June 02, 2025

Fabio Segura, Co-CEO of the Jacobs Foundation, on Redefining Educational Impact Through Systems Change and Cross-Sector Collaboration in Ghana

35 minutes

Fabio Segura, Co-CEO of the Jacobs Foundation, offers a deep dive into the foundation’s bold and evidence-driven approach to improving learning outcomes in low- and high-resource environments alike. At the heart of the discussion is a new $120 million co-funding initiative in Ghana—an ambitious, multi-stakeholder collaboration bringing together the country’s Ministry of Education, the World Bank, the Global Partnership for Education, and an expanding consortium of private sector actors.

What emerges is a compelling framework for what true impact entails. Success is no longer measured solely by the number of schools built or children enrolled, but by the cultivation of resilient education systems that are capable of continuous learning, self-correction, and scale. This means embedding a “culture of rigor” while retaining the humility to revise assumptions as conditions change.

Segura is candid about the complexities of building trust across sectors—philanthropy, government, business, and academia—each of which brings different priorities and expectations to the table. He highlights the importance of clearly defined success metrics, transparent governance structures, and a willingness among partners to surrender individual control for the sake of shared objectives. Notably, he underscores how corporate partners are being asked to expand their lens beyond traditional CSR and consider educational reform as a long-term investment in system-wide human capital development.

Ultimately, Segura offers a persuasive argument for rethinking philanthropic and developmental practice. In a world where challenges outpace resources, the path forward is not to pursue impact in silos, but to build shared, data-informed architectures for change—anchored in realism, yet animated by the conviction that systems can evolve.

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