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• The African Union’s (AU) 2024 theme of the year provides an opportunity to create momentum toward full implementation of the AU’s ten-year Continental Education Strategy for Africa 2016-2025 (CESA)¹ and the achievement of the targets under Sustainable Development Goal 4, “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning for all”. The objective of the AU’s CESA 2016-2025 is to create an education system and skills development that builds quality human capital to deliver the aspirations of the AU’s Agenda 2063 ², in particular, Aspiration 6, “An Africa whose development is people-driven, especially relying on the potential offered by its youth and women.” The AU’s Second Ten-Year Implementation Plan of Agenda 2063 underlines the primacy of education as a means to accelerate the implementation of Agenda 2063 through Moonshot 6 for empowered and productive African citizens ³ In particular, strategic objective 6.1 aims to increase access to quality education and strengthen capacity amongst all Africans.

   

• Recent analysis done by the AU Commission and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) ⁴ has revealed that African governments have not only undertaken policy-level efforts to ensure that no child is left behind but have also implemented a wide range of programmes to achieve the same goal. However, despite these efforts, key challenges remain, including significant limitations on funding, and despite the urgent need, African government spending on education as a share of GDP remained stagnant at around 3.7 per cent in 2021 since 2012. ^5 6 Other key challenges are the high rate of children out of school ⁷ at present, 288 million school-age children in Africa are not in school, particularly in crisis-affected countries – and high rates of learning poverty.^8 9

   

• Moreover, in 2014, member States of the AU adopted the Science, Technology, and Innovation Strategy for Africa (STISA-2024)¹⁰ to provide policy direction and priority areas for investment in Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI). The expectation is that STI will not only accelerate the attainment of quality education in Africa but also contribute to the implementation of the SDGs and Agenda 2063 priorities. Education is an economic and social right for all citizens in the facilitation of human well-being. STI is a multiplier tool and enables the achievement of Africa’s goal of inclusive education and sustainable development. STI will not only lead to the growth of innovative solutions to address Africa’s challenges and build resilience, but it will also drive forward Africa’s industrial and human development by improving skills for job creation, supporting entrepreneurs, widening access to schools in remote areas, and contributing to demand-driven systems for businesses and the private sector. It is also expected to revamp and enhance the skills required in key sectors, namely agriculture, environmental affairs, health, security and water, among others. Investments in STI will boost job creation and productivity, which are key prerequisites for economic structural transformation on the continent.

   

• STI has the potential to bridge the skills deficiency gap in most sectors in Africa. As human talent and skills are developed across the continent, investment in research, science, and innovation will increase across various sectors, including manufacturing, which will be a significant factor in helping African countries realize their development goals. It is envisaged that?business-to-business spending in manufacturing in Africa will reach $1 trillion by 2050 – a trend that creates a massive opportunity for the continent’s overall growth.¹¹

   

• Furthermore, STI may enable Africa’s economic transformation at both the structural level (the transfer of resources from lower- to higher-productivity sectors) and the sectoral level (the increase of productivity within sectors).¹² STI may increase Africa’s contribution to world research output and research spending and produce more patents. Presently when it comes to research and innovation, Africa only contributes 2 per cent of world research output, accounts for 1.3 per cent of research spending, and produces 0.9 per cent of all patents.¹³

   

• This fits within the context of the urgent Calls to Action for investment in education toward full implementation of SDG 4 ¹⁴ as well as the United Nations Secretary-General’s Vision Statement on “Transforming Education: An Urgent Political Imperative for our Collective Future”.¹⁵ SDG 4 and its targets are interlinked with all other SDGs, including but not limited to the five Goals to be reviewed at the 2024 United Nations High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF).¹⁶

   

• There are various challenges that Africa’s education system is facing, including lack of infrastructure, insufficient qualified teachers, inadequate funding, inefficiencies of public spending in education, and lack of data on education including Science Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) spending, inadequate labour market relevance of training and lack of career guidance and orientation, crisis, and instability, as well as gender and geographic inequalities. The global United Nations Transforming Education Summit, held in September 2022, gave renewed impetus towards improving, and re-thinking, education in Africa and elsewhere. However, overall, the continent has been slow in providing quality education for all. To address these challenges, countries should, inter alia, aim to increase budget allocations to education and training infrastructure, investment in digital connectivity, and teacher training.¹⁷ In addition, countries should also invest in capacities to anticipate current and future skills needs commensurate with the development in technology and science and aligned to the market dynamics, forging closer linkages with the world of work.

   

• To leapfrog and unlock the full potential of STI as a driver towards the ‘Africa We Want’, the continent's various limitations must be addressed including but not limited to funding, brain-drain, a weak Research and Development (R&D) ecosystem, lack of infrastructure, access to information and technology, policy, and regulatory frameworks, as well as socio-cultural factors.

   

• While allocating more resources to invest in infrastructure, curriculum, and digital learning is crucial for enhancing educational quality, it is essential to recognize that these elements alone may not suffice to create a significant transformation in the education sector. Evidence suggests the pivotal role of early childhood education and Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN), along with integrating teacher capacity for development, in laying the groundwork for lifelong learning and academic success, ultimately producing the highest dividends.

   

• The 2024 edition of the Africa Dialogue Series (ADS) aims to explore how STI can act as a critical multiplier tool to help Africa achieve its educational and sustainable development goals. ADS 2024 will examine three sub-themes, each addressing a different set of challenges and opportunities. The first sub-theme will explore linkages from education to labour market outcomes in the African context – specifically looking at how STEM education allows Africa to benefit from and contribute to the economic opportunities offered by the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). The second sub-theme will consider the questions of whether the digital revolution can truly unlock Africa's educational and training potential and, significantly, whether sufficient and equitable financing can be mobilized to achieve the education outcomes, as envisaged by the SDG 4, including by ensuring adequate technology infrastructure. Finally, the issue of education and training in crisis-affected areas will be explored under the third subtheme - how to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and training in sometimes dire circumstances, including the role of STI in helping to achieve educational outcomes.

   

Partners of Choice – United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and International Labour Organization (ILO)

• Over the past decades, many African countries have declared free and universal primary education, with some also including secondary education. However, challenges remain in promoting inclusive and quality education and training in Africa and improving school completion rates due, among others, to structural constraints traversing investment in education and training, infrastructure deficit, the lack of teachers and trainers, inadequate labour market relevance of training and lack of career guidance and orientation, and the digital divide, which are interlinked and mutually reinforcing and strongly affect enrolment levels and education and skills development outcomes. The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2023 underscores the particular challenges facing African countries such as primary completion rates, which are still low compared to other regions, including due to economic burdens.¹⁸ As a result of the shocks to education and learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic, learning poverty increased by a third from 2019 to 2022 in low- and middle-income countries, with an estimated 70 per cent of 10-year-olds unable to understand a simple written text.¹⁹ These figures are even more dire in the African context, where 86 per cent of children were estimated in 2022 to be unable to read a basic text by age 10²⁰. These figures reflect profound disparities within and among countries, thus exacerbating inequalities and reducing the capacity to benefit from and contribute to the economic opportunities offered by rapid technological advances, digitalization, and the 4IR, and climate change.

   

• Nevertheless, the continent has enormous potential to transform education and skills development into a lever to support national, regional, and continental efforts to strengthen economic diversification and inclusive and sustainable industrialization, promote sustainable development, and harness the massive potential of the continent’s demographic dividend. Promoting and investing in STEM education is critical to unleashing the potential of Africa’s burgeoning youth population to drive innovation and entrepreneurship, enhancing value addition and manufacturing, and strengthening Africa’s regional and global value chain integration. It is also critical to capitalize on STEM education and skills if Africa is to leapfrog as a global leader in addressing mega developmental trends in emerging technologies, generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), cyber security, climate change, green economy, and global health. In the last two decades, STEM education has gained increased attention globally with governments and industry intensifying their focus on the role of STEM education as a means for economic and sustainable development²¹. African governments have long appreciated the importance of investing in human capital by promoting science and technology for Africa's accelerated growth and development and improvement of productivity of enterprises for more decent work opportunities. As part of this commitment, most African countries have developed national policies that promote STEM education through domesticating the AU strategy, STISA-2024. However, even though most African government development policies and national plans mention STEM (usually called Mathematics and Science), policy implementation has remained a challenge, due to the need for implementation strategies, budgeted resources, and a monitoring and evaluation framework, with clear performance indicators. Some African countries such as Egypt, Rwanda and South Africa developed excellent policies in this regard²². Lack of implementation is attributed to, among others, limited capacity (to coordinate and implement), weak linkages/engagement with industry and lack of financial resources, with STEM competing with other important priorities.

   

Relative scarcity of STEM education has put Africa at a disadvantage.

• The lack of investment in STEM education has caused African countries to fall behind on implementing STEM education outputs compared to other regions. African countries graduated between 14 per cent and 38 per cent of students with STEM-related degrees in 2022, with the highest rate (38 per cent) recorded in Tunisia according to UNESCO statistics²³ insufficient investment has a significant impact on research. For instance, when it comes to research and innovation, Africa only contributes 2 per cent of world research output, accounts for barely 1.3 per cent of research spending²⁴, and produces 0.9 per cent of all patents, the global share of which has not increased since 2012.²⁵ Africa has approximately 198 scientists per million people, as compared to the 4,500 per million people in the United States, for example.²⁶? Most African countries heavily rely on imported technologies developed from other continents instead of developing their own technologies²⁷. According to World Economic Forum statistics, less than 2 per cent of African students under 18 years complete school with basic?STEM skills. Furthermore, among African university students, only about 25 per cent pursue STEM-related fields for career opportunities²⁸.

   

• Moreover, one in every five persons in Africa is a youth aged 15-24 years, and this cohort is largely unemployed. Further, more than one in four young people in Africa – around 72 million – are not in employment, education or training. Two-thirds of them are young women.²⁹ Every year, 11 million African youth enter the labour market, and many of them lack the skills needed for employment³⁰. Based on ILO data, Information and Communications Technology (ICT), science, and engineering occupations are among the fastest-growing occupations for young men aged 20-24 and young women and men aged 25-29, particularly in upper-middle- and high-income countries. Meanwhile, the digital divide in low- and lower-middle-income countries constrains the supply and demand for these occupations. Africa is lagging in terms of building capacity in computer programming and technological skills. This calls for the need for African countries to invest in ICT infrastructure, STEM education and related training programmes and training pedagogies. In addition, occupations in the health sector are among the fastest-growing occupations in all countries.³¹ Investment in ICT infrastructure is key as it serves to enable the digital economy and to advance progress towards the SDGs and through this improve people’s lives in fundamental ways. Deploying broadband internet in big towns and cities happens almost naturally. However, deploying these networks to rural and remote areas is markedly more challenging.³² This highlights the importance of tackling the digital divide and promoting connectivity to promote STEM education.

   

Mismatch between skill set acquired and what the job market requires from Africa’s youth.

• The African Development Bank’s 2020 African Economic Outlook report notes that although a significant number of African countries have greatly improved access to basic education, however access to post-basic education is still a major challenge for many countries in the continent. Specifically, the geographical disparities in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and other skills development opportunities have left many young people on the continent to acquire skills informally and non-formally³³. Moreover, there is a mismatch between the skill set acquired and what the job market requires from the youth after years of schooling.³⁴ It is estimated that millions of students graduate not having the necessary skills and knowledge to progress to further education or the workforce.³⁵ Several African countries have limited capacity and output of technical skills training that is crucial for technicians needed to support STI-based economic activities. Such low STEM skill output has negatively impacted STI-enabled and knowledge-based socioeconomic development.

   

• One of the missing links is the extent to which STEM education has been implemented, besides also having intentional links between school and industry. It is imperative that significant investments in education and TVET are directed towards ensuring relevance to enhance employability in STEM careers in industry, given that the number of young people in?Africa’s workforce is set to increase to 375 million by 2030.³⁶ In this regard, promoting STEM education among African youth can lead to a significant positive impact, including on their potential careers and income.

   

• The UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report 2023 underscores the importance of STEM education quality for determining student aspirations and achievement. The report indicates that early exposure to STEM positively shapes students’ attitudes towards STEM, including contributing to reducing the gender divide and women’s underrepresentation in STEM fields, as this early exposure reduces the effects of gender and social considerations that continue to limit girls’ and women’s participation in STEM-related fields.³⁷

   

• In addition, prioritizing quality STEM education, including for women and girls, and related pedagogies is crucial for ensuring that African men and women have the skills and capacities needed in rapidly changing economies and labour markets due to technological advances and digitalization. This can be achieved by prioritizing Universal Quality Basic Education through curriculum reforms, STEM teacher training programmes and more, including gender and peer learning, as well as promoting quality higher education. There is also a need to strengthen existing STEM Centres of Excellence to boost their capacity and impact. The 2024 ILO Report on World Employment and Social Outlook emphasizes the rapidly changing labour market due to accelerating technological progress, including generative AI as the latest digital innovation, which continues to test the resilience of labour markets.³⁸ Policies and frameworks implemented by African countries in education and training must aim to expand opportunities for African youth to gain the skills to deal with and contribute to technological progress.

   

Technology and the transformation of the economy in Africa.

• These rapid technological advancements are also transforming the economy, as demonstrated by the growing utilization of digital solutions in agriculture, manufacturing, and services and in delivering social services (e.g., e-health and e-learning). These new dynamics, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, make possessing digital skills crucial for competition in the labour market and benefiting from the soaring job creation in the digital economy. For example, a study by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) estimated that over 230 million jobs in Sub-Saharan Africa will require digital skills by 2030, resulting in almost 650 million training opportunities, including business-to-business, business-to-government, and business-to-consumer.³⁹ The IFC estimates that this growing demand for digital skills will be driven mainly by enterprises adopting digital technologies, which requires aligning education and training with this surge in demand and promoting the affordability of digital skills training.⁴⁰

   

• To this end, there are growing efforts at the country level to elevate the digital capacity of their human resources. Many countries are developing and are at various stages of implementing their national digital blueprints or strategies. Programmes supporting digital literacy and skills such as “Boosting decent jobs and enhancing skills for youth in Africa’s digital economy”, a joint programme of the ILO, International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and AU,⁴¹ aim to support AU's ambition in this space.

   

• Furthermore, it is imperative to promote relevant initiatives implemented within the framework of international development cooperation, including by the United Nations system, such as the “Pan African Initiative for Digital Transformation of Technical and Vocational Education and Training and Skills Development Systems in Africa”, launched by UNESCO in 2021 to advance the digital transformation of the TVET and skills development systems.

   

Financing for STEM education: varied approaches will be required.

• At the national level, effective implementation of STEM and STI policies and programmes will require adequate financing. For instance, African countries should strengthen Domestic Resource Mobilization (DRM) to ensure dedicated funding for STEM education programmes and long-term sustainability. This could be complemented by measures to improve efficiency in government spending, which could result in reallocating funds to priority expenditures such as STEM programmes. Multi-stakeholder partnerships, including partnerships between education authorities and local industry as well as partnerships with community-based centres, must be enhanced to finance STEM education initiatives. This will ensure the provision of resources and facilities, including internet connectivity, which are critical for delivering quality STEM education.

   

• In the same vein, it is imperative to adopt integrated and coordinated policies to advance progress across the socioeconomic, and environmental pillars of sustainable development to achieve the SDGs and the aspirations of Agenda 2063. Given the strong interlinkages and synergies among the SDGs, progress on SDGs such as SDG 1 on poverty would positively impact progress towards SDG 4, particularly as poverty continues to be a significant barrier to inclusive education.⁴² Therefore, public policies must aim to integrate digital development policies into national development plans and utilize these synergies through coordinated and integrated policymaking and financing approaches that harness the interlinkages between quality education, STI, employment and inclusive economic growth. One way of doing so is by systematically promoting an education and skills governance structure that brings all key stakeholders to the table through robust social dialogue.

   

Partners of Choice – International Telecommunication Union (ITU), World Bank Group, and United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA)

• Providing access to quality education to all of Africa’s youth would not only fulfil a basic human right but also act as a key enabler to put the continent back on the right track to achieve the internationally agreed development goals such as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development⁴³, and the African Union’s development blueprint Agenda 2063.

   

• According to the UN population statistics, by 2030, nearly half of young people globally will be living in Africa. This means that to fully harness this demographic dividend, education in Africa should be transformed from the ground up to furnish the growing youth population with sustainable vocational skills that will enable them to participate in the ever-changing and more demanding labour markets of the future that demand digital and other 21st century skills.

   

• However, our starting point is not promising: Over 700 million people lack basic literacy skills, with women being a larger proportion (two-thirds of those lacking basic literacy skills) according to UNESCO⁴⁴. Most regions have primary completion rates of nearly 90 per cent or higher, except Sub-Saharan Africa, where fewer than two-thirds of children complete primary school. In impoverished regions, poor learning outcomes lead to high drop-out rates and delayed completion. In Sub-Saharan Africa, although 80 per cent of primary-aged children are enrolled in school, only 62 per cent graduate on time.⁴⁵ Economic burdens, like expenses for schoolbooks and uniforms, plus opportunity costs, also contribute to the non-completion of education. A recent joint report by UNESCO and the African Union Commission shows that despite the efforts by African Member States to ensure quality education for all, too many children are still being left behind. One in five primary school-age children is not in the classroom. And almost six in 10 adolescents are out of school. This is due to several related factors such as geographical location, gender, extreme poverty, disability, teacher absenteeism, crises, conflict, and displacement. Furthermore, some African countries record zero upper secondary school completion rates for girls from the poorest backgrounds.⁴⁶

   

Africa suffers the most from insufficient and inequitable education financing.

• The Transforming Education Summit of 2022 called on governments and all stakeholders to mobilize concrete and solution-oriented actions to recover from COVID-19 pandemic-related learning losses and transform this challenge into an opportunity to rekindle efforts to achieve SDG 4 including through the deployment of innovative digital technologies in education. This objective can only be achieved if universal, inclusive, and sustained efforts are made to mobilize sufficient, predictable, and equitable financing to overcome fiscal constraints, including through capacity-building investments to enhance the efficiency of education spending and equity of the outcomes of such spending.

   

• Currently, public spending falls short of commitments and fails to promote equity. The Incheon Declaration and Framework for Action for the Implementation of SDG 4, also known as Education 2030, was adopted during the World Education Forum in 2015. The signatories to the Declaration committed to allocate 4 to 6 per cent of their GDPs or 15-20 per cent of their public spending on education. Yet, according to UNICEF⁴⁷, only one in 10 countries meets the 20 per cent commitment and four in 10 meet the 15 per cent commitment. Furthermore, the same report argues that the COVID-19 pandemic magnified the challenges of chronic underinvestment in education and highlighted large financing gaps across countries. Low- and middle-income countries were hit much harder than high-income countries with more than half of the former countries reporting a decline in their education budget from 2020 to 2021, whereas only one in 10 high-income countries experienced the same setback⁴⁸. According to UNICEF’s calculations, to be truly equitable at least 20 per cent of public resources should be allocated to the poorest 20 per cent of the population.

   

• Despite all these commitments, in some countries, the learners from the poorest quintile receive 10 per cent or less of the public education spending, with 12 out of 13 such countries being in Africa. Among these, in Guinea and Mali, the poorest receive only 6 per cent, in Chad the poorest receive 7 per cent, and in Central African Republic and Cote d’Ivoire they receive only 8 per cent of public education spending.⁴⁹ Furthermore, public education spending is disproportionately skewed towards learners from the richest households. UNICEF calculations also show that in one out of every 10 countries, students from the richest 20 per cent of households receive four or more times the public education spending compared to the poorest 20 per cent. Globally, all such countries are in Africa, for example, Guinea (8.4 times), Mali (7.9 times) and Chad (6.8 times).⁵⁰

   

• Securing sustainable financing for education is likely one of the major constraints. Official Development Assistance (ODA) to education, although important, cannot be a substitute for lack of domestic resources and steady financing for education. In fact, ODA accounts for less than 3 per cent of overall education spending – although it is a vital lifeline for some low-income countries, representing up to 18 per cent of the education spending.⁵¹ Unfortunately, the share of ODA allocated to education has also shrunk during the pandemic.⁵²

   

• According to UNICEF, globally, two-thirds of 10-year-olds were learning poor in 2022, that is unable to read and understand a simple text. However, there is an aligning opportunity for improvement: The same report estimates that a one percentage point increase (as a share of GDP) in the share of public education spending allocated to the poorest 20 per cent leads to a 2.6 to 4.7 percentage point reduction in learning poverty rates – even under the scenario that overall public spending on education remains the same.⁵³ This equates globally to 35 million primary school-aged children being raised out of learning poverty. Such interventions also have a great potential to make a huge difference in a country such as Mali, where learning poverty is recorded at above 90 per cent. Therefore, UNICEF asserts that significantly raising the share of public education spending for the poorest 20 per cent from 6.5 per cent, say to 20 per cent, could reduce learning poverty by 35 percentage points.

   

Innovative Finance to Fund Education in Africa: an all-hands-on-deck approach.

• Governments often fail to meet the minimum benchmarks on public education expenditures. Among the 42 of 54 African countries with data in 2020–23, 12 countries, (29 per cent), met both minimum international benchmarks of at least 15 per cent of total public expenditure for education and at least 4 per cent of GDP dedicated to education⁵⁴. At the opposite end of the spectrum, 16 countries, (38 per cent) failed to meet either of two minimum international benchmarks. Furthermore, while the expenditure on education in Africa as a percentage of GDP has remained stagnant⁵⁵, there has been a 3 per cent drop in government spending on education as a percentage of budgets, indicating a diversion of resources away from investment in education to address the urgency of debt servicing.⁵⁶

   

• With national budgets under pressure due to the COVID-19 Pandemic and its aftermath, the impact of the worsening peace and security situation, and an increasing debt crisis, it has become clear that the traditional sources of finance should be complemented with new and additional tools and instruments of innovative finance to crowd in private finance.

   

• In the past, innovative finance was discussed as a pragmatic way forward to address funding shortages, including by introducing a financial transaction tax to manage the recovery from the 2009 economic and financial crisis by the G-20 nations.

   

• Similar measures, such as an airline levy or a levy on soccer tickets, were also considered. The key point here would be to channel the proceeds from such financial innovations into investments in inclusive sustainable development in general and in SDG 4 in particular.

   

• Among other potential instruments is the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) Multiplier, which provides $300 million to complement other initiatives by providing additional incentives to crowd in additional financing for countries implementing education sector plans.⁵⁷

   

• Debt swaps for education are another path worth pursuing. Along these lines, a noteworthy tool is called Debt2Ed, which promotes a novel approach to help transform debt into education investments. Not only does this instrument lower the debt burden, but also it reduces the cost of borrowing and facilitates the implementation of more efficient expenditure programmes for education.⁵⁸

   

• Impact bonds, such as those incorporated into the Ghana Education Outcomes Project (GEOP), which was launched jointly by the World Bank and the Government of Ghana, is another financial innovation that aims to reintegrate out-of-school children back into the formal education system and improve primary school learning outcomes. Under the impact bond model, the government works jointly with social investors and other non-state actors as service providers to provide upfront financing in cases where public service providers cannot do so. Payments are then made based on agreed-upon outcomes, transferring the financial risk away from the government and onto the implementers⁵⁹. Another example from outside the African continent is the Educate Girls Development Impact Bond (DIB) launched in Rajasthan, India, aimed to improve girls' education in low-income, rural areas. It became the world's first DIB in education to outperform its targets, surpassing its goals in both learning outcomes and enrollment rates⁶⁰. Such impact bonds can be used to raise additional finance and address unequal access in marginalized communities.

   

• It is important that innovative financing methods generate additional resources to already existing traditional sources of finance, that they are sustainable and predictable, and are deliberately earmarked for education in Africa, measured against concrete benchmarks.

   

• Innovative finance mechanisms must also be implemented in ways which contribute towards building capacity for DRM. Long-term education financing must be anchored within the capacity of African Governments to raise predictable sources of financing domestically.

   

Bridging the digital divide.

• Since the COVID-19 pandemic, ICT has proven to be a key component of the future of education in Africa and elsewhere⁶¹. In the face of a pandemic that shut down economies and closed schools, resorting to remote options leveraging ICT, especially mobile technologies, helped consolidate learning outcomes and contributed to the resilience of societies. Preliminary research undertaken at the country level suggests that ICT can help improve literacy outcomes (based on pre-COVID-19 pandemic data from Kenya)⁶² and improve learning gains even through low-tech interventions, such as SMS usage and phone calls (based on post-COVID-19 pandemic data from Botswana)⁶³. The transition to remote learning has underscored pre-existing disparities in access to technology and education. Numerous students residing in rural and underserved regions lacked the essential devices and internet connectivity required for online classes, exacerbating the existing inequality. Nonetheless, African governments must still overcome significant challenges in delivering equitable and quality education remotely, as envisaged in SDG 4 when access to ICT infrastructure is unavailable, unequal and patchy/unreliable⁶⁴. This further highlights the need to prioritize investment in the enabling infrastructure, including electricity and digital connectivity, to enable and accelerate the implementation of education for all.

   

• The African Union theme of the year 2024 is “Educate and Skill Africa for the 21st Century'”. The theme focuses on educating an African fit for the 21st century by building resilient education systems for increased access to inclusive, lifelong, quality, and relevant learning in Africa. High-quality, inclusive and accessible digital education can be achieved by enhancing school connectivity, digital content and digital platforms for e-learning. It is quite imperative to ensure that every school and college is connected to high-speed internet and every young person has access to reliable, affordable and secure ICT devices and services. With reliable connectivity, students can gain access to a wealth of educational opportunities online, which enables them to learn not just from their immediate surroundings but also globally. It opens new pathways for learning and transformation enabling them to effectively participate and compete in the global digital economy.

   

Making the coverage comprehensive is only part of the solution.

• The World Bank estimates that reaching the African Union’s goal of universal and affordable internet coverage will increase GDP growth in Africa by at least 1.5 to 2 percentage points per year.⁶⁵ Also, the probability of employment — regardless of education level — increases by 6.9 to 13.2 per cent when fast internet becomes available, since it facilitates employment by firms and boosts productivity and exports.⁶⁶ Despite progress in recent years, only 36 per cent of Africa's population had broadband Internet access in 2022. Furthermore, the substantial 10 percentage-point digital gender gap (42 per cent versus 32 per cent) and a significant divide in digital skills continue to hamper the continent's progress towards achieving internet universality.⁶⁷

   

• In this regard, leveraging the digital revolution offers a unique opportunity for the transformation of African economies, including through the provision of quality education to its growing youth population, if Africa can address its sizeable deficits in digital infrastructure as well as content and skills.

   

• It is also worth noting here that the provision of ICT infrastructure and digital services and incorporating these into the curricula can only succeed if African policymakers prioritize powering Africa at local level and keep the schools functioning with basic services.

   

• Significant investment is required to build appropriate digital infrastructure that ensures accessible digital education for all. Considering inadequate resources and declining budgets for education partly due to competing priorities, innovative approaches are required to multiply the sources of education financing and give all children a quality education by 2030. Governments have an important role to play in bringing together all stakeholders to form impact-oriented partnerships for accessible digital education, through innovative financing approaches. A range of innovative financing mechanisms could be explored to mobilize and direct financial resources toward the implementation of accessible digital education. The mechanism may include but is not limited to venture capital, public-private co-financing mechanisms, and results-based financing.

   

• Additionally, by leveraging innovative financing mechanisms and fostering ownership at the community level, school connectivity projects can achieve sustainability, resilience, and lasting impact, ultimately advancing educational opportunities for all students.

   

Making skills available far and wide to make the most of the digital revolution.

• Availability of the ICT infrastructure is not the only constraint. The affordability of such services and the necessary devices to access the internet as well as the ICT skills to benefit from such services and contribute to the development of appropriate local content and application are critical but largely lacking. Relatively low levels of ICT skills are a major impediment to bridging the digital divide within and among countries on the continent. Data on digital skills are limited, only available in 78 countries worldwide (and scarcer in Africa) and rarely available for all five categories of skills (communication/collaboration, problem-solving, safety, content creation, and information/data literacy). While 86 per cent of individuals use the Internet in countries globally providing data, many lack the required digital skills to be able to benefit from it or completely avoid its dangers such as cybersecurity and data privacy concerns. Communication/collaboration skills are the most prevalent, followed by problem-solving, safety, and content creation. Information/data literacy varies widely between countries. Among 74 countries that provided data on at least three skill areas, only five reported averages of over 75 per cent in multiple areas.⁶⁸

   

• Despite the increase in the use of digital technologies in delivering public services, such as health and education, Africa still lags behind the rest of the world in internet usage. Only 37 per cent of its population has access to internet, which is below the global average of over 60 per cent.⁶⁹ A joint report by ITU and the United Nations Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (UN-OHRLLS) further highlights that Least Developed Countries (LDCs) – most of which are in Africa – are largely not making productive use of broadband technologies due to a variety of reasons.⁷⁰ Moreover, while 67 per cent of the Small Island and Developing States (SIDS) population is online, in line with the world’s average, which shows that there is a high demand for ICT services in the SIDS but also amongst them inadequate infrastructure, capacity and affordability remain key barriers to connectivity.⁷¹ According to the latest data from the Digital Skills Gap Index (2021), African countries score between 1.8 and 5 (out of 10) and rank below the world average of 6. Of the twenty lowest-ranking countries in terms of digital skills, 12 are in Africa. Furthermore, even among the graduates of tertiary education in Africa, only 11 per cent have received some form of digital training before graduation.⁷² This situation calls for the urgent development of digital skills and related skills to drive innovation in the education sector.

   

Quality education is only possible with highly qualified teachers.

• The availability of qualified teachers is a critical ingredient of the strategy to make quality education available to all. The Continental Education Strategy for Africa (2016-2025) recognizes teachers as being at the centre of the strategy and aims explicitly to revitalize the teaching profession in Africa as its first strategic objective. The impact that teachers have on students’ lives goes beyond short-term learning outcomes and stretches well into longer-term social and labour market outcomes⁷³. Although gender-disaggregated data is limited, research shows that female teachers contribute more to girls’ learning outcomes and school completion⁷⁴, and teachers born in the same school district are less likely to engage in absenteeism⁷⁵.

   

• When the SDGs were adopted in 2015, UNESCO estimated that 17 million teachers would need to be recruited in Sub-Saharan Africa (out of 69 million globally) to achieve the education SDGs by the target date of 2030. The latest data from 2023 shows that much of that gap is still to be filled in Sub-Saharan Africa, where 15 million more teachers are needed (in comparison to 44 million globally).⁷⁶ In other words, Africa has been falling behind even in the speed of addressing teacher shortages.⁷⁷ Coupled with the need for training to leverage cutting-edge ICT technologies, addressing this will require a serious rethinking of the financing of the education sector.

   

• The issue of quality educational content tailored to local contexts is crucial, particularly in addressing the rich cultural background of African content. Supporting multilingualism is essential for ensuring that educational materials are accessible and relevant to diverse linguistic communities across the continent.

   

• In addition, alignment with industry needs is indeed a critical issue, as it directly influences whether the skills acquired from learning institutions align with the demands of the job market. This alignment ensures that education and training programs equip students with the relevant knowledge and competencies required to succeed in their chosen fields. By bridging the gap between education and industry, institutions can better prepare students for future employment opportunities and contribute to economic growth and development.

   

Partners of Choice – United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

• Learning poverty – the proportion of children unable to read and understand a simple text by age 10 ⁷⁸ – for children living in what the World Bank designates as Fragility, Conflict and Violence (FCV) countries is usually more than 90 per cent and can range as high as 99 per cent. Children living in FCV countries complete far fewer years of education than their non-FCV counterparts. Adjusted for learning, the discrepancy is even starker. On average, children in FCV countries attend about 8.7 years of school, versus a global average of more than 11 years. However, when adjusted for learning, this drops to about 5.1 years of actual learning, versus a global average of 7.8 years.⁷⁹

   

• Violent political conflict has devastating impacts on education systems and learning. In most cases, it causes extensive school closures, due to security concerns, as well as limits on mobility. Worse, schools may be at the heart of the conflict. According to the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack, from 2015-19 there were more than 11,000 attacks worldwide on education, harming more than 22,000 students, teachers, and education personnel.⁸⁰ Public schools and teachers can become targets for militant groups. Even when not direct victims of conflict, children and teachers living through situations of conflict are subject to its traumatic psychological effects, leading to low learning levels and high dropout rates.⁸¹

   

Crises causing severe disruptions to learning: conflict, climate change and others.

• In Africa, conflict, insecurity and the resulting humanitarian crises have severely disrupted education systems. Between 2020 and 2021, more than 2,000 attacks on schools and educational infrastructures were documented in 14 African countries. In the central Sahel, armed conflict and threats of attack led to the closures of 7,000 schools, while more than 30,000 teachers were unable to teach. Research clearly shows that girls are particularly affected and are less likely to return following such school closures, while forcibly displaced children have, on average, fewer years of schooling and a lower likelihood of transitioning to secondary school.⁸²

   

• There is also a strong correlation between crisis-affected areas in Africa and regions disproportionately affected by climate change, featuring forced migration due to climate disasters.⁸³ Addressing education in crisis-affected areas also requires investing in climate adaptation measures as a means of conflict prevention, reinforcing the resilience of communities to cope with climate-induced exogenous shocks. This includes integrating schools into climate-resilient food production networks and ensuring that schools have reliable access to potable water amongst others. Moreover, it is imperative to recognize the interplay between climate change and educational infrastructure, especially in the context of eco- and child-friendly school construction initiatives like green schools and Building Back Better. As temperatures rise, it becomes increasingly challenging for students to learn effectively. Therefore, school designs need to prioritize climate resilience to ensure optimal learning environments amidst changing environmental conditions.

   

• Crises disrupt educational systems, leading to the closure of schools, displacement of populations, and the destruction of infrastructure. This disruption disproportionately affects girls, who are already marginalized in many societies. Girls are often pulled out of school to assist with household chores, marry early, or are subject to gender-based violence, further impeding their access to education.

   

Gender inequalities are exacerbated by crises.

• Crises also exacerbate pre-existing gender inequalities. Deep-rooted patriarchal norms limit girls' freedom of movement and opportunities for education, perpetuating cycles of poverty and marginalization. As a result, women and girls are more likely to be illiterate, with limited access to critical skills and knowledge necessary for their empowerment and participation in society. Additionally, gender issues in conflict zones are not limited to girls; boys are also significantly affected. They may become income earners for their families and are often drawn into out-of-school activities, which deprives them of educational opportunities.

   

• Efforts to address these challenges require a multifaceted approach to ensure the safety and security of educational spaces and provide safe environments for learning free from violence and intimidation.

   

• During a crisis, ensuring that education systems can continue to deliver quality education is crucial to mitigate risks and prepare for recovery. Prolonged disruption could lead to entire generations of children not being educated, severely limiting their future opportunities and creating a massive loss of human capital for their country.⁸⁴ The right to education is guaranteed in the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child.⁸⁵

   

• In October 2021, the United Nations Security Council adopted resolution 2601 (2021) on the protection of education during conflict, the first such Council resolution dedicated specifically to protecting education. Resolution 2601 calls upon parties to promote the right to education, as well as for Member States to facilitate its continuation during armed conflict, while also highlighting the contribution that education offers towards the achievement of peace and security. Notably, the resolution calls on Member States to work towards the continuation of education for refugee and displaced children in realizing their right to education.⁸⁶

   

Displaced children and youth need to be assured educational options.

• In 2022, the number of forcibly displaced people reached 36 million on the African continent – a threefold increase over the previous 10 years – and the majority are children and young people.⁸⁷ Displaced children and youth have a right to education. Their right to and need for quality education do not pause in times of emergency and displacement; instead, they become amplified. Access to inclusive and equitable quality education in national systems creates conditions in which children and youth can learn, thrive and develop their potential; build individual and collective resilience; experience and negotiate peaceful coexistence; and contribute to the societies in which they live. Inclusion is the best option for refugees, asylum seekers and stateless children and youth and their hosting communities.⁸⁸

   

• Education alone does not prevent conflict from erupting. However, education is central to sustainable peacebuilding and offers a tangible opportunity to build human capital and to break cycles of inequality that are a salient feature of fragile and crisis-affected States on the continent.⁸⁹ Furthermore, keeping children in school during crises or conflict provides a sense of normalcy, which is essential to their psychological well-being and cognitive development.⁹⁰

   

• Children, adolescents, and youth in emergency contexts face numerous challenges in accessing and obtaining a quality education. A focus on strengthening a coordinated humanitarian-development approach to supporting learners is needed. One key element is how the learning that young people acquire during conflict, crisis or displacement is recognized and validated across different national contexts – especially as refugee youth may find themselves living in a new country for the long term as part of their displacement. Young people should be able to have their learning and diplomas acquired before or during displacement recognized. When these learners find that the only option is to start their schooling again, through either traditional primary education or accelerated education programmes, this can contribute to their frustrations about current and prospects, regardless of their personal motivation to go back to school. Despite these significant challenges, there is increasing political will in some regions to overcome these obstacles. The Djibouti Declaration on Regional Refugee Education was signed by eight countries in East Africa in 2017. The subsequent Action Plan that was developed and endorsed by these countries laid out specific points about accreditation and certification of education programmes, both for learners and teachers.⁹¹ It is also important to support young refugees to be integrated into the higher education system and labour market, such as putting in place a mechanism for recognizing their prior learning and qualification in the host countries, as promoted through the Addis Convention on the Recognition of Higher Education and supported through collaboration around UNESCO Qualification Passport.

   

School meal programmes to increase school enrolment, attendance and retention rates.

• Finally, school meals programmes have been shown to increase school enrolment and attendance, even in the face of instability, fragility or violence. It is important to note that even though school meals increase school attendance, they do not necessarily guarantee effective learning. The World Food Programme (WFP) highlights a programme in Central African Republic where, in cooperation with World Vision, an emergency school meal programme was implemented as part of a broader food assistance programme in six prefectures experiencing high levels of violent conflict. The objectives of the emergency school feeding interventions were to increase school enrolment, attendance and retention rates, especially for girls, in areas of the country marked by conflict, fragility and violence. Each school day, World Vision provided a healthy, nutritious meal to 24,000 students to help the most vulnerable children access nutritious food, keep them in school and reduce the risk of child labour. Nutritious eating can lead to better and more effective learning. Nutritious meals provide essential nutrients that support overall brain health, impacting academic performance. With a view to ensuring the sustainability of the school feeding interventions and to support the Government’s national priorities on education and economic development, in 2021 there was a strategic shift from emergency school meal programmes towards more systems strengthening approaches. For school meals, this meant pivoting to a home-grown school meals approach, where the country’s smallholder farmers increased their production and income through providing the food for the schools. Managers of schools where World Vision provides hot meals have informally confirmed that primary schools have seen an increase in the retention rate of pupils and a decrease in the dropout rate of girls.⁹² However, the discontinuation of school meal provisions poses significant sustainability challenges, which can result in students facing hindered academic performance and heightened dropout rates, exacerbating inequalities, and impeding educational progress.

   

• The ADS is a flagship advocacy activity of the United Nations Office of the Special Adviser on Africa (UN-OSAA) on Africa that is held annually throughout May and is organized jointly with the African Union Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations (AUPOM). It seeks to amplify a new narrative for Africa from Africa and foster global consensus on innovative solutions to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Agenda 2063. To ensure that ADS echoes the priorities of the AU, each year’s edition focuses on the annual theme of the African Union.

   

• Africa Dialogue Series 2024 (ADS 2024) will feature a variety of activities and events on various aspects of the theme, “Education through Science, Technology, and Innovation toward the Africa We Want”.

   

• Partners of choice entities will lead the organization of the activities each week in coordination with OSAA and the African Union Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations (AUPOM), during the period from 6 to 30 May 2024. ADS 2024 will include a two-day High-Level Policy Dialogue, taking place from 29 to 30 May 2024. The ADS 2024 sub-themes are as follows:

   

1. Sub-theme one: STEM Education for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) in Africa with a focus on generating decent jobs for Africa’s youth [6 to 10 May 2024]
   • Led by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), International Labour Organization (ILO), and AUC

    

2. Sub-theme two: Transforming Education in Africa by Leveraging Innovative Finance and the Digital Revolution” [13 to 17 May 2024]
   • Led by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), World Bank, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and AUC

    

3. Sub-theme three: Education and Learning in Crisis-affected areas [20 to 24 May 2024]
   • Led by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and AUC

    

4. The High-Level Policy Dialogue (HLPD) to be held from 29 to 30 May 2024 in hybrid format represents the high-level segment of the ADS 2024 and features high-level participants from Member States, the United Nations system, the African Union, and representatives of other regional and sub-regional organizations including the Regional Economic Communities (RECs).

Each sub-theme will be allocated one week during ADS 2024. Lead partner entities will prepare the substantive policy brief on the subtheme and related activities as follows: