Addis Ababa Convention gets the green light

The Addis Ababa Convention has finally come into operation, providing a framework for the recognition of academic qualifications throughout Africa and mechanisms to limit brain drain from the continent.

The convention, the full name of which is the Revised Convention on the Recognition of Studies, Certificates, Diplomas, Degrees and Other Academic Qualifications in Higher Education in African States, was adopted in the Ethiopian capital in December 2014.

The convention required 10 states to ratify it before it could come into force. As of August last year, only seven out of Africa’s 55 countries had ratified the convention. As of December last year, 13 countries had signed it.

Among other measures, the Addis Ababa Convention creates a binding agreement around the norms and standards for formal procedures recognising foreign higher education qualifications and those giving access to higher education institutions in Africa. It effectively puts paid to the need for bilateral agreements between countries over the recognition of the qualifications of refugees and other migrants and is widely seen as complementing the African Union’s developmental goals contained in Agenda 2063.

Benefits

Its other benefits include improving employability of graduates, internationalisation of higher education programmes and boosting student and faculty mobility.

In a statement, UNESCO said the Addis Ababa Convention came into effect on 15 December and is bound for implementation at the national level by ratifying states.

“Beginning in 2018 with the first ratification by Togo, the other states party to date are Burkina Faso, Congo, Djibouti, Gambia, Guinea, Liberia, Mauritius, Mauritania, Senegal, Seychelles, South Africa and the Holy See,” said the statement.

“Supporting academic mobility and exchange within the African States will not only strengthen trust and capacity building in the quality enhancement of institutions and systems, it will also provide a pivotal network for advancing the SDG targets for equitable access in the region.”

It said upon entry into force, a Convention Committee of States Parties will be established which will meet by the end of 2020. This body will assist and monitor the implementation of the convention, the establishment of subsidiary bodies and technical committees and the elaboration of implementation guidelines.

UNESCO said it will continue assisting Africa to implement and monitor the implementation of the convention and promote further ratifications.

According to the terms of the convention, countries that have signed it must recognise the qualifications issued by the other parties that meet the general requirements for access to higher education programmes. In addition, they must agree to take all necessary measures to facilitate access to their countries’ higher education institutions for qualification holders of other parties who satisfy the requirements for admission.

Signatories must take measures to ensure that qualifications issued by an accredited institution of higher education of a party are recognised for the purpose of employment in conformity with labour laws in the receiving country.

“Parties, through competent recognition authorities, agree to establish appropriate procedures to assess whether refugees and internally displaced persons respectively fulfil relevant requirements to access higher education through recognition of prior learning and qualifications for employability and integration,” reads part of the convention.

UNESCO played a key role in the adoption of the convention.

According to the UN agency, nearly five million students are studying abroad and 2.5 million are studying outside their home region and the numbers are estimated to grow.

Global regulatory framework

According to UNESCO, the significant mobility of tertiary students calls for a global regulatory framework for the recognition of higher education qualifications – the Global Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications concerning Higher Education – which was adopted by the 40th session of UNESCO General Conference in November 2019.

UNESCO said the new convention creates a normative platform for fostering trust among higher education systems and is an opportunity for the world’s academic communities to embrace a common good and common resolve to forge lifelong higher education learning institutions that are relevant, dynamic and inclusive.

Where the regional conventions such as the Addis Ababa Convention only cover mobility between countries within the different UNESCO regions, the Global Convention paves the way for the increasing mobility between regions and continents.

“Although the Global Convention does not impose automatic recognition of foreign qualifications, it lays down the principle that a student qualifying for access to higher education in one country generally will qualify for higher education studies when moving to another country, unless there are substantial differences between access requirements in the two countries,” UNESCO said.