ADEA Working Group on Education Sector Analysis (WGESA)

Programs and activities

WGESA Workplan for 2006

A. Introduction

In order to reflect its renewed goals, WGESA continued in 2005, its search for activities that have the potential of bringing the working group closer to the field. Among others, it sought to provide better responses to challenges that countries have to actually meet during a sector program's implementation. It also looked to strengthen institutional and human capacities of African educational systems. In this regard, several strategies and approaches were identified and an effort made to pilot them. This exploratory phase is about to come to completion now and WGESA is therefore concentrating on fewer but more promising activities. Of these, the Peer Review Exercise (PRE) and the Formative Research Undertaking (FRU) seem to gather most attention because of their catalytic potential to facilitate the achievement of WGESA's renewed goals. Therefore, in 2006, WGESA will use these two programs as the centerpiece around which the remaining activities will gravitate. These include: publications, capacity building, revamping of the WGESA website, completion of the institutional development, forward-looking research and the carrying out of co-ordination /administration duties.

For the sake of continuity, these activities are presented in the frame used in 2005, which were structured around 7 sub-headings.

B. Goals of the WGESA

As stated in the WGESA Strategic Choices document, the aims and goals of WGESA are as follows:

To help strengthen the capacities of African leaders and education systems so as to enable them to formulate and implement educational reforms in an informed manner. The WGESA's contribution is primarily in the form of basic and applied research, training, sharing of information, advocacy work and exchanges of skills.

To provide relevant support to African education institutions and individuals, facilitate decision-making, contribute to policy implementation and participate in reform program reviews.

To shift priorities toward greater involvement in field activities so that a better link between theory and practice may be achieved.

In particular, the WGESA will :

Contribute to developing a knowledge base on education sector analysis that is applicable to the challenges and contexts of African education systems, thus facilitating access to the best sources of information on education sector analysis and to the best research studies in the field;

Help to strengthen the capacities of African leaders and education systems in order to help them formulate and implement educational reforms based on the results and of sectoral research approaches;

Promote, through information sharing and advocacy work, better understanding of the utility of the education sector approach in making and implementing responsible decisions;

Help to extend networks and develop a fruitful dialogue on education policy among partners, including education ministries, other ministries concerned with the education sector, civil society, international development partners and the community of African academics and Africanists.

C. Context and Issues for 2006

As stated above, the WGESA will focus on two main activities, however, it will retain the structure of its activities around the seven fields identified in 2005. The challenges and opportunities facing the Group for the coming year are presented below.

1. Increasing knowledge of education sector analysis

This activity is aimed at clarifying basic concepts, developing and disseminating methodological tools for African decision-makers, compiling inventories of studies and recent trends, supporting the implementation of educational reforms undertaken in Africa in the context of EFA, and preparing suitable training and learning modules on education sector analysis.

In 2005, WGESA completed the work in progress regarding the editing and publication of a consolidated digest on education sector analysis, which is comprised of basic information on sector analysis and the group's strategic choices. An annotated bibliography was expected to be finalized. By the end of 2005, however, this particular goal was not satisfied. It will therefore be completed by early 2006.

The group will also explore ways in which to disseminate education sector analysis dialogue by posting on the WGESA website the proceedings of the Working Group side meeting in Grand Bay as well as the proceedings of the seminars organized in Maputo and Niamey.

It will also initiate two to three studies intended to feature in the 2006 Biennial lessons learned from piloting Peer Reviews in education in Africa, the learning needs of Out-of-School Children in Africa and policy formulation processes of national EFA plans. These topics have already been submitted to the Biennial organizing committee.

Another option considered is to organize a joint IIEP /WGSA distance course on sector analysis. Discussions should start with IIEP/GGD on the matter.

2. Contributing to Building African capacities

The WGESA focused, in 2005, on sharpening the formative research concepts and looking for ways to disseminate its practice in Africa. A seminar was organized in Niamey to that effect for Ministry executives and other stakeholders involved in the implementation of sector programs in French-speaking Africa. For 2006, the same seminar is planned with an emphasis, this time, on Anglophone countries. Training sessions will continue to be organized on specific topics for decisions makers and managers of African ministries and other institutions in contact with the teachers/trainers and their students/learners. As usual, the model to use for this workshop will be highly participatory, with a cross-fertilization approach.

WGESA also participated in ADEA workshops on policy dialogue and the African journalism award. This will continue in 2006.

3. Information and advocacy

The purpose of this activity is to provide a higher profile to the group activities, support implementation processes at country level and advocate best practices. In 2005, WGESA focused on streamlining its own internet website, and contribute to both ADEA and IIEP communication networks. In this regard, the three sites, previously opened by the group were merged and consolidated. The content was updated and posted on the site (see point 1). The group also drafted papers for both ADEA and IIEP newsletters.

This effort will continue in 2006 through information management, augmenting the available content and rendering the body of knowledge on sector analysis generated by the group during the last decade, accessible to end-users. This will be conducted in a collaborative manner with other working groups, in particular, the WGES, WGEF, WGNFE, WGHE, and COMED.

4. Institutional development

This activity aimed at increasing the group effectiveness through re-orienting its activities on areas of comparative advantage, expanding its co-ordination capacities, improving its monitoring practices and overall, streamlining its mission, mandate and co-ordinating structures. In this regard, the moving of the WGESA co-ordination closer to the field in Africa, an initiative identified as "Africanization" has yielded considerable attention and debates within the group.

In 2005, the group implemented the gradual approach advocated by its Steering Committee - with a transitional phase during which the IIEP serves as the host organization for the WGESA. In parallel, contacts were made with specific organizations, in particular SACHES in Tanzania and the Pole de Dakar, to discuss the possibility of hosting WGESA. The WGESA will continue in this direction in 2006, so that the group co-ordination could move to Africa when the minimal conditions are satisfied.

On other issues pertaining to institutional development, the working group's Steering Committee and focal point lists were completed in 2005 and the focal point teams re-organized.
The next step will be, in 2006, to move to action with an aim to increasing the committee effectiveness, reorienting the group's activities in the direction set by the strategic choice document , expanding the co-ordination capacities, and improving its monitoring practices.

5. Contributing to the follow-up of the Biennial, with a focus on Peer Review

The Peer Review exercise is a means to provide a new and truly African perspective on the way education reform initiatives are formulated, planned and implemented. It will draw on the experience of selected African peers to review African programs in close cooperation with national counterparts.

In 2005, the piloting of Peer Review in 3 experimental countries progressed significantly. The preparatory work phase has been completed with the signing of a Framework For Cooperation and the preliminary fact-finding missions conducted in the three countries. Despite recent changes in national leadership, the self evaluation process was also completed in two countries, and by December 2005, the international team had visited one country and was ready to go to the two others. The next steps include validation and dissemination of the findings. This will be done in 2006 if political and programmatic conditions permit.

An analytical preliminary report will be published in the website to account for the lessons learned and to advise countries willing to undertake Peer Review exercises of their own.

6. Forward-looking research

The aim of this activity is to help the group engage in prospective thinking that will clarify the Group's vision, adjust its action strategy and provide a frame for future activities. In this regard, the group focused on Formative research in 2005.

Formative Research has been successfully tried out in Norway and NEPAL as a tool for the policy implementation of sector programmes. The approach has contributed to strengthening the link between the worlds of research and policy making. The process of adapting and implementing this approach to African conditions has been underway in 2005. This will continue in 2006 with a focus on sensitizing African leaders and managers of English speaking countries on the approach's added value and the benefit African ministries of education and their partners will get in using it to facilitate the implementation of EFA national action plans. The next step will be to approach potential partners for financing and sharing the implementation of formative research activities.

7. Management duties, including periodic meetings, co-ordination and networking

This cluster aimed at improving management in such areas as financing, co-ordination, and the functioning of the Steering Committee, the co-ordination structure and the group as a whole. The WGESA organized a successful meeting/seminar in Africa in May 2005 and another meeting in the Fall of 2005. It participated in various meetings of the ADEA Secretariat, the ADEA Steering Committee, and the other working groups. This will continue in 2006 in accordance with the priorities set by the ADEA Steering committee and the Co-ordination unit.

8. Emerging issues and contingencies

Activities grouped in this heading concern all emerging issues that were not properly envisioned or were underestimated during the planning process. In 2005, WGESA participated in CIES (the Comparative International Education Society) conference in San Francisco to get better acquainted with emerging issues in education and development. In 2006, it will attend this conference and other similar platforms to expose the participants and the group itself, to the debates regarding education in Africa at an international level. This will contribute to updating knowledge, identifying latest issues and identifying solutions to the problems met by the group in the effort to better contribute to the development of education in Africa.

D. Activities
Details of the Activities and Budget figures are presented in the 2005/06 Workplan (Contact the Coordination office for more details).

ADEA WORKING GROUP ON

EDUCATION SECTOR ANALYSIS (WGESA)