Sub-regional workshop on certification processes in the ECOWAS region
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Secretariat launched a new initiative in June 2018 to build the capacity of ECOWAS member states to reform their certification systems by adopting an approach that takes into account national and regional perspectives. Three regional workshops were held between 2018 and 2019 as part of this initiative.
This initiative thus aims to:
- Improve the integration of certification systems;
- Create a common identity and language around qualifications
- Facilitate the transparency and comparability of education and training systems;
- Facilitate the portability of competences and qualifications and thus the mobility of workers and learners;
- Enabling greater recognition of qualifications at national and international level;
- Contribute to the achievement of the social and economic objectives of the ECOWAS Vision 2020 which aims at creating an African economic community based on existing and future regional economic communities;
- Support countries in referencing their national frameworks to the upcoming regional framework.
IIEP-UNESCO Dakar has been supporting the initiative since its launch, and will organize, in the framework of this fourth regional workshop from March 30 to 31, 2022, the restitution of a comparative analysis of certification processes for the trade of masonry worker and the presentation of a common bilingual glossary of technical terminology related to certifications.
Participants will also discuss progress toward national frameworks and advancement toward a regional framework. In addition to experts from ECOWAS countries, a range of technical and financial partners will take part in the workshop.