From Fragmentation to Integration: Reimagining Education Systems in West Africa by Delali Cynthia Sossou
Transitions for Sustainability, Vol. 4, No. 3
Solutions to either sustainability or impact challenges will require hundreds if not thousands of specifically focused strategies.
Education often comes up as a major priority, not only in countries such as the United States, but everywhere. There is a very good reason Project Drawdown has had educating women so high on its priority list of suggested increased activities.
On a related note, current Harvard Extension School student Delali Cynthia Sossou provides as a clear and elegant solution for how to improve education systems in West Africa, as below, including the use of SDG bonds.
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Introduction
Education as a Foundation for Development
There is a famous song by Whitney Houston titled “Greatest Love of All” that begins with the line, “I believe the children are our future, teach them well and let them lead the way, show them all the beauty they possess inside, give them a sense of pride to make it easier.”
While rooted in pop culture, this sentiment reflects a truth that economists and development theorists have emphasized for decades. From Robert Solow to Amartya Sen and Jeffrey Sachs, a consistent message appears throughout their work: education is the foundation of economic growth, personal freedom, and societal progress (Mankiw et al., 1992; Sen, 1999; Sachs, 2015). Modern global frameworks, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), reinforce this idea by emphasizing quality education (SDG 4) as a key part of sustainable development and poverty reduction.
Simply put, investing in youth and ensuring they can learn, thrive, and actively participate in economic life is a crucial component for countries to achieve long-term prosperity and growth.
The Education Crisis in West Africa
Yet in West Africa, this fundamental pillar is under immense pressure. The region’s population is expected to double by 2050, with a majority under age 25. Despite the demographic growth, education systems across the region face some of the lowest learning outcomes in the world. According to the World Bank, in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), 87% of 10-year-olds cannot read and understand a simple text, a crisis called “learning poverty”.
Out-of-school rates are high, estimated at 39% in SSA, especially for girls, rural children, and children in fragile settings (World Bank, 2022; World Bank, 2020). Gender gaps persist due to early marriage, safety concerns, social norms, and economic barriers. At the same time, the region faces a critical teacher shortage, and UNESCO estimates that Sub-Saharan Africa needs nearly 15 million new teachers by 2030 to meet SDG 4 (Teacher Task Force, 2021; UNESCO, 2023). Long delays in paying teachers, limited training opportunities, and weak deployment systems further undermine classroom quality. Additionally, poor school infrastructure, including overcrowded classrooms, limited access to electricity, and a lack of sanitation facilities, limits children’s ability to learn in safe and supportive environments.
Education as a Sustainability Challenge
These issues are not just educational; they expose deeper sustainability failures embedded in West Africa’s education systems. Socially, weak learning outcomes hinder human capital development and reinforce cycles of poverty and inequality. From a governance perspective, inefficiencies in resource management, payroll systems, and accountability structures weaken teacher performance and school oversight. Environmentally, climate change increasingly disrupts education: floods, heatwaves, storms, and erosion damage school buildings, interrupt school calendars, and expose children to unsafe conditions. The overlap of these social, governance, and environmental pressures explains why fragmented, project-based interventions have struggled to create large-scale, systemic change.
Roadmap
This paper examines what it takes to develop equitable, resilient, and high-performing education systems in West Africa. It emphasizes four interconnected priorities: improving learning outcomes, reducing out-of-school rates and gender gaps, tackling teacher shortages while strengthening the teaching profession, and upgrading school infrastructure to meet 21st-century needs. The main argument is that sustainable change depends on a systems thinking approach that acknowledges the links between social, governance, and environmental factors; impact-centered financing and measurement frameworks that enhance accountability; teacher-focused reforms that professionalize and empower educators; and gender-aware, climate-resilient solutions that broaden access and learning opportunities for everyone.
Drawing on sustainable investing frameworks, development economics, and ESG analysis, this paper proposes a pathway to unlock West Africa’s vast human capital potential and ensure that its children, true to the spirit of the song, can indeed lead the way.
Background and Context
Education, Human Capital, and Economic Development
The economic significance of education is well-recognized in development theory.
The Solow Growth Model, especially in its augmented form, emphasizes human capital as a key factor in long-term economic growth. It highlights education as an essential input that boosts labor productivity and supports technological innovation. Education improves both cognitive and non-cognitive skills, making workers more productive and adaptable. On an individual level, schooling is linked to higher earnings, better job opportunities, healthier lives, and greater personal agency. At the societal level, higher educational attainment leads to increased tax revenues, lower public health costs, stronger social security systems, and more inclusive and equitable growth. In West Africa, the returns to education are not just private benefits but significant public gains, making education both an economic necessity and a central social pillar of sustainable development.
Demographic Pressures and the Education Challenge
SSA is at a crucial demographic crossroads.
With one of the fastest-growing populations in the world, the region is expected to double by 2050, with children and youth comprising most of this growth (United Nations DESA, 2024). This rapid expansion offers a unique opportunity for economic transformation but also poses a serious risk: without strong, equitable education systems to develop a competent workforce, the region could face rising unemployment, instability, and stagnant long-term development.
This demographic pressure highlights the systemic nature of the education challenge, where failures in access, quality, governance, and infrastructure mutually reinforce one another.
Access vs. Completion: Progress and Persistent Inequalities
Over the past twenty years, West African countries have achieved significant improvements in primary school enrollment, mainly driven by the abolition of school fees, targeted national policies, and increased international aid. Across Sub-Saharan Africa, primary enrollment increased from about 57% in 1985 to 80% in 2020, marking one of the fastest growth rates worldwide. Several West African nations reflect this upward trend.
Benin’s primary gross enrollment rate reached 113% in 2022, indicating a broadening of access that includes both underage and overage students as the education system expanded and Burkina Faso recorded an adjusted net primary enrollment rate of 82% in 2023 (The Global Economy, n.d.; UNESCO, 2023). Yet access alone is not enough to secure learning. Completion rates remain low, and the percentage of children advancing to secondary school varies widely across the region, revealing deep social inequalities. Persistent socioeconomic, geographic, and cultural barriers prevent millions of children, particularly girls, rural learners, and low-income households, from enrolling or staying in school. Gender inequalities remain a significant obstacle to inclusive education in SSA, influenced by early marriage, menstruation-related stigma, and restrictive social norms. These barriers compound over time, reducing girls’ future earnings, lowering female labor force participation, and perpetuating cycles of poverty and inequality, demonstrating how social ESG failures drive long-term economic harm.
Country-level data highlight the scale of the issue. In Benin, the primary school completion rate was only 65% in 2022. In Chad, the completion rate for primary school was just 38% for girls and 49% for boys in 2021. In Niger in 2021, primary completion rates were 54% for girls and 61% for boys, but only 15% of girls and 17% of boys completed lower secondary education, indicating a sharp decline. Additionally, UNESCO estimated that in 2021, 98 million children and youth were out of school in SSA, with Nigeria alone making up about 20 million, representing one of the most significant national access gaps (UNESCO, 2023). Furthermore, conflict-affected countries such as Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger face additional challenges, as insecurity leads to school closures, displacement, and lost instructional time.
Education as a Systemic ESG Failure
Nevertheless, the most urgent challenge is not access or completion, but learning outcomes. According to the World Bank, most 10-year-olds in low-income areas cannot read or understand a simple text, a phenomenon known as “learning poverty.” In West Africa, many students complete primary school without basic literacy or numeracy skills, limiting their ability to advance academically or access the modern labor market. Classroom observations reveal systemic issues, including limited instructional time, insufficient textbooks, and outdated pedagogical methods. World Bank and UNESCO data show that, in 2022, only 30% of children who finish primary school in Sub-Saharan Africa reach basic reading proficiency, while learning poverty stands at roughly 89%, the highest rate in the world. These alarming figures underscore a core social ESG failure: education systems are not translating schooling into learning.
Furthermore, teacher availability and quality represent another major barrier to educational progress in the region. UNESCO estimates that SSA will need nearly 15 million new teachers by 2030 to achieve SDG 4 targets. Many classrooms have student–teacher ratios exceeding 50:1, and a significant proportion of teachers lack formal training or ongoing professional development. The Teacher Task Force reports that only 64% of primary teachers and 50% of secondary teachers meet national baseline training standards. Moreover, low and irregular salaries, limited career pathways, poor working conditions, and weak supervision diminish teacher motivation, reinforcing a governance ESG challenge.
Finally, educational infrastructure across West Africa is often inadequate, unsafe, or poorly equipped. Many schools lack electricity, latrines, water, sanitation facilities, and adequate classroom space. In Côte d’Ivoire, for instance, fewer than half of schools reportedly have latrines. Additionally, digital connectivity remains extremely limited, restricting access to modern learning tools and remote instruction. According to UNICEF and UNESCO, around 9 in 10 children in SSA are unconnected at home, with 89% lacking access to household computers and 82% lacking internet access (UNICEF & ITU, 2020). Climate change further exacerbates these challenges. Floods, heatwaves, erosion, and storms increasingly damage school buildings and disrupt learning. UNICEF reports that climate related interruptions in 2024 alone jeopardized the education of an additional 20 million African children (UNICEF, 2024). These dynamics reflect a worrying environmental ESG challenge, where climate vulnerability intensifies existing inequalities and disrupts learning on a massive scale.
Collectively, these interconnected social, governance, and environmental failures create a system in which access is increasing but meaningful learning remains challenging. The education crisis in SSA is therefore not just a technical issue but a structural ESG problem, requiring systemic, multi-dimensional solutions that tackle the root causes across all three pillars.
Regional Solutions and Financing Models for Transforming Education in West Africa
Improving education outcomes in West Africa requires shifting from isolated national efforts to a unified regional strategy. This approach is justified not only by common structural issues, but also by the existing institutional framework that already connects West African countries. Two regional organizations, in particular, offer a strong basis for collaboration: the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA/WAEMU).
ECOWAS, a 15-member regional bloc established in 1975, aims to promote economic integration, human development, and regional stability, and UEMOA comprises eight West African countries that share a common currency and deeper fiscal coordination.
Both organizations already coordinate many education, health, infrastructure, and social protection policies, and both have the political and technical frameworks needed to implement large-scale regional initiatives. A regional approach offers the most effective, equitable, and financially sustainable pathway forward. It permits cost-sharing, harmonized standards, pooled technical expertise, and collective bargaining power, while also aligning directly with the SDGs, particularly SDG 4 (Quality Education), SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure), and SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals).
This section presents practical regional solutions organized around the major issues in the education system and outlines a financing architecture anchored in a Regional SDG Education Bond and a harmonized 1% regional education solidarity tax.
Professionalizing and Empowering the Teaching Workforce
Teacher shortages and inconsistent instructional quality are among the most persistent barriers to learning in the region. A regional teacher professionalization initiative, coordinated by ECOWAS or UEMOA, would allow countries to jointly develop an accelerated one-year certification program for untrained teachers and standardize the quality of teacher training colleges. Continuous professional development could be provided through shared digital platforms, while regionally harmonized qualifications would make it easier for teachers to move safely across borders and help reduce internal shortages. Drawing on Rwanda’s successful national teacher development system, this approach would help West African countries train more teachers more efficiently and to higher standards.
To boost teacher motivation and financial stability, this initiative would be supported by a Regional Teachers’ Credit Union and Education Community Bank, inspired by Kenya’s Mwalimu SACCO and the Teachers Federal Credit Union in the U.S. Teachers across the region would jointly own the institution, which would offer affordable loans, mortgages, school supplies financing, and emergency credit. The credit union would be funded through member contributions, a portion of the regional SDG bond proceeds, and an allocation from the proposed 1% education solidarity tax.
Enhancing Access, Retention, and Gender Equity Through Regional Social Protection
To tackle low enrollment and high dropout rates, especially among girls, ECOWAS or UEMOA could coordinate a regional Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program, taking inspiration from successful programs worldwide like Brazil’s Bolsa Família, Mexico’s Oportunidades, Ghana’s LEAP, and Malawi’s Zomba Cash Transfer Program (World Bank, 2010; World Bank, 2014; SDSN, 2023). A unified CCT framework would set consistent eligibility standards, share digital social registries, and simplify cross-border payments, greatly reducing administrative fragmentation. By offering financial aid to low-income households conditioned on school attendance and grade progression, a regional CCT could directly address key socioeconomic barriers to education and help keep girls in school.
Modernizing Learning Environments Through Climate-Resilient and Digital Infrastructure
West Africa’s schools face severe infrastructure challenges, exacerbated by climate change and digital exclusion. A Regional Green Schools Program would establish common standards for climate-resilient, solar-powered, and inclusive school construction, drawing on successful models such as the Pacific Islands’ climate-adapted classrooms designs.
Standardized procurement and shared engineering expertise would reduce costs, ensure quality, and accelerate deployment, and would also create opportunities for local industries, including construction, solar technology installation, and maintenance services.
Along with infrastructure, a Regional Digital Learning Strategy would extend school connectivity, establish Rural Digital Learning Hubs, and develop multilingual digital content accessible across borders. Lessons from Kenya’s DigiSchool, and India’s DIKSHA platform show that connectivity and high-quality digital resources significantly enhance teaching and learning by enabling personalized learning, improving access to content, and fostering digital literacy (UNESCO, n.d).
Funding the Transformation: A Regional SDG Education Bond and a Unified 1% Education Tax
The scale of these reforms requires predictable, long-term financing. A regional SDG Education Bond issued by a regional entity would mobilize significant resources by leveraging pooled credit risk across countries, making it more attractive to investors than isolated national bonds. This approach is inspired by the European Union’s successful SURE social bond program, which raised over €100 billion for social protection during the COVID-19 crisis (European Commission, 2021). It also builds on Benin’s pioneering €500 million SDG bond, which financed teacher recruitment, school meals, and scholarships with high levels of transparency and impact reporting (SDSN, 2023). Proceeds from the regional bond will fund teacher training, digital learning hubs, climate-resilient school construction, and the initial rollout of the regional CCT program. The issuance aligns with four of the Seven Tribes of Sustainable Investing: thematic investing (SDG-focused), impact investing (measurable learning outcomes), ESG integration (environmental, social, and governance improvements), and minimum standards (transparent reporting frameworks), making it an attractive and credible option for a wide range of sustainability-focused investors.
Repayment and long-term sustainability would be ensured through a 1% Regional Education Solidarity Tax applied to items such as goods and services subject to the Value Added Tax (VAT), mobile money and telecom transactions, luxury goods, and corporate profits. This regional levy builds on proven models like Nigeria’s TETFund education levy and Ghana’s National Health Insurance Levy, which have demonstrated that earmarked taxes can sustainably fund public goods for decades. The revenue would be allocated to a Regional Education Fund dedicated to repaying the bond and supporting ongoing programs, including teacher salaries, digital hub maintenance, and CCT payments.
Barriers and Risks to Implementation
Despite the promise of a coordinated regional approach, several structural barriers could hinder the effective implementation of the proposed reforms. Understanding these risks is essential for designing governance safeguards and ensuring the financial and political sustainability of the regional education transformation agenda.
Political Fragmentation and Regional Instability
A first barrier is political fragmentation within the region. While ECOWAS and UEMOA offer established institutional frameworks for coordination, national governments often focus on domestic political cycles, fiscal pressures, and local constituencies rather than regional commitments. This fragmentation has recently worsened as Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso withdrew from ECOWAS due to political tensions, weakening the bloc’s regional cohesion and raising doubts about the enforceability of shared policies. Such geopolitical instability can hinder joint decision-making, disrupt synchronized implementation, and erode trust among member states precisely when unity is essential for education reform.
Financial Volatility and the Challenge of Informality
A second barrier concerns financial volatility and dependence on government revenues. The success of the proposed Regional SDG Education Bond and the 1% regional education solidarity tax relies on steady, predictable income streams. However, West African economies have a high level of informality, with estimates ranging from 40% to 80% of GDP in some countries (World Economic Forum, 2015). This results in a narrow, inconsistent, and hard-to-predict tax base, which diminishes the reliability of any taxes designated for education funding. Additionally, economic shocks such as climate events, political instability, or fluctuations in commodity prices could further reduce revenues and challenge governments’ ability to fulfill regional financial commitments. This could, in turn, weaken investor confidence and lead to higher borrowing costs.
Social and Cultural Barriers to Educational Participation
A third barrier involves deep-rooted social and cultural factors that affect educational participation. Norms around child labor, gender roles, early marriage, and household responsibilities still restrict school enrollment and attendance, especially for girls. Even well funded programs like conditional cash transfers or digital learning initiatives may face resistance if families perceive them as incompatible with cultural expectations or local economic realities. Similarly, reforms in teaching methods or technology adoption might encounter hesitation from educators used to traditional approaches. Without strong community involvement and culturally sensitive strategies, these social dynamics can greatly limit the success of regional reforms.
Opportunities and Future Directions
Although barriers to regional education reform in West Africa are considerable, the region’s demographic trends, ongoing institutional changes, and increased global interest in sustainable finance present a unique chance to accelerate progress toward SDG 4 and broader development objectives. With coordinated political leadership and strategic investment, West Africa can harness these opportunities to develop one of the most dynamic and equitable education systems in the Global South.
Demographic Opportunity and the Potential for a Dividend
A major opportunity exists in the region’s rapidly expanding youth population. With one of the fastest-growing school-age populations worldwide, SSA is on the brink of a potential demographic dividend. If the region can improve access, retention, and learning outcomes, it could develop a generation of skilled workers who can promote economic diversification, technological advancement, and regional competitiveness. Education reforms have the potential to turn this demographic surge into a catalyst for sustained long-term growth instead of a source of instability.
Sustainable Finance as a Catalyst for Reform
A second opportunity comes from the growing global interest in sustainable and impact-oriented investments. Investors are increasingly seeking SDG-aligned, measurable, and socially impactful financial products, particularly in emerging markets. A Regional SDG Education Bond with clear reporting, significant social returns, and alignment with various sustainable investing communities can attract philanthropic capital, development finance institutions, ESG investors, and pension funds. A successful issuance could open doors for future thematic bonds in areas such as health, climate resilience, or youth employment, expanding the region’s financing options.
Digital Transformation and Regional Innovation
A third opportunity emerges from digital transformation across the continent. The rapid growth of mobile access, fintech services, and regional fiber-optic networks opens up new possibilities for digital learning innovations. A regional digital education ecosystem can bridge rural and urban gaps on an unprecedented scale and create a supportive environment for local startups to grow and succeed. By harmonizing platforms, pooling demand, and developing cross-border digital infrastructure, the region can foster a dynamic innovation ecosystem that enhances learning outcomes and also promotes entrepreneurship, job creation, and digital competitiveness throughout West Africa.
Taken together, these opportunities show that the proposed regional strategy is not merely a response to existing challenges, it is a forward-looking investment in West Africa’s human capital, economic growth, and regional stability. With careful governance, strong stakeholder involvement, and sustained political commitment, the region can use these opportunities to create a fair, modern, and resilient education system.
Conclusion
Education is central to West Africa’s long-term development, and the region’s demographic trajectory makes the need for transformative action both urgent and unavoidable. This paper has argued that the ongoing challenges in West African education systems, such as weak learning outcomes, teacher shortages, gender disparities, digital exclusion, and climate vulnerability, cannot be addressed through isolated national efforts. Instead, they require a coordinated regional strategy based on shared institutions, harmonized standards, and pooled financial resources.
By leveraging the existing strengths of regional entities, the region can implement a coherent set of reforms focused on teacher professionalization, gender-responsive social protection, climate-resilient and digital learning environments, and the financial empowerment of educators through a regional credit union. Funding these reforms via a Regional SDG Education Bond, repaid sustainably through a harmonized 1% education solidarity tax, presents an innovative, credible, and scalable solution that aligns with global sustainable investing frameworks and positions West Africa as a leader in regional public goods financing.
Although political fragmentation, fiscal volatility, entrenched social norms, and operational gaps pose significant challenges, the opportunities created by the region’s young population, the strength of regional institutions, and the global momentum around SDG aligned investment are much greater. With intentional governance, strong community engagement, and ongoing political dedication, West Africa can transform these opportunities into lasting improvements in human capital.
Ultimately, investing in education is not just a policy decision but a necessary priority for future generations. By adopting a regional approach, West Africa can create an education system that empowers its youth, boosts its economies, and advances the SDGs, ensuring that the region’s future is shaped by its shared goals and collective potential.
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