ERNWACA NEWS No. 3 May 2003

1. National Activities – Senegal

2. Regional Activities – Workshop on education and new technologies

3. Research – Vocational training in Togo and Benin

4. ERNWACA Member Profile – Brigitte Matchinda

5. Announcements

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

• General Assembly – ERNWACA-Senegal held its annual General Assembly on February 8, 2003. In attendance were four current and previous cabinet directors, president of the advisory commission for NGOs involved in development in Senegal (CONGAD), two department heads from Cheick Anta Diop University of Dakar (UCAD) and other members and new members, including women and young researchers. The Assembly confirmed and renewed members of its governing bodies. The Steering Committee, which provides strategic orientation, is comprised of Valdiodio NDIAYE, President; Ousmane GUEYE, National Coordinator; Gabriel DIOUF, Treasurer; Fatoumata Bintou DIALLO and Alioune Moustapha DIOUF, account auditors. Members of the Scientific Committee are: ElHadj Tamsir MBAYE, technical advisor to the Prime Minister of the Republic; Oumy NDOYE SECK; Buuba DIOP (CONGAD president); Amara SECK; Fatim BA; Ousseynou KANE (philosophy department chair, UCAD); Mamadou SANGARE (mathematics department chair, UCAD); Ndiaya NDOYE NDIAYE, Papa GUEYE (ministry of education technical advisor); Cheikhou TOURE, UNICEF; plus one representative each from UNESCO/BREDA and CODESRIA.

• Activities and Research – ERNWACA-Senegal is currently focusing on four key research issues: information technologies and education, quality of education, the nexus between HIV/AIDS and education, and girls’ education. Along with one million other registered participants around the world and under the auspices of the Prime Minister of Senegal and the Minister of Education, ERNWACA-Senegal participated in the Global Week of Action for Education, taking part on April 9, 2003 in the "World’s Biggest Lesson" on girls’ education. For more information on this unprecedented worldwide show of support for girls’ education, see www.campaignforeducation.org or www.netaid.org.

• Contact – ROCARE-Senegal, Camp Jeremy, Ecole Normale Superieure, Universite Cheick Anta Diop (UCAD), BP 5036, Dakar, Senegal, tel: (221) 825 78 37, fax: (221) 825 32 55, email: rocarsen@enda.sn.

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

• Regional workshop on education and new technologies

At a March 27-29, 2003, workshop in Bamako, organized by ERNWACA and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), researchers and policymakers from Benin, Ghana, Mali and Senegal identified research topics that will help educationalists better understand the role of computers, Internet, and other new technologies in African schools and how these technologies influence teaching and learning. Partners that participated in the workshop include SchoolNet in South Africa, the University of Montreal, Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF), and USAID. The Secretary General of the Ministry of New Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) of the Republic of Mali and a representative from the Ministry of Education opened the workshop.

• Pan-African workshop on ICTs in African Schools

Pape Youga Dieng, Senegalese ministry of education focal person for the above research, also participated in the workshop organized by SchoolNet and the Botswana Ministry of Education in Gaborone, Botswana, April 28 to May 2, 2003. Several hundred participants from across the continent discussed the educational value of using ICTs in education in Africa, educational content and capacity building, school networking practices at grassroots levels, developing a gender perspective, appropriate technological solutions for African schools, costing models and sustainability. To know more, visit SchoolNet and review research papers presented: www.schoolnetafrica.net/IA2003.

• Symposium of Working Group on Non-Formal Education

Ernest Ilboudo, National Coordinator of ERNWACA-Burkina Faso, represented ERNWACA at the symposium of the ADEA Working Group on Non-Formal Education (GTENF) in Ouagadougou, May 12-15, 2003 on "Implementing Alternative Approaches in the context of quality education for all (EFA)". About 80 policymakers, planners, administrators, actors and researchers from West Africa, with input from colleagues in Asia, reflected on alternative approaches to learning in Africa and how these approaches can be valorized in ways that contribute to richer and more diverse and dynamic educational systems that respond to changing needs and help achieve quality education for all, including street children, illiterate adults and out-of-school youth. ERNWACA-Burkina Faso members Amado OUEDRAOGO and Benoît KABORE participated as did the National Coordinator of ERNWACA-Niger, Laouali Malam Moussa. To learn more, visit GTENF at www.adeanet.org/wgnfe.

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

• Conditions and intervention strategies for vocational training in the informal sector of the economy in Africa, University of Quebec at Montreal, ERNWACA-Benin, ERNWACA-Togo, June 2001, 234p.

The objective of this study was to understand how and under what conditions the informal and formal sector can partner to provide training to improve professional integration into the job market and development of the informal sector of the economy. Programs in Benin and Togo supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation that experiment such a dual training model (formal training at a center alternated with practical field experience) were analyzed. The methodology involved a collaborative and qualitative approach implicating both researchers and practitioners, and alternating between data collection -- from documents, interviews and focus group discussions -- and analysis, thus completing missing information throughout the process. Focus was on four aspects of the model: partnerships, actors, curriculum, and program management. Recommendations: To provide more equitable development, national policies should prioritize financing for artisanal initiatives and micro-enterprises that create jobs and generate significant economic development. Enhance mechanisms for involving the private sector and professional associations in financing vocational training. Develop a curriculum for each profession within the informal sector with a view to assuring standard minimal competencies among trainees. The model must remain sufficiently flexible to adapt to varying local, national and regional needs. Research should continue to trace graduates of these dual training programs in Benin and Togo, track the behavior of the market vis-à-vis this differently trained generation of workers, and study the conditions and costs for generalizing the model. Impact of the study: Findings informed curriculum revision to ensure greater conformity between the centers’ formal training and the needs of the informal sector of the economy; in Benin a ministerial decree called for vocational training throughout the country to use the dual model. This research was supported by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). Brief abstract of study available in French at http://www.rocare.org/formation_pro_tg_bj.pdf

• Education for all African children by 2015: What will it take to keep the promise?, paper prepared for the Forum on Cost and Financing of Education in Nigeria, Birger Fredriksen, World Bank, September 2002, 12p.

istorically, advances in literacy and learning through universal basic education have done more to advance human conditions than perhaps any other human policy. Since the 2000 Dakar World Education Forum, there has been a worldwide resurgence in the recognition of the indispensable role good quality basic education plays in a nation’s economic and social development. Education for All (EFA) is an important element of any successful poverty reduction strategy. To reach EFA by 2015 will require deliberate actions to deal with four old challenges and one new challenge: 1/ improved quality, 2/ improved access for girls, 3/ equity in access for the poor, 4/ higher budgetary priority for basic education, and 5/ impact of HIV/AIDS. The challenges are serious, however, the opportunity to address them effectively may be greater now than at any other time in the past two decades. But to do so will require deliberate actions by the key partners in the education sector, and closer partnership. Political will is a pre-requisite to success. Governments must give EFA high budgetary priority and implement sustainable education reforms that respond to national needs. Governments must work with key stakeholders, especially teachers and parents. Teachers constitute the single most important group, from the point of view of costs, but also in ensuring good quality education. All partners must help strengthen capacity of African communities, NGOs other civil society organizations to contribute to quality education. Development of basic education is largely a national concern and needs to be firmly rooted in the local context. Even in SSA, the overwhelming share of education financing is from national sources. However, in a globalized world, rich countries need to accept shared responsibility for EFA in Africa, where external agencies’ professed priority for education is not reflected in the allocation of their aid. Paper available in English at http://www.rocare.org/ept_bfwb.pdf

4. ERNWACA member profile: Brigitte Matchinda

Ms. Matchinda teaches at the national teaching training institute ("Ecole Normale Superieure") of the University of Yaounde I in Cameroon. She obtained her Doctorate in education from the University of Strasbourg in France in 1994, with a specialization in child and adolescent psychology. Author of a book on psycho-pedagogy, "Teach Less and Learn More" (1999), her other publication themes include women and economic development; socio-cultural representations of sickness; street children and child neglect; education, psychology and analysis of the informal economy; globalization and psychosocial power relations. Matchinda received a 2002 ERNWACA Small Grant to lead research on "Intrinsic motivation and schooling of girls in western Cameroon." She also leads the ERNWACA-Cameroon team responsible for national contributions to the HIV/AIDS Impact on Education Clearinghouse, available at the Web site of IIEP, and will represent ERNWACA at the "Sub-regional Conference of Central Africa on Effective Responses to the HIV/AIDS Pandemic in the Education Sector: From Analysis to Action" in Libreville this month. She is Administrative and Financial Secretary for ERNWACA-Cameroon. Matchinda speaks French, English, and national languages, was born in 1966, is married and has two children.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

• Winrock International CIRCLE call for proposals: The Community-based Innovations to Reduce Child Labor through Education (CIRCLE) project is soliciting proposals from local non-profit organizations with capacity to prevent child labor through education. Submission deadline is May 28, 2003 (for Ghana, Mali, Cote d’Ivoire) with a second round of proposals for other countries in 2004; expressions of interest may be submitted now. Please download guidelines from http://www.winrock.org/what/PDF/CIRCLE_english.pdf.

NOTE: Next edition of ERNWACA News, planned for September 2003, will focus on ERNWACA-Nigeria and its new elected coordinating committee and ERNWACA-Cote d’Ivoire where members address education in crisis.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Subscribe, unsubscribe and contribute by emailing mlmamy@datatech.net.ml.

ERNWACA / ROCARE, BP E 1854 – Bamako – Mali

Tel: (223) 221 16 12 / 674 83 84 - Fax: (223) 221 21 15

www.ernwaca.org / www.rocare.org

Bénin • Burkina Faso • Cameroon • Cote d’Ivoire • Gambia •

Ghana • Guinée• Mali • Niger • Nigeria • Sénégal • Sierra Leon • Togo

Thanks to our development partners, IDRC and USAID, for ongoing support.