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

UNITED NATIONSECONOMIC COMMISSION FOR AFRICA

SUB-REGIONAL OFFICE FOR WEST AFRICAECA/SRO-WA

NATIONS UNIES COMMISSION ECONOMIQUE POUR L’AFRIQUE

BUREAU SOUS-REGIONAL POUR L’AFRIQUE DE L’OUESTCEA/BSR-AO

TRACKING PROGRESS ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF TRACKING PROGRESS ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF REGIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL AGENDAS WITH A REGIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL AGENDAS WITH A

FOCUS ON ACCESS TO AND CHALLENGES IN FOCUS ON ACCESS TO AND CHALLENGES IN EDUCATION IN WEST AFRICAEDUCATION IN WEST AFRICA

Presented at the Sixteenth Session of the Intergovernmental Committee of Experts (16th ICE) for West Africa

March 2013Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire

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.

Economic Commission for AfricaSub-Regional Office for West Africa

TRACKING PERFORMANCE OF REGIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL AGENDAS IN WEST AFRICAA. 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 levelsIn 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


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



iii) UEMOA Agricultural Programmeadopted 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 sectorfisheries development and agricultural input supply



iv) Program for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA):designed to facilitate the setting up, financing and implementation of infrastructure projectsis driven by the programme’s strategic objective and the African Union’s 2004 vision statementPIDA projects and programmes include sectoral issues:

Energy: hydropower, interconnections, pipelinesTransport: connectivity, corridor modernization, ports and railways modernization, air transport modernizationICT Information and Communication Technologies Trans-boundary water: multipurpose dams, capacity building, water transfer



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


B. International Agendas

i) MDGs: Most countries have registered tremendousprogress since the adoption of the MDGs in 2000 –challenges still outweigh successes.


MDG GOAL Highlights of West African countries’ performance

Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

- More than 50% of the population in the sub region is living on less than $US1.25 a day- 7% is the average minimum annual growth rate needed to reduce poverty by half by 2015

Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education

Details to be covered in the next presentation under education



Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empowerment of women

- ratio of girls to boys enrolled in primary school - the Gambia and Senegal achieved 1.0 gender parity index- Guinea, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso and Togo scored 0.47 to 1.04 gender parity

Goal 4: Reduce Child Mortality

- overall decline, but goal cannot be met by 2015- 2011: Cape Verde 18%, Senegal 47%, Ghana 52% (per 1,000 live births) - 2011: high infant mortality rate: Sierra Leone, Mali, Guinea Bissau, Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso

Goal 5: Improve maternal health

- 2005-2006: Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Senegal, Togo: good performance towards reducing maternal mortality- countries emerging from conflict (Liberia, Sierra Leone): likely to have made little progress



Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

-2011: Benin, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Senegal: more than 50% of the population got access to ART- malaria: still a major cause of death- Togo, Sierra Leone: high TB death prevalence; Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali: highest reduction in TB prevalence after 1990

Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability

- alarming forest depletion - 1990-2010: increase in forest areas: Gambia from 44 to 48%; Côte d’Ivoire from 32 to 33% - 1990-2010: decline in forest areas in 80% of the countries: Niger from 2 to 1%; Togo from 13 to 5%

Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development

- eligibility for debt relief - 2011: 13 out of 32 HIPC eligible countries that reached the decision point for debt relief are West African countries - since 2008: around 60% of the countries recorded improved access to internet and ICT, especially mobile telephony


AREA OF CONCERN RESULTS 20091. Women and poverty -more than 50% of countries reallocated public

spending for gender programs - Nigeria: the National Economic Empowerment Strategy (NEEDS) - Benin, Ghana, Sierra Leone: long-term developmental goals to eradicate poverty

2. Education and training for women

- 70% of the countries: education and training are addressed in the efforts to empower women and reduce poverty- Ghana: successful school feeding programme- Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria: measures to promote girls’ education through the elimination of gender stereotypes in school textbooks

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.


AREA OF CONCERN RESULTS 2009

3. Human rights of women - Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Gambia and Sierra Leone report regularly to CEDAW

4. The girl child - Cape Verde, Ghana, Niger, Gambia, Togo: Codes on Children; the child as a subject of human rights- Guinea, Nigeria, Sierra Leone: legislation protecting girls from violence - Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Togo: decrease in the rate of forced marriage

Other critical areas of concern include in the report are:women and healthviolence against womenwomen and armed conflictwomen and the economywomen, governance, power and decision makinginstitutional mechanisms for the advancement of womenwomen and the mediawomen and the environment

The State of Education in West AfricaPrimary 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.


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.


• 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.


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%.


• 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.


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.


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.


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.


– 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)


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 %)


• 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.


• 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.


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:


• 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.


– 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.


– 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.


– 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.


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


CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Gender disparities persist at all levels of education - performance encouraging at elementary level but alarming at secondary and tertiary levelsDespite 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


CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ii) RecommendationsSuccess in development is the outcome of joint efforts by thecountries together with many other actors – recommendations hence target those actors as wellAt 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)


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


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


Documents

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