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| l-r GALLUP's Jon Clifton, FEEEDS' Sanders, Ambassador Newman of Botswana &
Ambassador Nimaga of Mail
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Originally published in Allafrica.com https://allafrica.com/stories/201812100320.html
As Africa searches for alternative paths to educating its NextGen youth for the 21st Century, Jon Clifton, Managing Partner GALLUP World Poll, opened the 2018 Annual FEEEDS-GALLUP-Allafrica.com annual Africa Forum highlighting education. The half day event November 29, entitled “New Approaches to Africa’s Education," is the fifth in a series of programs focused solely on key Africa themes hosted by FEEEDS Advocacy Initiative CEO Ambassador Robin Sanders, Clifton of the prestigious GALLUP World Poll, and the well-respected online media platform Allafrica.com. This year's forum, attended by African ambassadors, education leaders, advocates and institutions, highlighted the “best practices,” of key secondary and tertiary Africa-created education institutions; featured a leading Africa incubation and technology hub, using these tools to educate, support STEM, small business, women and girls; and provided the audience with the range of U.S. Government programs under the State Department Africa Bureau and other U.S. agencies, which synergistically support efforts to address the skills gap in the region.
As Africa searches for alternative paths to educating its NextGen youth for the 21st Century, Jon Clifton, Managing Partner GALLUP World Poll, opened the 2018 Annual FEEEDS-GALLUP-Allafrica.com annual Africa Forum highlighting education. The half day event November 29, entitled “New Approaches to Africa’s Education," is the fifth in a series of programs focused solely on key Africa themes hosted by FEEEDS Advocacy Initiative CEO Ambassador Robin Sanders, Clifton of the prestigious GALLUP World Poll, and the well-respected online media platform Allafrica.com. This year's forum, attended by African ambassadors, education leaders, advocates and institutions, highlighted the “best practices,” of key secondary and tertiary Africa-created education institutions; featured a leading Africa incubation and technology hub, using these tools to educate, support STEM, small business, women and girls; and provided the audience with the range of U.S. Government programs under the State Department Africa Bureau and other U.S. agencies, which synergistically support efforts to address the skills gap in the region.
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| l-r FEEEDS-GALLUP 2018 African Education Advocates & Focal Speakers l-r Rheault, Mahdi, Sanders, Genton, Yembra, Mali Ambassador Nimaga & Abiodun |
Five focal experts—Magali
Rheault, regional research director, Africa GALLUP; Faith Abiodun, director of
program recruitment, and partnership, African Leadership Academy, South Africa
(ALA); Dr. Abdul Mahdi, dean of students and community affairs, Ashesi
University, Ghana; Nichole Yembra, CFO of Lagos-based Venture Garden Group (VGG); and,
Thomas Genton, director of public affairs, Bureau of African Affairs, State
Department underscored key progress areas in the sector, shared results of the new
approaches supported by data and student success stories, and framed what they
viewed as the next phase needed for Africa education to permanently change
direction. Mostly notably the experts said that providing “safe spaces “for growth
and talent to thrive (especially for young women), along with “entrepreneurial thinking,” “problem-solving,” and “creativity” were the primary things needed to help African communities and African nations -- each focal speaker using
their institutions' data or case studies as examples.
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| GALLUP Africa Research & data expert Rheault & Ashesi's Mahdi respond to questions |
In her presentation, Magali Rheault said 2017-2018 GALLUP polling showed that Africa nations were not allocating sufficient budget funding to their respective education sectors to make a significant dent in changing the education systems. Her comments supported the event’s theme and desire to highlight why and what African institutions are being created and privately funded to step into this void. Thus, African government funding and the progress being made on education in Africa were mutually exclusive. Rheault went on to share with the esteemed audience three-related themes polled over 29 African countries regarding what people felt was more important to advancement or success in their country; the GALLUP research data showed they overwhelmingly believed that education was the most important thing, followed then by family or personal connections.
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| ALA's Abiodun impassioned opening on the success of school's approach on entrepreneurial thinking |
Faith Abiodun, the
director of program recruitment and partnerships for ALA
said during his impassioned opening remarks that student successes to date
of ALA’s graduates, demonstrates that their new approach is on the right track.
He noted that nearly all of ALA graduates go on to US Ivy Leagues universities
or comparable schools elsewhere in the UK or other parts of Europe. In addition, many
have taken their entrepreneurial mindset and responded to development,
refugee, or food security issues in their home countries. Furthermore, “I saw
the need to add on to what we do as ALA, by creating a Model African Union (AU) Conference,”
Abiodun noted. “ This conference allows for our students to problem-solve real-world issues
facing the African Continent today as if they were AU member states.” Dr. Abdul Mahdi of
Ashesi, emphasizing his institution’s experiential and
practitioner approach to learning, touched on whether it was important to
have Africa education associations like those that exist in the West. Mahdi
explained that there are some nascent efforts in this area, but nothing that
has caught on Continent-wide. He expected, however that in a decades’ time the
region would see more viable education associations development as the current
NextGen graduates move on into leadership positions with the desire to ensure Africa too
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| Yembra receives her 2018 FEEEDS-GALLUP African Education Advocate Award. Below she meets with invitees   Genton discusses education with DRC activist |
builds strong education associations.
The role of the
private sector was not left out in the quest for a new approach to Africa's
education. Nichole Yembra VGG’s Chief Financial Officer provided a different
vision on what education needs to include – technology training, more specifically-designed
creative facilities for learning, programs for both women in STEM and those in small
business, but also even more importantly a safe space in order to be able to collaborated, and teach. She highlighted the success of VGG’s
"Vibranium Valley," and its recent event for solely for women in tech, by tech women called “Demo-Chella,”
as name-take on the famous annual California music festival called
“Coachchella.” Yembra said that
tech-focus women turned out in record numbers at the event because they felt
both safe and encouraged. State Department’s
Public Diplomacy and Affairs Director, Thomas Genton shared the role that it and other U.S. agencies, such as USAID, has played in both
developing new Africa Education programs. He said that the “Young
Africa Leaders Initiative,” better known as YALI, truly meets the definition of a “new
approach,” having a network of over 3,700 members, who share their learning
experiences, and are a community of future leaders. Denton added that YALI is only
a part of the story as the U.S. also provides teacher training and cultural
exchanges. He stressed, however, that there is a need to ensure that African
youths are listened to, invested in, and are encouraged to be more confident
about their future.
Jena Roscoe, Senior Vice President, Government Affairs Operation Hope, which for more than 25 years has assisted at-risk communities around the world
with financial literacy and financial inclusion programs, hailed the Forum as one of a
kind in its effort to tell the good news story about what is happening in the
Africa education arena. Roscoe especially noted the enlightening remarks by VGG’s
Yembra of on how important it was to have “safe spaces,” for young women and
girls to thrive intellectually, creatively, especially in the tech and business
sectors.
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| l-r Africa scholar Elmira Woods, Jena Roscoe of Operation Hope, & Forum Invitee |
Her sentiments were echoed by Eurika Huggins of the Institute for International
Education, who noted that the event raised the awareness of what great schools
like ALA and Ashesi were doing on NextGen education issues. Global
Peace Services, VP Dr. Mindy Reiser, said the new research data from GALLUP, and
the opportunities that Ashesi and ALA offer, should be of great interest to not
only African countries but to policy makers in the U.S. "It would have been great if this conference could have been stretched into three days to allow
agencies, higher institutions, and more companies in Africa
and in the U.S. to hear the these new approaches to Africa's education," Jones
said.
The focal experts were given a FEEEDS-GALLUP 2018 Africa Education Advocate award at the end of the event.The FEEEDS-GALLUP-AllAfrica.com Africa Forum is a partnership pioneered by former senior U.S. government diplomat and ambassador to Nigeria, Congo, and ECOWAS, Dr. Robin Renee Sanders, GALLUP Managing Partner Jon Clifton, and Allafrica.com Founder and CEO Reed Kramer.
VOA's Esther Githui-Ewart interviews former U.S. Ambassador Robin R. Sanders on FEEEDS-GALLUP-Allafrica.com 2018 program
A FEEEDS Blogspot Series
