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@article{203091,
        author = {Prof. Mary Mugwe Chui},
        title = {Strengthening Educational Partnerships for Sustainable Economic Development in Africa},
        journal = {International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology},
        year = {2026},
        volume = {12},
        number = {12},
        pages = {10660-10675},
        issn = {2349-6002},
        url = {https://ijirt.org/article?manuscript=203091},
        abstract = {The quality of education, particularly the cognitive skills produced by educational systems, is proven to be the best predictor of economic growth (Hanushek & Woessmann, 2015). In Africa, where 60% of the population is less than 25 years old (African Union/OECD, 2024), the correlation raises pertinent questions regarding the role of educational policies in ensuring sustained economic growth: Africa's demographic bonus cannot be transformed into sustainable development unless its educational systems deliver graduates competent to fuel productive economies. Partnerships involving collaboration between governments, educational systems, private sector employers, international organizations, and civil society have been suggested as the best institutional approach towards this objective. However, according to World Bank (2024a), while the GDP growth in Africa is positive, it is still insufficient to employ the growing number of the workforce or alleviate poverty; according to ILO (2024), over half of the Sub-Saharan Africans continue working in vulnerable employment conditions; according to UNESCO (2023), enrolment expansion has not improved learning quality in Africa. A systematic scoping review was conducted following the PRISMA 2020 framework (Page et al., 2021), synthesizing evidence from 38 verified sources, including institutional reports from the World Bank, African Development Bank, African Union/OECD, UNESCO, UNICEF, ILO, IMF, GPE, ITU, TIA, AVU, UNILAB, and EAC, and peer-reviewed works, published 2010–2025. The study is grounded in Becker's (1964) Human Capital Theory and Brundtland's (1987) Sustainable Development Theory, both applied analytically throughout. Findings confirm a diverse partnership landscape but reveal that most models are constrained by curriculum misalignment with labour market needs, donor dependency, inadequate monitoring, and exclusion of the 80–85 percent of Africa's workforce in the informal economy (ILO, 2024). The study's contribution lies in shifting analysis from whether partnerships matter to how specific partnership designs generate or fail to generate educationally effective and economically sustainable outcomes, and in proposing the institutional architecture, employer curriculum co-design, domestic co-financing, and accountability, that makes this possible.},
        keywords = {educational partnerships, human capital, sustainable economic development, Africa, TVET, university–industry collaboration, systematic scoping review, SDG 4, SDG 8},
        month = {May},
        }