IICBA Organizes UNESCO-HNA Workshop on the Quality and Relevance of Education for Adolescent Girls in Africa

From 17 to 18 December 2019, IICBA organized an experience sharing and consultation workshop for the UNESCO-HNA project on girls' education in Africa in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. There were around 40 participants, including the State Minister of Education in Ethiopia, the Mission of the People’s Republic of China to the African Union (AU) and country representatives from the two project countries, Ethiopia and Ghana, as well as UNESCO colleagues and partners from other organizations.

The objectives of the workshop were to share experiences and lessons learned from the implementation process of the projects in Ghana and Ethiopia, acknowledging the achievements and challenges over the past five years; to exchange experiences between China and Africa; and to discuss the sustainability of the project while building a plan of action for future policies in order to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 4 on Education.

The workshop opened with remarks given by Dr. Yumiko Yokozeki, Director of IICBA, Mme Ana Elisa Santana-Afonso, Director of the UNESCO Liaison Office in Addis Ababa and representation to the Africa Union Commission and the UN Economic Commission for Africa, Mr. Zhang Minjing, Political Counselor of the Mission of People’s Republic of China to the AU and H.E. Tsion Teklu, State Minister of Education for Ethiopia. This was followed by presentations on the general framework of the project, implementations in both Ghana and Ethiopia, and detailed experiences from each country. Thereafter, the session dived into discussions on the status and current practices of gender-responsive education in Africa, as well as the experience of girls’ education in Western China.

During the second day, the workshop began with a recap session to reflect lessons learned from the previous day and review challenges encountered by the project, which led to a discussion on future prospects and the way forward. UNESCO and other crucial partners, including UNICEF, Plan International and the Forum for African Women Educationalists, shared their work on promoting gender equality through education, which included visions, strategic frameworks, implementation and progress around the globe, with a focus on Africa. Participants discussed the work plans for the concluding phase of the project, regarding four aspects, namely implementation, documentation, sustainability and evaluation. By March 2020, all activities will be concluded. During April and May 2020, an external evaluation will be conducted and the evaluation report is planned to be released at the end of May 2020.