Dakar, Senegal
30 November 2014
As part of the 15th Summit of La Francophonie which was held in Dakar, Senegal, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the following initiatives:
The Canadian Francophonie Scholarship Program (CFSP), which has just been renewed for the next five years, aligns with the objectives of the new international education strategy (announced by the Honourable Ed Fast, Minister of International Trade, on January 15, 2014) which is designed to ensure and strengthen Canada’s global position in the field of higher education. The program is being carried out by a consortium consisting of the Canadian Bureau for International Education (CBIE) and the World University Service of Canada (WUSC).
The primary objectives of the CFSP are training of trainers, particularly in the field of technical and vocational education; improving the skills of college and university personnel in the field of education and research; and increasing and strengthening skills by training specialists and managers in the public and private sectors.
Since 1987, the CFSP has awarded 2,060 scholarships in 22 universities and 10 colleges in 6 Canadian provinces offering French-language programs of study. It should be noted that over 76 per cent of these scholarships were given to nationals from Francophone Africa. In addition, following the adoption in 2009 of the new approach requiring that scholarship recipients already hold a job in their country and that their employer agree to rehire them upon their return, the return rate for scholarship recipients to their country was 88 per cent in 2012.
This project, which was initially announced by the Prime Minister in December 2013, will be implemented by the Canadian Bureau for International Education. The MasterCard Foundation, which supports activities in Africa’s education sector, has partnered with the Government of Canada and will match its contribution.
The project will support promising young professionals in becoming African leaders in public policy and administration by granting 120 to 130 scholarships to young men and women to pursue a master’s degree in public administration in Canada.
The project includes the following objectives:
- Enrich the academic and professional experience of promising young African professionals by allowing them to undertake graduate level education in Canada;
- Prepare the next generation of innovative leaders in Africa to actively contribute to their local and global communities, in part by fostering economic prosperity, social justice and equity;
- Enhance knowledge and experience of future African leaders working in governance, public policy and administration; and,
- Strengthen the relationship between Canada and Africa.
