Arizona State University (ASU) developed and implements Baobab on behalf of the Mastercard Foundation. Baobab is a digital social, professional, learning community for young African leaders and participants and alumni of Mastercard Foundation programmes.
The Global E-Schools and Communities Initiative (Gesci), in collaboration with the African Union Commission (AUC) and other partners, developed an African Leaders in ICT (ALICT) capacity-building programme. The first phase of the programme ran from 2012-2013, focusing on leadership capacitybuilding in twelve countries (Botswana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia).
Between 2017-2021, NBA helped Matthew Goniwe School of Leadership and Governance (MGSLG) develop and pilot an online ICT literacy programme, called MG Online. MGSLG, in partnership with the Gauteng Department of Education, is administering the programme for approximately 10,000 teachers in Gauteng province. NBA assisted MGSLG adapt existing open educational resources (OER) and develop new South Africa-specific content. In total, 56 units comprising 80 notional hours were developed for this initial teacher training course.
NBA developed and managed the adapting current open learning educational resources to produce digital teaching and learning resources (Courseware) for Mathematics and Science (Vocational) for the South African Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET). For this project, the DHET has decided to develop open and self-facilitated text-based materials for the National Certificate (Vocational) programmes in Mathematics and Physical Science at Levels 2–4.
NBA worked in conjunction with the British Council and the South African Department of Higher Education to develop a set of digital guidelines to introduce stakeholders to the A21, the new South African apprenticeship system. NBA further developed animations and interviewed prominent personnel in order to enrich the guidelines with multimedia assets. NBA also ran a social media campaign, incorporating MailChimp, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and SoundCloud, to spread awareness of the new system and the guidelines. The A21 digital guideline resources can be accessed below:
NBA has developed an online Learning and Knowledge Management platform to function as a gateway to a broad range of tools that enable countries and stakeholders to address issues related to educational policy making and on-the-ground implementation.
The ADEA Learning and Knowledge Management Hub main functions are:
Collaboration between the Rwandan government, the University of Rwanda, and local industry to develop and deploy educator technology-integration professional development initiatives neatly follows the Triple Helix Model[1]. However, in this Rwandan initiative a fourth collaborative partner proved significant, the regional/global education community coordinated by UNESCO’s Regional Office for Eastern Africa.
NBA has been integrally involved in Saide’s OER Africa initiative as a core project partner. Since 2008, OER Africa’s mission has been to establish dynamic networks of African OER practitioners by sensitizing and connecting like-minded educators – teachers, academics, trainers, and policy makers – to develop, share, and adapt OER to meet the education needs of African societies. By creating and sustaining networks of collaboration – face-to-face and online – OER Africa supports African educators and learners to harness the power of OER.
NBA supported the Anzisha Prize programme of the African Leadership Academy (ALA) to run their monitoring and evaluation processes and to conduct ad hoc research on specific issues as identified by Anzisha (2018-2021). The Anzisha Prize is a partnership between ALA and Mastercard Foundation. It runs a series of programmes and events and provide on-going support to build entrepreneurial activity of young people in Africa aged 15 to 22 years.
NBA aims to contribute to improving education in developing-world contexts by advancing open, sustainable, and cost-effective solutions to educational challenges. With this grant, NBA will lead research to deepen knowledge on the most effective strategies to create government policy and regulatory environments that support effective implementation of the recently approved UNESCO OER Recommendation, working in partnership with UNESCO’s Dynamic Coalition, UNESCO’s regional offices in Africa, and other key African partners.
