WGES moves to Africa
At ADEA's 1997 Biennial Meeting, the Working Group on Education Statistics (WGES) decided to establish a regional center and two sub-regional nodes for 'Strengthening National Education Statistical Information Systems' (NESIS), a capacity-building program advised and co-financed by the members of the WGES. As of April 1998, the Coordination Unit of the NESIS Program moved from UNESCO Headquarters in Paris to the UNESCO Office in Harare. The Harare office is to become the base for the NESIS Regional Center. This move marks an important step in the development of closer NESIS collaboration with its African partners.
The decentralization also marked the beginning of Phase III of the WGES/NESIS program and the establishment of a new strategy, function and structure for the NESIS Program. During the 1998-1999 biennium, NESIS will focus on capacity-building in the region. This will involve extensive training and technical support services in collaboration with African institutions and experts. Hence, in September, the NESIS Program welcomed an Associate Expert in the development of training materials in education statistics funded by the Swedish International Development Authority (Sida). It is anticipated that 30-40 countries will be involved in this new strategic activity.
Creating an African network for capacity-building: 'NESIS-NET'
The WGES/NESIS Program aims to create a network of African experts in order to develop regional capacity building activities. In concrete terms, this means the formation of sub-regional advisory groups, consisting of members of Ministries of Education, working together to address priority areas of development in the area of statistical information systems for education.
In order to launch the 1998-1999 regional strategy and activities, the NESIS program held two sub-regional meetings covering both East and Southern and West and Central Africa.
Sub-regional meeting for East and Southern Africa, Harare, July 1998
The first meeting, held in Harare, brought together 30 participants. The following countries were represented: Botswana, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, the Gambia, Uganda, Zambia, Zanzibar and Zimbabwe. Resource persons from UNICEF, the EFA Forum, UNESCO's Bureau of Personnel and the Institute of Public Administration in Ireland were also present. The objectives of the meeting were: (i) to review and plan NESIS activities; (ii) to introduce participants to the distance learning program on project management and to the preparation of the EFA 2000 national assessment indicators. At the end of the meeting, priority needs were identified and NESIS-NET Advisory Committees and technical workgroups were elected to work together to address these issues.
Sub-regional meeting for West and Central Africa, Abidjan, October 1998
The second meeting, held in Abidjan, was a jointly funded meeting sponsored by NESIS, UNICEF and the EFA Forum, bringing together 47 experts from 21 francophone, lusophone and hispanophone countries: Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, Comores, Gabon, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Democratic Republic of Congo, São Tomé and Principe, Senegal and Togo. The participants were introduced to NESIS activities and also worked towards the preparation of the EFA 2000 Assessment reports. As with the anglophone meeting, NESIS-NET Advisory Committees and technical workgroups were elected.
Collaboration with EFA for the EFA 2000 assessment reports
In collaboration with the Education For All (EFA) Global Forum, NESIS is working on the preparation of core indicators for the EFA 2000 End of Decade Assessment Reports. During the 1998 NESIS sub-regional meetings, each country was introduced to the 18 EFA core indicators. This introduction was followed up by a meeting in Malawi organized by the UNESCO Division of Statistics in October.
NESIS is an active member of the Global EFA Technical Advisory Group (TAG), and is playing a catalytic role in the organization of the EFA Regional TAG for Africa, which met in December 1998. In September, NESIS also organized a meeting in Harare for EFA's special surveys project on the conditions of teaching and learning.
Web site and publications
WGES/NESIS launched its own Web site in 1998, which includes information on WGES strategy and functions, country activities and a calendar of events. A new 'On Line Library' enables users to search, view and download the NESIS Technical Modules. Five Technical Modules on the following topics have been published: Diagnosis and action plan; Data collection; Records management; Database development, Education development indicators and Finance statistics. The Modules are available in English and in French
Developing synergies with other ADEA Working Groups
In September 1998, the WGES and the Working Group on Books and Learning Materials (WGBLM) joined forces to organize a national workshop on education book sector statistics in Zambia. Furthermore, in November 1998 the WGES held a consultative meeting with the Working Group on Finance and Education (WGFE) to discuss future collaboration.
Ko-Chih Tung
Coordinator of the Working Group on Education Statistics
Visit the WGES/NESIS Web Site at: http://nesis.easynet.fr/
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