On Tuesday July 29th, in Livingstone, Zambia, ADEA joined the African Union Commission (AUC), through its Pan-African Institute for Education for Development (AU-IPED), regional and national learning assessment experts, and partners such as the Association for Educational Assessment in Africa (AEAA), the UNESCO Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report, and the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), to validate a continental framework for measuring learning outcomes across AU Member States. This effort is in line with ADEA’s push towards implementing the Ministerial resolutions to end learning poverty by 2035 and its five-year strategic plan.

Available data shows that the persisting learning crisis remains a major threat to the attainment of Africa’s education goals, demanding urgent systemic reforms. The use of data in decision-making and improving accountability, beginning with foundational learning, remain central to reversing Africa’s learning poverty. As such, ADEA is part of the multi—partner efforts to rally stakeholders around a common learning assessment framework, and supporting a contextualized approach to learning assessment among African countries.

The Livingstone validation workshop marks a critical milestone in operationalizing the decision to develop a continental assessment framework for Africa, which provides a shared, technically sound approach to assessing learning, especially at the foundational level, enabling AU Member States to adopt harmonized benchmarks for reading and mathematics proficiency in line with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Indicator 4.1.1 and the Continental Education Strategy for Africa 2026-2035 (CESA 26–35). According to Adoumtar Noubatour, Coordinator of AU-IPED, “we are committed to closing Africa’s learning data gaps and ensuring every child’s learning is visible, measurable, and acted upon. The Continental Assessment Framework is not just a technical tool; it’s a statement of our collective ambition.”

While delivering his remarks during the official opening of the workshop, the ADEA Executive Secretary, represented by the Senior Programs Officer, Shem Bodo, expressed support for the regional efforts towards a common assessment framework, but insisted that such efforts should be focused on strengthening continental assessment bodies such as the Program for the Analysis of Education Systems of the CONFEMEN¹ (PASEC) and the Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SEACMEQ):

“……As we seek to strengthen regional and continental comparability, starting at the foundational level, we must be cognizant of the twin challenge of strengthening our regional learning assessment bodies – PASEC and SEACMEQ – and our national assessment systems. As ADEA, we also value this framework as the data and evidence collected through it will enrich the discussions and decisions in meetings of critical continental bodies such as the Africa Foundational Learning Ministerial Coalition, currently comprising a membership of 40 African countries.”

The Framework responds directly to the 2024 Declaration for Action at the Africa Foundational Learning Exchange (FLEX2024) in Kigali and the 2023 Ministerial Call to Action led by Zambia and supported by Kenya, Rwanda, Senegal, and The Gambia at the fourth session of the AU Specialized Technical Committee on Education, Science, and Technology (STC-EST4). The session highlighted the need for such a framework to provide robust, comparable data to track progress and inform education reforms across the continent.

“Our goal is to provide national and regional actors with a harmonized, contextually relevant framework to assess the quality of education systems,”

said Dr. Michael Chilala, Executive Secretary of AEAA.

“This will enable governments to set realistic learning targets, allocate resources effectively, and ensure no learner is left behind.”

The validation workshop convened multiple stakeholders including representatives from AU Member States, regional organizations such as PASEC, civil society actors, and academic institutions. Key areas of focus include curriculum and assessment alignment, national assessment frameworks, and strengthening institutional capacity for learning assessment.

The CAF-Africa validation process is expected to deliver four key outcomes:

1. A finalized and technically validated Continental Assessment Framework.
2. Increased political and technical commitment to CAF implementation.
3. Stronger integration between CAF and AU-led education accountability and skills development initiatives.
4. A repository of good practices and technical recommendations to guide Member States in rollout.

Looking ahead, the validation workshop will pave the way for two major milestones: the official launch of the Framework at the AEAA Annual Conference in August 2025, and a ministerial-level presentation at the ADEA Triennale in Ghana in October 2025.