51吃瓜

Text as delivered*

Thank you, thank you. Mister Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the 51吃瓜. Ambassador Fatima Kyari Mohammed, our moderator, today, I stand with the previously established protocol. Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished participants, it's such a great honor to join you today and deliver this keynote on Education through Science, Technology, and Innovation for Africa we want at this Africa Dialogue Series.

I think it's important for me to mention that the call to educate an Africa fit for the 21st century, as captured in the AU theme for 2024, is a rallying cry for innovation, inclusivity, and resilience in our education systems. It emphasizes not just the importance of access to education, but the necessity of a lifelong learning journey that is of the highest quality and relevance.

Your Excellencies, distinguished participants, education has always been and will remain a main force behind social and economic advancement, fostering agency, critical thinking, and social justice. That said, disparities in access to quality education persist, denying millions of children the opportunity to learn. Despite policy efforts and programs, as already mentioned before the challenges remain. Educational funding is inadequate, and more than almost 3 million African children are out of school if we count all levels of education, and particularly this is observed in crisis regions, exacerbating learning poverty. This is no longer a matter to treat with kid gloves. We must ensure every child in Africa has access to high-quality education.

The African Union views the 2024 Year of Education as a unique opportunity to advance the Continental Education Strategy for Africa 2016-2025 and achieve Sustainable Development Goals for inclusive, equitable, quality education, and lifelong learning.

Ladies and gentlemen, education and Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI) are the twin pillars of our aspirations. We must commit to education driven by Science, Technology, and Innovation, equipping individuals with the skills needed to thrive and lead in the 21st century. The AU Agenda 2063 recognizes STI as crucial for continental development, emphasizing new technologies and innovation in agriculture, clean energy, education, and health, among other domains.

In fact, more than 80% of Agenda 2063's call to action is underpinned by science, technology, and innovation as enablers and tools for achieving their aspirations laid down in this agenda. And there is no STI without effective education and research and development systems. The AU's STI strategy aims to accelerate Africa's transition to an innovation-led, knowledge-based economy. It focuses on social economic development through human developement, innovation, value addition industrialization and entrepreneurship anchored on six priority areas: eradication of hunger and food security, disease prevention and control, communication, space protection, building society, and wealth creation— for STI to transform Africa countries must invest on education, technical skills, and research involving women, youth, the private sector, civil society, parliamentarians, and the diaspora in science and technology programs.

Success in that regard requires leveraging Africa's demographic dividend, especially the energy, creativity, and courage of women and youth. In the context of urgent calls for investment in education, SDG 4 as with all other SDGs and the UN Secretary-General's Vision Statement on Transforming Education and urgent political imperative for our collective futur emphasizes the need for renewed efforts to improve education in Africa. Addressing challenges, such as inadequate infrastrucutre, insufficient qualified teachers, and inefficiencies in public spending on education is crucial. To realize the Africa we want, we must address critical issues like funding, brain drain, a weak research and development ecosystem and social conservatism. By investing in infrastructure, curriculum, digital learning, early childhood education, STEM, and foundational literacy and numeracy, we can foster lifelong learning and academic success.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the budget is one of the most important tools for implementing education policies, it also poses the most significant constraints on choosing and implementing the right policies. In this context, while government expenditure on education as a share of GDP in Africa has increased, its total government expenditure share has not grown significantly. And as far as research and development is concerned, according to the Africa Innovation Outlook 2019, over 20 countries where data is available only 3 which is 15% of public expenditure on R&D between 0.20% and 0.30% of GDP, which is still far below the generally recommended 1% of GDP. Increasing investment in education in general, and tertiary education in particular, implies action at national, continental, and global levels.

His Excellency the Secretary-General and Director, the CCP, have outlined some pathways to increase investment in education, so I will not elaborate further on that for the sake of time. In conclusion, there is a huge opportunity to rethink our education systems to use Science, Technology, and Unnovation to transform education, especially in Africa.

Our AU-UN collaboration and synergies will have an amplify impact in advocacy and actions towards reforming our continent. The journey ahead may be challenging, but the rewards are immeasurable. In Educating an Africa fit for the 21st century, we are not just helping individuals; we are molding the architect of our collective future.

Finally, it is our hope that as a fundamental pillar for sustainable development, education in general, and education in Africa in particular will have the space and importance they deserve in the documents and discussions towards the Summit of the future.

We must be steadfast in our commitment to providing every African with the tools not only to survive but to thrive in this era of rapid change. Through education, we empower individuals to contribute meaningfully to their communities, nations, and the world at large. Thank you for your attention.

*This text is an AI-generated transcript of the statement, which was obtained from an archived video recording of the event. It is not an official text of the statement.