Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) Secretariat, represented by Dr. Gatot Hari Priowirjanto, Director and Dr. Asmah Ahmad, Senior Officer, visited IICBA from the 10^th to 12^th of April, 2017. This is to initiate a forum for sharing experiences on education and teacher education in particular between ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and African countries, and to build partnerships in teacher professional development between IICBA and the SEAMEO Secretariat as well as SEAMEO centers.

Considering the similar challenges that both African and ASEAN regions face in education, IICBA and SEAMEO Secretariat facilitated a sharing of a discussion seminar on SEAMEO’s best practices in cross-border Education at African Union. Dr. Mahama Ouedraogo, Head of Human Resources, Science and Technology and Dr. Beatrice Khamati Njenga, Head of Education Division of African Union Commission attended the seminar, with the presence of H.E Ambassador Imam Santoso of Indonesia, H.E. Ambassador Manuel Goncalves of Mozambique, Embassy of South Africa, Embassy of Cote D’Ivoire, Federal Ministry of Education in Ethiopia and experts from Addis Ababa University.

Dr. Yumiko Yokozeki, Director of IICBA expressed her welcome to everyone present and highlighted that IICBA’s work is accreted to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and to the Continental Education Strategy for Africa (CESA 16-25). This was also stressed by Dr. Beatrice Khamati Njenga that CESA 16-25 draws a mission of “towards responsive, transformative education” and “re-orienting Africa’s education and training systems to meet the knowledge, competences, skills, innovation and creativity required to nurture African core values and promote sustainable development at national, regional and continental levels”.

Dr. Gatot Hari Priowirjanto and Dr. Asmah Ahmad introduced SEAMEO and their best practices in cross-border education. Through their regional centres and the use of ICT, SEAMEO establishes a platform which contributes to breaking the limit set by country borders and achieving the harmonization of education. The presentation was well received by the participants and many African countries expressed their interest in the next move towards cooperation and experience sharing.

SEAMEO and IICBA mapped out a series of actions in a meeting afterwards, targeting collaboration areas including shared lectures and resources, use of ICT in teacher development, continuous professional development for teachers, teacher development for technical vocational education and the integration of Quranic schools.