China's engagement with the post-2015 development agenda: The case of education and training

Abstract

China's South–South cooperation with African education and its human resource development (HRD) strategy may appear to run on different lines from those of traditional OECD donors. The current education for all (EFA) and education millennium development goals (MDG) debates have not been central to China's international education programming. Nor has China been preoccupied until late in 2013 with any future post-2015 development agenda in education. Yet China's claim to be the largest developing country as well as being involved in foreign aid would lead to an expectation of concern with the shape of the emerging post-MDG and post-EFA agendas. How are we to explain this apparent lack of engagement until recently with post-2015 agendas? The focus of China's educational and HRD cooperation with Africa on the higher education level may be part of the explanation.