The Keys to A Peaceful and Prosperous Africa Webinar presentation on the article Samuel Asnake Wollie , Ethiopia 14th March 2019

African Union Vision -2063 An integrated , peaceful prosperous Africa , driven by its own citizens to take up its rightful place in the global arena. The CESA ( 2016-25) Mission : To develop competent human resources to Achieve the Vision of African Union (AU) CESA has 12 broad Strategic Objectives (SOs) ; SO6 specifically discusses Effective literacy programmes across the continent to eradicate the scourge of illiteracy In general, Education is central in AU vision and CESA .

Three questions raised in the article Are there key literacy learning programmes contributing to peaceful and prosperous Africa? Do the social , economic and cultural changes are liabilities or assets in terms of real national and continental unity and sustainable development? How to transform a liability into an asset for nation building through functional literacy and Lifelong learning (education in continuum)?

Few observations to the questions Globally, there are still 750 Million people who lack basic literacy skills; of which two-third are girls and women in Africa (UNESCO, 2018); This proportion is unchanged since 2000. According to UNESCO ( 2016) Africa loses 402 million USD due to illiteracy Between 1960 and 2010 Africa’s working age population (15-49) doubled four times; but responsive literacy policies and effective literacy learning programmes are lacking in many African countries The return on the investment of formal schooling is tending to observable liabilities predisposing the challenges of unemployment, migration, conflicts as well as terrorism The vision 2063; SDG4 and the notion “Leave No One Behind” and all the aspirations are under serious challenge

Some arguments from the article Literacy is a basic right and key asset that opens the floodgates of an ocean of wisdom in context; In the context of Africa, the unilateral schooling alone neither is the key to break the cycle of poverty nor the answer to fulfill the lofty aspirations of the “Africa We Want” In order to change liabilities into assets, empower the learners and invest on viable and responsive systems for multiple literacies in continuum shall be the top development priorities of Africa;

Concluding remark The keys for integrated , peaceful and prosperous Africa are nothing but investing on efficient and effective multiple functional literacies fetched from daily lives and driven by the learners toward fulfilling the common developmental aspirations. Any questions….