IFE Executive Education Course
Innovative Financing for Education Scholarships
NORRAG, in partnership with UNESCO International Institute of Education Policy (IIEP) and the Geneva Graduate Institute (IHEID) and generous scholarship support from The Jacobs Foundation has offered the first of its kind Certificate of Advanced Studies (CAS) Executive Education course in new Innovative Financing for Education (IFE). The course brings together professionals from a diverse stakeholder groups (ministries of education, private finance, and non-government organisations) to engage with each other and discuss the most critical challenges and propose solutions for financing in education.
The CAS-IFE fills in the knowledge and capacity gap for education and finance sector professionals working towards the realisation of SDG4 and SDG17 and builds an understanding of the opportunities and challenges posed by innovative financing mechanisms for education. Specifically, it develops the skills of the participants in examining the potential benefits and challenges in designing and implementing innovative financing mechanisms within the education sector. Through real-life case studies, the course covers a broad range of innovative financing mechanisms introduced within the education sector to critically analyse the relevance, applicability, adaptability, efficiency, efficacy, and effectiveness of such financing models. Additionally, with comprehensive advisement from the instructors, participants engage in a final project designing an innovative financing approach to solve an education challenge identified in a specific context.
The Jacobs Foundation scholarships are given in priority to government officials and professionals from local non-profit organisations from low and middle- income countries where the Foundation operates. Five candidates are benefiting from the Jacobs Foundation’s scholarships in the cohort of the programme, which cover the full tuition fees for the course: Nana Ama Boa-Amponsem in Ghana, Kouakou Lazare Golly in Ivory Coast, Andrews Nii Awuley Lartey in Ghana, Daniel Njiru in Kenya, and Inyang Udo-Umoren in Nigeria.
Jacobs Foundation Fellowship Recipients
Nana Ama Boa-Amponsem is the Founder and Program Lead at Think Education, a non-profit organisation with a mission to improve the quality of education in low-cost private schools across Ghana through effective school management and administrative practices. She earned a master’s degree in Lanning, monitoring, and evaluation from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (2022) and a bachelor’s in business administration from Ashesi University (2015). She also has a Certificate in Global Education Entrepreneurship and Innovation from the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education (2022) and is currently pursuing an MA in Educational Planning, Economics, and International Development at the University College London (UCL) as a Commonwealth Scholar. Nana Ama has a decade of experience in Ghana’s education and development sector, consulting for and coordinating early-stage and scale-ready education programs. She has worked with organisations such as the Global School Leaders, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (as part of the Generation Global program), and the Education Collaborative program at Ashesi University, developing and executing strategies in program design, partnerships, stakeholder relations and fundraising. She is a 2022 Jacobs Foundation Social Entrepreneurship fellow as well as a member of the Women Changemakers for Education fellowship.
Kouakou Lazare Golly is General Educational Inspector, Deputy Director of Programs, Educational Documentation and School Libraries at the Directorate of Pedagogy and Vocational Training at the Ministry of National Education of Ivory Coast. He holds a master’s degree in Education Sciences from the University of Rouen in France. He is a member of several pools of trainers including those of the General Inspection, the Directorate of Pedagogy and Vocational Training and internal trainers of the Ministry of National Education. He is a specialist in educational programs and represented his country in Europe and Africa on several occasions. From March 2020, he led the technical team implementing the ‘My School at Home’ programme to ensure educational continuity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Today he is a member of the focal unit in the CLEF Program which leads the scaling up of the process of installations and remediation of learning at primary level. Member of the African Curriculum Association, Lazare Kouakou Golly is an expert, consultant in educational programs and textbooks at the African Union. He is also interested in education policies in particular and wants to deepen his knowledge and experience in education financing.
He is an officer in the Order of Merit for Public Service in Ivory Coast and Senator of the Junior Chamber International.
Andrews Nii Awuley Lartey is the Director of Strategy, Innovation and Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) at the Girls Education Initiative of Ghana (GEIG). His educational background is in Civil Engineering from Central University and Computer Science from Lancaster University. He earned a certificate in Global Education Entrepreneurship and Innovation from the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education. He is currently pursuing an Executive Education Certificate of Advanced Studies in Innovative Financing for Education at the Geneva Graduate Institute. He is in-charge of gradually converting GEIG into a full social enterprise. He brings strong stakeholder management skills, strategic planning, and emotional intelligence to support innovation and sustainability at GEIG.
Daniel Njiru is a Small and Medium Enterprise financing practitioner currently working as a Relationship Manager at Ed partners Africa, a Non-Banking Financial Institution that is transforming the education sector in the Republic of Kenya through working with affordable non-state school owners to provide financial and non-financial solutions to improve access to affordable quality education. Daniel is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree in Development Studies at the Management University of Africa and has a Diploma in Microfinance from Strathmore University (2014) and a certificate in Leadership Development from Strathmore Business School (SBS) (2019). He has also attended several trainings on Business planning and Performance Management, Relationship management portfolio management from the School of Africa (2013) Microfinance (2013) and CRS Africa. He has demonstrated experience in conducting financial analysis for growth and funding requirements, relationship management, as well as carrying out market research and product development. He is deeply interested in the role impact education has as a tool that empowers families, communities and nations and gives people chances to improve their lives and bring economic transformation.
Inyang Udo-Umoren currently works as the Country Director of Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) Africa, Nigeria. She earned a master’s degree in educational planning, economics and international development from University College London (2015) and a master’s in financial management from Middlesex University, London (2011). She is an education programme professional with experience spanning classroom teaching, management of literacy programmes, learning assessments and teacher capacity development programmes. As the TaRL country director, she provides technical support to TaRL programmes across the country, working with partners to adapt the TaRL approach for Nigeria using lessons from evidence, experience from other contexts and implementation in Nigeria.
Applications are now open for 2024!