FORGOTTEN OR UNLOVED?

Why LatAM higher education deserves MORE from GLOBAL philanthropY

Why does so little global philanthropy go to Latin American universities? We know higher education is a big beneficiary of global philanthropy. Most of the major philanthropic funders give to universities throughout the world. But very little of that funding goes to Latin American institutions.

As many countries still struggle to respond to the terrible impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, Latin America has been hardest hit. While global GDP fell back by 3 per cent in 2020 in response to the pandemic, the International Monetary Fund concludes Latin America’s contraction of 7 percent was the sharpest anywhere. This is likely to have a long-term impact, especially on the region’s higher education sector. The World Bank reports that many developing economies have reduced their education budgets in the past year.

Few of the great US and European foundations support institutions in Latin America and those that have are now reining back funding to the region as well. Why?

We explore some of the issues.  One of our conclusions is that institutional philanthropy has reinforced for too long an Anglo-Saxon or Western European bias which is beginning to look out of step with the zeitgeist.