Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ)

  • N Network/Convening/Conference

A Active

Key Information

The origins of the Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ) date back to 1991, the year when several Ministries of Education in Eastern and Southern Africa started working closely with UNESCO’s International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) on the implementation of integrated educational policy research and training programmes. In 1995 these Ministries of Education formalized their collaboration by establishing a network that is widely known as SACMEQ. Fifteen Ministries are now members of SACMEQ: Angola, Botswana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania (Mainland), Tanzania (Zanzibar), Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

SACMEQ is registered in Zimbabwe as an Independent Intergovernmental Non-profit Organization. Its Coordination Centre is located within UNESCO’s Harare Cluster Office and is managed by a Director who works under the guidance of a six-member Managing Committee. SACMEQ’s Assembly of Ministers meets every two years and provides overall policy guidance concerning SACMEQ’s mission and programmes.

The focus of SACMEQ's capacity building programmes has been on building the capacity of Ministries of Education to monitor and evaluate the quality of their basic education systems. SACMEQ employs innovative training approaches that include a combination of face-to-face training, hands-on experience, computer laboratory sessions, and on-line support via the Internet. SACMEQ also encourages a unique form of collaboration among SACMEQ National Research Coordinators in the fifteen member countries as they share and exchange skills and successful experiences. In September 2004 SACMEQ was awarded the Comenius Medal for its innovative approaches to delivering cross-national educational research and training programmes.


Location(s)

Sub-Saharan Africa

Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Government Affiliation

Government-affiliated program

Years

1991 -

Partner(s)

Not applicable or unknown

Ministry Affiliation

Ministries of Education in Angola, Botswana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania (Mainland), Tanzania (Zanzibar), Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe

Funder(s)

Not applicable or unknown

COVID-19 Response

Unknown

Geographic Scope

Global / regional

Meets gender-transformative education criteria from the TES  

Unknown

Areas of Work Back to Top

Education areas

Quality

  • School quality

Skills

  • Literacy
  • Numeracy

Cross-cutting areas

Not applicable or unknown


Program participants

Target Audience(s)

Policymakers

Age

Not applicable or unknown

School Enrolment Status

Population of interest is not school-aged

School Level

  • N/A

Other populations reached

Not applicable or unknown

Participants include

Not applicable or unknown

Program Approaches Back to Top

Policy/legal environment

  • Advocating changes to existing laws/policies
  • Developing/promoting new laws/policies

Program Goals Back to Top

Education goals

  • Education sector plans, budgets, policies, and data systems are more gender-equitable
  • Increased literacy
  • Increased numeracy

Cross-cutting goals

Not applicable or unknown