What Works and What's New in Education: Africa Speaks! previous page | next page Theme of the 1999 ADEA Biennial Meeting The main objective of ADEA's Biennial Meetings is to promote frank and open discussion between African Ministers of Education, development agencies and other education professionnals on matters related to educational policy. This year, successful educational policies, programs and innovations coming from Africa will be explored. The event will also be a unique opportunity for informal exchanges and networking. The Biennial Meetings are the linch-pin of the ADEA network. These are the events that ensure ADEA's cohesiveness over time. These meetings serve as forums to encourage partnership and to share information between African Ministers of Education, their development partners in the financial and technical agencies and selected professionals. Since 1991, Biennial Meetings have been held every odd year: the first meeting was held in Manchester, England in 1991; it was followed by Angers, France in 1993; Tours, France in 1995; then Dakar, Senegal in 1997. This year's Biennial Meeting will be held in South Africa, from 5-9 December. The venue is the Mövenpick-Indaba Hotel and Conference Center, in the suburbanizing countryside between Pretoria and Johannesburg. Exchange and Networking The Dakar Biennial Meeting brought 115 Ministers and their senior officials together with representatives from over 40 development agencies, plus selected professionals and researchers. Discussions focused on the implications of partnerships for capacity building and quality improvement in education. Attendance at this year's meeting will be similar and, as usual, is by invitation only. The aim of ADEA's Biennial Meetings is to promote frank and open discussion between African Ministers of Education, development agencies and other education professionals. The thematic focus is related to education policy and government/agency relations and the agenda is dominated by matters of professional substance. At the same time, the Biennial Meetings provide ample opportunity for informal networking. Program and Background Documentation The theme chosen for the Johannesburg Biennial is What Works and What's New in Education: Africa Speaks!. The main focus of the meeting is to demonstrate viable policy responses, coming from experience within Africa, that have provided solutions to the challenges of access, quality and capacity development. All too often, reviews and analyses of education in Africa tend to emphasize weaknesses and problems, rather than the achievements. This meeting aims to break this negative approach by focusing on what works. The background documentation for the meeting is based on a large set of case studies produced by African professionals - most of whom work in education ministries - of successful interventions from 25 participating countries and 7 ADEA Working Groups. These studies were prepared within the framework of the Prospective, Stock-Taking Review of Education in Africa. The case studies generated by this process vary widely, ranging from community/school partnerships in Burkina Faso, Madagascar and Zanzibar, to mother tongue teaching in Mali and Niger, to access for girls in Tanzania and Benin, to access to higher education in South Africa, and to Management Information Systems in Côte d'Ivoire and Namibia. Common to all studies is that they present achievements. These studies will provide the substantive basis for the Meeting. The authors of the studies will be on panels where they will be interviewed by the session Chairpersons, all of whom will be drawn from the ADEA Steering Committee. As usual, there will be ample time for discussions to explore conclusions that can be drawn from successful educational policies, programs, and innovations coming from Africa. This should make for lively sessions that provide sufficient time for plenary discussions. Around the Biennial Meeting As at preceding Biennial Meetings, ADEA Working Groups will organize meetings before and during the event, thereby getting the most from the presence of Ministers and senior agency staff. In Johannesburg, such meetings will take place for the Working Groups on Books and Learning Materials, Female Participation, Finance and Education, Nonformal Education, Sector Analysis and Statistics. In addition, the Caucus African Ministers of Education will meet, while the International Institute for Education Planning (IIEP) will organize a seminar on private and community education in Africa. On a lighter note, instead of the standard conference bag, participants will receive a South African Madiba blouse or shirt. This shirt/blouse will be functional in that participants are expected to wear it at least once during the meeting, thereby promoting the informality which has always characterized such meetings.

About ADEA | Working Groups | Programs | Publications | Newsletter | Databases | Calendar | Site Map | En français Association for the Development of Education in Africa 7-9 rue Eugène-Delacroix 75116 Paris, France Tel: + 33/ (0) 145.03.77.57 Fax: + 33/ (0) 145.03.39.65 adea@iiep.unesco.org Last modified: December 28, 1999