In Eastern Africa, there was a need to provide continuing education and training to help deter emigration and improve the overall quality of health services in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. The Aga Khan University Advanced Nursing Studies programme offers continuing and higher education up to BScN level to working nurses, allowing them to remain at their workplaces while pursuing professional development. “The triumph of pragmatism and professional expertise over ideology is now an accepted wisdom in the realm of education. A lifelong and necessary experience, education is, by common consensus, a powerful driving force in any strategy for national development.”  His Highness the Aga Khan speaking at the Foundation Stone Laying Ceremony of the Aga Khan Academy, Maputo, Mozambique - 25 June 2004.