Knowledge empowers Africa: The benefits of increased investment in education

This policy brief from the African Futures project presents two scenarios for education in Africa, comparing a base case with a positive scenario based on the development rates of best-practice African countries.

• If all African nations adopted the education enrolment and completion rates of the continent's best-practice countries, Africa would achieve universal primary education by 2030 and universal basic education by 2035, and reach an 85 per cent upper-secondary enrolment rate by 2050.
• Under a positive education scenario, by 2050, Africa would see a reduction of 3.5 million malnourished children, a reduction of 60 million people living on less than US$ 1.25 per day, and a decrease in the probability of state failure by nearly 8 per cent.
• The positive education scenario is projected to add US$ 2.5 trillion to Africa's GDP through 2050, an amount exceeding five times the cumulative increase in overall education spending for that period.

APA

Gehring, K., Irfan, M. T., McLennan, P., Moyer, J. D., Selebalo, H., & Torkelson, E. (n.d.). Knowledge empowers Africa: The benefits of increased investment in education. Institute for Security Studies. https://issafrica.org/research/policy-brief/knowledge-empowers-africa-the-benefits-of-increased-investment-in-education

Chicago

Gehring, Keith, Mohammod T Irfan, Patrick McLennan, Jonathan D Moyer, Hopolang Selebalo, and Erin Torkelson. Knowledge empowers Africa: The benefits of increased investment in education. Institute for Security Studies, n.d. https://issafrica.org/research/policy-brief/knowledge-empowers-africa-the-benefits-of-increased-investment-in-education.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Gehring |first1=Keith |last2=Irfan |first2=Mohammod T |last3=McLennan |first3=Patrick |last4=Moyer |first4=Jonathan D |last5=Selebalo |first5=Hopolang |last6=Torkelson |first6=Erin |title=Knowledge empowers Africa: The benefits of increased investment in education |publisher=Institute for Security Studies |url=https://issafrica.org/research/policy-brief/knowledge-empowers-africa-the-benefits-of-increased-investment-in-education |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{gehringndknowledge, author = {Gehring, Keith and Irfan, Mohammod T and McLennan, Patrick and Moyer, Jonathan D and Selebalo, Hopolang and Torkelson, Erin}, title = {{Knowledge empowers Africa: The benefits of increased investment in education}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, url = {https://issafrica.org/research/policy-brief/knowledge-empowers-africa-the-benefits-of-increased-investment-in-education}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }