Building a critical mass of skilled managers at all levels is increasingly seen as a prerequisite for improving the functioning of existing education systems, implementing the ambitious goals of education for all and developing human resource targets set by national governments. This in turn implies the development of a strong institutional framework for training different categories of personnel level.

In Asia, several institutions are involved in training and research in educational planning and management. Yet despite their long-standing experience in assisting their respective governments to strengthen planning and management capacities, they had no established mechanism for exchanging experiences amongst themselves for a long time. As a result, the level of communication between theses institutions was generally poor and many were eager to increase interaction and engage in co-operative activities.

In order to achieve this goal, a network of national and regional Asia institutions was created in December 1995, with the support of the International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP/UNESCO Paris). It was considered that such a network would effectively harness the capacity building potential available within the region by strengthening individual member institutions and placing them in a better position to respond to the training needs of their respective countries.