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UNESCO and the pre-launch of the African Union's theme for 2024
UNESCO and the pre-launch of the African Union's theme for 2024: " Educate an African fit for the 21st Century: Building resilient education systems for increased access to inclusive, lifelong, quality, and relevant learning in Africa."
At its 36th Ordinary Session in February 2023, the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU) decided to make 2024 the "Year of Education", calling on governments to "accelerate progress towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4)". UNESCO is co-chairing with the AU Commission the technical working group responsible for drawing up the roadmap of activities to be organized throughout 2024. In this regard, UNESCO is fully committed to making the AU Heads of State and Government Summit - February 17 to 18, 2024 - a high point of mobilization to promote education as the driving force behind a prosperous and sustainable Africa. This is also one of the objectives of the "Campus Africa" flagship program of UNESCO's Operational Strategy for Priority Africa 2022-2029.
The official launch of the AU's 2024 theme on February 17, 2024, in Addis Ababa, during the Heads of State and Government Summit, will be preceded on February 16 by a pre-launch event organized by the African Union Commission, in collaboration with the host country, Ethiopia. This pre-launch event will bring together: the Chairperson of the African Union, the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, the President of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, the C10 Heads of State and Government, representatives of multilateral institutions, including UN agencies such as UNECA, UNESCO, UNICEF, WFP; partner institutions (EU, AfDB); NGOs (Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, GPE); representatives of bilateral institutions, regional economic commissions, youth.
The pre-launch session will galvanize existing high-level political support and commitment to ensure implementation of the theme through sustainable and foreseeable financing of education in Africa. It will highlight key actions that will ensure that all African children and adolescents have the opportunity to learn and acquire the skills they need in the 21st century.
The report entitled "Education in Africa. Placing equity at the heart of policy", published jointly by UNESCO and the AU, and presented on the sidelines of the AU Heads of State and Government Summit in Addis Ababa on February 18, 2023, reveals that, although many countries in sub-Saharan Africa are taking important steps to provide quality education for all, the region has the largest out-of-school population in the world.
The 2023 UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report notes that, "More than one in four (29%) school-age children were still out of school on the continent, a worrying statistic revealing that the out-of-school population in sub-Saharan Africa increased by 12 million over the 2015-2021 period. Quality is also a concern, even for those who are in school: 9 out of 10 children in sub-Saharan Africa cannot read and understand simple text by the age of 10."
The African Union Year of Education (AUYoE) 2024 aims to catalyze follow-up to the commitments of the 2022 United Nations Education Transformation Summit (TES), mobilizing governments and development partners to rethink and transform education to contribute to the vision of "Education for All", set out in the African Union's Agenda 2063: "The Africa We Want".
In a joint statement, UNESCO and UNICEF in sub-Saharan Africa called for transforming education to foster peace on the occasion of International Education Day 2024, celebrated on January 24, 2024.
The AU Year of Education is a unique opportunity to recommit member states to achieving the Continental Strategy for Education in Africa (CESA), Agenda 2030 and SDG 4, as well as Agenda 2063.
