The Educational Resources Project, aimed at supporting the production and dissemination of learning materials for primary and secondary school students in Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa, seeks to improve the quality of education across the region. Funded by the French Development Agency (AFD) and several participating countries, the initiative focuses on strengthening national capacities for the design and effective use of textbooks from primary through secondary levels.
During the first phase, analyses highlighted key recommendations for enhancing the quality and utilization of textbooks. With technical support from UNESCO-IBE, training modules were developed to guide the production and use of mathematics and French textbooks for primary and lower secondary education. These modules were validated by beneficiary countries and international experts, then piloted through workshops in Djibouti and the Republic of the Congo, which refined the content and trained the first cohort of trainers.
As textbooks are central to curriculum implementation, the second phase included a regional training-of-trainers workshop held from February 9 to 13, 2026, in Saly-Portudal, Senegal. Organized by UNESCO with UNESCO-IBE’s technical guidance and funded by AFD, the workshop gathered 32 trainers from eight Francophone Sub-Saharan African countries, along with the host country, Senegal. Participants engaged in technical presentations, group work, training simulations, and collective analyses to deepen their understanding of the modules and tailor textbook development and usage strategies to national contexts.
At the conclusion of the workshop, an operational strategy for knowledge sharing and dissemination was validated. The trained trainers are now prepared to transfer their expertise to other stakeholders in their countries, strengthening the chain of textbook production and usage and enhancing the quality of learning outcomes.
This milestone represents a critical transition from tool validation to effective field implementation, highlighting UNESCO and its partners’ commitment to capacity building for education stakeholders. The project underscores the importance of high-quality textbooks, designed and utilized by well-trained teachers, as a key lever for sustainable improvements in learning and the achievement of inclusive, equitable, and quality education for all, in alignment with SDG 4.
