The 2024 High-Level Policy Dialogue in Africa, themed "Operationalising Strategies for Quality Higher Education in the AI Era", will be co-organized by UNESCO, UNESCO-ICHEI, and partner higher education institutions (HEIs) in Dakar, Senegal on 13th December, 2024. The policy dialogue will convene senior officials from government agencies overseeing higher education, HEI leadership and teaching personnel, private sector entities, industry professionals and experts, representatives from international and regional organisations, and other partners to explore the transformation of Africa's higher education in the AI era, with emphasis on the policy trends, gender equality, and teachers' professional development. UNESCO and UNESCO-ICHEI will jointly launch a multilateral cooperation project in support of the digital transformation of higher education in Africa at the event.

Highlights

Aligning with UNESCO's Priority Africa and Gender Equality

As the Policy Dialogue's theme and agenda align with Priority Africa, the UNESCO experts will introduce UNESCO's Priority Africa Flagship Programme "Campus Africa” on the conference and share experience in how this programme improved the governance capacity of African universities, enhanced research and teaching quality, and strengthened policy making and regional cooperation. The Policy Dialogue will respond to UNESCO's "Gender Equality" priority, and discuss how to accelerate the digital transformation of higher education and the development of artificial intelligence from a gender perspective, and demonstrate innovative ways to empower women educators in Africa.

Image:i_am_zews/Shutterstock.com

UNESCO-ICHEI and UNESCO will jointly launch a multilateral cooperation project

· "Strengthening Digital and AI Competencies for Women in the Higher Education Workforce in Africa" Project: Building on the collaboration between UNESCO-ICHEI and UNESCO, the project aims at African universities to strengthen the digital and AI competencies of female university teachers and leaders. The project relies on IIOE digital and AI resources, integrates a global expert network, and customises the training content and curriculum systems.

· UNESCO-ICHEI Three-year Plan for the Transformation of Higher Education in Africa: UNESCO-ICHEI in collaboration with UNESCO and African universities, utilizes the IIOE digital learning platform and curriculum system to strengthen open sharing and cooperation in educational resources. It plans to provide multilingual teacher training in English, French, Arabic and other languages to African universities, and serves more African higher education workforce in the next three years.

· Course Release of IIOE Generative AI Teacher Empowerment: UNESCO-ICHEI has collaborated with global IIOE partner universities and experts, to develop multilingual generative AI courses, covering basic and professional fields such as teaching, governance, operation, disciplines, and industry-university cooperation, to help university teachers and administrators improve their teaching, research and management capabilities.

IIOE Platform（https://www.iioe.org/）

Discussion on the transformation of AI education and industry-university cooperation

The policy dialogue will invite a number of technology companies to share solutions and practical cases on enabling AI-driven transformation of higher education. Representatives from leading enterprises will discuss how to closely follow the actual needs of local HEIs, explore new ways of cooperation in key areas such as technological innovation, content co-development, and teaching facility upgrading, and focus on exploring a new model of deep integration of industry and academia, aiming to comprehensively improve the digital skills and AI literacy of higher education workforce.

Localized experience in teachers' professional development from IIOE National Centers

Representatives of IIOE National Centers from different African sub-regions will share their experience in joint projects with UNESCO-ICHEI and the IIOE partner ecosystem. Relying on the local HEIs network, the IIOE National Centers have cooperated with UNESCO-ICHEI to carry out higher education digitalization and teacher empowerment projects, realize the localization and scaling-up of teachers' professional development, and help more local HEIs realize their digital transformation strategies.

Meeting Background

Higher education serves as a powerful catalyst for development in Africa, playing a central role in the realisation of the African Union's Agenda 2063 and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In the rapidly evolving technological landscape, strategically integrating digital and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies into higher education systems represents a crucial step towards achieving quality education for all and nurturing innovation-driven societies. The African Union has declared 2024 as the “Year of Education”, which provides a vital opportunity to take stock of the progress made and accelerate efforts to leverage the full potential of technological advancements. This will optimise governance, management, teaching, and learning in Africa's higher education sector, aligning with the continent's broader development goals. Against this background, the Policy Dialogue's theme and agenda draw on the African Union's Continental Artificial Intelligence Strategy and Continental Education Strategy for Africa 2016–2025, as well as UNESCO's Operational Strategy for Priority Africa 2022-2029, to discuss how we can jointly build a more inclusive, creative and sustained higher education systems, and fully grasp the opportunities for higher education brought about by AI and other advanced technologies to promote economic and social development in Africa.

Image: Yuri A/Shutterstock.com

Meeting Objectives

· Provide a platform for multi-stakeholders to examine policy frameworks and explore implementation strategies towards the effective integration of digital and AI technologies into higher education systems in Africa and beyond;

· Showcase good practices, transformative approaches, and lessons learned from HEIs, international and regional organisations, and private sector entities to facilitate higher education development in the AI era;

· Strengthen collaboration among stakeholders concerning Africa's higher education sector, especially industry-academia cooperation and South-South and triangular cooperation, to nurture knowledge-based and innovation-driven societies;

· Provide a valuable reference for policymakers and other stakeholders in the region and beyond, catalysing collective actions and supporting the enhancement and implementation of relevant policies, strategies, and action plans for AI-driven higher education development.

Meeting Agenda

Meeting Participants

The meeting will bring together around 150 participants from all sub-regions of Africa and beyond:

· Senior officials from the ministries of education and other relevant government entities in charge of higher education;

· Representatives from UNESCO, the African Union, and other international and regional organisations;

· Representatives of partner institutions of UNESCO-ICHEI;

· Higher education workforce, including HEI leadership, teaching personnel, and learning support staff;

· Experts in promoting AI integration, as well as gender equality, in higher education;

· Industry professionals and private sector entities.

Meeting Format Language

The meeting will be held in-person and live streamed via the ZOOM platform.

The meeting will be conducted in English and French, with simultaneous interpretation services provided for both languages.

Click on the link below to register for ZOOM

https://zoom.us/j/88265031295

Meeting Organisers

The meeting is organised by:

· United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

· International Centre for Higher Education Innovation under the auspices of UNESCO (UNESCO-ICHEI)

· Université Gaston Berger (UGB) - International Institute of Online Education (IIOE) National Centre in Senegal

· Université Amadou Mahtar Mbow (UAM)

· Université Numérique Cheikh Hamidou KANE (UN-CHK)

The meeting is sponsored by:

· GuangZhou Dazzle View Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd.

· Meta Lingual Co., Ltd.

About Partner Organisations

UNESCO

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is a specialized agency of United Nations. It contributes to peace and security by promoting international cooperation in education, sciences, culture, communication and information. The Organization has more than 50 field offices around the world and its headquarters are located in Paris.

UNESCO Dakar, also known as UNESCO's Multisectoral Regional Office for West Africa in Dakar, covers the fifteen West African countries beyond the Sahel region: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Côte d'Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo. It was initially set up to deal with educational planning in sub-Saharan Africa.

The sector for Priority Africa and External Relations ensures improved synergy between Global Priority Africa and the services responsible for relations with the other groups. Its overall mission is to coordinate, ensure liaison and provide strategic policy advice to the Director General, as regards cooperation with Member States, UN system, Intergovernmental Organizations (IGOs), National commissions and Goodwill Ambassadors, and support to Field Offices.

Gaston Berger University of Saint-Louis (UGB) - IIOE Senegal National Center

Gaston Berger University (UGB) is the second-largest public university in Senegal, with strengths and rich resources in science and engineering, particularly in the fields of Applied Mathematics, Applied Physics, and Computer Science, where it boasts outstanding research and teaching capabilities. In July 2023, the Innovation Center officially signed an agreement with UGB to establish the IIOE Senegal National Center at UGB, making it the 10th national center of IIOE and the first French-speaking country center. The IIOE Senegal National Center network has currently expanded to include six universities in the local IIOE network.

Amadou Mahtar Mbow University (UAM)

Amadou Makhtar Mbow University (UAM), formerly known as the University of Dakar II, was established in 2012. It has significant strengths in digital technologies, innovation, science, and engineering disciplines, and is committed to offering modern, market-driven programs aimed at developing highly qualified professionals capable of addressing current societal challenges. The university focuses on fields such as science and technology, economics and management, and social sciences. It offers high-quality training programs that meet international standards.

Cheikh Hamidou Kane Digital University (UN-CHK)

Cheikh Hamidou Kane Digital University, formerly known as Virtual University of Senegal (UVS), was established in 2013 as the first public digital university in Senegal and West Africa. Through its educational model based on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), it plays a key role in democratizing access to higher education for new high school graduates in Senegal, professionals, and public and private partners, regardless of their place of residence. UN-CHK, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education of Senegal, is driving the digital transformation of higher education in Senegal through the development of online education, the provision of continuous professional training, the advancement of technological research, the enhancement of digital infrastructure, and by strengthening local and international partnerships to promote educational modernization and socio-economic development.

https://www.unchk.sn/

GuangZhou Dazzle View Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd.

JinYu Zhida Technology (Tianjin) Co., Ltd.

JinYu Zhida Technology (Tianjin) Co., Ltd. is a modern high-tech innovative enterprise that provides intelligent and international services to clients in the education and media sectors. The company is dedicated to the development and application of artificial intelligence (AI) in multilingual software, promoting the innovation of AI-powered multilingual conversion and course translation platforms. It offers intelligent voice service solutions, including speech recognition, machine translation, speech synthesis, virtual voiceprint, and multilingual voice-image synchronization, to enterprises across various industries.