Out of a world total of some 6,550 schools in 166 countries taking part in ASPnet, 1,479 schools are to be found in 39 African countries. One more country has joined ASPnet since the beginning of the biennium: the Comoros.

In 2000, in the Africa region, three national ASPnet coordinators received the UNESCO Special Prize for particularly remarkable national coordinators, namely, those for Ethiopia, Mali and Rwanda.

Three major pilot projects of ASPnet, comprising the testing of prototype resource materials, were pursued in Africa over the biennium: the UNESCO Peace Pack, the Transatlantic Slave Trade Education Project and the World Heritage Education Project.

(i) The UNESCO Peace Pack was prepared following a series of seven subregional Culture of Peace Children's Festivals held in 1995. In Africa, the Festival was held in Zimbabwe in August 1995. A thousand Peace Packs were produced on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations and UNESCO (1995). These resource materials were tested successfully in 125 countries, including 26 in Africa. As its contribution to the International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World, UNESCO is at present distributing the Peace Pack worldwide, including in all Associated primary schools in Africa. A selection of the most relevant parts of the Peace Pack was prepared in English, French and Spanish for the elementary schools that have joined ASPnet.

(ii) The Transatlantic Slave Trade Education Project, launched in 1998, is an attempt to break the silence surrounding the transatlantic slave trade, while forging new triangular links - educational, cultural and social - between ASPnet schools in Africa, Europe and the Americas/Caribbean. Activities under this project include the preparation of new teaching materials on the slave trade and the organization of a wide range of intercultural activities for young people from the three regions, including visits to historic sites connected with the slave trade. African countries with schools participating in the project are: Angola, Benin, Gambia, Ghana, Mozambique, Nigeria and Senegal. A regional workshop bringing together the coordinators of the Project from 26 February to 4 March 2001 was organized by the Gambia National Commission for UNESCO in cooperation with the UNESCO Office in Dakar. A regional meeting for young people, to take place in the spring of 2001, was organized by the Niger National Commission for UNESCO in close cooperation with the UNESCO Office in Dakar. South Africa, for its part, hosted the second subregional workshop on "Teaching about our common past, building together a peaceful future", which took place in Cape Town from 7 to 11 April 2001. It intends to launch a similar project on the Indian Ocean.

(iii) The World Heritage Educational Resource Kit for Teachers, World Heritage in your hands, was distributed in 23 countries in Africa for trials in UNESCO Associated Schools and adaptation, if need be, to the region. In this connection, a national workshop on education in the preservation of the world heritage was held in Bangui, Central African Republic, from 17 to 19 February 2000. It was attended by 35 primary and secondary school teachers.