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MINEDAF VII and Other Initiatives
SADC - Southern
African Development Community
Consultative Conference with International Cooperating Partners
(Lusaka, Zambia, 5-12 February 1999)
Conference theme:
"SADC in the Next Millennium: The Challenges and Opportunities of
Information Technology"
Working Group on Human Resources Development
The
SADC
HRD Sector Secretariat provided an overview of the SADC Protocol on
Education and Training (document also available for download at MINEDAF
Document Service), under MINEDAF and Other Initiatives). The ultimate objective of the Protocol is to
progressively steer the SADC countries towards equivalence, harmonization
and eventual standardization of their education and training systems. The
Protocol covers a number of areas of cooperation: policy for education and
training; basic education (primary and secondary levels); intermediate
education and training at certificate and diploma levels; higher education
and training; research and development; lifelong education and training;
publishing and library resources; institutional arrangements for
implementing the protocol; and resources, Scholarship Fund and Assets. The
Protocol has now has been ratified by the required number of countries and has
come into force.
The HRD Sector
Coordination Secretariat also provided an overview of completed and on-going activities
in the SADC countries. Projects outlined included inventories on regional
training institutions; situational analysis of regional capacity needs with
regard to education policy development, planning and management (undertaken
with the assistance of UNESCO as Executing Agency); framework to set up
"centres of specialization" in public sector management and administration;
efforts to establish a Regional Training Fund; and joint actions to foster
coordinated national and regional strategies to confront the HIV/AIDS
pandemic.
The focus of discussion in the HRD Sector Working Group
was on a new project in collaboration with UNESCO, entitled "Holistic strategies for education policy
development, planning and management: A regional capacity building project". The project was later presented to SADC Permanent
Secretaries/Principal Secretaries, the senior policymakers who constitute
its policy development forum, at a meeting timed to coincide with the OAU Conference of African
Ministers of Education (COMEDAF I) (Harare, Zimbabwe, 15-19 March
1999).
The overall objective of this project is to strengthen
regional capacity in the SADC countries to institute and manage education
reform and development programmes in a coordinated, integrated and holistic
framework. The project is expected to focus on the creation and reinforcing
of selected mechanisms to facilitate a better exchange of information and
improvement of collaboration and networking, including setting up a Web
Site, promoting greater use of the Internet and developing a number
of databases. The project is expected to facilitate more analytical
reviews, policy dialogue and education reform in the region. The objectives
of this project in many ways complement those of MINEDAF VII, especially concerned with
fostering cooperation and promoting regional exchanges.
During the
discussion period, many participants endorsed the objectives of the
proposed policy development project but stressed that the SADC Secretariat
should ensure complementarity of efforts with similar initiatives in the
region. Cooperation was urged with UNESCO in a number areas, particularly
in the development of this MINEDAF Web Site of Ministers of Education
of African Member States, and in the promotion of the use of the
Internet as a medium for fostering more active exchanges within SADC
and the African region in general.
This Web site, and its
associated activities, including the
MINEDAF Document Service, which UNESCO is supporting in the framework
of its Follow-up to MINEDAF
VII, as well as the development of a number of databases in
similar areas as indicated by the SADC HRD Coordination Unit (e.g., on African
programmes or centres of excellence; on African experts and expertise; on
inventories of policy research; and on analyses of education and
development undertaken in the region), offer useful opportunities for
collaboration and a cost-effective approach of pulling together scarce
resources for common objectives. It was noted that the Web of African
Ministers of Education supported by UNESCO, when it is fully operational, would provide a rapid and inexpensive channel for the sharing
of policy experiences and for the distribution and exchange of important
documents and materials.
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