Regional workshop in Senegal: French-speaking and Portuguese-speaking Africa come together to share knowledge and innovations in education

On December 1-2, 2025, in Pointe Sarène, Senegal, the KIX Africa 21 Hub brought together representatives from 21 French- and Portuguese-speaking African countries for a regional workshop dedicated to sharing knowledge, experiences, and innovations in education. This event, organized under the auspices of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), marks a new stage in the implementation of Phase 2 of the KIX Program, which aims to strengthen the resilience and transformation of education systems in Africa.

This workshop is part of the Consortium's commitment—composed of the AUF, CONFEMEN, and OIF/IFEF as lead partners—to consolidate a genuine regional culture of sharing innovations and evidence, which is essential for improving the formulation, implementation, and monitoring of education policies.

In recent years, the countries of the KIX Africa 21 Hub have stepped up initiatives to develop national policy dialogues, identify innovations, produce evidence, conduct regional studies, and coordinate with local partners in the education sector. The Pointe Sarène workshop provides a structured space to review these achievements, share experiences, and take stock of the program.

Discussions will provide an opportunity to address in depth:

• the progress made by each country and the challenges encountered;
• the operating conditions of national coordination bodies and identified good practices;
• the synergy between KIX program actions and the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) compacts;
• the prospects and expectations for the next phase of the program, KIX 3.0, announced following positive evaluations.

These discussions will be led by international experts, alongside the Coordinator of the KIX Africa 21 Hub, Dr. Maïmouna Sissoko-Touré, to ensure a resolutely participatory approach focused on capitalizing on experiences and knowledge.

Bringing together representatives from GPE and IDRC, members of the KIX Africa 21 consortium, national focal points, and strategic partners, the workshop will be organized around three main areas of work.

The first will be devoted to reviewing national experiences: participants will analyze the results achieved, successes, and lessons learned in implementing KIX 2.0 Program activities. They will also discuss expectations for technical support and how national dynamics relate to GPE Partnership Agreements.

The second block will focus on the functioning of national coordination units: teams will share their organizational, development, and restructuring methods, as well as the mechanisms that enable them to effectively feed national data and priorities into the KIX Africa 21 Hub.

Finally, a third block will open up perspectives for phase 3 of the program. Countries will be invited to reflect on the respective roles of the Center, GPE, and national teams in maximizing the impact of the mechanism and accelerating the transformation of education systems.

At the end of the two days of work, the workshop should help consolidate a common understanding of the challenges and objectives of phase 2 of the KIX program. It will also help document and disseminate lessons learned in countries, identify technical support needs, clarify coordination mechanisms, and formulate recommendations for the rollout of phase 3.

Discussions will also focus on the results of regional and global applied research projects supported by the KIX program, as well as access to data and digital resources available to countries.

This workshop will strengthen the bridges between national teams, consortium institutions, and technical partners, while supporting networking, which is at the heart of the KIX initiative.

The KIX Africa 21 Hub is thus pursuing its ambition: to promote mutual learning, equip national teams, and drive a regional dynamic of evidence-based innovation in order to contribute to the transformation of education systems for the benefit of students, teachers, and communities.