Addis Ababa, December 11 2018 – The Education Division under the Department of Human Resources, Science and Technology held a workshop of the coordinating agencies of the Thematic Clusters for the Continental Education Strategy for Africa (CESA 16-25) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 11th - 12th December 2018. The purpose of the meeting was to review and reflect on the current practices in coordinating the work of the Clusters in implementation of CESA; discuss the existing challenges in cluster coordination; and agree on the way forward and action plan to tackle these challenges. AU Agencies and Organisations present at the meeting were Pan-African Institute of Education for Development (IPED), AU/CIEFFA, Pan African Virtual and e-University (PAVeU), ADEA, UNESCO-IICBA, Association of African Universities (AAU), Save the Children, Africa Childhood Network (AfECN), AIMS, CEMASTEA, AFTRA, FAWE, Africa Curriculum Association (ACA), African Council for Distance Education (ACDE) and Commonwealth Association of Technical Universities and Polytechnics in Africa (CAPA).
The meeting began with opening remarks by the Director HRST, represented by the Head of Education Division, Dr. Beatrice Khamati Njenga. In her remarks, she reminded the meeting of the reasons why clusters were established to support the implementation of the various CESA Strategic Objectives by tapping into various stakeholder groups that exist on the continent.
The meeting gave the opportunity for the various CESA Cluster Coordinators to present on the challenges which they encounter in leading the work of their respective clusters, and cited the opportunities available for enhancing synergies for greater impact. The common challenge that was expressed are the gaps in intra and inter cluster communication. The Coordinators also presented a progress report citing major activities and deliverables.
AUC and AIMS developed and presented a proposal on the CESA Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting Platform (CESA MERP). The CESA MERP is a platform aimed at bringing all the stakeholders: The AUC, Cluster Coordinators and Cluster Members together in a seamless and transparent way, where all players have full visibility of the activities within their clusters and all other clusters. Each player is assigned specific “create, read, update and delete” privileges within the system based on their role in the cluster. It was proposed for the platform to be launched at the latest by June 2019.
Cluster Email Forwarders will also be used to facilitate exchanges with cluster members.
It was agreed that the Cluster Coordination meeting will be held yearly to take stock and share best practices in the Coordination of CESA Clusters. The next meeting will be held in April 2019.
