Remarks by His Excellency Sidya Elhadj,
Ambassador of Mauritania at theroundtable on education
27 August 2024

Excellencies
Ladies and gentlemenFirst, I would like to thank The Association of African Economy andDevelopment and its president His Excellency Mr. Tetsuro Yano for inviting me
to this important roundtable. It is a privilege for me to address the present
roundtable and share some of my thoughts on the crucial issue of education,
the cornerstone of progress, social cohesion, growth and prosperity.
Africa has designated this year 2024, the Year of Education, the theme ofwhich is to educate an African fit for the 21st Century: Building resilient
education systems for increased access to inclusive lifelong quality andrelevant learning in Africa.
The education sector in Africa faces many challenges: Too many children are
still out of school, many children drop out of school, not enough children
complete school, too many children are unable to read and understand asimple text by age 10, not enough qualified teachers, poorly paid teachers,
outdated curricula unfit for the digital age, little access to technical andvocational training, not enough schools and lack of basic services such as
water and sanitation at schools and I am sure that I forget other challenges
facing the education sector in Africa. Suffice it to say that the education sectorin Africa is in need of fundamental reform and transformation to allow for thecreation of a skilled labour population capable of taking Africa to theprosperity it wants to achieve in the future : The Africa we want and which weenvision in our Agenda 2063.
These challenges affect countries differently. They also affect different
categories of population differently within the countries themselves. The rural
areas tend to suffer more from the deficiencies of the education sector thanthe urban areas. Girls and displaced children tend to face a lot moredifficulties in accessing and completing a quality education than most otherchildren. Also, the gap between rich and poor within the countries plays animportant role in the uneven access to education in Africa.
it is an undeniable fact, however, that Africa has made significant progress inthe field of education addressing many of the challenges mentioned
previously. enrollment rates and completion rates in all education levels(primary, secondary and tertiary) have all improved significantly, there havebeen decreases in drop out rates and the number of children out of school
have gone down.
These achievements have been possible thanks to the priority which has
always been given to education by African countries. This priority not only
meant the elaboration of policies and strategies to develop the sector of

education further and respond to its many challenges but also the allocationof significant parts of public expenditures to education and that, more often
than not in a limited fiscal space marked by budgetary constraints required formacroeconomic stability.
The progress made by Africa in the education sector remains fragile, a fragility
which is compounded by the rapid increase of the school age population of
the continent, an increase which is estimated to continue in the foreseeable
future. This evolving situation is not short of what is referred to sometimes asa crisis of education, albeit a low intensity crisis.
Being well aware of the difficult challenges they face in the area of education,
African countries have elaborated a collective response in the forms of agenda
2063 and the continental education strategy for Africa (2016 - 2025). The
policies and programmes pursued by African countries to achieve SDG 4 isanother testimony of their commitments to transform the education systemwith the objective of turning it into an education system fit for 21st Century
and fit for the emerging knowledge based and digital economy.
Education needs to be financed and it is an expensive endeavour but it should
not only be seen as an expenditure but as an investment with very highreturns some even say that its returns are better that those of the stock
market as it is one of the main drivers of economic and social development
and the key to making life better for the population. The financing ofeducation is not only related to the construction of schools, the training ofteachers, the elaboration of school curricula but also to nutrition, theprovision of energy, water, sanitation facilities, access roads etc… It is acomprehensive system which needs to be in place at the same time to allow
for learning to take place successfully.
African countries devote a substantial part of their budget to the educationsector, some countries devote more than the 15% of their public expenditureand 4% of their GDP to the sector, percentages which are estimated to benecessary for financing a well functioning education system.
Despite issues of efficiency in education expenditure in Africa, it is clear thatthe countries have gone to a great length to provide the necessary funding fortheir education sector to function properly and play its vital role in thedevelopment process of the countries. It should also be noted that Africanhouseholds contribute a great deal to the financing of education in theirrespective countries.
However, these financing efforts by African government and Africanhouseholds are far from sufficient and there is clear need for international
financing. It is worth reminding that the international community has
subscribed to many commitments related to education notably the World
declaration for education for all Jomtien, 1990, the Dakar framework foraction, education for all, meeting our collective commitments, 2000 and thecommitment to thre sustainable development goals including SDG 4 in 2015.
Many countries including Japan and many international organisations
including the Global partnership for Education, Unesco, Unicef, Unhcr, theAfrican development bank and World bank and others have contributed
significantly to the financing and development of education in Africa. Japan
has been a major player in the development of school infrastructure in Africa
allowing many children to attend school. However, it Is regrettable to notethat the international financing of education seems to have stagnated or evendecreased in some cases over recent years. For example such financing for sub
Saharan Africa has decreased from 5.6 billions US dollars in 2020 to 4.5 billions
in 2021. Although this decrease may be due to the reorientation of public
expenditures towards the urgent needs created by the Covid epidemic, thedrop of financing mentioned previously is rather worrying and there is no
doubt that there is an urgent need to increase massively the financing ofeducation in Africa.
The financing gap for education in Africa and the achievement of SDG 4 havebeen estimated at approximately 40 billions US dollars a year. It is clear that
we are nowhere near that level of financing for education in Africa.
Let me take this opportunity to congratulate the Global Partnership for
Education for their constant support for the development of education in
Africa despite the difficulties which they have encountered, on manyoccasions, in the periodic replenishments of their funds.
Levels of education in a country determine to a large extent that country’sparticipation in world development and its ability to benefit from theadvancement of knowledge and science and technology developments. Africa

needs to transform its education system to participate fully into the peacefuland prosperous world that we all want.
This year, the year of education for Africa is the beginning of renewed efforts
by the continent, and I would like to believe by its international partners, totransform its education sector on the way to achieving SDG 4 and creating
an education fit for the 21st century.

Thank you