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This book offers a nuanced analysis of a US-led foundation initiative of uncommon ambition, featuring seven foundations with a shared commitment to strengthen capacity in higher education in Sub-Saharan African universities. The book examines the conditions under which philanthropy can be effective, the impasses that foundations often face, and the novel context in which philanthropy operates today. This study therefore assesses the shifting grounds on which higher education globally is positioned and the role of global philanthropy within these changing contexts. This is especially important in a moment where higher education is once again recognized as a driver of development and income growth, where knowledge economies requiring additional levels of education are displacing economies predicated on manufacturing, and in a context where higher education itself appears increasingly precarious and under dramatic pressures to adapt to new conditions.

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PART ONE: THE ECOLOGY OF U.S. FOUNDATIONS IN AFRICA

Chapter 1: Century-Old Philanthropic Interests in Africa´s Higher Education

Chapter 2 - Educational Philanthropists and Higher Education Developers

PART TWO: THE COMMONALITIES OF PHILANTHROPIC FOUNDATIONS

Chapter 3 - Foundations Come with Institutional Cultures

Chapter 4 - When Foundations Work Together

Chapter 5 - The Authority of Foundation Presidents

PART THREE: FOUNDATIONS & THE QUESTION OF LEGITIMACY

Chapter 6 - The Legitimacy of American Foundations

Chapter 7 - The Discourse on Priorities among Donors

Chapter 8 - Legitimacy in an Unequal Partnership

Conclusion: Equal Participation and the Challenges of Higher Education Philanthropy

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Fabrice Jaumont serves as Education Attaché for the Embassy of France to the United States. He is also Program Officer for the FACE Foundation, an operating foundation, chartered by the State of New York and dedicated to nurturing French-American cultural exchange through innovative international projects in the arts and education. He holds a PhD in International Development Education from the Steinhardt School of Education, Culture, and Human Development at New York University, USA.

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