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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=ES-MX link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;background:white'><b><i><span lang=ES style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:black'>Para espaņol favor usar google traductor </span></i></b><span style='font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;background:white'><b><i><span lang=FR style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:black'>Veuillez utiliser google translator pour traduire les articles qui ne sont pas en franįais</span></i></b><span lang=FR style='font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal'><b><span lang=FR style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='mso-margin-top-alt:0cm;margin-right:62.85pt;margin-bottom:0cm;margin-left:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:center;line-height:normal;background:white'><b><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Cambria","serif";color:#3939EF'>ICAE Virtual Seminar<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:center;line-height:normal'><b><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Cambria","serif";color:#3939EF'>“Adult Education and Development: Post 2015”<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal'><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='mso-margin-top-alt:0cm;margin-right:62.85pt;margin-bottom:0cm;margin-left:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:center;line-height:normal;background:white'><b><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Cambria","serif";color:#3939EF'>Arica Education challenges an POST 2015 Agenda<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='mso-margin-top-alt:0cm;margin-right:62.85pt;margin-bottom:0cm;margin-left:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:center;line-height:normal;background:white'><b><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Cambria","serif";color:#3939EF'>By Limbani Eliya Nsapato <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='mso-margin-top-alt:0cm;margin-right:62.85pt;margin-bottom:0cm;margin-left:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:center;line-height:normal;background:white'><b><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Cambria","serif";color:#3939EF'>ANCEFA Regional Coordinator<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='mso-margin-top-alt:0cm;margin-right:62.85pt;margin-bottom:0cm;margin-left:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:center;line-height:normal;background:white'><b><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Cambria","serif";color:#3939EF'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal'><span lang=EN-ZA style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>I present my reflections on Africa’s Education challenges and post 2015 agenda after having followed consultations and debates facilitated or jointly organised by Africa Network Campaign for Education for All (ANCEFA) since September 2011. For some of our readers who would be reading about ANCEFA for the first time, </span><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>ANCEFA was founded after 2000 Dakar EFA forum with a mission is to promote, enable and build the capacity of African Civil Society to advocate and campaign for access to free quality and relevant education for all. The network is working on this mission with National Education Coalitions (NECs) in 35 countries across Africa including 10 NECs in the Southern Africa Region. ANCEFA recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the African Union commission and is a key partner within the UNESCO led EFA Steering Committee and the Coordination Group of the Collective Consultation on Nongovernmental Organisations on EFA (CCNGO/EFA). ANCEFA is thus a key voice on the continental and global education policy issues in general and post 2015 agenda in particular. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal'><span lang=EN-ZA style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal'><span lang=EN-ZA style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The debates on post 2015 agenda continue to rage on in the count down to 2015 when it is expected that a new strategy for education and development will be agreed at the United Nations General Assembly. African voices mean a lot to the development of the global framework for education after 2015. Why? The major reason would be that given the centrality of education in the fight against poverty, global development cannot take place without addressing Africa’s concerns. In fact Africa is host to the majority of out- of- school children and has a significant number of the illiterate adult population. The second reason is that although across the world education is taken as a fundamental human right, the people of Africa gaze at education with another lens in line with the African Union (AU) vision. The vision of the AU is that of “an integrated, peaceful, prosperous Africa, driven by its own people to take its rightful place in the global community and the knowledge economy” (AU Second Education Decade: 2006, 1). In this regard, the AU Second Education Decade for Africa (2006-2015) to which African member- states are party, underlines that education is a critical sector in Africa since it is a major means by which Africa’s citizenry would be prepared to achieve this vision (<i>Ibid</i>). <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal'><span lang=EN-ZA style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal'><span lang=EN-ZA style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Furthermore, Africa has a number of challenges socially, politically, economically, demographically among others and any discussion of post 2015 agenda should consider addressing such challenges. For instance, Africa’s has myriad education as pointed out in numerous analytical work by United Nations agencies (UNESCO for instance), civil society organisations, research institutions, development partners and the African Union in reviewing the progress on EFA. Some of these challenges are related to access and quality, management and financing. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal'><span lang=EN-ZA style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal'><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>According to the UNESCO 2013/14 Education For All (EFA) Global Monitoring Report (GMR) , out of the world’s 57 million out- of- school children, half of them lived in conflict-affected countries and most of these are in Africa. The report estimated that in 2011 around 22% of the region’s children were still out of school. The report also cited that in sub-Saharan Africa, only 23% of poor girls in rural areas were completing primary education. Furthermore, in sub-Saharan Africa, the number of illiterate adults increased by 37% since 1990, mainly due to population growth, reaching 182 million in 2011. By 2015, the report estimated that 26% of all illiterate adults would live in sub-Saharan Africa, up from 15% in 1990 (UNESCO, GMR, 2013/14-Summary: 10). In 2012 UNESCO projected that at least 31 countries in Africa were to miss the EFA goals in 2015 (UNESCO BREDA case-lets of Countries, 2012). <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal'><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal'><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>As far as education quality is concerned most countries in Africa face huge challenges. Globally, it is estimated that </span><span lang=EN-ZA style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>at least 250 million children cannot read or count, even if they have spent four years in school (GMR 2013/14). In Africa recent studies by Southern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Education Quality (SACMEQ) and </span><span lang=EN-ZA style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) have demonstrated that pupil performance in reading and mathematics is not good in many countries in Africa. SACMQEC study results in 2010 showed that the majority of pupils tested across 15 SACMEQ countries in reading and writing could not achieve a minimum score in the reading and mathematics skills. In addition, WASSCE studies have shown that </span><span lang=EN-ZA style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>in 2011 for example in Sierra Leone around 40 per cent of candidates failed to obtain a credit in any subject and only 10 per cent obtained four credits or more, while 5 per cent obtain five credits or more translating into 2,486 students (UNESCO BREDA, 2013:). </span><span lang=EN-ZA style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>There is therefore an urgent need for better quality and improved leraning outcomes in educatiion systems across Africa. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal'><span lang=EN-ZA style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal'><span lang=EN-ZA style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Most countries in Africa need to recruit qualified teachers, procure and distribute succficient teachinhg and leraning reosurces, develop infrastructure and ensure effective managment and governance of their systems. However, for these to be adressed, another major challnge crops up and is linked to funding gaps. </span><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The UNESCO GMR 2013/14 observed that the global finance gap to achieve good quality basic education for all by 2015 reached US$26 billion, putting the goal of getting every child into school far out of reach. Most of these shortfalls are in Africa. Recent studies have shown that there is a funding gap in education of about US$11 billion mainly because most Sub Saharan African countries were not allocating the 6% of GDP until 2005 and 9% of GDP thereafter or 20% of annual national budget required to achieve the EFA Goals. The education funding gap is also exacerbated by most development partners failing to honour their commitments to finance education especially due to the global financial crisis of 2008, as well as the Euro-zone crisis of 2010 (ANCEFA, Report of EFA status in Zambia and Sierra Leone, 2012). These two crises have reduced the amount of resources that donor agencies and cooperating partners receive from their financiers, as the financiers have to deal with their own internal financial problems caused by the crises before they can extend aid to African countries. UIS 2013 estimated that global aid to education declined by 7% between 2010 and 2011 (<i>ibid</i>). <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal'><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;text-autospace:none'><span lang=EN-ZA style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Against the facts and figures stated above, it is clear that Africa post 2015 education and development dreams cannot come true if the challenges cited are not tackled. In addition, given that EFA is a pipe dream in most countries on the continent, the post 2015 agenda goals, sub-goals and objectives as well as targets need to consider that EFA is an unfinished agenda in Africa.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;text-autospace:none'><span lang=EN-ZA style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;text-autospace:none'><span lang=EN-ZA style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Consequently, stakeholders in Africa including members of the civil society and representatives of the member states of the Africa Union have considered the need to have a holistic picture of education. ANCEFA for instance at its general assembly held in Dakar in 2012 adopted a policy motion that should looked at priorities in six areas. These areas include</span><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'> 1)</span><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>inclusive expanded basic education; 2) Early Childhood Care and Education; 3) Expanded equitable access for secondary education, 4)Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and Higher education; 5) Quality education for all; 6)Strengthened youth and adult education and learning; and 7)Investment in Information, Communication Technologies (ICTs) and skills development for employability.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;text-autospace:none'><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;text-autospace:none'><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>In February 2013, a stakeholders’ conference on post 2015 convened jointly by African Union, Save the Children and ANCEFA considered an overarching goal of achieving equitable access to Education. Such a goal should have a focus on marginalized populations including pastoralists, girls, ethnic minorities, communities in hard to reach areas, in emergencies, and children with disabilities. The conference participants therefore proposed three critical priorities and sub-goals. The first priority aiming for </span><span lang=EN-ZA style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>quality education with focus on attainment of learning outcomes at all levels (early childhood development (ECD), primary, secondary, technical and vocational training (TVET), and tertiary education). The second priority aimed at achieving </span><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>equitable and inclusive access at basic, secondary, and tertiary levels; and equitable provisions to reach the most excluded and marginalized. Lastly, the third priority aimed at literacy, numeracy and skills development – focus to address illiteracy and skills development amongst those who have missed out. (</span><i><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>African Union, Stakeholder Position Paper, Addis Ababa, 27-28 February 2013).<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;text-autospace:none'><i><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;text-autospace:none'><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'> I</span><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>n January 2014, the African Union </span><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Heads of State summit in Addis Ababa adopted an overall post 2015 position based on a report by Her excellency Mrs. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of the Republic of Liberia and Chairperson of the High level committee on the post-2015 Development Agenda. The report featured education as key for development in pillar 3 of the six pillars of development considered by the summit.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;text-autospace:none'><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;text-autospace:none'><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>According to the report, Pillar 3 focuses on </span><span lang=EN-ZA style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>People-centred development which should include </span><span lang=EN-ZA style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Eradicating poverty; Education for developing human capital ; Providing universal, equitable access to quality healthcare; Gender equality and empowering women ;Responding to population dynamics and development ;Harnessing the strengths of Africa’s youth and Expanding access to sustainable human settlements (African Union, 2014: Common Position on Post 2015). <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;text-autospace:none'><span lang=EN-ZA style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;text-autospace:none'><span lang=EN-ZA style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Furthermore, under education, the position considers as its priority focus, the need to achieve excellence in human resources capacity development through an improvement in the quality of education and training by: investing in learning infrastructures; increasing the use of ICT; ensuring higher completion rates; promoting pre-schooling, integrated adult education and tertiary education; and improving the quality and conditions of service of educators and trainers (ibid). The position also aims at enhancing equity and strengthening curricula. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;text-autospace:none'><span lang=EN-ZA style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;text-autospace:none'><span lang=EN-ZA style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>In relation to financing Africa’s post 2015 education there is a shift in perception towards increasing domestic financing and moving away from donor or aid dependency which has been a big factor over the 50 years in post independent Africa. While not ruling out aid, there is a general understanding that aid is not a solution to the continent’s financial sustainability of its development initiatives. There is also the need to tackle corruption and promote transparency, accountability and good governance. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;text-autospace:none'><span lang=EN-ZA style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;text-autospace:none'><span lang=EN-ZA style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>As we can see from the above discussion the needs and aspirations of Africa post 2015are many. While some of the themes can reverberate in consultations in other regions like Asia and Latin America, the needs of Africa are unique and need to be integrated into the overall global agenda being developed by various agencies including UNESCO and the UNDP. Thus it is important to underline that as observed by the AU common position on post 2015, it will be critical for African citizens to “actively participate in the global debate on how to provide a fresh impetus <a name="_GoBack"></a>to the MDGs and to examine and devises strategies to address key emerging development issues on the continent in the coming years” (African Union, January 2014). <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-ZA><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></body></html>