PRB

The Challenge

Higher education institutions in the East African Community (EAC) face a critical shortage of qualified faculty, threatening both educational quality and the region’s ability to prepare the next generation of leaders, professionals, and researchers. Strong tertiary institutions are essential for human capital development—equipping young people not only with the skills to succeed in the workforce, but also with the knowledge and perspectives needed to contribute to innovation, leadership, and broader social progress. Yet effective planning for faculty recruitment, development, and retention requires accurate and comparable data, which in the EAC is often fragmented, outdated, or incomplete.

Phase 1 of the Demographics of African Faculty–East African Community (DAF-EAC) project confirmed these issues, documenting major data gaps, inconsistencies across institutions and countries, and limited institutional capacity for data collection and management. Without stronger systems and harmonized approaches, universities, policymakers, and funders lack the evidence needed to project future needs, address gender and disciplinary imbalances, or design effective strategies for strengthening higher education. The result is a direct threat to human capital development and to the ability of EAC countries to build the skilled, knowledgeable workforce and civic leaders required for their future.

Our Approach

DAF-EAC addresses these challenges through a phased strategy that combines rigorous data analysis with stakeholder engagement. PRB is partnering with the Inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA), the Association of African Universities (AAU), and Education Sub-Saharan Africa (ESSA) in a consortium that brings together complementary expertise in policy, advocacy, research, and technical analysis.

In Phase 1 (2021–2023), the consortium documented the availability and quality of student and faculty data, analyzed current staffing and student-teacher ratios to estimate the gap in demand and supply of faculty, and developed projections of future needs under different scenarios. These efforts provided the first regional resource on faculty data availability and highlighted critical gaps by producing estimates and projections of the number of faculty deficits. By quantifying these gaps, the project showed just how far institutions must go to recruit and retain the faculty necessary to prepare future workers and sustain human capital development. PRB contributed technical leadership by developing the DAF model for estimating and projecting faculty demand during the Ghana pilot (2018), adapting it to the EAC context, and leading the regional analysis. PRB also designed training materials and delivered a virtual workshop that supported IUCEA-appointed lead researchers and country teams in strengthening their skills in data collection, harmonization, and analysis.

In Phase 2 (2023–2025), the consortium is building on this foundation to strengthen data systems and practices. Key activities include benchmarking existing data collection tools and establishing baselines; refining indicators critical for faculty staffing, such as attrition, doctoral pipelines, and dual appointments; developing harmonized data collection guidelines for the region; and raising awareness of the importance of data management. PRB is working with IUCEA researchers to refine and document key indicators and supporting the development of the harmonized guidelines. These efforts are helping to ensure that higher education institutions have the evidence they need to plan effectively for future faculty, which is central to building strong institutions that can educate the region’s future workforce.

Lessons and outputs from both phases are being shared across the region and continent through IUCEA and AAU platforms, at continental meetings such as COREVIP, and via other conferences and policy forums. In this way, the project not only strengthens data practices in East Africa but also contributes to continental dialogues on investing in higher education and the human capital that will drive Africa’s economic growth, leadership, and social development in the decades ahead.

The DAF-EAC project is made possible with support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York.