DAE Intra-African Exchange Program
The IntraAfrican Exchange Program is part of the efforts undertaken by the DAE to reinforce expertise in subSaharan Africa. In this second article of the series `What Strategies for Capacity Building?', we present the program recently set up by the DAE. The first country which has benefited from it is Sao Tome and Principe.
IntraAfrican exchanges are a major component of intraAfrican cooperation and capacitybuilding efforts within the region. In accordance with the wish expressed so often by African education ministers, DAE's IntraAfrican Exchange Program proposes to assist Ministries of Education in subSaharan Africa capitalise on each other's experience and expertise. The DAE encourages this by sponsoring exchanges enabling applicants to receive advice or technical assistance from senior African education professionals.
Access to the program
The exchange programme enables interested ministries to be visited by a specialist, or to send a staff member to another country.
A ministry wishing to take part in the program must take the following steps:
a) After having identified the experience it wishes to study, the ministry prepares the terms of reference, a program of work, and a mission schedule;
b) An application is submitted, either (i) directly to the Secretariat of the DAE or (ii) to the Ministry of the country to be visited or able to provide the professional assistance requested. The applicant ministry may either receive a visit from a specialist or send one of its own staff to another country.
c) Depending on the case, the ministry of the country making the request proposes a specialist capable of undertaking the mission or indicates the department of the other ministry to which a member of the requesting ministry's staff would be sent
How the program is financed
There may be two sources of funding:
a) The two countries concerned indicate the extent to which they are able to meet the costs (e.g., fees and living expenses);
b) The DAE may cover costs such as air transportation or subsistence allowances and fees when such costs cannot be met by the countries concerned.
Upon completion of the mission, the specialist is requested to submit a report so that the outcomes of the mission may be disseminated to the members of the DAE.
Sao Tome and Principe first beneficiary of the program
Sao Tome and Principe is the first country to have benefited from DAE's IntraAfrican Exchange Program. This country's economy, based on the monoculture of cacao has suffered from a drop in production and falling cacao prices on the world market. The country's deteriorated economic and financial situation has impacted the education system.
Today, Sao Tome and Principe devotes a mere 8.1% of its budget (1994) to education vs. 11.5% in 1986. This is handicapping schools with shortfalls in infrastructure, inadequate school equipment, inexperienced teachers, and a shortage of textbooks and other teaching materials. Classes are overcrowded—in some schools there may be as many as eighty pupils. The authorities have had to opt for a tripleshift system. All of these factors are undermining the quality of education.
Faced with this situation, the Sao Tome government is considering a reform of the education system. A major meeting to reflect on the problems facing the system was held in March. The Sao Tome Minister of Education submitted a request to the DAE asking for an expert who had been closely involved in the preparation of the latest DAE Biennial Meeting to take part in the event. The central theme discussed during the Biennial (Tours, October 1995) was Formulating Educational Policy in Africa.
The DAE asked Mr. Djibril Debourou, a member of the National Assembly of Benin and the author of one of the six case studies prepared for the Biennial Meeting, to provide the government of Sao Tomé and Principe with his experience.
Mr. Debourou made a presentation on key points of educational policy formulation, including the analytical work required beforehand, the importance of mechanisms for consultation and dialogue, donor coordination, and the pitfalls to be avoided. The main recommendation made by Mr. Debourou was that more quantitative data was needed before any decisions are made. His opinion is that, in the present situation, neither the government nor the funding agencies are ready to undertake a reform of the education system.
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