Education in a Changing World: From Vision to Action
United States Holds Africa Regional Education Workshop in Addis Ababa

MONDAY, APRIL 14, 2008 Addis Ababa (U.S. Embassy) – The United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Africa Regional Education Workshop entitled ‘Education in a Changing World: From Vision to Action’ will take place in Addis Ababa from April 13 – 18, 2008.  The Honorable President of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, President Girma Woldegiorgis, will address over 200 participants at the opening of the workshop. He will be joined by Dr. Sintayehu Woldemichael, the Minister of Education, Ambassador Cindy L. Courville, the U.S. Ambassador to the African Union, and Ambassador Donald Yamamoto, the U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia.

The USAID Africa Regional Education Workshop provides a unique opportunity for educators and policy makers to share knowledge and to create a collective agenda for future education programs in Africa with the shared goal of creating education systems that produce results in, and for, Africa.  Twenty Sub-Saharan African countries will be represented at the workshop by well over 200 participants.  Additional invited guests include leaders and experts of education sector development in Africa.

The workshop is organized around education challenges, needs and promising practices in Africa. Participants will gain access to state-of-the-art education and technology programs, strengthen sectoral knowledge and develop new skills within a best-practices setting.  Some of the education topics that will be examined in light of the rapidly changing world of the 21st century include strategic thinking for education sector planning, learning and assessment, literacy, teacher training and professional development, non-formal schooling, monitoring and evaluation and private sector initiatives and partnerships, providing education in post-crisis/conflict settings, sector responses to HIV/AIDS, increasing access for the most marginalized students, and the costs of schooling and school based reform.

President Bush’s African Education Initiative and the President's Expanded International Education Initiative will also be discussed in the workshop.  The workshop is sponsored by USAID’s Africa Bureau Office of Sustainable Development Education Division.

Along with the Africa Education Initiative, U.S. support for quality education in Ethiopia includes scholarships that enable girls to complete secondary education, support for teacher training at the primary level, capacity building in planning and management and community empowerment for school governance.  With an emphasis on primary school completion, USAID has been supporting the Ministry of Education in eleven regions since 1995.  Overall, USAID has invested approximately US $160 million in financial, technical and managerial resources to support its Basic Education Program. U.S. assistance has resulted in increased access, decreased dropout rates and improved retention, particularly for girls.