Digital Solution for Education in Africa

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown how important it is to foster a forward-looking digitalisation of the education sector – ensuring the inclusion of children, young people, teachers, parents, and other stakeholders within and outside of the education sector. Key players to build such inclusive societies are civil society actors and national ministries. The civil society’s proximity to local structures but also to overarching national and regional processes creates a special role. Ministries on the other hand can directly promote the integration of digital technologies into education through policy deci- sions and financial support. Ministries can also support the training of teachers in digital skills and promote and scale innovative digital education initiatives. Both groups of actors can take measures to ensure that digital technologies are inclusive and accessible to all student beneficiaries, and that data protection and cyber security are ensured. There is therefore great potential in close collaboration of civil society and government entities when it comes to a sustainable digital transformation of the education sector. This publication provides an overview of the 19 implemented projects carried out by actors from civil society and education ministries supported by the BACKUP Initiative under the ‘Resilience to COVID-19 through Digitalisation’ (RESICODI) Action. The first projects got under way in 2021 in Malawi, Namibia, Rwanda, and Zambia, with further projects rolled out in 2022 and 2023 in Botswana, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Madagascar, and Namibia. In addition, there was also one regional civil society project operating in seven partner countries of the BACKUP Initiative under the RESICODI Action. The RESICODI Action ended its implementation period in October 2023. Context of this Publication Digital Solutions for Education in Africa – 2 –