• The African Union launches the 2025–2034 Decade of Education and Skills Development.
• UNESCO supports regional programs to embed sustainability in African education systems.
• Funding gaps and teacher training shortages still hinder progress in sustainable education.

In early October, the African Union launched the Decade of Education and Skills Development 2025–2034. The initiative, presented during the Pan-African Conference on Teacher Education and Development (PACTED 2025) at the AU Commission headquarters in Addis Ababa, includes six strategic frameworks, among them the new Continental Education Strategy for Africa (CESA 2026–2035). Its goal is to build more inclusive, innovative, and sustainability-oriented education systems across the continent.

Earlier, in June, representatives from ten West and Central African countries met in Saly, Senegal, to strengthen the integration of education for sustainable development (ESD) in school policies. Supported by UNESCO, the workshop defined concrete actions to incorporate sustainability principles into curricula and teacher training while engaging young people in civic and environmental initiatives.

According to UNESCO, education for sustainable development goes beyond teaching environmental knowledge. It aims to prepare citizens to understand the links between environmental, social, and economic issues while developing practical skills, ethical values, and responsible behavior. This cross-cutting approach should shape all levels of education, from primary to higher education.

In a 2024 call to action, UNESCO stressed that access to education alone is no longer enough to address the continent’s challenges. It urged governments to rethink education policies, invest in green skills, and carry out a generational overhaul of education systems to link learning, employment, and sustainability.

The regional program “Strengthening Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship” (2024–2025), supported by UNESCO, illustrates this trend. It promotes ESD and global citizenship in five Francophone African countries, where teachers, students, and education officials collaborate on hands-on projects such as school recycling, educational gardens, climate debates, and critical thinking workshops. These local initiatives pave the way for scalable models across the continent.

Despite these advances, major challenges remain. Structural funding shortages, limited access to suitable teaching materials, and insufficient teacher training continue to slow ESD expansion. According to UNESCO, only one-third of African countries met the international education funding benchmarks between 2013 and 2023—set at 4%–6% of GDP or 15%–20% of public spending—while fourteen countries failed to reach them at all.