The IPA has always stressed the need for capacity building of the publishing and creative infrastructure in developing nations, and Africa is a continent where many countries are crying out for this kind of intervention. In the developed world, trade publishing (books that one buys in bookshops) is often predominant, but in the developing world it is educational publishing that usually takes the lead. And this is as it should be, with education of a country’s population being the surest first step in the evolution of a modern, self-sufficient society.