No Luxury, They're Essential Mamphela Ramphele and Henry Rosovsky Mamphela Remphele was vice chancellor of the University of Cape Town and is currently managing director of the World Bank. Henry Rosovsky is professor emeritus at Harvard University and former dean of Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences. They were cochairs of the Task Force on Higher Education and Society. Recently, World Bank president James Wolfensohn marked a sea change in thinking about higher education in the developing world, endorsing the final report of the Task Force on Higher Education and Society, on which we were fortunate to serve as cochairs. Mr. Wolfensohn committed the World Bank to redoubling its efforts to support higher education, sending an important signal to the rest of the development community.
Education is vital to the prospects of developing countries.
The poor, by definition, have very few resources. Educated, healthy people do not need to be rescued from poverty. They rescue themselves. But the stakes are rising. The knowledge economy demands highly specialized skills.