KNOWLEDGE AREA

Knowledge opens up new possibilities, creates alternatives and has a direct impact on all facets of development. It is therefore necessary for that knowledge to be fostered among everybody, valuing the contribution from African women. Fostering knowledge and education, as well and improving their quality, increases people’s opportunities in life, especially for girls and women.

African countries invest around 4% of their GDP in Education; 0.7% less than the world average. According to the UNESCO Science Report towards 2030, the total expenditure in Africa on research accounts for only 1.3% of the world’s spending. In fact, countries in the Sub-Saharan region spend just 0.5% of their GDP on innovation and research. Today, the continent faces the challenge of providing quality education in the context of a continually growing school-age population, with the demand for teachers there set to take up two thirds of global demand in 2030.

According to UNESCO, out of all the world’s regions, Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest rates of exclusion from education. In 2017, 54% of the world’s population of primary school age without schooling were African. What is more, the difficulties in African education systems affect girls and women in particular. For example, 9 million girls between 6 and 11 years of age will never go to school.

Furthermore, the quality of education in Africa is affected by the fact that 70% of the continent’s countries face a shortage of teachers and that in Sub-Saharan Africa only 64% of primary school teachers and 50% of secondary school teachers have received the minimum training required, according to the 2019 UNESCO report. Moreover, only one in ten children reaches a minimum level of proficiency in reading and mathematics by the end of primary school in Sub-Saharan Africa.

On top of this situation, education is hit by the effects of armed conflicts. For instance, according to UNICEF, South Sudan has the highest school dropout rate in primary education (72%), followed by Chad (50%). In these countries, only 24% and 47% of girls respectively are in school. In secondary education, 75% of Nigerian girls do not go to school and nor do 66% of Central African girls.

Coupled with this, university women and researchers face gender discrimination on following their careers, holding positions of responsibility or publishing in academic journals. Many of them encounter problems in combining their professional and personal life due to the lack of policies aimed at shared responsibility within the family, according to the WHO.

It must be a priority to take action on women’s access to education and the empowerment of women through knowledge. Furthermore, the Sustainable Development Goals call upon us to fight for quality education and for gender equality.

The Women for Africa Foundation’s goal is to empower African girls and women via education, research and knowledge transfer in general, since women’s participation in Africa’s public, scientific and economic life will be crucial for the continent’s development.

Projects