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A Twin Education Crisis is Holding Back Africa

Millions are not at school, millions more are failing to learn

POLICY PAPER
September 2012

Africa
Progress
Report 2012
POLICY PAPER

ABOUT THE AFRICA PROGRESS PANEL

The Africa Progress Panel (APP) consists of ten distinguished individuals from the private and public sector,
who advocate on global issues of importance to Africa and the world. Mr Kofi Annan, former Secretary-
General of the United Nations and Nobel laureate, chairs the APP and is closely involved in its day-to-day
work.

The other Panel members are Michel Camdessus, Peter Eigen, Bob Geldof, Graça Machel, Olusegun
Obasanjo, Linah Mohohlo, Robert Rubin, Tidjane Thiam and Muhammad Yunus.

Kofi Annan Michel Camdessus Peter Eigen Bob Geldof Graça Machel

Olusegun Obasanjo Linah Mohohlo Robert Rubin Tidjane Thiam Muhammad Yunus

about the africa progress REPORT

The Africa Progress Report, the Africa Progress Panel’s flagship annual publication, draws on the best research
and analysis available on Africa and compiles it in a refreshing and provocative manner. Through the report,
the Panel recommends policy choices and actions for African policy makers, international partners and civil
society organisations.

This policy paper is drawn from the Africa Progress Report 2012, whose preparation and research was led
by Caroline Kende-Robb (Africa Progress Panel), Kevin Watkins (Brookings Institution), Peter da Costa (Africa
Progress Panel) and Richard Manning (Oxford University). Andrew Johnston (Consultant) edited the paper.

Contact the Africa Progress Panel

For media requests or more information, please contact: [email protected].
Website: www.africaprogresspanel.org

The APP would like to acknowledge the generous support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the German
Development Cooperation (GIZ) and the UK Department for International Development (DFID).

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 A Twin Education Crisis is Holding Africa Back

table of contents
It’s not just how many children go to school - it’s what they learn there 4
Why skills matter - for young people and for their countries 4
It’s time for African governments to take action 4
Some impressive progress has been made... 5
...but millions of children are still not in school... 5
...because many groups face stark disadvantage 5
Reaching the marginalized: the greatest education challenge 5
In Africa’s school, millions are failing 8
Skills deficit among Africa’s youth 8
Education inequalities in global perspective 8

An agenda for addressing Africa’s Education crisis 8

The early years are crucial for future learning 8
Access and learning - delivering on the MDG promise 9
Aligning education, skills development and employment 10

The key role of aid donors 10

Guiding principles 11

Selected policy actions 11

“ Education has the capacity to break the intergenerational

cycle of poverty. Go to any poor rural village or urban slum and

”
you will find Africans who share that view.

– Graça Machel

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POLICY PAPER

It’s not just how many children go to

school – it’s what they learn there
Learning drives economic growth, fuels innovation Left unattended, this imbalance in priorities will have
and creates jobs. It equips countries – and people damaging consequences for Africa’s future. In an
– with the skills they need to escape poverty and increasingly interconnected and knowledge-based
build prosperity. And it gives people the power to global economy, today’s disparities in education
build more secure livelihoods, enjoy better health are tomorrow’s inequalities in income, trade and
and participate in political processes that affect investment. More than ever, the prosperity of nations
their lives. For all of these reasons, Africa’s ongoing hinges less on what countries have (their natural
education crisis demands the urgent attention of resource capital) than on what their citizens are
political leaders and aid partners. able to learn (their human capital). And what is true
for countries is also true for people. Those denied
We do not use the word “crisis” lightly. In education, an opportunity to develop their potential through
as in other areas, much has been achieved over the education face the prospect of marginalisation,
past decade. Enrolment levels have soared. More poverty and insecure employment.
children are making it through primary education
into secondary school. Gender gaps have It’s time for African governments to
narrowed. Many countries have registered a pace take action
of advance that would have been inconceivable
when the Millennium Development Goals were Education has the potential to transform Africa’s
established. social and economic development. Unlocking that
potential will require governments to act with urgency
Yet, on current trends, the target of universal on three fronts.
primary education by 2015 will be missed by a wide
margin, leaving millions of children out of school First, every government needs to redouble its efforts to
– and there are worrying indications that progress ensure that all children are in school by 2015.
may be slowing. Meanwhile, many of the children in
school are receiving an education of such abysmal Second, far greater attention must be directed
quality that they are learning very little. Far from towards the quality of education and learning
accumulating “21st century skills”, millions of Africa’s achievement. Africa needs to embrace what
children are emerging from primary school lacking researchers at the Brookings Institution have described
basic literacy and numeracy. as a “global compact on learning” – a compact
that puts a premium on results. Shortly after Ghana’s
Why skills matter – for young people independence, its first president, Kwame Nkrumah,
and for their countries said: “We shall measure progress by the number
of children in school, and by the quality of their
The twin education deficits in access to school and education.”1 Too many governments – and donors –
learning in school have far-reaching consequences. have forgotten the quality part of the equation.
They are undermining the potential of a whole
generation of children and young people, reinforcing The third priority goes to the heart of the wider
social divisions and damaging prospects for sustained agenda for jobs, justice and equity. Both in access
and shared economic growth. and education quality, Africa has some of the world’s
most glaring education inequalities. Most countries’
Africa’s governments have placed considerable constitutions enshrine the right of all citizens to an
emphasis over the past 10 years on putting in place education, without regard to their circumstances.
the macroeconomic policies needed to support Yet all too often, being born into a poor family,
growth – and rightly so. But the kind of broad-based living in a rural area, being female or coming from
growth that Africa needs is simply not possible if its a conflict-affected region means suffering extreme
people lack the necessary skills and capabilities on disadvantage in education. These inequalities are
which dynamic and broad-based growth depend. slowing down progress towards the MDGs, reinforcing

1
Nkrumah, K. n.d. quotes from Kwame Nkrumah. Pan African Perspective. Accessed on 20 April, 2012. Available from http://www.panafrican
perspective.com/nkrumahquotes.html

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 A Twin Education Crisis is Holding Africa Back

wider social disparities and undermining economic In Niger and Chad, over 30 per cent of young girls
growth. That is why governments need to put equity are married before the age of 15, and for a far wider
at the centre of their education strategies. group of countries – including Mali, Mozambique,
Ethiopia and Burkina Faso – over half marry by 18.4
Some impressive progress has been
made… Africa’s education deficits do not end with primary
education. There are 19 million adolescents out of
Measured by the number of children sitting in school, many of them making the transition to work
classrooms, Africa has registered some remarkable without having completed a basic education.5
achievements. The net enrolment rate, which Stated bluntly, Africa’s human capital foundations
measures the proportion of primary-school-age are too weak to sustain dynamic economic growth
children registered for school, increased from 60 per and shared prosperity.
cent in 2000 to 76 per cent in 2009. Over the same
period, out-of-school numbers fell from 42 million …because many groups face stark
to 30 million.2 Given that Africa has the world’s disadvantage
fastest-growing primary-school-age population,
these outcomes are even more impressive than the Behind the statistics that measure average progress
headline data suggest. Gender disparities have also across Africa lie deep inequalities in access to
declined. And there has been a marked increase in education. The poor, women, ethnic minorities, rural
secondary school participation, with the enrolment children and other marginalised groups suffer from
rate increasing from 24 to 34 per cent. discrimination and disadvantage that create social
fault-lines running through the region’s education
When the MDG commitments were made in 2000, few systems.
observers would have predicted the achievements
registered by many countries. Tanzania had over As countries have moved closer to universal access,
3 million children out of school and enrolment was the challenge of combating these disparities has
declining. Today the country is within touching been brought into sharper focus. Continued progress
distance of universal primary enrolment. From Burkina towards the goal of universal primary education by
Faso to Ethiopia, Mozambique, Senegal and Zambia, 2015 will require interventions that reach those who
one country after another has made a breakthrough have been left behind.
in enrolment.
Gender inequalities remain endemic. While the
…but millions of children are still not disparities are narrowing, girls still account for a
in school… disproportionate share of out-of-school children. There
are just 8 girls for every 10 boys in secondary school.6
Impressive as the growth in school participation may
be, Africa is not on track to achieve the MDG targets. Wealth gaps and regional disparities are equally
If the trend from 2004 to 2009 is continued, there will marked. Children from the poorest households are
still be 17 million out of school in 2025 – two primary- less likely to get into school, and those who do enter
school generations after the 2015 target date for are more likely to drop out. In Mali, young adults from
universal education.3 Disconcerting as these figures the poorest 20 per cent of households have received
are, they tell only a partial story. Another 12 million on average five years less education than those from
African children enter school only to drop out before the wealthiest households – and this is not atypical.
completing a full primary-school cycle, driven away
by factors such as formal and informal fees, the cost Reaching the marginalized: the
of textbooks and the poor quality of education. greatest education challenge
Young girls face distinct barriers. Many start school late, None of these inequalities operates in isolation.
and early marriage often cuts short their school years. Disadvantages linked to wealth, gender and

2
UNESCO (2011). Regional Overview: Sub-Sahara Africa. UNESCO. Accessed on 6 April, 2012 from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/
images/0019/001913/191393e.pdf
3
Africa Progress Panel (APP) calculations
4
Brown, G. (2012). Out of wedlock, into school: combatting child marriage through education. The Office of Gordon and Sarah Brown Limited.
London.
5
UNESCO (2011). Out-of-school adolescents, UNESCO
6
Turney, H. (2012). Our silent education crisis. The Global Team Accessed in April 2012. Available from http://theglobalteam.org/2012/01/28/
our-silent-education-crisis/

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POLICY PAPER

location have mutually reinforcing effects. UNESCO’s in Senegal, 57 per cent of women report having less
Education for All Global Monitoring Report developed than two years of education. For women from the
a measurement tool – the Deprivation and pastoralist Poular community, that figure rises to 80
Marginalization in Education indicator – that charts per cent. Similar patterns of disadvantage occur in
the impact of overlapping inequalities in limiting Ethiopia, Uganda and Kenya (Figure 2).
opportunities for education. One illustration comes from
Nigeria, where poor rural Hausa women aged 17 to 22 Accelerated progress towards universal access to
average less than one year in school. The comparable education will require a far stronger focus on the most
figure for urban males from wealthy households is over marginalised children – including child labourers, girls
nine years in school7 (Figure 1). Africa’s pastoralist forced into early marriage, children living in urban
communities provide another illustration of the region’s slums and remote rural areas, disadvantaged ethnic
overlapping inequalities. Among those aged 17 to 22 groups, and the disabled.

Figure 1: The education inequality tree - The Case oF NIGERIA in 2003

14

Ukraine

12

Cuba
10 Urban
Bolivia
Richest 20% Rural
Average years of education

Indonesia

8
Honduras

Nigeria
Cameroon Urban
6
Bangladesh

4
Poorest 20%
Education

Rural
poverty

Chad
2
education
Extreme
poverty

Central African Republic Rural Hausa

0

Source: UNESCO (2010). Education for All Global Monitoring Report: Reaching the Marginalized, UNESCO.

7
UNESCO (2010). Education for All Global Monitoring Report: Reaching the Marginalized. UNESCO

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 A Twin Education Crisis is Holding Africa Back

Figure 2: Pastoralists face extreme education deprivation

% out of primary school*

100
90 87 87
80 87 87 84
83
79
60 61 60 62
53
51 50
40 41 40
42 38
35
30
20

0 9 9
Country Pastoralist Country Pastoralist Country Pastoralist Country Pastoralist Country Pastoralist
average group average group average group average group average group

Ethiopia Kenya Benin Nigeria Senegal

Afar/related Somali Peul/related Fulani Poular

Extreme education poverty: population aged 17 to 22 with fever than two years of education (%)

100
92 94 96 91
88
80 85
80
71
60 68
60
53 57
51
40 43
39
33
20 26
17
0 7 9
Country Pastoralist Country Pastoralist Country Pastoralist Country Pastoralist Country Pastoralist
average group average group average group average group average group

Ethiopia Kenya Benin Nigeria Senegal

Afar/related Somali Peul/related Fulani Poular

Notes: *% out of primary school: proportion of children of primary school age.

Source: UNESCO (2010). Education for All Global Monitoring Report: Reaching the Marginalized, UNESCO.

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POLICY PAPER

In Africa’s schools, millions are failing an enormous cost to society in terms of lost potential
to learn for economic growth and social cohesion. Yet few
countries have put in place, on the scale required,
If getting more children into school has been a partial strategies for providing “second-chance” education
success story, the evidence on what they are learning programmes for young people who missed out in their
points in a different direction. Africa’s schools are earlier years. They should also offer technical and
failing millions of children. Zambia, for example, has vocational education and training plus support for
made rapid progress towards universal primary school training in the informal sectors where the vast majority
enrolment, with over 90 per cent of primary-school- of Africa’s young people work.
age children in school. But half of the children in the
last grade are unable to meet basic literacy standards. Education inequalities in global
Such outcomes are the rule, not the exception. perspective
Governments across the region invest heavily in The scale of the education divide that separates Sub-
education. Public spending on education averages Saharan Africa from other parts of the world is not
over 5 per cent of GDP, one of the highest levels for sufficiently recognized. In the United States and much
any region in the world. Since 2009, average annual of Europe, a typical child reaching primary school age
spending has increased by 6 per cent a year. Yet can anticipate 15 to 18 years in full-time education.
learning outcomes fall far short of the levels needed to Around 70 per cent will go beyond secondary school
unlock the potential of education to act as a force for and into tertiary education – the gateway to the higher
sustained growth, innovation and accelerated poverty levels of knowledge development.
reduction.
Africa is at the other end of the global distribution.
Skills deficits among Africa’s youth UNESCO’s Education for All Global Monitoring Report
has used survey evidence to document the number
There are 173 million young Africans aged 15 to 24. of years spent in education by those aged 20 to 24
The majority have made the transition from childhood across Africa. In Mozambique, 40 per cent reported
to the world of work with limited education. Only a less than four years of schooling, rising to 50 per cent
minority went to secondary school, and the majority or more in Senegal, Ethiopia, Chad and Mali.8 Today,
did not complete primary education. These education a child entering the primary school system in Burkina
deficits are reflected in labour markets. Youth Faso has less chance of reaching the last grade than a
unemployment rates in Sub-Saharan Africa are second counterpart in Europe has of making it to university. The
only to those in the Middle East and North Africa, with enrolment rate for tertiary education is just 6 per cent,
one in five affected. Those in employment often face which is half the level in South Asia and one quarter of
lives of working poverty. In Malawi, Mozambique and the level in East Asia or Latin America. Measured on
the Democratic Republic of the Congo, more than the standard criteria for participation in education,
70 per cent of working youth live on less than $1.25 a Sub-Saharan African children and youth have been
day. The skills deficits facing Africa’s youth represent cut adrift from the rise of opportunity.

AN AGENDA FOR ADDRESSING AFRICA’S EDUCATION

CRISIS
Education is where sound economics and ethical nutrition is critical. Learning outcomes in education are
imperatives come together to make an overwhelming strongly affected by the nutritional status of children in
case for action in favour of jobs and of justice. Good- their early years, especially the first two years of life –
quality education is a solid investment with high rates of but one in every three of Africa’s children experience
return in terms of economic growth and employment chronic malnutrition in their early years.
creation. And learning is the birthright of all African
children, irrespective of their circumstances. Undernutrition affects cognitive development by
causing structural damage to the brain and impairing
The early years are crucial to future motor development. Stunting by the age of two, one
learning of the most sensitive indicators of undernutrition during
foetal and post-natal life, is strongly associated with
Efforts to tackle the crisis in education have to start weakened cognitive development, especially when
long before children enter school. Good health and combined with household poverty. In sub-Saharan

8
UNESCO (2011) Education for All Global Monitoring Report. UNESCO Accessed on 20 April, 2012. Available from http://www.icde.org/
UNESCO+-+Education+for+All+Global+Monitoring+Report+2011.b7C_wtbUXx.ips

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 A Twin Education Crisis is Holding Africa Back

Africa, 38% of children under the age of five suffer from used to create incentives for parents to keep girls in
moderate or severe stunting. school and out of early marriage.

Evidence from middle-income developing countries Overcoming the learning achievement deficits will
suggests that children who are stunted lose the require deeper institutional reforms. Overcrowded
equivalent of two grades in education, and another classrooms, shortages of textbooks and a dilapidated
two grades as a result of diminished learning. That school infrastructure are part of the problem in many
evidence goes some way towards explaining the high countries – but it is the easier part to fix. The more
dropout rates and abysmal learning outcomes that difficult part revolves around teaching. With a deficit
characterise education systems across Africa. With of around 1 million teachers, Africa urgently needs to
around half of children in eastern Africa and one-third step up recruitment.9 However, far more needs to be
in western Africa stunted, and malnutrition levels falling done to raise the quality of teaching.
very slowly over time, governments need to recognize
that hunger is an education policy issue. Many of Africa’s teachers enter classrooms with limited
subject knowledge. One survey found that fewer than
Governments across Africa need to do far more to half of grade 6 teachers in Mozambique, Uganda
join up early childhood and education policies. Every and Malawi were able to score at the top of the
country should have a “first 1,000 days” strategy competency level for the pupils.10 Teaching is typically
covering the critical period from conception to age delivered in rote fashion. In-service support systems
two, when much of the brain’s architecture is formed. are weak. And whether as a result of low morale, poor
There should also be a concerted effort to expand pay or a lack of accountability, Africa’s schools are
pre-schooling, with centres linked to schools delivering plagued by an epidemic of teacher absenteeism.
both early learning and nutritional support.
Governments can do far more to raise the bar of
Access and learning – delivering on ambition in learning. Basic learning-assessment tools
the MDG promise can be used to identify failing schools and pupils.
Teacher deployment and education financing can
Looking towards 2015, there is an unfortunate air of be geared towards the most disadvantaged schools
resignation hanging over much of the region. Many rather than, as is currently the case in most countries,
governments and donors appear to view a large towards the more advantaged. Critically, far more
shortfall against the MDG targets in education as an emphasis needs to be placed on ensuring that the
inevitable outcome. Indeed, much of the debate school curriculum, teachers, and teaching materials
surrounding the MDGs in education has moved on to are geared towards equipping children with the early-
dialogue on the “post-2015” agenda. grade reading and numeracy skills that they need to
progress.
Without discounting the importance of this dialogue,
the shift in priorities is premature. As many countries In retrospect, the MDG framework may have
across the region have demonstrated, rapid progress inadvertently deflected attention away from learning
towards the 2015 goals is possible. Both Tanzania and and created an incentive for governments – and
Ethiopia reduced out-of-school numbers by over 3 donors – to concentrate their efforts on getting more
million in the first half of the decade after 2000. The children into school. The debate on the post-2015
immediate challenge for governments and their development goals provides an opportunity to correct
development partners is to identify strategies aimed this failing. Whatever the framework that emerges from
at getting more children into school, reducing dropout the ongoing dialogue, it should include a meaningful
rates and improving learning achievement levels. goal for learning achievement, and provide for
effective monitoring of progress towards that goal. As
Some of the barriers to participation in education a minimum, the post-2015 learning goal should include
can be swiftly removed through well-designed the twin target of getting all children into school, while
policies. Classrooms can be constructed closer to at the same time ensuring that no child is unable to
the communities they serve. Cost barriers can be perform basic literacy and numeracy tasks after three
lowered by eliminating fees and targeting support to years.
disadvantaged regions and students. Bursaries can be

9
UNESCO (2011). Sub-Sahara Africa needs more than one million teachers. UNESCO. Accessed on 6 April, 2012. Availabe from http://www.unesco.
org/new/en/dakar/about-this-office/singleview/news/sub_saharan_af- rica_needs_more_than_one_million_teachers/
10
Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Education quality (2010). Project results: Pupil achievement levels in reading and mathe-
matics.

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POLICY PAPER

Aligning education, skills governments in Africa are starting to address the

development and employment skill deficits among youth populations. The African
Development Bank has identified several countries
Many young people entering labour markets in Africa – including Cameroon, Ethiopia, Rwanda and
have not completed primary education. One survey Mozambique – that have strengthened coordination
covering Senegal, Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia found between different skills development agencies.
that over half of informal-sector workers had only a Members of the African Union are developing a new
primary school education, or less.11 By far the most framework for technical and vocational education
important source of skills development for workers in and training, linked to tools for assessing the skills that
the informal sector is traditional apprenticeship and young people will need to gain employment. For
on-the-job training. In Ghana, it is estimated that 80–90 example, the Kenyan government has developed
per cent of basic skills training comes from traditional a public–private partnership to train 20,000 skilled
apprenticeships, compared with 5–10 per cent from information technology workers. Several donors –
public training institutions.12 including Japan and Germany – have scaled up aid
There are encouraging signs to suggest that for vocational programmes.

THE KEY ROLE OF AID DONORS

African governments themselves have to provide they, too, must hold to the MDG promise. The Global
leadership in tackling the twin crisis in access and Campaign for Education has called on the donor
learning. At the same time, the MDGs and the community to allocate 10 per cent of overall aid to
Education for All compact commit to providing basic education in the poorest countries. This is a
support for national efforts. When donors signed target that most could reach – in some cases, as in
the plan of action for achieving Education for All France and Germany, by reallocating aid to primary
in 2000, they pledged that “no countries seriously basic education in Africa that is currently diverted to
committed to education for all will be thwarted in domestic education providers. The World Bank has
their achievement of this goal by lack of resources.”13 pledged to increase support to basic education by
$750 million from now to 2015.
It is difficult to square that pledge with the record on
aid delivery. Best estimates suggest that, even with a Education should be a central element in a big
strengthened domestic resource mobilisation effort, push to meet the Millennium Development Goals.
the poorest countries in Africa and elsewhere need Governments in Africa should put in place policies
around $16 billion annually in education aid to reach aimed explicitly at reaching children who are being
the Education for All goals. However, aid levels have left behind, and raising their learning achievement
stagnated at around $3 billion a year. While the overall levels. For their part, donors should pledge to support
aid envelope for education did expand in 2010, Sub- these policies through more flexible and responsive
Saharan Africa – with the partial exception of Ethiopia financing. Converting the Global Partnership for
– was bypassed. Education (GPE) into an independent global fund
could help to galvanise the support and mobilise the
Aid donors have justifiably pressed African governments financing needed to underpin the compact that we
to increase levels of support for education – and envisage.

11
Adams, Arvil V. (2008). Skills development in the Informal sector of Sub-Saharan Africa. World Bank
12
Emmanuel, J. (2007). World Development Report: Development and the next generation. World Bank.
13
UNESCO (2000). Dakar Framework for Action. Education for all: meeting our collective commitments. Ac- cessed on 6 April, 2012. Available
from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001211/121147e.pdf.

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 A Twin Education Crisis is Holding Africa Back

Guiding principles
• Set targets for expanding early childhood care and education by 2015;
• Accelerate progress towards universal primary education by focusing on marginalised groups;
• Improve education quality and learning outcomes so that all children can read, write and meet
basic numeracy standards after three years in school;
• Raise the quality of teacher training and in-service support;
• Strengthen second-chance education and accelerated learning programs;
• Ensure post-primary education to offers the skills needed for secure livelihoods and jobs.

selected policy action

Develop equitable education strategies that:
• Expand early childhood care under an integrated health and education framework that breaks the
link between hunger, poverty and parental illiteracy on the one side and educational disadvantage
on the other;
• Accelerate progress towards universal primary education by developing national action plans for
2015 with specific targets for hard-to-reach children;
• Strengthen equity in public spending by targeting disadvantaged regions, schools and pupils,
including girls and marginalised groups;
• Expand “second-chance” education programs targeting adolescents, youth and young adults
who missed out on education in their early years;
• Engage with the business community to improve the alignment between education and
employment, equipping Africa’s youth with the skills they need to obtain secure livelihoods;
• Extend education opportunities to the 54 million 5- to 14-year-olds trapped in child labour;
• Put in place a national learning assessment system, reform teacher training and develop a curriculum
to facilitate effective child-centred learning.

Development partners:
• Build on the achievements of the Global Partnership for Education to create a global fund for
education that provides additional financing and flexible support for the 2015 national action plans
for achieving education for all;
• Honour commitments made in 2000 by providing $16 billion a year in aid for basic education in low-
income countries;
• Act on the commitment to increase World Bank IDA lending to basic education by $750 million
over the period 2011 to 2015. Using a baseline that reflects actual lending over the past three to
five years, this commitment implies that IDA loans for basic education should average $1.1 billion to
$1.3 billion annually;
• Strengthen support for education in countries affected by conflict or embarking on post-conflict
reconstruction, by creating or expanding pooled funding arrangements and increasing the share
of humanitarian aid directed to education. Support an “education catch-up” plan in South Sudan
as an immediate priority;
• Support conditional and unconditional cash transfer programs targeting households with child
labourers;
• Create mechanisms through which the African and global business community can more effectively
support national efforts to accelerate progress in education.

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The Africa Progress Panel promotes Africa's development by tracking progress,
drawing attention to opportunities and catalyzing action.

PANEL MEMBERS Graça Machel

President of the Foundation for
Kofi Annan Community Development and founder
Chair of the Africa Progress Panel, of New Faces New Voices
former Secretary-General of the United
Nations and Nobel Laureate Linah Kelebogile Mohohlo
Governor, Bank of Botswana
Michel Camdessus
Former Managing Director of the Olusegun Obasanjo
International Monetary Fund Former President of Nigeria

Peter Eigen Robert Rubin

Founder and Chair of the Advisory Co-Chairman of the Board, Council on
Council, Transparency International Foreign Relations and former Secretary
and Chairman of the Extractive of the United States Treasury
Industries Transparency Initiative
Tidjane Thiam
Bob Geldof Chief Executive Officer, Prudential Plc.
Musician, businessman, founder and
Chair of Band Aid, Live Aid and Live8, Muhammad Yunus
co-founder of DATA and ONE advisor Economist, founder of Grameen Bank
and advocate and Nobel Laureate

Africa Progress Panel

P.O. Box 157
1211 Geneva 20
Switzerland

[email protected]
www.africaprogresspanel.org

The cover design is inspired by the pattern found on the Ethiopian magic scroll of Wälättä-Gabriel from the 19th century.
Magic scrolls are a traditional form of talismanic and figurative art from the Horn of Africa.

The Africa Progress Panel prints in a responsible manner.

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