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At the end of December 2022, 91�鶹������Ʒ���� officially signed an agreement with the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea to launch the third phase of the UNESCO-Korea Funds-in-Trust (KFIT) project Better Education for Africa’s Rise project (BEAR III) which over the next five years will focus on strengthening technical and vocational education and training (TVET) systems in four beneficiary countries in the Western African region: Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone.

The BEAR III project will be implemented aligning with Education 2030, UNESCO Strategy for TVET (2022-2029), Global Initiatives of the Transforming Education Summit, Continental Education Strategy for Africa (2016-2025), as well as national plans and priorities of the four beneficiary countries.

The global objective of BEAR project is to give young people in beneficiary countries a better chance to access decent employment and/or generate self-employment, as well as to contribute to socio-economic rise of the countries. It aims more specifically to improve national TVET systems by focusing on three key areas of action:

• Making TVET relevant to the needs of the economy and labour market;
• Enhancing the quality of TVET programmes and institutions;
• Improving the perception of TVET among young people, enterprises, and society.

These objectives are to be achieved by developing the capacity of TVET systems on anticipating and assessing demand for skills in specific priority sectors, translating those findings into relevant programmes, disseminating information, and providing counselling services for learners.

BEAR III project will be built on the lessons learned and experiences of BEAR II project implemented in five Eastern African countries (Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Uganda, and United Republic of Tanzania) in the period 2017-2022. Within the frame of BEAR III, UNESCO will provide a follow-up support to these five beneficiary countries from BEAR II project in transforming their TVET systems in a perspective of sustainable development through promoting skills gateway, providing equipment and capacity-building activities in areas such as the agro-processing sector; environmental sector; textiles industry; post-harvest management; agribusiness and creative industries.

Beneficiary countries

Côte d’Ivoire is integrated into the global economy primarily through the export of raw commodities. The country’s economy mainly depends on agriculture and related activities. In 2019, the share of agriculture in Côte d’Ivoire's gross domestic product was 20.67%, the industry sector accounted to 21.19% and the services sector contributed around 43.11%.  This sector employs around two-thirds of the population. In terms of labour force, in 2020 the unemployment rate in Cote d'Ivoire was at 3.5% while unemployment rate among youth is 5.7% (ILO, 2021). The number of TVET students is comparatively low and accounted for approximately 6.1% of all students enrolled in secondary education in the 2015/16 academic year.

In Ghana the services sector is the largest element of the economy representing 44.1% of GDP and employing 49% of the workforce.  Agriculture accounts for 17.3% of the country’s GDP and employs 30% of the country’s workforce. Most Ghanaians are self-employed. In 2016/17, 70% of the working-age population and 63% of youth were self-employed.  In terms of labour force, the unemployment rate is 4.7 %, while unemployment among youth is 9.6% (World Bank / ILOSTAT, 2021). Participation in technical and vocational programmes among 15–24-year-olds is 1,3% (UNESCO Institute of Statistics, 2019).

The most prominent industries in Nigeria are petroleum, tourism, agriculture, and mining. Agriculture is an important sector in Nigeria’s economy, contributing an average of 24% to the nation’s GDP and employs about 36% of the labour force. The biggest sector is the services which represents 49.7% of the GDP and employs 53.1% of the population. In terms of labour force, the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics reported a high unemployment rate of 27.1% among all the population and 28.1 % among youth (World Bank / ILOSTAT, 2019). As of 2020, Nigerians aged 25 to 34 years old represented the largest labor force population in the country, with around 23 million people.

The key sector of economy in Sierra Leone are as follows agriculture: 60.7% of GDP (2017 est.); industry: 6.5% of GDP (2017 est.); services: 32.9% of GDP (2017 est.). The agricultural sector represents 57.4% of GDP and employs 54.4% of the workforce. As for the workforce, unemployment among young people reached 8.9% and some 87.6% of the population has a vulnerable job. The enrollment of students in public tertiary education institutions alone has increased by more than 50% between 2007 and 2011, from 19,692 to 31,103 students (World Bank 2013). There is enormous growth potential in the sector as 75% of the population is below the age of 35, and 20.4% of the population of Sierra Leone is between the ages of 15–24 years (World Bank / ILOSTAT).

• BEAR II project: /en/education/skills/bear
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