It was a great pleasure for us at CAFOR to receive a team of consultants from Denmark,
Hungary, and the USA in our offices at the African Union Headquarters in Addis Ababa this past week from 23 -27 January 2023, as part of the preparations for the CAFOR Roundtable to be held on the margins of the 36th Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union. The team was led by Mr. Brian Baptista and comprised Dr. Kevin Michael Jackson and Ms. Dominika Gyanyi. Later in the week, we also received Prof Dr. István Tarrósy and Dr. Zoltan Voros from the University of Pécs in Hungary. We also met with officials from the World Bank from Washington DC and visited the Tegbared Polytechnic College in Addis Ababa, close to the AU Headquarters. We also met with our soon-to-be Goodwill Ambassador, Haile Gebre Selassie, a world-renowned athlete from Ethiopia who is now a retired long-distance track and road running athlete and businessman with tremendous interest in the Education of all young people in Africa.
The week’s discussion focused on CAFOR’s innovative pilot projects that would respond to the African Union and the UN Secretary-General’s initiative on Transforming Education in Africa. These initiatives are to create the African Digital Learning Planet, the African Digital Library for the Next Generation, the Digital Teachers Initiative, and the Technical and Vocation Education and Training Digital Library.
The African Learning Planet (ALP) is an innovative initiative proposed by CAFOR. It serves as a digital hub for educational solutions within the African Union, providing a centralized location for users to access various resources and tools, including the CAFOR initiatives of the African Digital Library, the TVET Digital Library, and the Digital Teachers’ Initiative. The target group is children in K12, teachers, ministries, NGOs, parents, and TVET students.
The new generation of the African Digital Library (ADL) is very much needed as soon as
possible. The current version of the African Digital Library needs to be updated and made more functional. The new generation ADL will include digitized, full-text resources for African learners to contribute to the revitalization of Education and lifelong learning on the continent, the expansion of business, and poverty alleviation.
The Digital Teacher Initiative is a cutting-edge tool for attracting, retaining, and enhancing the skills of teachers in African countries. This innovative solution leverages popular messaging platforms like WhatsApp and Messenger to reach out to existing and aspiring teachers. The training curriculum is transformed into engaging digital micro-lessons using a combination of video, audio, and gamification, making teacher training more efficient and productive.
Africa has vast, untapped economic potential, but young people struggle to gain employment
opportunities – 60% of the unemployed are younger than 25 – with women being affected the most. CAFOR offers a new and innovative way of impacting this problem. Supported by the University of Pécs, the European Business University, and others, CAFOR has conceptualized a project that addresses this problem cost-effectively and efficiently.
CAFOR will deliver a Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Digital Library project targeted at 100,000 African youth in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Nigeria. Also, CAFOR will raise awareness about TVET in Africa and secure funding for further scaling the pilot to the 55-member countries of the Africa Union. The target for this initiative is 100000 TVET-issued diplomas for African youth aged 17-25.
I take this opportunity on behalf of all of CAFOR to thank the consultants for a very productive and fruitful week, as we look forward to holding this Roundtable Conference of all education partners and stakeholders from Africa and the rest of the world.
Lawalley Aba Cole African Union Youth Program African Youth SDGs Summit African Union Education Cannot Wait Global Partnership for Education University of Pécs, Hungary Unesco International Institute for Capacity Building in Africa – IICBA