Preparing for the Dakar Meeting
ADEA is actively preparing for its 1997 Biennial Meeting. For the first time in the history of the association, the event—slated for October 14-18 in Dakar—will take place in Africa. Senegal, the host country, has collaborated closely with the Secretariat of ADEA in organizing the event. As an introduction to the Dakar meeting, this issue presents several articles tackling themes which will be discussed in plenary sessions and discussion groups. Reproduced below are extracts of an interview with "Le soleil"(1) in which Hon. Mamadou Ndoye, Deputy Minister for Basic Education and National Languages in Senegal, expresses his views on the spirit, objectives and expectations of the Biennial Meeting.
Question: Minister Ndoye, in October Dakar will host ADEA’s Biennial Meeting, the first such meeting to be held in Africa. What is the significance of this event, and why was Dakar chosen?
Minister Ndoye: It was essential that this year’s meeting be held on African soil, and our country was chosen. Previously, the Biennial Meeting had always taken place in Europe, because in the beginning the purpose was coordination among the agencies. Subsequently, African Ministers of Education joined the association so that it included both the ministers and the funding agencies. At the last Biennial Meeting held in Tours, one noticeable trend was that the Ministers spoke of ownership of the association. They felt that they should have more and more weight in ADEA’s activities and that the partnership between the ministers and funding agencies should be intensified. It was essential to manifest this by: (i) the presence of the Bureau on the Steering Committee; and, (ii) alternating the location of the Biennial Meeting between Africa and Europe.This is how Dakar was chosen as the first African country to host the Biennial Meeting.
What additional contribution will this Biennial Meeting make to the worldwide debate on education issues?
M. N.: ADEA is unique in that it includes both African Ministers and development agencies, but in an informal way, in a very open relationship of exchange, shared reflection and coordination. This approach will be new to many at the conference, because sweeping declarations that are common to traditional international conferences, where each country states its goal and its positions in an effort to reach a resolution, will not be made. The Biennial meeting is much more informal: participants exchange ideas in discussion groups and panels. These discussion groups and panels will generate insights with no commitment on the part of the various countries or the agencies. It’s a freer and more open style of meeting.
Another positive element of this Biennial meeting is the theme of partnership. Assistance in the education sector is being questioned. Is it producing results? How should it be re-directed? This calls for considerable reflection, which will determine the future of the relationship between funding agencies and African governments. This approach is all the more pertinent since it will also rely on improving the quality of education. Up to now, the quantitative aspect of education development has taken priority—somewhat, we must admit, at the expense of quality. Another innovative aspect of the Dakar Biennial is that it will be directed more towards quality.
What, then, is the benefit of this kind of conference, since the decisions and lessons learned will not necessarily binding on the various parties?
M.N.: We have to consider the full importance of the political dialogue around key questions involving education issues in order to arrive at a mutual understanding between the agencies and the African Ministers. The days of policies imposing decisions and goals on Africa are over. Africans can make their position understood. They can make sure that al of the support is rooted in the internal processes they want to develop and is no longer based on artificially created projects that are not geared toward real needs. Agencies have always been criticized for not paying enough attention to the needs, cultural realities and life experience of aid recipients. There is another aspect of the dialogue that is even more important, and that is networking among African Ministers from every point of view. Africa is confronted with numerous difficulties, as we can see from the numerous crises now affecting African education systems. Experiments are now underway involving education stakeholders, governments and researchers. Their goal is to seek solutions. The Biennial Meeting will allow participants to share successful experiences, notably in the area of girls’ education or the redeployment of teachers in light of the experience of Guinea. There is a whole process of mutual enrichment of our education policies at work here.
Technical assistance and financing will be among the topics at the center of the discussions. The days of discussions on the direction and philosophical choices of education policies are over.
M.N.: Working groups will indeed put the emphasis on technical assistance and not merely financial assistance as in the past, as well as improving the quality of work. Technical issues are at the heart of ADEA’s Biennial Meetings, since our goal is capacity-building at the national level, in terms of managing the system, planning the collection of statistical data, and managing teachers. We are trying to bring researchers and decision-makers together so that the results of their research can guide the decision-making process and subsequently support the implementation process.
The Dakar Biennial will have a certain political stamp, since it will be opened jointly by Presidents Abdou Diouf of Senegal and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda.
M. N.: We felt that it was essential not only to hold the conference in Africa, but to make a strong statement to our counterparts as to which education policies we want to pursue. The spokesmen who can make the strongest case for the policy, the goals and the kinds of society that we want to develop and how we want to be supported, these spokesmen are placed at the highest levels—in fact, at the level where policy is determined. Agencies certainly need to hear these policies and these needs directly from the source, just as national policies are adopted at a higher level and then implemented at a lower point in the hierarchy. We rightfully chose one head of state who represents the French-speaking community and another from the English-speaking community. The combination of their two voices will reflect the path Africa has chosen at the start of the new millennium.
Extracts of an interview of Hon. Mamadou Ndoye
Deputy Minister for Basic Education and National Languages
with Momar Seyni Ndiaye
Assistant Editor in Chief "Le soleil", July 24, 1997
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