On 10 April 2025, the Education section of the UNESCO Regional Office for Southern Africa (UNESCO ROSA) hosted an online event titled “In Conversation with ROSA: Digital Learning Realities in Southern Africa”. The International Centre for Higher Education Innovation under the auspices of UNESCO (UNESCO-ICHEI) was invited to speak at the event.

This event aimed to explore digital learning practices in Southern Africa. It brought together students, educators, representatives of international organizations, and other stakeholders to share their experiences and insights on digital learning. Participants engaged in in-depth discussions on how to collaboratively build a sustainable digital education ecosystem in the region through policy guidance, educational innovation, and international cooperation.

In his opening remarks, Mr. Peter J. Wells, Head of Education at UNESCO ROSA, highlighted the innovation and resilience demonstrated by educators and students in Southern Africa in the field of digital learning. He called on all stakeholders to explore how digital technologies can be better integrated into education to promote inclusive development in education systems. He emphasized the need to combine global innovations with local realities to unlock more possibilities for education.

Mr. Sit Fung, Assistant Director and Chief of the International Institute of Online Education (IIOE) Management Centre at UNESCO-ICHEI, presented UNESCO-ICHEI’s work in driving the digital transformation of higher education. He underscored the important role of the IIOE platform in providing open educational resources and capacity-building programmes support to higher education institutions worldwide, including IIOE Micro-Certification courses, webinar series, and training resources. He also showcased the newly launched DeepSeek on IIOE (DS-I). In the end, Mr. Sit Fung highlighted that UNESCO-ICHEI will continue to strengthen collaboration with global partners to support higher education systems in developing countries in achieving future-ready digital transformation.

Group photo of speakers