International Youth Day: Skill Building to Thrive in an Increasingly Digital World

Written by Maxie Gluckman and Brittany Aubin (IREX) 

This International Youth Day, BEC and IREX want to celebrate Africa’s richest and fastest growing resource— youth! There is an unprecedented pool of talent within the continent, fueled by a growing population with increased access to educational opportunities (AUC/OECD, 2024). However, as in the rest of the world, there is an increasing need to ensure that these young people can access quality skills development that is aligned with the labor market’s needs, so they can transform their own lives and drive their countries’ economic development.

This is particularly true for digital skill development. While there is a growing familiarity and comfort with basic digital skills – such as smartphone use, email, basic file management, and web browsing – across the continent, the demand for intermediate digital skills – such as e-commerce and financial software, professional social media, and data entry and management – is rapidly outpacing the existing supply. According to UNICEF’s Learning and Skills database, across 15 African countries, only 5% of young people presently possess these intermediate digital skills (UNICEF, 2022). Skills gaps are even more pronounced for women and marginalized communities, which limits their participation in the digital economy, entrepreneurship, and decision-making processes related to technology (ILO, 2023; UNICEF, 2023).

As the science fiction writer William Gibson once said, “The future is already here — it's just not very evenly distributed.” In a world that feels more like science fiction every day, how can we extend access to the digital skills that allow everyone to take advantage of this future? IREX weighs in on its innovative solution, Digital ESE, and the learnings from their recent pilot experience in Nairobi, Kenya.

Bridging the Digital Skills Gap, with “ESE”: Efficiently, Safely, and Effectively

IREX developed its Digital-ESE (Efficiently, Safely, and Effectively) curriculum with and for youth to enhance their skills as “power learners” in digital upskilling, building their confidence and skills to navigate self-directed learning opportunities efficiently, safely, and effectively. “Power learners” are people who capitalize on learning opportunities, apply their learning in the workplace, and drive their own professional development (IREX, 2020). Our approach to youth development acknowledges that youth are already adept at overcoming barriers and identifying the steps they need to take to drive their own lives.

In the absence of curricula that include workplace skills and employers that prioritize professional development, youth are actively taking the initiative to acquire new digital skills through non-traditional and self-directed means. The Digital-ESE self-guided modules aim to accelerate and strengthen these efforts by coaching youth through identifying opportunities to improve digital skills, cultivating effective learning environments, evaluating their learning progress, navigating online spaces safely and responsibly, engaging in a digital learning community, and leveraging digital skill-building efforts to promote professional growth.   

To develop Digital-ESE, IREX interviewed 44 urban and peri-urban Kenyan youth about their experiences with digital skill-building. Based on those interviews, IREX created a custom generative AI tool that produced authentic scenarios and a representative persona of a youth digital upskiller, named Wanjiku. The Digital-ESE curriculum is grounded in Wanjiku’s story, which pulls from the lived experiences and challenges with learning online that the interviewees described.

Youth Upskill and See Themselves Represented in Wanjiku

On June 22, 2024, 14 female youth joined IREX and their partner youth-led organization Safe Online Women (SOW-Kenya) for the Digital-ESE pilot at the IREX office in Nairobi. Throughout the day, SOW-Kenya’s expert facilitators guided participants through story-based scenarios, instructional content, and interactive activities where they identified connections with Wanjiku’s story and built a personalized learner profile for putting their digital sills into practice.

Employing the hashtag #WanjikuAndI, participants shared what stood out most to them through the session. Reflecting on the risks of mis- and dis-information, one woman commented, “I now understand that I should not fully rely on online resources and that I should fact check to ensure I use information that is from legitimate sources.” Another participant summarized her learning as “I should be keen on whatever I share online since there is footprint, we leave behind it that is usually beyond our control... Also, there are places to report cyberbullying and cookies put us at risk, tracking the stored information.”  

IREX has captured some Digital-ESE learnings, including a literature review detailing the importance of digital skill development efforts which can be found here.

Skill Building to Keep Pace with an Increasingly Digital Future

As new digital technologies continue to accelerate us into the future, we will all spend more of our professional lives in self-directed online learning. The Digital-ESE curriculum provides useful guidance to empower youth to learn effectively and efficiently, recognizing the many other draws on their time and resources, and to practice safety measures while spending more time in digital spaces. Wanjiku may not be real, but her story represents that of many young people who are eager to capitalize on this moment of digital transformation. While IREX wrote the end of Wanjiku's story, we are excited to see the stories of today's youth that have yet to be written, and that will help define and advance the future.

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AUC/OECD (2024). Africa's Development Dynamics 2024: Skills, Jobs and Productivity. Addis Ababa/OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/df06c7a4-en

ILO (2023). Youth Skills: Tackling Challenges and Seizing Opportunities for a Brighter Future of Work. https://ilostat.ilo.org/blog/youth-skills-tackling-challenges-and-seizing-opportunities-for-a-brighter-future-of-work/

IREX (2020). Power Learning Tool Employee Essential Skills. https://www.irex.org/sites/default/files/node/resource/power-learning-tool-employee-essential-skills.pdf

UNICEF (2023). Recovering Learning: Are Children and Youth on Track in Skills Development?  www.unicef.org/media/123626/file/UNICEF_Recovering_Learning_Report_EN.pdf.pdf.

UNICEF (2022). UNICEF Global Database on Information and Communications Technology  Skills. https://data.unicef.org/resources/dataset/learning-and-skills/

Joining the Fight against Lead Pollution in Zambia

Blog by Dr. Joseph Isaac — technical advisor for EDC’s International Development Division.

Dr. Isaac leads the Inspiring Climate Action Now (ICAN) primary science project. ICAN works with the Ministries of Education and Environment in Mali, Antigua & Barbuda, and Zambia to train teachers to more effectively deliver science education and information about climate, science, and climate change to primary school students and their communities. ICAN empowers teachers to identify and react to pressing local environmental issues, including lead poisoning. After the training, teachers implement their lessons during a six-week period of their school year.

In this question and answer session, Dr. Isaac discusses lead pollution in Zambia and ICAN’s efforts in addressing this issue.

Q. What causes lead poisoning and pollution?

Dr. Isaac: In the United States, lead poisoning mainly involves pipes and paint. Before people knew the dangers of lead, most of our water and sewage pipes were made of lead. Another source of lead that can cause harmful health effects is household and industrial paint.

However, in Zambia, one of the pilot countries for ICAN, lead contamination comes from an entirely different source. Zambia has extensive mining operations, and the industrial complex surrounding mining is causing a significant amount of lead to leach into the ground, contaminating the groundwater and community wells.

One important example in Zambia is the town of Kabwe, a historic hub for lead mining. As a result of 90 years of operation, thousands of Zambians living and working in Kabwe have suffered from lead poisoning, with 95% of children in Kabwe having high lead levels. In 2021, the World Bank reported that 2,500 children participating in a World Bank project in Kabwe had lead levels so high they required immediate treatment. The amount of lead in the soil still remains high even though the mine closed down 30 years ago.

Q. How is lead poisoning linked to education? How does it affect children’s learning?

Dr. Isaac: A lot of research has been done over the last 50 years about how dangerous lead can be to the human body. Lead poisoning and lead exposure can cause severe developmental delays and affect children’s nervous systems, especially in young children or children exposed to lead before birth. These developmental delays then have adverse downstream effects on children’s educational achievement. Children with lead poisoning have a harder time paying attention, which also affects their learning. In some cases, lead poisoning may impair children’s speech and hearing or cause seizures. You might not see these long-term detrimental effects immediately, but there’s a definite connection between lower student performance and lead exposure.

Q. How are the teachers you’ve worked with in Zambia addressing this problem?

Dr. Isaac: Through the ICAN pilot, teachers are developing climate science lessons, including lessons on pollution and how students can get their families and communities involved in preventive efforts—for example, conducting a community information session about the dangers of lead poisoning and providing ideas and examples for avoiding lead exposure. During our ICAN training in Zambia, teacher teams particularly wanted to include lead poisoning in their lessons. They explained how mining operations affect the water table and well water. They were seeing the effects and wanted to respond, and now they are working to educate people further.

Q. How do teachers across ICAN pilot countries increase awareness and foster community engagement around these environmental issues?

Dr. Isaac: ICAN is a unique program that gives teachers the power to develop their own lessons. Climate science issues in Zambia are different from the issues in Mali and from the issues in Antigua and Barbuda. However, at the same time, they’re loosely related under this giant umbrella of environmental science, climate science, and climate change. ICAN teachers will inevitably produce a variety of lessons that will cater to the specific needs of their community and ecosystems, and they will also be able to share and learn from teachers in similar communities and those with different challenges to build a network of learning and action.

In Mali, teachers are already implementing the lessons they developed, and most lessons include a community engagement component. For example, a teacher may ask students to create a poster and put it up in a community center to inform others about lead in the water, or they may bring the issue to their parents to share lead management information at the next church service.

They can decide what issues are important to cover and how. The teachers are using grassroots ground-level efforts to increase knowledge and promote action in the community’s interests.

Q. How do you want to see the ICAN project grow in the future?

Dr. Isaac: We’ll use the data from our three pilots to help us adapt and expand ICAN and reach out to even more countries. I would love for us to be in 5 to 10 countries in five years—and expanding not only in countries but also in grade levels. Right now, we’re specifically looking at grade levels 2 and 5. I would like to move that up to 7 or 8 as well so that we’re expanding outward and upward.

ICAN is a perfect entry point into citizen science. It’s designed to involve community members and respond to the issues they are seeing. In this way, science is not limited to people in lab coats in university labs or governmental buildings. Their everyday decisions and life actions are scientifically rooted. Especially when it comes to their livelihoods and how communities respond to the environmental issues that are becoming more and more pressing in their lives, this process starts teachers, students, and communities on the road to developing preventive, therapeutic, or mitigation measures. When you start by educating young people, a lot can be accomplished.

Read EDC’s original blog post here.

Day of the African Child and the AU’s Year of Education: Prioritizing Foundational Learning for a Brighter Future

Written by Kirstin Buchanan (Luminos Fund)

Last month, BEC and its members celebrated the Day of the African Child – a time to celebrate the rich culture, traditions, and diversity of the continent and its people. As a member of the African diaspora raised in the Caribbean, this day is an opportunity for me to celebrate the strong cultural identity and common heritage that intricately connect us and an important reminder that together, we can lay the foundations for a brighter future.

This year, the African Union declared 2024 the “Year of Education,” calling on governments to accelerate progress toward achieving regional and global education targets.

With nearly 90% of 10-year-olds in Sub-Saharan Africa unable to read and understand a simple text, this declaration brings renewed hope for unlocking Africa’s immense potential, emphasizing the critical role of education. For the Luminos Fund, it underscores the importance of our education mission: to ensure all children have equal access to joyful, foundational learning.

In The Gambia, Luminos student Ebrima practices his handwriting during class. Learning to write is a critical part of foundational literacy. (Photo: Lena Nian for the Luminos Fund)

A Day of Celebration and Reflection

The Day of the African Child has been celebrated on June 16 every year since 1991, when it was first initiated by the OAU (Organisation of African Unity). It honors those who participated in the Soweto Uprising in 1976 on that day and raises awareness of the continuing need for improvement of the education provided to African children.

Education is a crucial piece of the puzzle on Africa’s path to continued prosperity. The Continental Education Strategy for Africa (CESA 16-25), adopted by African Union (AU) heads of state and government, provides the framework for transforming education systems and equipping Africa’s youth to become agents of change for advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The theme for the AU’s Year of Education, “Educate and Skill Africa for the 21st Century,” is a timely reaffirmation of these commitments. Multiple years of compounding crises, from pandemics to climate change, have reversed much of the continent’s progress in education and underscored the urgency for building more equitable education systems that are resilient to future crises.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, one in five primary-school-aged children are still out of school. Even beyond access, one in four children does not complete primary school, and most children enrolled in school are not learning. At most, only one in five children achieves the minimum proficiency level in reading upon completing primary education (UNESCO).

Prioritizing foundational learning for all children is one of the most important tools for addressing the learning crisis. With strong foundations in literacy and numeracy, children and youth are empowered to access a world of knowledge and ideas that will enable them to build higher-order skills and unlock pathways to improved livelihoods. For the most marginalized children, the ability to read, write, and do math builds belief in their own potential, resulting in the confidence and motivation to succeed in future learning environments.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, Luminos is helping out-of-school children get a second chance at education. I fondly remember one of my first experiences entering a Luminos classroom in Ethiopia – students’ faces lit up with joy as they practiced counting play ‘money’ through a song, sung to the tune of a local nursery rhyme. Throughout the room, an array of colorful artwork, including numbers and the letters of the alphabet, bring life to the otherwise barren thatch and bamboo walls. By focusing on joyful, foundational learning, we provide children with a safe and inclusive environment where they can feel comfortable and enjoy the learning process. This, in turn, helps develop a love of learning in students that continues well beyond their time in the Luminos program. Indeed, this was the experience of Luminos alumna, Degnesh, who is now proudly enrolled in grade 4 at her local government school. After many years out of school, Degnesh enrolled in the Luminos catch-up program in 2021. There, she built foundational reading, writing, and math skills, as well as her love for learning. “When I entered the Luminos classroom, I could not identify letters,” says Degnesh. “Now I’m reading at home and at school. The program made me love education.”

Luminos alumna, Degnesh, says, “I was sad to leave [the Luminos program], but at the same time, I was very proud of myself. Now I have the attitude that I can achieve anything I want.” (Photo: Michael Stulman/Luminos Fund)

Beyond the individual impacts, strong foundational learning systems serve as the cornerstone for building flourishing societies by promoting productive citizenship, sustainable development, gender equality, improved health, social cohesion, and stability. In the words of the United Nations Deputy Secretary-General, Amina J. Mohammed, “Investing in education is the greatest investment we can make in our common future, in peace, and sustainable development, and particularly in gender equality.”

A Critical Inflection Point

Addressing the learning crisis has long been an expressed priority for African governments. Many governments have endorsed the Commitment to Action on Foundational Learning, a global initiative launched at the 2022 United Nation’s Transforming Education Summit (TES), signaling their commitment to ensure foundational learning for all children and advance progress toward SDG 4 targets. The AU’s declaration of 2024 as the Year of Education presents an opportune, yet critical moment for governments to further build on these commitments and prioritize foundational learning in national policy agendas.  

African governments and ministries of education can chart a path to a brighter future for generations to come by investing in strengthening education systems. While this takes many forms, evidence-based strategies include prioritizing implementation of structured pedagogies and instructional methods, ongoing teaching development and coaching, and robust monitoring and evaluation.

In addition to strong political leadership, substantial collaboration will be required.

SDG 4: Quality Education

Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.

Targets:

     4.1 Free primary and secondary education

     4.2 Equal access to quality pre-primary education

  4.3 Equal access to affordable technical, vocational and higher education

   4.4 Increase the number of people with relevant skills for financial success

     4.5 Eliminate all discrimination in education

     4.6 Universal literacy and numeracy

     4.7 Education for sustainable development and global citizenship

     4.8 Build and upgrade inclusive and safe schools

     4.9 Expand higher education scholarships for developing countries

     4a Increase the supply of qualified teachers in developing countries

Education leaders and experts from Ethiopia, Ghana, and The Gambia during an inter-ministerial exchange facilitated by Luminos in Ethiopia. (Photo: Mekbib Tadesse for the Luminos Fund) 

Through my experience at Luminos, I have learned that there is power in unity – no one country can solve the learning crisis alone. This notion of strength in unity was the impetus for a recent inter-ministerial exchange facilitated by Luminos, which convened a range of education leaders and experts from Ethiopia, Ghana, and The Gambia for a series of discussions on advancing foundational learning in Sub-Saharan Africa. This power in unity is also the very pillar on which the African Union was formed.

In honor of this day, let us celebrate the unity and collaboration that has paved the way for the continent’s progress to date. Let us also unite in our commitment to work together to unlock the light of learning in every child through joyful, foundational learning, so they may bring to fruition the AU’s aspirations to transform Africa into the global powerhouse of the future.