REVIEW OF THE SADC

INCLUSIVE EDUCATION
STRATEGY
OVERVIEW & IMPLEMENTATION STATUS
BY GEORGE MWIKA KAYANGE - SAFOD
BACKGROUND

 On 30th June 2016, SADC Ministers responsible for Education and Training and
Science, Technology and Innovation adopted the five-year Southern Africa
Inclusive Education Strategy for Learners with Disabilities (2016 -
2020).
 The development process of this regional strategy was financed by OSISA.
 This document presents the SADC strategy on enhancing access to education,
within an inclusive education system, for learners with disabilities.
BACKGROUND

 This inclusive education strategy was developed following a call by the participants of
the Swaziland, Ezulwini 2012 conference to develop a SADC inclusive education
strategy.
 Participants in these conference included representatives from various SADC Member
States ministries of education, development partners, UN agencies, Academia, civic
society organisations and disabled peoples organisations (DPOS).
 Their call for the development of SADC inclusive education strategy was informed by
the results of a Southern African study on access to education for children with
disabilities that were presented and discussed at the conference.
BACKGROUND

 In response to the study findings and other findings, participants of Ezulwini Swaziland
conference adopted “the Ezulwini Call to Action Statement”.
 The Ezulwini Call to Action Statement called for the development of SADC inclusive
education strategy that will among other things ensure that SADC education systems
accommodate and supports learners with disabilities.
 This call was later endorsed by SADC Ministers of Education representative’s
communique’ at a conference held in Johannesburg, South Africa in July 2013. The
conference call and July 2013 Communique were further endorsed by SADC ministers
of education their September 2013 meeting in Maputo Mozambique.
WHY NOT WORK ON THE SADC IE STRATEGY?

 While the focus of the SADC IE Strategy is access to education for learners with
disabilities, this focus is conceptualized within an inclusive education system.
 The strategy contributes towards the implementation of the SADC Regional Indicative
Strategic Development Plan (RISDP) with the emphasis on the social and human
development goal.
 The one-million-dollar question, therefore, is: Why are we not just working with the already
existing Southern Africa Inclusive Education Strategy for Learners with Disabilities (2016 -
2020) instead of creating a new stand-alone framework specifically on ECDE?
NO ECDE INTEGRATION

 The SADC IE strategy falls short of recognizing Early

Childhood Development and Education (ECDE) as a crucial
component of sustainable investment into any national or
regional inclusive education system.

 There is nowhere within the document where ECDE is

mentioned, or even indirectly insinuated.
NO STRATEGIC ALIGNMENT WITH SDGS:

 Yet under the broader Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of the UN

Agenda 2030, investing in early childhood development has become not
only an aim in itself, but a requisite for achieving many other SDGs (e.g.,
SDGs 1-5, 10, 16, and 17).
 For example, SDG Target 4.2 under the learning goal, calling for universal
access to quality early childhood development, care, and pre-primary
education.
 SDG Target 4.2 provides unprecedented opportunity to scale up early
childhood development services
NO SUSTAINABLE IMPACT WITHOUT ECDE
INTEGRATION
 What this means, therefore, is that even if the Southern Africa Inclusive
Education Strategy for Learners with Disabilities were to be
implemented in the current state, the strategy would be deficient in
making any sustainable impact on children aged 0-8 in the absence of any
specific targets related to ECDE.
NO SUSTAINABLE IMPACT WITHOUT ECDE
INDICATORS
 It means that any integrated monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system
for the strategy that has to be developed by the SADC Secretariat – as
prescribed in the Strategy itself – would likely leave out ECDE indicators
on the basis that ECDE is currently invisible in the Strategy.
CONCLUSION

 So in conclusion, the main reason we want to develop a stand-alone SADC framework

instead of just integrating ECDE into the already existing broader IE Strategy is that
having in place such a strategy document specifically on ECDE only will help to
increase the focus by SADC State Parties on ECDE issues.
 In addition, mobilization of resources for ECDE interventions may be easier than
lumping ECDE into a much broader IE agenda/framework where it could easily be
‘swallowed’ by other competing education priorities.
THANK YOU