusive access to preschools and primary schools in an effort to enable as many children as possible to benefit from quality education in a safe and resilient environment. It will also raise the standard of teaching and improve teaching practices to create a supportive learning environment for children, as well as strengthen the results-based management capacity of actors in the education system.
“Human capital development from a very early age is at the core of the government’s strategy to maintain strong economic growth and make Côte d’Ivoire a globally competitive emerging economy over the long term. Our support in the form of results-based financing is an incentive for all education actors to achieve ambitious learning goals in order to enable all children to acquire basic skills and give themselves the best chances for a future commensurate with their ambitions,” said Coralie Gevers, World Bank Country Director for Côte d’Ivoire, Benin, Guinea, and Togo.
This first PforR initiative in the Ivorian education sector is in line with the Ivorian government’s Vision 2030. It supports Côte d’Ivoire’s Education Sector Plan (ESP) and aims to strengthen and accelerate human capital development through equitable and expanded access to quality education opportunities in order to reduce learning poverty. This will ensure that students from the most vulnerable and disadvantaged backgrounds enjoy good health and can learn in conditions conducive to their development.
