SDG 4 – Quality Education

There have never been as many young people as there are today. And never before have they suffered so much from a lack of employment. In 2023, more than a fifth of all young people worldwide were neither in employment nor in education or training; women more than twice as often as men. In Africa alone, over 20 million young adults are looking for work every year; by 2030, this figure is estimated to rise to 30 million. At the same time, many countries on the continent need well-trained skilled workers to maintain or expand their economic growth and to make the transition to a green, sustainable economy. The energy transition in particular requires qualified skilled workers. By 2030, there will be an estimated global shortage of 7 million workers in the green energy sector. The construction of photovoltaic and wind energy plants and the production of batteries, storage systems and electric vehicles are driving up demand for labour. However, if the energy transition is to be not only successful but also fair, it will require not only well-trained young people, but also the further training and education of those workers who will lose their jobs in the course of the transformation and want to find new work, ideally in the green energy sector.

According to German development cooperation, this is best achieved through vocational training that meets a number of requirements: defined quality criteria can guarantee a certain standard in vocational training. The implementing institutions should cooperate closely with the business sector to ensure that training is not out of step with the market, and vocational training should be part of a comprehensive approach. This means that vocational training must not be isolated, but must fit into the education and economic system. If these criteria are met, practice-oriented vocational training can build an important bridge between the demands of the business sector and the needs of young people.

Market-oriented vocational training accounts for a significant and growing share of KfW's portfolio in the education sector, not least against the backdrop of Germany's positive experiences with dual vocational training. This includes vocational training projects in Kenya and Egypt as well as in Laos, the Western Balkans and Lebanon.

This ex-post evaluation of the expansion of four vocational schools into centres of excellence in Vietnam(PDF, 835 KB, non-accessible) shows how labour market-oriented and internationally competitive training can be successfully promoted in close cooperation with the private sector.

Basic education is the foundation for lifelong learning and thus a prerequisite for further qualifications. By 2030, girls and boys should have equal access to free, high-quality primary and secondary education that leads to effective learning outcomes. The international community has achieved some success in this area in recent years: in 2015, 85% of pupils completed primary school, and in 2023 the figure was 88%. During the same period, the completion rate in lower secondary education rose from 74% to 78% and in upper secondary education from 53% to 59%. The trend is therefore positive, but not sufficient and also varies from region to region. Only two out of three children in sub-Saharan Africa still complete primary school within the intended time frame. Furthermore, overall progress is too slow to achieve SDG 4.

For KfW, basic education is a cornerstone of its education portfolio. Its main objective is to further improve access to and the content of educational opportunities, particularly in the context of displacement and fragility, e.g. in Sudan or Türkiye. KfW also supports the construction and equipping of primary schools, for example in Guinea, Malawi and Honduras, and the financing of school scholarships for secondary school pupils in Kenya.

Many economically disadvantaged countries lack universities and research institutions. As a result, the proportion of students in the study-age population is correspondingly low. While the global average is just under 40%, the rate in countries such as Chad and Ethiopia is only 3%. However, tertiary education is also essential for the social and economic future of a country, as skilled workers and managers provide impetus and drive innovation. Promoting higher education is therefore a sub-goal of SDG 4 and also acts as a lever for the other sub-goals: for example, the training of teachers at universities is crucial for good, high-quality basic and vocational education. But healthcare, entrepreneurship, technology and trade also depend on well-educated university graduates.

Deficits in higher education are particularly evident in Africa, which has the lowest proportion of scientists worldwide. But on other continents, too, many young people are denied access to higher education institutions. In Latin America, for example, the proportion of private universities, which many young people from poorer households cannot afford, is comparatively high.

KfW promotes higher education and research in various ways. On the one hand, it awards scholarships and study loan programmes to students from low-income families, for example in East Africa or Guatemala. On the other hand, it also supports individual universities, for example in the fields of health, energy or engineering, for example in Ethiopia, Namibia, Algeria or Senegal, in order to increase the number of qualified specialists.