Case study: Education in support of social transformation-the mastercard foundation scholars program

Abstract

The Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program is the largest private scholarship program ever implemented for African youth. The Program seeks to develop a cohort of next-generation leaders, who will support social transformation and economic growth. This case study reviews the Program’s approach, early results, and learning. It demonstrates how a donor and its partners are engaging in real-time with issues discussed in this book, for instance, the role of scholarships for international education in the context of an Africa-focused initiative. It analyzes the delivery of recruitment and leadership training in the context of the program’s overarching theory of change. At the “meta-level”, the case explores the monitoring, evaluation, and learning framework and how results are woven back into the Program’s operations.