This blog is authored by Quentin Wodon, Director of UNESCO's International Institute for Capacity Building in Africa (IICBA).
Sharing experiences from good practices in teacher professional development and broader teacher policies is a priority shared by many organizations in Africa. In early 2025, five such organizations combined forces to organize a new, open access monthly webinar series – the Africa Teachers Webinar Series (registration is free here). Recordings of the webinars and the PowerPoint presentations used by speakers are made available after the webinars at https://www.iicba.unesco.org/en/webinars-events.
The five organizations co-sponsoring the webinar series are, alphabetically, (1) the Africa Federation of Teacher Regulatory Authorities, (2) the African Union represented by its Education, Science, Technology, and Innovation Department, (3) the European Union through its Regional Teachers Initiative for Africa, (4) the Global Partnership for Education through its Knowledge and Innovation Exchange (KIX), a joint endeavor with the International Development Research Centre, Canada, and finally (5) UNESCO International Institute for Capacity Building in Africa (IICBA), whose staff lead the webinar series and work closely with each of the other organizations, including by managing the Africa 19 Hub for KIX with a focus on anglophone African countries.
The webinar series is organized in blocks of three sessions on specific themes, with experts, researchers, and practitioners sharing promising practices, useful resources and frameworks, and practical strategies. In 2025, the first block of three webinars focused on issues related to the continuous professional development (CPD) of teachers in Africa. The second block of three webinar focused on issues related to the new Continental Education Strategy for Africa 2026-2035 adopted by the African Union. The third block again with three webinars focused on education for health and well-being.
Nine webinars were organized in 2025 with a total of about 2,800 participants for the year (including about 300 participants in person for two webinars that were hybrid). After each webinar, a short evaluation survey is sent to participants. As an illustration of results, responses after the first webinar on teacher continuous professional development (CPD) are tabulated in the Figures below. Most participants found that webinar useful to understand the evidence on the situation, best practices, and challenges faced in designing and implementing effective CPD programs. Participants also suggest that the webinar met their expectations. These results are encouraging, and similar findings have been observed for the other webinars organized in 2025.
There are also some areas for improvement. Translation is provided in English, French, and Portuguese for all webinars. Yet most participants come from anglophone countries, and very few are from Portuguese-speaking countries. The countries with high participation rates include Nigeria, Uganda, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Kenya, Rwanda, Ghana, Zambia, with Côte d’Ivoire being the only francophone countries appearing as a a top 5 country for the number of participants in some of the webinars. Clearly, additional efforts are needed to better reach francophone and Portuguese stakeholders. On the other hand, there is gender balance among participants, with almost exactly half being men, and half women. There is also a good mix between education officers, teachers, and others. Many participants join all three webinars in any given sub-series, even if some prefer to attend only one or two of the webinars in a sub-series.
Participants also gave us feedback through open-ended questions in the satisfaction surveys. They appreciate practical, localized case studies that help connect theory to classroom realities. This is why each webinar includes a short keynote, a main presentation, and three case studies. Although Zoom sends reminders to those who have registered, participants appreciate more reminders prior to webinars. They also appreciate interactions through Q&As. Some participants suggested adding more young people or even students as speakers. As to topics of interest, many suggestions were made, including peace education, higher education, inclusive education in large classrooms, digital technologies in areas without connectivity, AI-related teaching and learning, ICT integration in teaching and learning, teacher training in marginalized contexts, safe learning environments, ECE curriculum, violence in school, integration of health and well-being into lesson delivery, and school leadership (this list is not exhaustive).
Webinars are typically organized on a Thursday at 3 pm East African Time (GMT+3). In 2026, the first set of three webinars will focus on issues related to the potential of digital skills and AI to improve educational outcomes in Africa. The first webinar on Digitalization and AI in Higher Education: From Strategy to Practice will take place at 3 pm EAT on Thursday, February 26, 2026. The second webinar on Leveraging e-Learning for Teacher Professional Development: Lifelong Learning Opportunities will take place at 3 pm EAT on Thursday, March 26, 2026. The third webinar on Defining and Measuring Digital and AI Competencies: Frameworks for Educators and Institutions will take place at 3 pm EAT on Thursday April 23, 2026. If you have ideas of presenters for the second and third webinars, please let us know at info.iicb@unesco.org as we have not yet finalized the agenda for those two webinars.
The next series of three webinars will focus on education in emergencies, and how to strengthen teacher recruitment, professional development, and retention in such contexts. Key topics will include ensuring that children and youth who are refugees or displaced receive the education they deserve, while also recognizing the qualifications of teachers who may themselves be refugees and ensuring that teacher professional development is adapted to emergency contexts. Again, if you have ideas for presenters, do not hesitate to send us an email at info.iicba@unesco.org. And if you are interested in our webinar series, please register for future webinars at https://www.iicba.unesco.org/en/webinars-events. Together, let’s draw inspiration from the insights shared at the webinars and apply our knowledge to strengthen teaching and learning in Africa and beyond!
Image credit: UNESCO/Emily Pinna
In the build-up to the Global Disability Summit 2025 to be held on 2-3 April in Germany, the Inclusion and Equity in Teacher Policies and Practices Thematic Group are delighted to invite you to attend three knowledge exchange learning sessions on policies and practices on teachers with disabilities.
This is the last of three learning sessions. The session will be interactive and participatory. Three members will make short presentations on the topic and participants will be invited to share their experience, evidence and learning in breakout rooms. The session will be facilitated in English; however, we will welcome if there any volunteers who would like to facilitate breakout sessions in different languages. We will use Team's chat function which allows to translate the conversation in different languages.
In this session, we are going to focus our discussion on policies and practices on continuing professional development opportunities and career paths for teachers with disabilities.
As an output of this session, we will produce a knowledge brief.
Please register here.
Carlos Vargas, Head of the Teacher Task Force Secretariat, will participate in the webinar "Amplifying Teachers' Voices," organized by the Jacobs Foundation on 18 November at 3:00 pm CET.
Hosted by Nina Alonso, an international educational researcher specializing in equal access to learning and culture, this teacher-led, global event will spotlight teachers' stories, elevate the teaching profession’s status, and foster dialogue between educators and key stakeholders in teacher development.
The event will also introduce the new Teachers' Voices online repository—a resource of teacher stories and educational research designed to support teachers and educational stakeholders worldwide.
For further information and to register, please click here.
The inaugural Teacher Task Force and UNESCO Global Report on Teachers will be presented in Nottingham, U.K., on 21 June at a special event organized in cooperation with the United Kingdom Forum for International Education and Training (UKFIET).
The report, titled Addressing teacher shortages and transforming the profession, was officially launched at the 14th Policy Dialogue Forum in Johannesburg on 26 February. This Nottingham event aims to share the findings of the report and provide an opportunity to foster dialogue, exchange ideas, and generate actionable strategies to empower decisions-makers and teachers to improve education outcomes globally, in the United Kingdom and in Commonwealth countries as well as in countries where UKFIET and its partners operate.
An in-depth presentation will unveil the key findings of the report, including the need for an additional 44 million primary and secondary teachers by 2030 to meet SDG 4 targets. This session will discuss the root causes of teacher shortages, such as inadequate salaries, challenging working conditions, and insufficient professional support, as well as successful mitigation strategies employed by various countries.
Following the report presentation, four panel discussions will be held, focusing on key themes related to the report's findings:
The presentation of the report will be live streamed, the panel discussions will be in person in Nottingham.
AGENDA
Panelists will include key education stakeholders and representatives from partner organizations.
Useful links:
The call for applications is open.
The World Giftedness Center (WGC) of the Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation for Distinguished Academic Performance aims to support best practices and distinguished efforts in gifted education, talent development, and related areas. WGC has launched two awards to enhance quality talented education around the world:
The deadline for application to both awards is 19 November 2023 and the award prize is of USD 25,000 for each.
Applications should be submitted here, and any questions should be sent to wgc.awards@ha.ae.
Please consult all the information on the official website of the Award.
In an unprecedented joint event, UNESCO is joining forces with the International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030 (TTF), the Varkey Foundation, and Dubai Cares to bring a spotlight on teachers.
UNESCO and TTF will launch the highlights of the first Global Report on Teachers during the award ceremony of the Global Teacher Prize which this year is held in collaboration with Dubai Cares.
The initial segment will introduce new research addressing teacher shortages, offering a preview of the full report. This comprehensive report will showcase in-depth data and perspectives on the global challenges that teachers face, alongside actionable recommendations to enhance teacher recruitment and retention. The presentation will be followed by a ministerial panel addressing some of the critical issues affecting teacher shortages and the policy solutions to address this global phenomenon.
In the second part, the Varkey Foundation will present the Global Teacher Prize 2023, honouring exceptional educators in partnership with UNESCO and Dubai Cares. Established to commend an extraordinary teacher who has significantly impacted the profession, the Prize highlights the crucial role teachers play in society. The event will showcase the prestigious USD 1 million prize winner, alongside the other nine finalists chosen from a pool of over 8,000 nominations and applications spanning 121 countries.
In order to join this General Conference side event, register here.
Agenda:
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Photo credit: UNESCO/Kilayé Bationo