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African states unite behind ADEA node for research strength

November 18, 2025

African states unite behind ADEA node for research strength

The Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) will, in future, promote the development of education on the continent through its Inter-Country Quality Node on Higher Education and Scientific Research (ICQN-HESR), rather than relying on the activities of the former Working Group on Higher Education (WGHE).

This follows a decision by the education ministers of the ADEA member states. The ICQN-HESR, an ADEA initiative, is an intergovernmental unit for policy dialogue and collaborative action. The WGHE was a key platform for advocacy, knowledge-sharing, and capacity-building to improve education on the continent, directed by the organisation’s partners, Albert Nsengiyumva, ADEA’s executive secretary, told University World News.

In an interview on the sidelines of the 2025 Triennale of ADEA, which ended on 31 October 2025 in Accra, Nsengiyumva said that “the nodes are hosted by ministries of education in countries that have been designated or expressed interest. There is one on higher education hosted by the ministries of higher education and scientific research in Senegal.”

The ICQN-HESR is focused on making higher education systems in Africa diverse, dynamic, responsive, and relevant to socio-economic development. “It is a community of practice that allows countries to share some of those practices, understand what their needs are, see how those needs can be addressed, and create a community that can continue engaging through peer learning and knowledge action,” he said.

Learning poverty undermines goals

Earlier, in her keynote address during the opening ceremony, Ghana’s Vice President, Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang, said Africa must identify gaps in what has worked in the continent’s education systems, explore what can be done differently to improve quality and relevance, and consider how emerging global trends integrate with the continent’s cultures.

Opoku-Agyemang said: “Across our continent, governments continue to grapple with learning poverty through problems like [low levels of] basic literacy skills.” Despite improvements in school enrolment, learning poverty continues to undermine development goals.

She said the continent must prepare education systems to cope with rapid technological change and societal transformation but cautioned that, “We need to go beyond coping. We must also create, contribute to that technology, and we need the skills that make it possible.”

Opoku-Agyemang said Africa needs more, and this demands that academic knowledge must be matched with avenues for creativity, adaptability, and resilience. “[The] 2025 Triennale will strengthen collaboration among African countries so that our youth will develop the skills and cultural orientation necessary to thrive in today’s world,” she said.

She called for the mobilisation of the continent’s collective expertise and innovation to create sustainable African-funded mechanisms, “because Africa is being challenged by circumstances to explore indigenous financing strategies that respond to national needs”.

New hub facilities to come

Eyerusalem Fasika, the African Development Bank Group’s country manager in Ghana, said the bank has approved US$96 million to support the second phase of the Pan-African University after having assisted 1,896 graduates (1,591 graduates at masters level and 305 graduates at PhD level). The first phase started in 2013.

“One of the components of the African Development Bank’s support to the Pan-African University is the establishment of innovation and incubation hub facilities in each of the Pan-African University institutes to strengthen the innovation and employability of graduates as well as partnerships between universities and the private sector,” Fasika said.

She believes that the resilience of Africa’s education systems will depend, not only on increased investment, but on how innovatively and efficiently that investment is deployed. “We must reimagine education finance, ensuring that every dollar spent delivers measurable improvements in quality, relevance, and impact for our children.”

Fasika said education must be demand-driven, aligned with labour market needs, and designed to foster innovation, competitiveness and lifelong learning. There is a need “to commit to good action, investing in education, scaling innovation, and empowering our youth. Africa’s future depends on it,” she added.

Future-ready education system

Professor Gaspard Banyankimbona, the commissioner for education, science, technology, and innovation at the African Union Commission, said a new continental strategy on education covering 2026-35 will be launched with “a framework to define our continental ambition to build a serious, innovative, inclusive and future-ready education system”.

Banyankimbona said: “These new guiding policy frameworks demand that we reclassify to labour markets the excellent green and digital competencies and ensure that children with disabilities, or those within conflict zones and climate-vulnerable regions, are not left behind.

He said the African Union, together with the African Development Bank, has been advancing the African Education, Science, and Technology Innovation Fund, an African-initiated and financing mechanism designed to mobilise domestic resources, catalyse private investment, and foster innovation in TVET [technical and vocational education and training], STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics], and research.

Banyankimbona said the African Union will continue to engage member states with a view to formalising their commitments, recognising that sustained financial and political will is essential to launch the African Education, Science, and Technology Innovation Fund and to implement its policy frameworks successfully.

He said: “Education is Africa’s most strategic investment, the foundation of sovereignty, prosperity and peace. If we educate our children well, our place in the world will no longer be negotiated but earned through the excellence of our human capital. ADEA, as a trusted continental institution, must be and is, indeed, at the forefront of the implementation, driving the evidence-based policy and accountability across member states.”

Critical systemic imbalances

In a speech read on his behalf, Ghana’s Minister for Finance, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, said Africa’s youthful population, estimated at 420 million under the age of 25, requires that the best and most significant resources in education be put to use. “We are just five years away from the SDGs deadline, and we have Agenda 2063 in focus. Thus, Africa is in a race for its economic fate and future.”

Forson said: “It is a race against time, and a race we must win. Even before Africa increases its speed and race, the continent faces a dual and present challenge: insufficient domestic funding, and a sharp decline in external assistance.”

He said the United Nations’ 2026 Global Education Monitoring Report has revealed that African nations spend on average 4.7% of GDP on public education. “Although this is many times within the global threshold of 4%-6% of GDP, the truth is that it is insufficient to unlock the full economic potential of the continent. More worryingly, the breakdown of the educational spending exposes critical systemic imbalances.”

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