African Research and Education Networks contribute to the Continental Education Strategy for Africa

In the past year, the AfricaConnect3 project partners – the UbuntuNet Alliance, WACREN, ASREN, and GÉANT have contributed to the Continental Education Strategy for Africa through meetings and by reviewing documents. The strategy establishes a framework for the digitalisation and acceleration of adoption of digital technologies for Education in Africa, including the development, strengthening, and sustainability of 54 NRENs.

The strategy was finalised on 15 July 2022, with the African Union convening the 4^th Ordinary Session of the Specialized Technical Committee (STC) on Education, Science and Technology with the African Ministers responsible for Education. During the meeting, the African Union Digital Education Strategy was adopted and launched alongside the Transform Education Summit in New York on 20 September 2022. The strategy document calls for ASREN, the UbuntuNet Alliance, and WACREN as partners to provide expertise and experience in implementing the NREN objective.

The lack of political recognition and support has long hindered the progress of the NRENs on the Continent and, by extension, securing a sustainable funding pipeline. With the Strategy and its adoption by the Heads of State and national agencies, NRENs now have Pan African political recognition. Additionally, the strategy document allows for the NRENs and RRENs to cultivate political support that can be leveraged to identify inroads to funding, engage in high-level policy discussion and the overall externalisation of RRENs and NRENs.

The final output was shared on November 25, 2022 in English and in French and can be found at this link.