On July 20, 2023, a workshop was held in Porto Novo for the official launch of a series of activities for strengthening the management of the national education system through the exchange of knowledge and innovation. Held under the oversight of H.E. Salimane KARIMOU, Minister of Nursery and Primary Education, the workshop brought together key stakeholders of Benin's education system and initiators of education innovations.
Opening the series of speeches, Martin Olatoundji Essoun, KIX Focal Point in Benin, stated that Benin’s vision has always factored in the issue of exchanging basic education knowledge and innovations. He indicated that enhanced collaboration will be helpful in meeting the various challenges that the country could face in achieving quality education for all.
During her turn to speak, Dr. Maïmouna SISSOKO-TOURE, Coordinator of the KIX Africa Hub, described the KIX program as the result of synergy among three strong institutions of the Francophonie, each striving for quality education: the AUF, CONFEMEN and IFEF/OIF, which acts as the lead partner. She reiterated that KIX works with a co-construction approach focused on countries’ needs, particularly national educational priorities, with the aim of filling knowledge gaps by improving access to factual data, and, above all, supporting the introduction and adoption of evidence and innovations in the countries covered by the Hub. These data should provide input for internal policy dialogue in the various countries to contribute effectively to the definition of public education policies.
Alain Hounleyi, Secretary General of Benin's Ministère des Enseignements maternel et primaire [Department of Nursery and Primary Education], described KIX as a tool contributing to the performance of education systems in pursuit of SDG 4. He noted that, to this end, a series of policy dialogue activities are planned at the national level, which include identifying basic education innovations and good practices, selecting successful basic education initiatives that can be made sustainable, submitting the selected innovations and good practices to the Local Education Group (LEG), organizing sharing sessions with the various stakeholders for the selected innovations and good practices, and then drafting a document for capitalizing on the innovations and good practices.
Through this official launch, Benin is reaffirming its commitment to the KIX initiative, to facilitate the capitalization and sharing of best practices and successful experiences in education.
As a reminder, the KIX program is a joint global initiative of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). The KIX Africa 21 Hub, which covers 21 African countries, is managed by the AUF, CONFEMEN and IFEF/OIF.
