Revival of the Support Process in Côte d’Ivoire: Signature of a Framework Agreement and Definition of a Workplan for 2017

In this context, and after the finalization and endorsement of the reform document in November 2016, the IIEP-Pôle de Dakar conducted a mission to Abidjan from December 18 to 22, 2016, to relaunch the support process.

The mission team held several meetings with Côte d’Ivoire’s vocational training actors, to explain the goals and scope of the IIEP-Pôle de Dakar’s support in the context of PEFOP and discuss the execution process. The team was accompanied throughout the mission by a member of UNESCO’s Abidjan Office and the Ivorian authorities, namely the focal points for PEFOP activities: M. Kouadio KOUMAN, Permanent Secretary of the Reform Implementation Committee, and M. Thierry KOUAME, Technical Advisor to the Minister of TVET.

The IIEP-Pôle de Dakar team also met the Agence Française de Développement representative responsible for education in Côte d’Ivoire and a UNIDO representative involved with the training sector. DPs appear to pinpoint the fact that the TVET sub-sector strategy is not completely aligned with the vocational education component of the education and training sector strategy, developed just as recently. From their perspective, the TVET sub-sector strategy seems less “credible” than the sector strategy and its vocational training component in terms of physical and financial feasibility.

Finalization and Signature of the Partnership Framework Agreement

A working session with the Ministry’s Director of Legal Affairs, the Technical Advisor and the Reform Implementation Committee’s Permanent Secretary in the course of enabled  the finalization of a draft partnership framework agreement between the IIEP-Pôle de Dakar and the Ministry of TVET. The document was signed by the Minister of Technical Education and Vocational Training and the IIEP-Pôle de Dakar Coordinator on December 21, 2016, during a meeting with the Minister.

This opportunity was seized to reiterate the goals of the IIEP-Pôle de Dakar’s support, PEFOP’s priority axes and the importance of speeding up the nomination of a PROCOR coordination and monitoring team, as well as the focal point responsible for liaising with the IIEP-Pôle de Dakar. The Minister renewed his commitment to facilitate the diagnosis and implementation of the PROCOR. He mentioned his wish to accelerate the support process, and encouraged the elaboration of a work programme for activities to start early 2017.