The Education Convening held its maiden Francophone Convening from the 28th to 29th of June in Niamey, Niger, welcoming 49 participants from 16 institutions across 6 countries within Africa’s Sahel Africa region.
The francophone convening, the first of its kind, was hosted by the African Development University (ADU), a long-standing partner of The Education Collaborative and beneficiary of The Education Collaborative’s mentorship program.
“In a sector as significant as education, while competition is helpful, it should not be the way we operate,” shared Kader Kaneye, founder and president of ADU. “The right way is collaboration. And it is through collaboration that institutions can learn from one another and share their learnings. Through The Education Collaborative, ADU has benefited from collaborating with Ashesi University over the last five years. Through this relationship, ADU has received mentorship, allowing us to scale impact and quality. And for the first time, by bringing The Education Collaborative’s flagship Annual Convening to Francophone Africa, institutions within the Sahel can come together, collaborate and set the region up for growth.”
The Francophone Convening, a follow-up to the flagship Annual Convening, was held under the theme, Building the Capacity of Institutions to Improve Higher Education Outcomes, and provided a learning platform for stakeholders in Francophone Africa and the Sahel region to probe into solutions for context-specific challenges. The two-day event welcomed educators, regulators, and administrators in Francophone Africa and the Sahel region committed to creating learning opportunities for stakeholders to build their educational capacity.
“Our goal with this first Francophone Convening is to explore ways to collaborate and share education best practices within predominantly French-speaking higher education institutions in Africa,” shared Rose Dodd, Director, The Education Collaborative. “We hope that the Francophone Hub will also serve as a launchpad for The Education Collaborative’s Hub to drive education solutions unique to the region.”
Since 2017, The Education Collaborative has engaged over 150 higher education institutions, supported over 280 educators and administrators, and impacted over 116,000 students in Africa, including several in East Africa and the Sahel region. To scale its impact, The Educational Collaborative has adopted a regional hub model that allows partner institutions to address growth opportunities that fit within their context.
“I am particularly pleased that a platform such as the Francophone Convening of The Education Collaborative is taking place in Niamey and has provided an opportunity where stakeholders are not only envisioning what the future of education in Africa should look like, but we must also ask ourselves what kind of education the continent really and truly wants,” shared Professor Mahaman Alio, Deputy Secretary-General of the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation.
