South-South cooperation mechanisms to achieve SDG 4 in Africa: best practices and lessons learnt

The Africa 2022 Sustainable Development Report highlights how Africa's progress towards universal quality education has been slow. 288 million school-age children remain out of school, especially in conflict-affected countries. There is an urgent need to increase funding for resilient education infrastructure, particularly for basic education, investing in teachers' training and digital learning tools. One of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for International Partnerships main policies focuses on fostering human development by guaranteeing that health, education and a decent standard of living are prioritised. Education, in particular, as a means to empower individuals and communities and lead to growth and prosperity, is one of the key priorities of the European Commission’s €300 billion Global Gateway strategy. Equity and inclusion, quality teaching and learning, and skills for life and jobs are among its main pillars.¹

Beyond the work of the European Commission to invest in education worldwide, 3 initiatives deserve to be mentioned when highlighting South-South Cooperation (SCC) mechanisms in Africa related to SDG 4 on quality education. These present several good practices and lessons learnt for international cooperation professionals working on advancing the international community’s efforts to guarantee equitable education to all. 

BETTER EDUCATION for AFRICA’S RISE (BEAR II) 

This initiative, a UNESCO flagship project financed by the Government of the Republic of Korea, aimed to improve the relevance, quality and perception of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in East Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Tanzania and Uganda) to achieve SDG 4 target 4.3.² 

Educational challenges remain in this region, such as the limited number of technical colleges for students and training institutions for technical teachers, the lack of facilities and materials for student training, as well as the insufficient number of technical teachers/facilitators and the difficulty of career progression due to the negative public perception of TVET. 

Indicators showed that the section 15-24-year-olds enrolled in vocational training is below 15% in all African countries, with the highest percentages in Egypt and Seychelles. Unfortunately, relevant data is only available for 20 countries (i.e. 37% of the continent).  

The BEAR II project worked to:

• make TVET systems more responsive to economic and labour market needs,

• strengthen access to labour market information and

• empower TVET stakeholders.

To achieve this, the project facilitated information exchange and joint work on regional alignment of TVET expertise in 13 East African countries. This triangular South-South cooperation was carried out through a series of meetings and discussions with governments and TVET sector stakeholders in the beneficiary countries; international webinars with 47 participants representing various TVET sectors; regional TVET studies on vocational guidance and counselling; and regional communication strategies, including digital components. A harmonised regional study on the model of curriculum development in the East African Community has also been carried out. The results of this programme include the training of 984 TVET teachers and 1 318 TVET stakeholders, the finalisation of a common regional curriculum, the development and digitisation of learning materials and a labour market analysis report. 

Strengthening teaching in the Sahel region

The project, financed by the European Commission and implemented by UNESCO, aims to facilitate equitable access to and quality of education in the Sahel region by strengthening management and teacher training, thereby achieving SDG 4 target 4.C.³  

The region has some of the worst education indicators, with over 10.5 million children out of school. The increase in the school-age population translates into a growing demand for educational resources. According to current data from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, a large gap exists between trained teachers and the school-age population. The proportion of teachers with the minimum required qualifications in Africa, excluding North Africa, stood at around 68% between 2017 and 2019, below the global average of 81%. Furthermore, in Chad, only 5.4% of primary school teachers are qualified, while in Niger, only 9.5% and 13% of lower and upper secondary school teachers have been trained, respectively.

The project, implemented to strengthen education in the 5 Sahel countries (Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger), aims to improve learning outcomes for all pupils of compulsory school age. To achieve this, it focuses on improving the governance and management of teachers, as well as the relevance of their initial and in-service training. 

In collaboration with the Economic Community of West African States and the Economic Community of Central African States, UNESCO has developed a common curriculum framework in the countries in question to strengthen the quality of teaching and teacher preparation. Through South-South cooperation and exchange, the 5 Sahel countries created a common tool, i.e., the Common Teacher Curriculum Framework, which aims to guide countries in implementing reforms to the standards of the teaching profession and setting minimum standards for initial teacher education.

As a result, the above-mentioned countries have opted for a process of educational transformation, firstly by strengthening the responsibilities of teachers and their status in the broader framework of governance of their respective education systems.

Imaginecole

Education systems in African countries face a lack of qualified teachers and digital education skills, as well as a lack of local digital resources. While many countries are on track to ensure full completion of primary education, regional disparities persist. This is why UNESCO, in partnership with the International Organisation of French Language Countries and the French government, launched Imaginecole, a regional platform for French-speaking African countries that aims to create a wider distance-learning community to leave no one behind and achieve SDG 4 targets 4.1 and 4.C.⁴ So far, it has been launched in 11 countries in Central and West Africa: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo and Mauritania.  

This platform adopts a cooperative and reinforcement system approach for quality hybrid teaching and learning and offers students educational services with tools such as phones, tablets or computers. This initiative also offers teachers the possibility to create courses using digital tools and share them with their students and other teachers. UNESCO created and formed multidisciplinary national teams from different governments, associations and stakeholders and, together with its partners, ensured that the process was led directly by national ministries of education. 

The platform creates an enabling environment for SSC between teachers in distance and hybrid learning, as well as digital content development. The result of this initiative has been the training of 102 professionals; 5 776 teachers trained to use the platform; 1 376 519 pupils reached by the initiative; 45 000 educational booklets distributed in the 3 countries with areas without internet connection (Niger, Chad and Mali), and more. A first webinar was also held to share knowledge and innovations in implementing the sub-regional learning platform and to address transnational development challenges.

Conclusion

The SSC mechanisms presented show good scaling-up opportunities. These initiatives and their good practices could be replicated in other developing countries to build stronger and quality education systems, and beyond. The work towards achieving the targets proposed under SDG 4 is still underway, with the world, unfortunately, still lagging far behind. Education is the most powerful investment in our future: let’s keep pushing to make it a priority at both local and institutional levels.

Photo credit: Ismail Taxta, UNICEF 2021 | Source: EC - Audiovisual Service

1. If you are interested in learning more about these priorities, visit https://international-partnerships.ec.europa.eu/policies/human-development/education_en.

2. “Ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable quality technical, vocational and tertiary education, including university by 2030.”

3. “Substantially increase the number of qualified teachers, including through international cooperation for teacher training in developing countries, especially in least developed countries and small island developing states.”

4. SDG 4 target 4.1: “By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes.” For SDG 4 target 4.C, see the previous endnote.