News
Towards implementation of Open Educational Resources Recommendation in West and Central African countries
Some 70 participants, representing mainly governmental bodies responsible for education and human resources development from 16 countries of West and Central Africa - including Benin, Burundi, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Mali, Morocco, Senegal, Tchad and Togo- took part in this consultation.
The meeting highlighted the depth of regional initiatives at the national and institutional level, through presentations by representatives from Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Republic of Congo and Senegal. These presentations highlighted the need for awareness raising and capacity building initiatives at governmental level to underscore the added-value of OER. The speakers emphasized OER’s potential for being a key for quality education to meet national needs.
Implementing the OER Recommendation to foster inclusive access to knowledge for sustainable development in Francophone Africa is of extreme importance, as it represents an important step forward in the establishment of truly open and inclusive knowledge societies that support the achievement of the 2030 development agenda at the national level.
Challenges and opportunities for OER uptake in the region
The diversity of the state of the art in different countries present, the gap between urban and rural areas in infrastructure and connectivity, the lack of know-how on open licensing, were some of the challenges mentioned that hinder the OER uptake in the region.
The session also underlined some of the advantages of OER such as continuity of education and e-learning during the closure of schools due to the COVID19 pandemic.
Ms Khady Diop - Mbodj, the Secretary General of the Ministry of Education of Senegal, in her opening speech, recalled the importance of sharing best practices and creating synergies between Francophone African countries in this field.
Five ideas to promote Open Educational Resources
UNESCO presented the results of ongoing work on OER policy guidelines in 16 countries of the Sahel. The discussion focused on the following key recommendations to better support OER-friendly policies:
- Updating the initial teacher training programmes to include OER development
- Translating more support material into French
- Recognizing the use of OER by the teaching profession
- Considering interregional cooperation between governments; and
- Enhancing the digital presence of Francophone countries in regional and international OER platforms.
In the framework of the UNESCO OER Dynamic Coalition, UNESCO is developing a consolidated capacity building and policy making guide to support Member States on the implementation of the UNESCO Recommendation on OER.
Background
The OER Dynamic Coalition was established further to the adoption of the by Member States at the 40th Session of the UNESCO General Conference in November 2019. The objective of the Dynamic Coalition is to support governments in implementing the OER Recommendation by promoting and reinforcing international and regional cooperation among all stakeholders in the first four areas of the UNESCO OER Recommendation.
This workshop was organized by UNESCO Dakar and UNESCO Yaoundé to support Member States on the implementation of the UNESCO Recommendation on OER during the 2019-2023 period. As part of the regular monitoring exercise for UNESCO normative instruments all UNESCO Member States will be invited to report on the implementation of this Recommendation in 2022-2023.
