ADEA - Association for the Development of Education in Africa

Today, joins the continent in celebrating Africa Day. 🌍🇲🇼

And this year, that celebration carries particular weight. In 7 weeks, Lilongwe opens its doors to Africa's education ministers, practitioners, and partners for — the continent's most important summit on foundational learning.

Malawi's Minister of Education, Hon. Bright Msaka, reminds us of what anchors this work: before digital skills, before future-ready curricula, before any transformation — children must first be able to read and calculate. These are not basic expectations. They are the foundation on which everything else is built.

Malawi is proud to host this moment. And proud to show what a country looks like when it decides to act.

"Every African child has the right to learn."

🗓 FLEX2026 | 15–17 July 2026 | Lilongwe, Malawi

🔗 flex2026.adeanet.org

Happy Africa Day. 🌍

Foundational learning is not a sector priority or a donor agenda. It is a daily reality — for teachers standing in front of forty children with inadequate materials and for children who deserve the tools to build a life.

ADEA exists to accelerate that reality. To bring governments, partners, and evidence together around what actually works — and to hold that work to account.

In 7 weeks, that work comes to . will gather more than 500 participants from 37 African countries — ministers, researchers, practitioners, and partners — to move from the commitments made in Kigali to the results Africa's children are waiting for.

As our Executive Secretary, Albert Nsengiyumva, puts it: every African child must be able to read, reason, and flourish.

That is what we are building toward. Today, and in Lilongwe.

🗓 15–17 July 2026 | Lilongwe, Malawi

🔗 flex2026.adeanet.org

In 10 weeks, more than 500 participants from 37 African countries will gather in Lilongwe, Malawi for FLEX2026 — the continent's premier summit on foundational learning.

In the weeks leading up to July, we will be shining a light on the countries making it happen. Not the pledges. The results.

We begin with Ghana. 🇬🇭

38% literacy mastery. 62% numeracy mastery. Government-led. Domestically financed.

Through the Ghana Accountability for Learning Outcomes Project (GALOP), Ghana has built something rare: a coherent, system-wide approach that links school improvement, instructional leadership, and community engagement — owned and funded by the government, not a donor cycle.

Here's the detail that stays with you: when targeted SMS messages were sent to parents, Ghana recorded an 11-percentage-point increase in girls returning to school. One intervention. Measured. Acted on. Results documented.

Ghana is also among the first African countries to launch a national End Learning Poverty in Africa (ELPAF) campaign — placing foundational learning at the centre of national policy as a government commitment, not a project.

That is exactly the kind of story exists to amplify.

Ghana's experience comes to the continental table in Lilongwe. Thirty-six more country stories follow.

Watch this space. 🌍

🔗 flex2026.adeanet.org



Gates Foundation | Ghana News TV | What Works Hub for Global Education | UNICEF Africa | UNICEF Ghana

📬 The ADEA April 2026 newsletter is out!

This edition tells the story of a continent building the full pipeline — from foundational learning to school leadership to skills and employment. Because Africa's education transformation is not three separate agendas. It is one.

Here is what's inside:

✅ Guinea showcases TVET in action at the Olympiades des Métiers 2026 — and links skills reform to the Simandou 2040 vision
✅ ADEA convenes 7 countries to strengthen accountability for foundational learning ahead of FLEX 2026
✅ The African Union Commission has asked us to lead the CESA Cluster on Education System Governance, Policy & Finance
✅ ACSL takes centre stage at the 1st International Conference of the Kenya Education Management Institute in Nairobi
✅ Launch of ACSL's Continental School Leadership Mapping Report — the most comprehensive evidence synthesis on school leadership ever conducted in Africa
✅ New working paper: Ubuntu School Leadership in
✅ Africa EdTech Research Initiative locks in Kenya's research priorities in
✅ Higher Education ICQN webinar on curricula reform and university-industry partnerships

🎯 And FLEX 2026 is around the corner!

📅 15–17 July | 📍 Lilongwe, Malawi

Registrations are open 👉 flex2026.adeanet.org

📖 Read the full newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/adeanet.org/newsletter-april-2026?e=7ab330353b

#𝐒𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐬𝐃𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐩𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭

World Bank Africa | Mastercard Foundation | Gates Foundation | UNICEF Africa | Ministère de l'Education Nationale et de l'Alphabétisation Guinée | African Centre for School Leadershipc| African Union | Ministère de l'Éducation Nationale et de l'Enseignement Technique | Ministry of Education, Rwanda | Ministry of Education- Zambia | What Works Hub for Global Education

🇸🇱 Africa is leading on AI in education — and this Wednesday, that conversation comes to Google's office.

Sierra Leone and Google DeepMind have completed a landmark study on how artificial intelligence can improve mathematics outcomes for children. On Wednesday, those findings go before an exclusive breakfast audience of education and technology leaders.

Presenting on behalf of the Government of Sierra Leone, Conrad Sackey, Minister, Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education, alongside:

→ Dr Benjamin Piper — Gates Foundation
→ Dr Irina Jurenka — DeepMind
→ Dr Wongani Grace Nkhoma-Sankofa — UNICEF South Africa

📍 Google London Office
🗓️ Wednesday 20 May · 08:00–10:00

📧 RSVP: [email protected]

Places are limited — reach out today if you would like to attend.

Last September, ADEA joined principals of the Global Coalition for Foundational Learning on a study mission to . One of the sharpest lessons from that mission was clear: and need stronger, more deliberate South-South coalitions on foundational learning — and ADEA has a role to play in building them.

Nine months later, that lesson is becoming action.

This week, ADEA senior programs officer, Wuod Othim, is in New Delhi for the GCFL South-South Learning Symposium — a focused, three-day exchange bringing together senior education leaders from across the Global South to share knowledge and experience on large-scale school education reforms. Foundational learning. Multilingual education. Large-scale assessments. Curriculum reform. Digital platforms. All on the table — with India's experience at scale as the anchor and African delegations as full contributors, not spectators.

On Friday, our executive secretary, Albert Nsengiyumva, joins virtually to deliver closing remarks — a signal that ADEA's commitment to this agenda runs from the program floor to the highest level of institutional leadership.

We are proud to be helping facilitate a partnership that is genuinely mutually beneficial — one where Africa brings its own reform experiences, evidence, and perspectives to the table and takes home knowledge it can act on.

And this is just the beginning. The conversations unfolding in New Delhi this week will be a strong focus at FLEX2026 in Malawi. Watch this space — this collaboration is moving fast, and the outcomes will matter for education systems across the continent.

South-South learning is not a principle. It is a practice. And this week in New Delhi, it is happening. 🌍



Gates Foundation | UNICEF South Africa | British Council | British Council India | Gates Foundation India | UNICEF Africa | UNICEF India | What Works Hub for Global Education

We are delighted to welcome Tausi Kiggula to the ADEA team as Communications and Advocacy Officer for the African Centre for School Leadership-LIT-LEAD initiative in .

Tausi brings extensive experience in education communications and advocacy, including her work with Cambridge Education on the Shule Bora Programme—Tanzania's national initiative to improve the quality of pre-primary and primary schools. She is also a Chevening Awards (FCDO) Scholar, a distinction that reflects both her intellectual rigour and her commitment to driving change in African education.

Based in Tanzania, Tausi will play a key role in amplifying the voices, evidence, and outcomes of the ACSL-LIT-LEAD programme — strengthening the visibility of school leadership as a transformative force for teaching quality and learner outcomes across the country.

We are glad to have her on board.

Welcome, Tausi. 🌍

Yesterday in , our senior programs officer, Wuod Othim, joined African Union education colleagues, country representatives, and continental partners for a landmark moment in African education governance: the inauguration of the CESA Thematic Clusters — the engine room for delivering on the AU Continental Education Strategy for Africa 2026–2035 and the Continental TVET Strategy 2026–2034.

These clusters translate a bold 10-year vision into coordinated, accountable action — bringing together Member States, regional bodies, development partners, civil society, and the private sector around shared priorities.

We are proud to announce that ADEA will lead the CESA Cluster on Education System Governance, Policy, and Finance — a mandate that sits at the very heart of our institutional mission.

This is more than a coordination role. It is an opportunity to drive efficiency, eliminate duplication, and strengthen policy coherence for education systems across the continent. Working shoulder to shoulder with stakeholders under the African Union's framework, ADEA will help ensure that governance and financing decisions are grounded in evidence and aligned with national realities.

Africa's education transformation will not happen through declarations alone. It will happen through structured, sustained, and country-owned implementation. The clusters make that possible. 🌍

🇰🇪 Something good happened in this week.

The Africa EdTech Research Initiative just wrapped up its Kenya work planning café in — and we are leaving with more than we came with.

Nineteen of us, gathered away from offices and screens, spent two days in honest conversation about what it will take to build a realistic EdTech research agenda in Kenya. Ministry of Education Kenya (MOE) colleagues, EdTech Fellows; research partners; and our consortium team — ADEA, EdTech Hub, and ESSA - Education Sub Saharan Africa — all in the same room, pushing in the same direction.

In the end, we agreed on Kenya's EdTech research priorities. We locked in a results framework. We saw the Ministry establish genuine ownership of this initiative. And we connected this work to 's wider education development architecture, so it has a home long after this project ends.

But honestly? The part that mattered most was harder to put on paper — the willingness of everyone in that room to be open, to name the challenges, and to commit to doing things differently going forward. That does not come from a work plan. It comes from trust. And trust is what we built in Naivasha.

Big thanks to Faith Mbushi Wanjiku, Domnick Okullo, Kouamé Kouman Aimé, Ciku Mbugua, Gioko wa Maina, Gladys Siamanda, MSc., Marita Adhiambo and to every colleague who pushed to make this happen. 🙏

Next stop: Senegal. 🌍