African Union/NEPAD

NEPAD and education


Education is a key priority within the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). Launched in 2001, NEPAD is a programme of the African Union aimed at eradicating poverty in Africa and placing African countries on the a path of sustainable growth and development.

Its specific goals with respect to education are to:

· work with donors and multilateral organizations to achieve the international development goal relating to universal primary education by 2015;

· contribute to improvements in curriculum development, quality improvements and access to new information and communication technologies (ICTs);

· expand access to secondary education and improve its relevance to Africa’s development;

· promote networks of specialized research and higher education institutions;

· support measures for conflict prevention and management and promote a culture of peace, reconciliation and tolerance

UNESCO’s role

UNESCO works with NEPAD to push forward the education agenda in Africa. Its activities focus, inter alia, on engaging NEPAD in the Education for All process, promoting gender perspectives in education, elaborating a database gathering information on African human resources and developing the capacities of teacher training institutions.

In January 2004, UNESCO organized three sub-regional conferences of Ministers of Education on the theme “Education and Sub-regional Cooperation”. The aim was to discuss the best strategy to use education as an efficient tool for regional integration.

- The Second Conference of ECOWAS Ministers of Education, 9-10 January 2004, Accra, Ghana

>> Final communiqué

- The Conference of Ministers of Education of Portuguese speaking Countries and Equatorial Guinea, 13-15 January 2004, Sao Tome and Principe


>> Final communiqué

>> Keynote speech by UNESCO’s Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura

- The Conference of Ministers of Education of the Central African Economic and Monetary Countries, 16-17 January 2004, Yaoundé, Cameroon

>> Final communiqué


The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) http://www.nepad.org

>>UNESCO and NEPAD