Building on the African Union's 2024 theme, "Educate an African fit for the 21st Century", UNESCO and the African Union Commission (AUC) with key continental organizations, are co-organizing a three-day conference to forge a continent-wide strategic partnership to build a transformative science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) ecosystem. This comprehensive approach, coupled with strong collaboration among stakeholders, aims to position Africa as an equal player in the future of STEM education, innovation, entrepreneurship and diplomacy.
Africa is poised for a transformative leap. By 2030, it will hold the world's largest youth bulge, with an estimated 500 million people aged 15-24. This demographic dividend presents a tremendous opportunity, but a critical skills gap threatens to hinder progress. Millions of young people on the continent require STEM skills crucial for navigating the demands of the 21st Century workforce. The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2023 highlights that Africa will need an additional 23 million STEM graduates by 2030 to fill critical positions in engineering, healthcare and information technology.
The African Union's Agenda 2063 recognizes the critical role of education, science, technology, and innovation in achieving its ambitious goals. Continental strategies, including the Continental Education Strategy for Africa 2016-2025 and the Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy for Africa 2024 operationalize this vision, with a strong emphasis on STEM education across the continent.
But Africa faces significant challenges in ensuring quality STEM education, due to inadequate infrastructure, a scarcity of qualified teachers, and a persistent gender gap exacerbated by societal stereotypes, cultural barriers and limited resources. The brain-drain of skilled STEM professionals further hinders innovation while insufficient funding restricts the development of STEM infrastructure, laboratories and educational facilities.
Conventional STEM curricula, often misaligned with technological advancements and global best practice, leave students unprepared for the demands of the 21st Century workforce.
Advancing innovation, entrepreneurship, and excellence in STEM is undeniably critical for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and addressing Africa’s development challenges, such as energy, poverty reduction, disease, and climate change. However, Africa lags behind the global average in terms of researchers per capita, limiting its contribution to global knowledge. With just 0.59% of its GDP allocated to research and development (R&D) compared to the global average of 1.79%, Africa contributes less than 1% of global research output. To bridge this gap, the African Research Universities Alliance and the World Bank estimate a need for 100,000 PhD graduates within a decade to meet labor market demands and drive development.
By fostering collaboration, identifying strategic solutions, and mobilizing resources, we can empower Africa to unlock its full potential in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Conference Objectives:
The overarching objective is to foster a thriving African STEM ecosystem that drives sustainable development by addressing critical challenges, cultivating a future-ready workforce, and stimulati innovation and entrepreneurship. This can only be achieved through targeted investments, poli reforms and capacity building, aligned with the goals of CESA 16- 25, STISA-2034 and the Global 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The specific objectives of the conference are to catalyze transformation actions and partnerships to:
• Strengthen the foundations of STEM education to align curricula with local needs, real-world applications, and basic literacy and numeracy, and empower teachers with effective and gend responsive pedagogical skills and other necessary resources to enhance interactive STEM teaching and learning.
• Advance gender equality and inclusion in and through STEM by addressing the root causes of gender gaps, stereotypes, and biases to create an inclusive and equitable STEM ecosystem and establish networks of eminent women in STEM to mentor and inspire the next generation.
• Foster STEM innovation, entrepreneurship and excellence by building entrepreneurship capacity, fostering collaboration between academia, industry and government, a strengthening R&D infrastructure and research-industry partnerships.
• Promote STEM financing, diplomacy and partnerships through increased funding, public- private partnerships, and international collaboration in STEM, and by leveraging science diplomacy to address Africa’s development challenges while retaining and attracting STEM talent.
Expected outcomes:
The Continental Conference on Transforming STEM in Africa is envisioned as a catalyst for long-term, transformative change in STEM ecosystems across the continent. It aims to strengthen cooperation, catalyze action, financing and innovation over the long-term.