Building a learner-centered ecosystem across sub-Saharan Africa

Across the African continent, a profound demographic transformation is underway. More than 60 percent of Africans are under the age of 25, and the continent’s population is projected to reach 2.5 billion by 2050. By 2035, more young Africans will enter the workforce each year than in the rest of the world combined, holding tremendous potential to shape the global economy.

Governments and higher education systems have worked to expand capacity and access to meet the demand of the growing population, however, tertiary enrollment in Sub-Saharan Africa remains far below the global average of 39 percent, and only six percent of African youth complete a degree, according to UNESCO. In a continent defined by its youth, universities and skills systems are still not keeping pace.

If African higher education cannot absorb and prepare this generation, the demographic dividend risks becoming a demographic fracture.

For the past 18 months, the University Design Institute (UDI) at Arizona State University facilitated Transformation Roadmap Workshops across nine universities in seven countries, as part of Phase II of the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program e-Learning Initiative. Through structured reflection, visioning, collaborative design and implementation planning, teams from each institution developed ten-year transformation visions and five-year implementation roadmaps. These will serve as blueprints for each institution to move past temporary, emergency digital workarounds toward intentional, long-term systemic capability.

Throughout this process, a clear reality emerged: the challenge — and opportunity —  extends beyond technological infrastructure and upskilling. Driving lasting societal impact requires reshaping institutional culture, governance, student support and teaching practices so institutions can adapt to both present demands and future disruptions.

The Transformation Roadmap process has done more than guide individual institutional futures. It has cultivated a network of African universities exploring new models of higher education in an era of artificial intelligence — creating a collaborative ecosystem where institutions transform locally while collaborating and learning from one another to advance higher education across the continent.

UDI Approach: 

Each Transformation Roadmap process took place over the course of six to eight weeks, culminating in a two-day workshop at the partner institution. UDI began by meeting with each of the institutions to reflect on progress from Phase I, explored future scenarios, identified strategic funding priorities and developed roadmaps for implementation through co-design.

Co-design extends beyond UDI’s relationship with the participating institution. Intentionally bringing together students, faculty, staff, technology professionals, institutional leadership and other external stakeholders critical to the process, co-design breaks down traditional university silos, putting students, faculty, staff and leadership at the same table to explore their current and desired future state, and to collaboratively design a path forward.
 

Each process is contextualized to fit the contexts and needs of the institution. During a Transformation Roadmap Workshop, participants might include Ministry of Education officials, undergraduate students, student services staff, faculty and online, distance and e-learning teams. Together, they explore current and aspirational positions around areas such as partnerships, student services, institutional infrastructure, leadership and culture and teaching and learning in interactive sessions. The various groups then come together to collectively understand where their institution sits today and where it aspires to be in the future. Out of this process comes the Transformation Roadmap, a framework developed by institutional stakeholders that will serve as a guide for an implementation plan.

Across the entire process, patterns, shared challenges and opportunities emerged. From there, UDI created space for institutions to test ideas together, share blueprints and collaborate on challenges. This accelerates change, allowing for peer learning, testing different approaches, learning from past experiments.

For example, when emerging themes around artificial intelligence surfaced, UDI quickly mobilized a multi-part AI in Learning webinar series available for all institutions to join, leveraging ASU experts to tackle practical and ethical strategies in real time.

This process allows each roadmap to remain locally owned, mission-aligned and responsive to institutional context, while creating a network of institutional leaders, academic faculty and strategists and administrators establishing their own relationships and peer groups that will extend beyond the duration of Phase II. 

Outcomes

While all the participating institutions have finalized their Transformation Roadmaps, this milestone marks the beginning of execution. The Mastercard Foundation’s support for this inclusive co-creation process has been transformative, enabling institutions to shape their own outcomes and build genuine ownership of the process.

These roadmaps serve as strategic frameworks aligning digital transformation directly with local community needs, regional workforce demands and national policy priorities. Crucially, they equip university leaders with the authority and clarity needed to drive their own agendas with government partners and external funders, ensuring focus on high-impact institutional priorities.

Across the network, shared priorities have emerged—ranging from AI-enabled learning ecosystems and student success models to workforce alignment, accessibility, governance and regional collaboration. As implementation unfolds, these parallel trajectories create a living laboratory to experiment, observe, document and learn from multiple models of institutional transformation in real time.

Ultimately, this initiative has expanded beyond digital adoption into a catalyst for institutional and cultural transformation. By building a connected network of universities committed to better understanding and responding to the evolving needs of learners across Africa, these roadmaps will generate vital knowledge to make higher education more resilient, inclusive and responsive across the continent and beyond.

Background and Context  

The Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program e-Learning Initiative was sparked by the COVID-19 Pandemic. UDI and partners at ASU worked with 10 institutions in eight countries to establish foundational blocks to facilitate the mainstreaming of online learning through strategic workshops with leaders and co-design new solutions within the context of each institution. In total, it provided learning continuity for more than 95,000 students across the institutional network.

Phase II, which began in 2025 and will continue until 2030, is designed to enhance the resilience of the institutions, so they are able to move past temporary, emergency digital workarounds toward more resilient institutions that can continuously adapt, innovate and govern their own digital futures. ASU is the implementing partner for Phase II of the Scholars Program e-Learning Initiative, and the University Design Institute is leading the implementation. Key initiatives for Phase II include:

• Transformation Roadmaps for each of the participating institutions to shape priorities and objectives.
• Implementation of key priorities within each institution, supported by ASU units, to address the needs identified through the Transformation Roadmap process.
• Degrees and certificates through ASU’s Mary Lou Fulton College of Innovation and Teaching for current and future e-Learning professionals to fill instructional design gaps in Africa, including 100 master’s degree programs and 750 certificates in Learning Design and Technologies over the five-year period.