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UNITED NATIONS ECONOMIC COMMISSION FOR AFRICA SUB-REGIONAL OFFICE FOR WEST AFRICA ECA/SRO-WA

NATIONS UNIES COMMISSION ECONOMIQUE POUR L’AFRIQUE BUREAU SOUS-REGIONAL POUR L’AFRIQUE DE L’OUEST CEA/BSR-AO. TRACKING PROGRESS ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF REGIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL AGENDAS WITH A FOCUS ON ACCESS TO AND CHALLENGES IN EDUCATION IN WEST AFRICA

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UNITED NATIONS ECONOMIC COMMISSION FOR AFRICA SUB-REGIONAL OFFICE FOR WEST AFRICA ECA/SRO-WA

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  1. NATIONS UNIES COMMISSION ECONOMIQUE POUR L’AFRIQUE BUREAU SOUS-REGIONAL POUR L’AFRIQUE DE L’OUEST CEA/BSR-AO TRACKING PROGRESS ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF REGIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL AGENDAS WITH A FOCUS ON ACCESS TO AND CHALLENGES IN EDUCATION IN WEST AFRICA Presentedat the Sixteenth Session of the IntergovernmentalCommittee of Experts (16thICE) for West Africa March 2013 Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire UNITED NATIONSECONOMIC COMMISSION FOR AFRICASUB-REGIONAL OFFICE FOR WEST AFRICAECA/SRO-WA

  2. Economic Commission for Africa Sub-Regional Office for West Africa Context: The paradox between abundance of natural resources and continuing development challenges to eradicate poverty and improving access to education – is the backdrop to the study. The report: Divided into 2 major sections: Part I: covers the overall assessment of countries’ performance in addressing regional and international development agendas related to various sectoral issues. Part II: presents the state of education, efforts made and challenges in education expansion.

  3. Economic Commission for Africa Sub-Regional Office for West Africa TRACKING PERFORMANCE OF REGIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL AGENDAS IN WEST AFRICA A. Continental/Regional agendas: The agendas target sectoral issues such as agriculture, infrastructure development, etc. i) Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP): NEPAD’s agricultural agenda, CAADP provides a continent-wide implementation framework for development of agricultural policies and strategies at national, regional and continental levels In 2005 - ECOWAS and NEPAD Secretariat developed a joint ECOWAP/CAADP action plan covering the period 2005 – 2010. By 2009, many of the West African countries had signed their agricultural development compact with NEPAD/CAADP

  4. Economic Commission for Africa Sub-Regional Office for West Africa TRACKING PERFORMANCE OF REGIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL AGENDAS IN WEST AFRICA (cont’d) ii)ECOWAS Agriculture Program (ECOWAP): is the regional and collective response of ECOWAS leaders to agricultural and food issues, mainly in times of emergencies (famine, flooding) improve bargaining positions in the international market for agricultural commodities like cocoa, palm produce, cotton, fruits and vegetables. challenges include: lack of skilled manpower, financial resources and political stability

  5. Economic Commission for Africa Sub-Regional Office for West Africa TRACKING PERFORMANCE OF REGIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL AGENDAS IN WEST AFRICA (cont’d) iii) UEMOA Agricultural Programme adopted in 2001, targeting poverty reduction, and food security works in tandem with the other regional frameworks. Several activities designed to support member countries and some of these include: national climate change adaptation programs improving competitiveness of the sector fisheries development and agricultural input supply

  6. Economic Commission for Africa Sub-Regional Office for West Africa TRACKING PERFORMANCE OF REGIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL AGENDAS IN WEST AFRICA(cont’d) iv) Programfor Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA): designed to facilitate the setting up, financing and implementation of infrastructure projects is driven by the programme’s strategic objective and the African Union’s 2004 vision statement PIDA projects and programmes include sectoral issues: Energy: hydropower, interconnections, pipelines Transport: connectivity, corridor modernization, ports and railways modernization, air transport modernization ICT Information and Communication Technologies Trans-boundary water: multipurpose dams, capacity building, water transfer

  7. Economic Commission for Africa Sub-Regional Office for West Africa TRACKING PERFORMANCE OF REGIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL AGENDAS IN WEST AFRICA (cont’d) ECA/SRO-WA in support of these initiatives (2012/2013) Highlights: Conducted research and capacity building to: - identify policies on enhancing agricultural production to address poverty, unemployment and under development - integrate renewable energy policies into national socio-economic development - strengthen green economy towards promoting green growth in agriculture and industrial sectors - technical assistance and advisory services provided in natural resources management, particularly in mineral resources development

  8. Economic Commission for Africa Sub-Regional Office for West Africa B. International Agendas i) MDGs: Most countries have registered tremendous progress since the adoption of the MDGs in 2000 – challenges still outweigh successes.

  9. Economic Commission for Africa Sub-Regional Office for West Africa

  10. Economic Commission for Africa Sub-Regional Office for West Africa

  11. Economic Commission for Africa Sub-Regional Office for West Africa ii) Beijing Platform of Action (BPfA): Commitment towards gender equality and empowerment of women – based on 2009 survey in addressing the 12 thematic areas of concern. Next review due in 2015.

  12. Economic Commission for Africa Sub-Regional Office for West Africa • Other critical areas of concern include in the report are: • women and health • violence against women • women and armed conflict • women and the economy • women, governance, power and decision making • institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women • women and the media • women and the environment

  13. Economic Commission for Africa Sub-Regional Office for West Africa The State of Education in West Africa Primary Education • West African countries are lagging behind. • The NER for many of the West African countries is below 70%: Burkina Faso 63%; Côte d’Ivoire 61%; Gambia 66%; Mali 63%; Niger 62%; and Nigeria 58%. • Only Cape Verde and Togo have an NER in the 90’s. • Gender disparity in favor of males is observed. • The pattern of enrollment over ten years shows a slow progress in the countries where the NER is still 65 and under.

  14. Economic Commission for Africa Sub-Regional Office for West Africa Proportion of Pupils Surviving to the Last Grade of Primary • Primary completion rate: • Two countries Liberia and Togo have a primary completion rate of below 60%, while Cape Verde has the highest rate with 86% followed by Nigeria 80%. • Some countries that appeared to have gained in NER lose in completion rate.

  15. Economic Commission for Africa Sub-Regional Office for West Africa • Data over ten years (2000 – 2010) show except Cape Verde and Mali, the rate of retention for all the countries have been decreasing over the years. • Similar to the NER, a gender disparity in completion rate is noted. • Guinea, with a total of 66%, has a completion rate of 74% for males and 56% for females; • Ghana, with a total completion rate of 72%, has 74% for males and 56% for females. • Some of the factors that fuel dropout affect girls more than boys.

  16. Economic Commission for Africa Sub-Regional Office for West Africa Secondary Education • Enrollment rates for secondary go down rapidly as measured by GER. • The GER is over 80% for Cape Verde, followed by Ghana, 58%. • Even those who had registered better performance at primary level lose their students at secondary level. • Guinea goes down from 77% NER in primary to NER 38% in secondary, while Senegal goes down from 75 to 37%.

  17. Economic Commission for Africa Sub-Regional Office for West Africa • Data on the pattern of NER over ten years (2000 – 2010) shows that the progress seen at elementary level does not continue at secondary level. • The data also shows a gender disparity in favor of girls in Cape Verde.

  18. Economic Commission for Africa Sub-Regional Office for West Africa Higher Education • In SSA enrollment in higher education is the lowest in the world. • The highest percentage of enrollment for West Africa is registered by Cape Verde, 18% followed by Ghana with 12%. • Niger shows the lowest enrollment (2%) among the West African countries for which data is available. • The pattern of GER over ten years (2000–2010) shows that there is a very slow progress in GER in all countries.

  19. Economic Commission for Africa Sub-Regional Office for West Africa Technical and Vocational Education and Training • The data for ten years (2000 -2010) reveal that except in Mali and Senegal, enrollment in TVET is either stagnating or going down. • Despite the necessity of expansion and improvement needed in TVET, this area of the education section has not received the required attention.

  20. Economic Commission for Africa Sub-Regional Office for West Africa Youth Literacy • Many West African countries have a high proportion of illiterate people. • Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso have less than 50% of their young people illiterate. • The pattern of youth literacy over ten years (2000–2010) shows not much progress has been seen in many of the countries. • Côte d’Ivoire only improved by 6% over 10 years, from 61% in 2000 to 67% in 2010.

  21. Economic Commission for Africa Sub-Regional Office for West Africa • Nigeria moved from 69% in 2004 to 72% in 2010, an improvement by only 3% over 5 years . • There is gender disparity in favor of males in all countries, except Cape Verde. “The ECOWAS region has some of the lowest average rates (only 69% for youth and 52 % for adults)”, being the single REC with rates below the respective SSA averages (73% and 67%) and the majority of illiterates are girls and young women (UNESCO, 2012)

  22. Economic Commission for Africa Sub-Regional Office for West Africa Assessment of the Achievement of MDG 2 • MDG2 indicators: • NER in primary education • Proportion of pupils starting grade one who reach last grade of primary education, and • Literacy rate of 15-24 years old • Despite the tremendous increase, there are still a few countries that are lagging behind: Nigeria (58 %), Niger (57%), Mali (62%), Liberia (41% in 2009), Côte d’Ivoire (61 %), Burkina Faso (58 %)

  23. Economic Commission for Africa Sub-Regional Office for West Africa • Cape Verde, Ghana, Guinea, Senegal have an NER between 93 and 77, Cape Verde standing first with 93%. • Benin, Senegal, Togo, have a primary completion rate of below 60%, while Cape Verde has the highest rate with 86% followed by Nigeria 80%. • Except Cape Verde and Mali the rate of retention for all the countries have been decreasing over the years.

  24. Economic Commission for Africa Sub-Regional Office for West Africa • Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger have more than 50% of their young people illiterate. • Another eight countries (Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone) have more than 25% of the young population illiterate. • The pattern of youth literacy over ten years (2000 – 2010) shows not much progress has been seen in many of the countries. • The data show gender disparity in favor of males in all countries, except Cape Verde.

  25. Economic Commission for Africa Sub-Regional Office for West Africa Expansion Efforts • Commitment for education seen at three levels: • Legal commitments – Provision in national constitutions, laws, and policies; • Those who are close to achieving the internationally set goals focus on quality and equity. • Strategic and programs – inclusion in the Poverty Reduction Strategy papers, plans, and visions papers; and • Actual practical interventions:

  26. Economic Commission for Africa Sub-Regional Office for West Africa • Introduction of Free and Compulsory Education: Mali, Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, and Guinea, and Benin, Guinea Bissau, Nigeria, and Togo to be progressively introduced. • School feeding programs mostly in collaboration with development partners except Ghana and Nigeria.

  27. Economic Commission for Africa Sub-Regional Office for West Africa • Expansion of school infrastructure, such as building of schools, necessary facilities in schools and provision of equipment. Challenges to Access to Education and Attainment and Retention in Education • Quality • The PTR has either increased or remained the same in Burkina Faso, Cote D’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, and Guinea Bissau. • Overcrowded classrooms - Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea Bissau and Mali.

  28. Economic Commission for Africa Sub-Regional Office for West Africa • Low percentage of qualified teachers: • More than half of the teachers in Benin and Sierra Leone are not trained. • The number of qualified teachers has been slightly decreasing: Benin, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, and Senegal. • Infrastructure – it development is not matching the number of new entrants. • The proportion of people completing primary education - Gambia, Liberia, Senegal, and Togo had a completion rate of less than 62%, which is the average for SSA. • Poverty at household level - cost of schooling, especially for girls.

  29. Economic Commission for Africa Sub-Regional Office for West Africa • Poverty at national level – lack of budget, infrastructure and teachers. • Conflict - Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Côte d’Ivoire, and Nigeria are five of the countries identified as having been negatively impacted by conflict between the years 1999 and 2008. • Equity including gender disparity. • Budget allocation - the pattern of allocation during 2008-2011 shows that the budget for education is decreasing in many of the West Africa countries. • Budget as a percentage of the GDP decreasing in Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau.

  30. Economic Commission for Africa Sub-Regional Office for West Africa CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS i) Conclusions: Regarding the implementation of regional and international agendas, all West African countries exert unstinted efforts towards poverty eradication and achievement of development goals. However, countries are challenged with achieving these goals in general and improving access to education in particular owing to lack of capacity, political stability, financial resources, etc. With respect to access to education: Youth literacy is quite low calling for more efforts Enrollment rate of less than 60% in all countries except Cape Verde GER for over 50% of countries shows that none of the countries have an enrollment of even 20% in 2010, including Cape Verde

  31. Economic Commission for Africa Sub-Regional Office for West Africa CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Gender disparities persist at all levels of education - performance encouraging at elementary level but alarming at secondary and tertiary levels Despite increase in primary NER, countries are in danger of falling short of meeting the goal of 100% primary enrollment by 2015, and achieving the overall objective of improving access to education TVET has recently received due recognition, although lack of data did not allow for meaningful analysis and pattern tracing

  32. Economic Commission for Africa Sub-Regional Office for West Africa CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ii) Recommendations Success in development is the outcome of joint efforts by the countries together with many other actors – recommendations hence target those actors as well At Member States’ level: Enhance free compulsory education included in constitutions through allocation of sufficient budget for education and designing strategies to use resources efficiently Strengthen distance education and short term training through revising teacher training curriculum to ameliorate quality and the availability of trained teachers Address gender inequality in education through improved gender budgeting; strengthen the work started with regional educational organizations (Senegal, Burkina Faso)

  33. Economic Commission for Africa Sub-Regional Office for West Africa CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Recommendations(cont’d) Implement the provisions included in national PRSPs and collaborate with development partners to strengthen TVET Support partners working with communities both out of school and in school; and expand and strengthen non-formal education to bring back children who dropped out and curb dropout levels Enhance capacity of the education sector for effective implementation of projects; improve management and coordination; and establish a system of co-ordination to achieve regional/IAGs

  34. Economic Commission for Africa Sub-Regional Office for West Africa CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Recommendations(cont’d) ii) ECOWAS/UEMOA and other IGOs: Strengthen monitoring, coordinating, advocacy, and championing roles on the implementation of the commitments; and disseminate good practices among countries iii) Development partners/academia: Consider establishing a consortium to pull resources to enhance efficiency of fund usage and reporting by countries Conduct research on achievements/challenges; document and disseminate research; support teachers’ training; and provide technical support iv) The private sector: Participate through enhancing PPPs; sponsor students with less economic opportunities; collaborate with communities on education expansion efforts including infrastructure development; and create sustainability through support mechanisms including the creation of philanthropic foundations

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