Introduction/Background

The biannual workshop took place at the Imperial Resort Beach Hotel, Entebbe, Uganda. The workshop started in earnest on Saturday, May 31, 2008, with a joint workshop between AERC/World Banks. It ended Monday, June 2, 2008 16:30 – 17:30 with special sessions which were organized for all participants during the workshop.

The African Economic Research Consortium (AERC), established in 1988, is a public not-for-profit organization devoted to the advancement of economic policy research and training. AERC’s mission is to strengthen local capacity for conducting independent, rigorous inquiry into problems facing the management of economies in sub-Saharan Africa. There are two principal approaches to this: learning by doing research in thematic, collaborative and other modalities, and support for postgraduate training through collaborative master's and PhD programmes. The AERC also conducts training programme designed to augment the pool of economic researchers in sub-Saharan Africa by supporting postgraduate studies in economics and by enhancing the capacities of departments of economics in local public universities. AERC supports the Collaborative Master's Programme in Economics (CMAP) for Anglophone Africa (excluding Nigeria) and has in 2002 embarked on a similar Collaborative PhD Programme in Economics for all of sub-Saharan Africa. AERC research and training activities on economic policy making in Africa are disseminated through print, electronic and event-based communication and other dissemination techniques.

The research supported by AERC falls in four main components: Thematic, Comparative and Collaborative Research projects, as well as Special Workshops. Collaborative Research is designed to bring senior African and non-African researchers together to conduct research on topical issues of interest and to produce a critical mass of literature of policy and academic relevance to Sub-Saharan Africa. Comparative Research provides for a cross-country synthesis of completed research on specific issues and research on issues of regional/sub-regional relevance. Special Workshops explore in-depth selected topical issues previously researched in the context of other research modalities. The fourth is the Thematic Research. This is actually where AERC started in its efforts to build capacity for economics research in sub-Saharan Africa. Informally constituted research teams develop proposals for inquiry into specific topics and submit them to the Consortium for consideration for funding. Upon the approval of the Programme Committee, the proposals become the basis for a new thematic research project.

The various thematic research teams present their research proposals, interim findings and final research reports to their respective groups at designated sessions of the biannual research workshops, during which they are subject to peer review and expert advice by resource persons. Currently there are five groups: Poverty, Income Distribution and Labour Market Issues (Group A); Macroeconomic Policies, Investment and Growth (Group B); Finance and Resource Mobilization (Group C); Trade and Regional Integration and Sectoral Policies (Group D); and Political Economy and Sectoral Policy Issues (Group E).

A final report is subsequently reviewed by anonymous referees; only upon the recommendation of the reviewers does AERC publish the report in the AERC Research Papers series. Only the Research Papers therefore, are the final output of the AERC Thematic Research Process. The workshop witnessed the participation of 250 participants from different countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

IICBA is intervening more and more within frameworks of collaboration that it established with various UNESCO offices based in Africa. Thus, following the examples of other offices in Bamako, Yaounde, Accra, Windhoek, the Regional Office for Education in Africa (BREDA) established a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with IICBA to implement the capacity building project for teachers and their supervisors in Guinea Bissau. This extra-budgetary project on Japanese funds pursues, inter alia, the following objectives:

1. Build the capacity of TTCs trainers;
2. Train the tutors and supervisors of primary education teachers
3. Build the capacity of primary education teachers to enable them to teach in any primary education class;
4. Elaborate an orientation document of the future reform of teacher training in Guinea Bissau

Introduction

The objective of the mission to Mozambique was to participate in the 2008 Biennial meeting of the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA). The event was slated for 5-9 May 2008 at the Conference Center in Maputo, Mozambique. This was the eighth ADEA Biennial Meeting. The theme chosen for the 2008 Biennial Meeting was: “Beyond Primary Education: Challenges and Approaches to Expanding Learning Opportunities in Africa”. Since 1990 Jomtien Conference, efforts have been made to focus attention and initiatives on the achievements of the objectives of basic education for all. In Africa, the Dakar Forum of 2000 gave a new impetus to primary education and notable progress has been made both in intake and completion rates in primary education levels in nearly all African countries.

The Purpose of the Meeting

The main objective of the meetings was to encourage and sustain frank and open discussions between African ministers of education, development agencies, and other education professionals. These discussions are vital for ADEA as they help to guide the Association’s future actions, dialogue being one of the keys towards sowing the seeds for better understanding and progress. The Biennales offer exceptional opportunities for intermixture of stakeholders and ideas, exchanging of experiences and cross fertilization of knowledge. They are high points of the policy dialogue and interface between policy decision-making and analytical research, which ADEA seeks to promote. The 2008 Biennale therefore focused on:

• Exploring post-primary education, one that should cover the needs and the situations of numerous adolescents and young people who have never been inside the walls of a primary school or who dropped out of school early; and

• Developing a holistic vision of education which will be promoted through the post-primary education approach?

Achievement of these goals required close and rigorous analytical and critical examination of such experiences, with special attention paid to factors and elements that can be shared between countries and across different settings. Taken vertically, it makes it possible to take into account all levels of the education system in order to understand the links of consistency and/or efficiency, the transitions and the flows. Horizontally, it gives an all-embracing insight into the different courses of general education, technical education, vocational training, and various apprenticeships for updating promising articulations, combinations, bridges and alternatives.

Introduction/Background

The Education Sector Development Program (ESDP) conducted the 10th Annual Review Meeting (ARM) in Awassa April 30 to May 2, 2008. The ARM 2008 brought together ESDP stakeholders to review progress in implementation of ESDP and to discuss current issues and plans for the sector.



Objective of Mission

The overall objective of ARM 2008 was to strengthen government and other stake holders’ understanding, partnership and commitment through dialogue and joint review, and to assess ESDP.

The specific objectives were as follows:

1. • Thematic Group work
2. • Presentation on EFY 1999 Education Sector Performance
3. • Implementation of ARM 2007 recommendations and update on other key developments
4. • JRM 2007 conclusion and recommendations
5. • National qualifications framework
6. • Extending primary education from 8 to 10 years
7. • Quality of ABE study
8. • Teacher utilization study
9. • New general education curriculum
10. • General education quality improvement package
11. • Summary recommendations of ARM 2008

Introduction

The Women’s Leadership Programme (WLP) that took place in Douala, Cameroon, is the eighth workshop since the beginning of the program, and the first in the year 2008. There is a plan to conduct the workshop in three more countries, one Anglophone and two Francophone before the end of the year. This report presents the objectives, activities, and outcome of the workshop that was conducted in Cameroon.

Objectives of the Mission

The general objective of the programme was to provide relevant leadership knowledge and skills in order to enhance women’s effectiveness in responding to challenges that African countries face in relation to gender and development issues. The specific objectives of the workshop are presented below:

• To expose women leaders to relevant theories in the area of leadership;
• To create a collegial space for women leaders to discuss issues of leadership in general, and issues of gender and leadership in particular;
• To enable women leaders to acquire gender mainstreaming skills to help them address gender issues in their respective areas of work; and
• To increase their capacity in responding to the challenges of the times, that is, HIV&AIDS, poverty, conflict resolution, peace building, and the overall educational and health needs of girls and women, with emphasis on the role of girls and women in the process of development.