I‘m Alem Mumuni from Ghana. I developed polio when I was two years old; at this time, outbreaks were common. My right leg became disfigured and I crawled until the age of 10, when I began to walk using a stick. I was marginalised, stigmatized, and discriminated against because of my disability. My parents were peasant farmers in Saligu in northern Ghana. I knew that the only way for me to succeed in life would be to get an...
Education
Javaza is a girl with a dream. The 14-year-old from Namibia wants to become a lawyer. “I want to grow up, be somebody, and help other people in return,” Javaza shared.
Mammadu, a non-profit in her home country, is helping students like Javaza get the education they need to pursue their dreams. Mammadu aims to be a safe place for children from the community whose parents might be working, abusing alcohol, or are deceased due to HIV/AIDS. Namibia’s HIV infection...
Toni Sittoni is a ONE Champion from Kenya.
During last month’s Global Education Summit in London, 11 African presidents made far-reaching promises on financing education through the “Kenyatta Declaration.” Co-hosted by Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the summit aimed to marshal the resources for national governments and the international community to address a learning crisis and help millions of children access quality education.
African leaders made some key promises to ensure equitable and high-quality education....
Dr. Charles Murigande is a former Rwandan minister of education and until his retirement in June 2020, he was the deputy vice-chancellor in charge of institutional development at the University of Rwanda.
The COVID-19 pandemic provided a lesson for Africa’s education sector: The continent must assume greater responsibility to address an unprecedented learning crisis. Africa must better address a crisis that threatens the vision of a knowledge-based society able to survive in a global and competitive environment.
Exacerbating learning poverty
Since the...
A roundup of the latest news, stats, and analysis of COVID-19’s impact in Africa. View our data tracker and sign up for our weekly newsletter, and read on for the impact of the pandemic on global education, Africa’s record COVID-19 death rate, and warnings of an impending “orphan crisis.”
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COVID-19 updates
Grim milestone: This week, Africa’s daily death COVID-19 rate tipped over the peak reached in January. ONE’s COVID-19 Africa Tracker shows that in the week to 26 July, more...
Ahead of the Global Education Summit on July 28-29, hosted by the United Kingdom and Kenya in London, 82 civil society organizations and 14 Members of Parliament together with 6 artists and 43 individuals on the continent all from over 22 countries are asking African Heads of State to protect domestic public financing of education in their countries.
They are also urging them to endorse President Uhuru Kenyatta’s political statement on education. In it, he calls on them to prioritize,...
The first case of COVID-19 in Kenya was announced in February 2020. After that, an announcement was made on 15 March 2020 that all learning institutions were to be closed to contain the spread of the virus. Physical learning resumed on 4 January 2021. As a result, the school calendar was considered lost, affecting over 18 million students across the country. In Kenya, many aspects of society and the education sector have been dramatically affected.
Before the pandemic, Africa had...
A roundup of the latest news, stats, and analysis of COVID-19’s impact in Africa. View our data tracker and sign up for our weekly newsletter, and read on for how COVID-19 has accelerated learning poverty, where African stimulus money is going, and what’s happening to military spending.
Top news
Through the cracks: Half the world’s 10-year-olds can’t read and understand a simple sentence. ONE, Save the Children, and the Global Partnership for Education launched a new tool this week called the Lost...
Think back to when you were 10. Imagine if you had not been able to read and understand a simple story at that age. Where do you think you would be today?
Age 10 is the age at which children should be switching from learning to read to reading to learn. This critical milestone sets children up for a lifetime of learning. It increases their ability to earn, innovate, improve their own opportunities, and contribute to their societies, including becoming...
Ashlegh Pfunye and Iyunoluwa Ademola-Popoola are Youth Leaders for Global Partnership for Education. They raise awareness of the barriers to education and aim to increase the ambition of leaders for financing education and development.
It is undeniable that COVID-19 has altered how we live and work. Lives continue to be lost, and hospitals and health workers have been overwhelmed with patients suffering from the virus. Though efforts such as social distancing, wearing of masks, and bans on large gatherings have...