Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), alongside the Local Group of Education Partners (GLPE) and other stakeholders in the education sector, has been tapped to join the inclusive consultations on the Etats Généraux de l'Éducation Nationale et de l'Alphabétisation (EGENA).

On May 03, 2023, recommendations from EGENA were translated into 42 reforms to be carried out over the next ten years at an estimated cost of CFA 866 billion (US$ 1.42 billion), were adopted by the government in the Council of Ministers in Abidjan. Amadou Coulibaly, the government’s spokesman indicated that the EGENA has identified four main priorities. These are "the improvement of basic learning, the relevance of programs and the quality of education, the reform of the teaching profession and the expansion and supervision of non-formal education and finally the development of digital technology in the education sector.”

EGENA which was launched on July 19, 2021 and completed in March 2022 in Abidjan, is a government initiative under the auspices of the Ministry of National Education and Literacy, which aims to "generate sustainable, consensual and contextual solutions to the challenges faced in education".

Throughout the process, IPA participated in five consultation workshops on the three main stages: elaboration, validation, and operationalization of recommendations. IPA also drafted a theory of change with the AVSI Foundation as a communication tool to guide how the EGENA Task Force should lead expected changes and monitor the process. IPA FWA acknowledged that participating in the process has helped identifying policies and program priorities and provide evidence to inform major reforms in the education sector.

The consultation process brought together students, parents, teachers, civil society organizations, government officials, and development partners, in an effort to contribute to the co-construction of a sustainable social pact for a school in Côte d'Ivoire centered on student success and the appropriation of republican values.

There has been an urgent need to institutionalize the use of evidence in the perspective of designing more effective and efficient educational policies and programs, as well as socio-culturally sensitive curricula. IPA is committed to supporting the Ivorian government in incorporating evidence in policy design and implementation.

Côte d’Ivoire has made an improvement in the general illiteracy rate from 51% in 2002 to 43.8% in 2015. In 2019, the illiteracy rate was 43.7%.

Since 2016, IPA has developed a sound working relationship with the Ivorian Ministry of National Education and Literacy, with the latest highlight on an MoU signing in March 2023 which will set out the framework for establishing an Embedded Evidence Lab for Education within the Ministry.

Read about the event in local news.