Ignorance about Addis convention hampers its ratification

African education leaders are calling for more action to create increased awareness of the Addis Convention about the recognition of qualifications in higher education, noting that many countries were yet to ratify it nearly three years after it came into force.

They regret that, despite the many benefits the convention has for higher education and for the movement of labour across Africa, only 13 out of 54 countries had ratified it, denying millions of young people an opportunity to enjoy its benefits.

Professor Mohammed Belhocine, the African Union’s commissioner for education, science, technology and innovation, asked countries to urgently endorse the convention, noting that it seeks to harmonise and promote recognition of qualifications, which will become even more important as Africa implements the African Continental Free Trade Area.

It will also help strengthen African education systems, placing graduates in a strong position to help the continent implement and attain its Agenda 2063 development blueprint, he told the UNESCO World Higher Education Conference on 20 May. The conference took place from 18-20 May 2022 in Barcelona, Spain, but Belhocine spoke via video link.



“The ratification of this convention needs a lot of awareness campaigns by all parties involved. I call upon universities to help by championing and popularising it,” he told a session titled, ‘Implementing the UNESCO Africa regional convention on the recognition of qualifications in higher education: Challenges and opportunities for regional academic mobilities’.

Legal framework for fair evaluation

The convention, adopted on 12 December 2014 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, establishes a legal framework for the fair and transparent evaluation of HE qualifications in the African region to facilitate inter-university cooperation and exchange through the mobility of students, researchers and faculty.

Known by its full name as the Revised Convention on the Recognition of Studies, Certificates, Diplomas, Degrees, and Other Academic Qualifications in Higher Education in the African States, the document entered into force on 15 December 2019. Among other measures, it creates a binding agreement around the norms and standards for formal procedures recognising foreign HE qualifications and those giving access to HE institutions in Africa.

Besides promoting mobility across the continent, the document supports South-South collaborations by easing student and staff mobility as well as recognition of academic papers, while promoting internationalisation of education, said Professor Olusola Oyewole, secretary general of the African Association of Universities.

It will allow graduates to seek and get employment in any country that is a signatory to it and will help in recognition of qualifications attained via online and distance learning, many of them acquired since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Little awareness

“It [the convention], however, faces major challenges such as a lack of awareness. Education ministers in some countries and decision-makers do not even know about it,” Oyewole revealed.

The problem was complicated by the fact that only 24 countries on the continent have regulatory agencies dealing with qualifications, making it harder for those without to engage in the document. It was also worsened by general stakeholder lethargy surrounding it, he said regretfully.

One of the solutions is that countries that have ratified the document should form a consortium and move forward with recognising qualifications among themselves.

“If the 13 countries move ahead and recognise each other’s academic papers, then the others will have no choice but to join in as well,” Oyewole said.

According to Professor Slim Khalbous, rector of Agence universitaire de la Francophonie and a former minister of higher education and scientific research in Tunisia, one of the “beautiful” things about the convention is that it guaranteed “absolute reciprocity” in recognition of papers.

“Where a country rejects qualifications from another country that has ratified the document, it has to have very good reasons for doing so and this must be explained very clearly,” he noted. What ailed the document, in his opinion, is a lack of political will to back it.

Document contains many benefits

According to Romeela Mohee, commissioner in the Commission of Higher Education of Mauritius, it was critical that all relevant parties explained in detail the many benefits contained in the document. These included mechanisms and pathways for recognising short courses and micro-credentials besides those for remote and blended learning.

“What we need is to intensify advocacy and use our influence to highlight the great things in it – both at local and regional level – and also explain its links to the global convention on qualifications,” she said.

One way of doing this was by creating an online portal fully dedicated to explaining the convention and its advantages. This should be done in different languages to allow wide circulation.

Dr Lidia Arthur Brito, UNESCO’s regional director and representative for Southern Africa, said that such a step would allow people other than those in positions of authority and leaders in HE to know about it.

It was also important to make the document work in a synergistic manner with the Global Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications concerning Higher Education, with which it shares objectives, and explain the relationship between the two, she advised. When fully adopted, it will put paid to the need for bilateral agreements between countries.

Many countries that have ratified the convention are from French-speaking Africa, including Togo, Burkina Faso, Congo, Djibouti, Gambia, Guinea, Liberia, Mauritania, and Senegal. Mauritius, Seychelles, and South Africa are some of the countries in Eastern and Southern Africa that have embraced it.