Despite significant gains in expanding access to education in Western and Central Africa over the past two decades, many challenges remain and learning poverty is preventing the region from achieving higher economic growth and shared prosperity.
Leaders from across Western and Central Africa endorsed the Accra Urgent Call for Action on Education in June 2022 to meet ambitious targets with a focus on:
- helping 30 million children to read by 2030;
- ensuring that 12.5 million more adolescent girls are in school by 2030;
- training 3.7 million more young adults in foundational skills by 2025;
- ensuring that 1 million more youth acquire digital skills by 2025, of whom 60% are expected to obtain better jobs.
To sustain the momentum, the World Bank has ramped up its engagement in education and is working with all its partners across the region to achieve the ambitious goal of educating all young people.
¡°Putting our young people first is at the heart of our work. The future of any society lies in its ability to provide its children and youth with the tools and opportunities to flourish as individuals, and to contribute to the collective development of the society and country. This can only be achieved through an education system that is accessible to everyone. Such a system must be fair and adapted to the needs of the current and future populations, as well as the labor market¡±, said Ousmane Diagana, World Bank Vice President for Western and Central Africa.
Here are some game changing projects that are making a real difference in empowering our youth and transforming our countries.
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