AU CIEFFA and ImpactHER Launch Fourth Edition of Pan-African Digital Skills Training Reaching 55 Member States
AU CIEFFA and ImpactHER Launch Fourth Edition of Pan-African Digital Skills Training Reaching 55 Member States
The African Union International Centre for Girls' and Women's Education in Africa (AU CIEFFA) and ImpactHER launched the fourth edition of their fully-funded online capacity-building training in July 2026, targeting digital skills, entrepreneurship, financial literacy, and gender equality in STEAM across all 55 AU Member States. The programme has certified over 12,500 participants since its inception.
African Union and Partners Launch Africa Skills Landscape Initiative to Map Continental TVET Investments
On 15-16 June 2026 in Paris, the African Union Commission, UNIDO, WorldSkills International, and UNESCO convened 24 institutions to advance the Africa Skills Landscape Initiative — a joint effort to map TVET investments across the continent, improve coordination, and align skills development with the Continental TVET Strategy 2025-2034.
African Union Opens Innovating Education in Africa 2026 Call with USD 50,000 Grants for TVET and EdTech Innovators
The African Union's Department of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation launched the 2026 Innovating Education in Africa call on 31 March 2026, offering grants of up to USD 50,000 for scalable innovations in TVET modernisation, AI-integrated training, green skills, and university-industry innovation hubs. The deadline for submissions was 30 April 2026.
UNESCO 2026 GEM Report Warns Out-of-School Children Rise to 273 Million as Progress Stalls for Seventh Consecutive Year
The 2026 Global Education Monitoring Report, launched on 25 March 2026, reveals that 273 million children and youth are now out of school worldwide — the seventh consecutive annual increase. The report introduces a new Equitable Funding Index showing fewer than one in ten countries direct education resources effectively toward disadvantaged populations.
ARUA Launches 42 Early-Career Research Fellowships Across Africa with 70% Reserved for Women
The African Research Universities Alliance, backed by the Mastercard Foundation and Carnegie Corporation, is funding 42 six-month residential fellowships at its Centres of Excellence and Africa-Europe Clusters of Research Excellence, with at least 70% of positions reserved for female candidates and a monthly stipend of US$2,000.
Makerere University Confers Record 213 PhDs at 76th Graduation, Signalling Shift in African Doctoral Training Capacity
Makerere University's 76th graduation ceremony, held from 24-27 February 2026 in Kampala, saw a record 213 PhDs conferred alongside 2,503 master's degrees and over 6,300 undergraduate degrees. The figures represent a significant increase from the previous year's 144 doctoral graduates, reflecting intentional progress toward increased doctoral completion rates at one of Africa's oldest universities.
ARUA Launches Early-Career Research Fellowships for 42 African Scholars with Mastercard Foundation and Carnegie Support
The African Research Universities Alliance announced a residential fellowship programme funding up to 42 early-career researchers across its 13 Centres of Excellence and 21 Africa-Europe Clusters of Research Excellence, with at least 70% of positions reserved for women. The first cohort convened for an inaugural capacity-building workshop at the University of Ghana in January 2026.
African and European University Associations Urge Leaders to Place Higher Education at the Heart of the Africa-EU Partnership
Ahead of the seventh EU-AU Summit in Luanda, the Association of African Universities and the European University Association issued a joint statement calling on leaders to formally integrate higher education and research cooperation into all major areas of the bi-regional partnership, citing 50,000 student and staff exchanges and 240 capacity-building projects already delivered.
Makerere University Hosts ARUA 5th Biennial Conference on Research, Innovation and AI for Africa's Transformation
The African Research Universities Alliance convened its 5th biennial conference at Makerere University in Kampala from 29-31 October 2025, drawing vice chancellors, scholars, and policymakers to deliberate on how artificial intelligence and research can drive Africa's sustainable development, as the alliance celebrated its 10th anniversary.
African Union Launches Decade of Education and Skills Development as UNESCO Report Charts Path Forward
At the Pan-African Conference on Teacher Education in Addis Ababa, UNESCO, UNICEF, and the African Union jointly launched the Second Continental Report on SDG4 and CESA, kicking off a ten-year continental commitment to transform education systems serving a youth population projected to reach 42% of the global total by 2030.
EU Launches Africa-Europe Youth Academy in Dakar to Build Leadership and Skills Across Sub-Saharan Africa
EU Launches Africa-Europe Youth Academy in Dakar to Build Leadership and Skills Across Sub-Saharan Africa
The Africa-Europe Youth Academy, a four-year €15 million EU-funded initiative implemented by Expertise France and AICS, held its launch event in Dakar on 30 September 2025. The programme aims to empower young people aged 18-30 across Sub-Saharan Africa through leadership development, capacity building, and mobility opportunities, forming part of the broader €50 million Youth Mobility for Africa flagship under the Global Gateway investment package.
African Union CIEFFA and ImpactHER Launch 2025 Online Capacity Building Training to Bridge Gender Gap in Digital Skills and STEAM Across Africa
The African Union's International Centre for Girls' and Women's Education in Africa (CIEFFA), in partnership with ImpactHER, opened applications in July 2025 for a fully funded online capacity building training starting September 2025, targeting women and men from 55 AU Member States and the diaspora with courses in digital literacy, financial literacy, entrepreneurship, and gender-responsive STEAM education.
African Union Launches Fellowship Programme on Disarmament and Non-Proliferation to Build Continental Negotiation Capacity
The African Union officially launched its Fellowship Programme on Disarmament and Non-Proliferation on 15 July 2025 in Addis Ababa, targeting diplomats, mediators, and disarmament practitioners with training on multilateral arms control frameworks, diplomatic negotiation skills, and the peaceful use of nuclear technology in Africa.
UNESCO World Heritage Young Professionals Forum 2025 Convenes in Paris with Focus on Digital Technologies for Heritage Conservation
Twenty-five young professionals from around the world gathered at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris from 1 to 8 July 2025 for the World Heritage Young Professionals Forum, exploring how AI, augmented reality, drones, and 3D modelling can revolutionise heritage preservation, culminating in a Youth Declaration presented to the 47th session of the World Heritage Committee.
Mandela Washington Fellowship 2025: 620 Young African Leaders Arrive in the United States for Leadership Training at 26 Institutions
Approximately 620 fellows competitively selected from over 58,000 applicants arrived in the United States on 23 June 2025 for six-week Leadership Institutes at 26 U.S. educational institutions across 21 states, with up to 85 fellows continuing to four-week Professional Development Experiences with American organisations.
Africa Fellows in Education Program Selects First Cohort to Build Local Research Capacity for Education Policy Across Sub-Saharan Africa
The Global Education Analytics Institute, in collaboration with PEP and supported by the Yidan Prize, announced up to 10 fellowships for young African researchers under the Africa Fellows in Education Program, a two-year initiative combining $35,000 research grants, international training, and mentorship to strengthen evidence-based education policy across Sub-Saharan Africa, with the first training cycle beginning in September 2025.
AIMS Rwanda Launches Eureka Mu Rugo Incubator to Bridge the Gap Between STEM Training and Market-Ready Ventures
On 1 April 2025, the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) Rwanda officially launched the Eureka Mu Rugo Incubator, a new initiative designed to transition STEM graduates from academic excellence to market-ready, impact-driven ventures through incubation fellowships, innovation competitions, and industry partnerships.
PASET Regional Scholarship Fund Welcomes Sixth Cohort of African PhD Scholars in Applied Sciences
The Partnership for skills in Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology (PASET) opened its sixth call for doctoral scholarships in 2024, with selected scholars beginning orientation at icipe Nairobi in March 2025 — continuing a programme that has supported over 300 PhD students since 2018 across five priority thematic areas.
University of Pretoria Welcomes Largest-Ever Mastercard Foundation Scholars Cohort as Program Enters Phase II
The University of Pretoria launched its 2025 cohort of 134 Mastercard Foundation Scholars from 20 African countries on 28 February 2025, the largest intake in the partnership's 12-year history and the first under an expanded Phase II curriculum that now includes law, humanities, and theology alongside STEM.
L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Opens 2025 Call for 30 Sub-Saharan African Young Talents
On 17 February 2025, UNESCO and the L'Oréal Foundation opened the 15th edition of the For Women in Science Young Talents programme for Sub-Saharan Africa, offering 30 endowments — 25 for doctoral students and 5 for post-doctoral researchers — across the 48 countries of the region. Applications closed on 7 April 2025.
Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program Adds Three African University Partners in Push to Reach 100,000 Scholars
In January 2025, the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program announced partnerships with Pan-Atlantic University in Nigeria, the University of Global Health Equity in Rwanda, and Mohammed VI Polytechnic University in Morocco, expanding its network to 50 partner institutions across the continent.
UNESCO and Equatorial Guinea Launch Inaugural Fellowship for Young Women Scientists in Africa
In December 2024, UNESCO and the Republic of Equatorial Guinea opened applications for the first edition of a fellowship programme dedicated exclusively to young African women in life sciences, offering two annual grants of $25,000 each. The inaugural call closed on 31 March 2025.
UNESCO and African Union Forge Continental Partnership to Transform STEM Education Across Africa
A landmark three-day conference in Addis Ababa brought together ministers, educators, and innovators to address the root causes of Africa's STEM skills gap, producing the Addis Ababa Communique with decade-long policy commitments for transforming science and technology education.
ADEA Releases Continental STEM Toolkit to Guide Basic Education Policy Across Africa
The Association for the Development of Education in Africa published a comprehensive framework addressing inconsistent STEM concepts, inadequate resources, and insufficient teacher training — offering adaptable guidelines for policy formulation, pedagogical reform, and monitoring across African nations.
Africa Scientifique Programme Trains Fifth Cohort in Afrocentric Science Communication at AIMS South Africa
Africa Scientifique Programme Trains Fifth Cohort in Afrocentric Science Communication at AIMS South Africa
African Gong's flagship science communication capacity-building programme expanded in 2024 to include Honours students from the University of Venda and Walter Sisulu University, offering a three-phase training model with six months of post-workshop mentoring to bridge the gap between technical research and public engagement.
SciDev.Net's Script Programme Trains Science Granting Councils in Storytelling at 2023 SGCI Annual Forum in Mombasa
At the 2023 Science Granting Councils Initiative Annual Forum in Mombasa, Kenya, SciDev.Net's training coordinator Dr Charles Wendo delivered workshops on harnessing storytelling to improve dissemination and research uptake of publicly funded science — part of a partnership that has trained nearly 9,000 journalists and scientists since 2018.
UNESCO and Prada Bootcamp Introduces 220 Kenyan Girls to Robotics, AI and 3D Printing in Kajiado and Kwale
Over three days in August 2023, UNESCO's 'Keeping Girls in the Picture' campaign — funded by Prada — brought ICT-STEM bootcamps to two Kenyan counties, training 220 girls in robotics, coding, mobile app development, and 3D printing while equipping 40 teachers with gender-transformative STEM pedagogy.
DELTAS Africa II Launches in Nairobi: US$70 Million to Train Next Generation of African Researchers Across 14 Consortia
The second phase of the Developing Excellence in Leadership, Training and Science in Africa programme was launched on 14 March 2023 in Nairobi, committing US$70 million to 14 Africa-led research consortia spanning 75 institutions across 36 countries, with expanded scope into non-communicable diseases, social sciences, and climate change.
EDCTP Fellowship Programme Concludes Two Decades: 271 Grants and €63 Million Invested in African Clinical Research Talent
A December 2022 report from the European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership documents the legacy of its fellowship programme (2003–2022): 271 grants totalling €63 million, 362 fellows trained under EDCTP2 alone, and a doubling of female participation — building a career pipeline that proved vital during the COVID-19 pandemic.
EU-Funded ARISE Programme Awards €500,000 Fellowships to 44 African Researchers Across 38 Countries
The African Research Initiative for Scientific Excellence (ARISE), funded by the European Union and implemented by the African Academy of Sciences, has awarded five-year fellowships of up to €500,000 each to 44 early- to mid-career researchers selected from 929 applicants spanning 38 African nations.
Africa's Science Communication Capacity Takes Institutional Turn as New Training Programmes Emerge
In 2021, African science communication capacity building shifted from one-off workshops toward sustainable, institutionalised frameworks. A landmark postgraduate diploma at the University of Limpopo, SciDev.Net's Script programme, and AIMS's integrated strategy signalled a maturing field grounded in Afrocentric approaches.
COVID-19 Forces Abrupt Digital Shift in African Higher Education, Exposing a Deep Continental Digital Divide
When campuses closed in early 2020, African universities faced an urgent and largely improvised migration to online learning. The crisis exposed profound inequalities in digital access but also catalysed localised innovation — from mobile-first solutions to offline content distribution — that may reshape the continent's higher education landscape.
Mastercard Foundation Launches e-Learning Initiative to Sustain African University Education During COVID-19
Mastercard Foundation Launches e-Learning Initiative to Sustain African University Education During COVID-19
In September 2020, the Mastercard Foundation launched a phased e-learning initiative partnering with African universities including AIMS, Ashesi, Makerere, and the University of Rwanda to build capacity for inclusive online instruction — designed to indirectly benefit an estimated 95,000 tertiary students.
UNESCO Warns of 'Generational Catastrophe' as COVID-19 School Closures Affect 1.6 Billion Learners Worldwide
By April 2020, nearly 90% of the world's student population was locked out of classrooms. UNESCO's real-time monitoring tracked the largest education disruption in history and mobilised a global response to prevent permanent learning loss.
UNESCO Launches Global Education Coalition to Sustain Learning During COVID-19 Pandemic
In March 2020, UNESCO established a multi-sector coalition of over 230 partners from the UN, private sector, and civil society to protect education continuity for 1.6 billion learners affected by pandemic school closures. Three flagships — connectivity, teachers, and gender — anchor the response.
Wellcome Global Monitor 2018: World's Largest Survey of Public Attitudes to Science Reveals Global Trust Gap
Wellcome Global Monitor 2018: World's Largest Survey of Public Attitudes to Science Reveals Global Trust Gap
Published in June 2019, the Wellcome Global Monitor surveyed over 140,000 people across 140+ countries, finding that 72% trust scientists but only 18% have high trust, with striking regional variations in vaccine confidence and a persistent gender gap in self-reported science knowledge.
AIMS Rwanda Launches Africa's First Master's Programme in Machine Intelligence
On 15 October 2018, the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences in Rwanda launched the African Master's in Machine Intelligence (AMMI), the first programme of its kind on the continent, backed by Facebook and Google and designed to build Africa's AI talent pipeline.
ARUA Launches First Centres of Excellence Outside South Africa at University of Lagos
The African Research Universities Alliance inaugurated two new Centres of Excellence at the University of Lagos on 6 September 2018, marking the first expansion of the programme beyond South Africa and signalling a continental push to anchor advanced research in African universities.
EAC and Germany Launch Regional Master's Scholarship for STEM Students Across East Africa
In 2018, the East African Community, the Inter-University Council for East Africa, and Germany's KfW Development Bank launched a scholarship programme supporting 180 Master's students across six STEM and business priority areas, with a unique requirement that scholars study in a partner state other than their own.
CARTA Doctoral Fellowships Enter Phase II: Strengthening Africa's Next Generation of Health Researchers
In 2018, the Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa continued its Phase II strategic cycle (2016–2020), supporting junior faculty across eight African universities through a unique doctoral training model combining residential Joint Advanced Seminars, mentorship, and institutional capacity building.