In July 2009, COL and the Commonwealth Secretariat signed a Collaboration Agreement for 2009-2012.
COL's Vice President, Professor Asha Kanwar (right) and the Commonwealth Secretariat's Dr. Caroline Pontefract (Director, Social Transformations Programmes Division) sign the collaboration agreement at COL's offices in July 2009. COL's President, Sir John Daniel, looks on.
COLLABORATION AGREEMENT:
BACKGROUND
At 16CCEM in Cape Town in 2006 Ministers asked the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) and the Commonwealth Secretariat (ComSec) to show how they are harmonising their work in education to avoid duplication and ensure complementarity. This document responds to that request and is a companion document to COL’s Three-Year Plan (TYP) for 2009-2012. It is the outcome of joint planning between COL and ComSec’s Social Transformation Programmes Division and formalises and deepens a tradition of informal cooperation that goes back to the creation of COL.
ORGANISATIONAL PURPOSES
The complementarity between the activities of the two organisations begins with their distinct objectives:
The Commonwealth Secretariat (ComSec)
Established in 1965, ComSec is the main intergovernmental agency of the Commonwealth, facilitating consultation and co-operation among member governments and countries. The Secretariat is committed to supporting the globally agreed Education for All and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Through the activities of its Social Transformation Programmes Division (STPD), ComSec aims to assist member countries meet the goals that promote human development as the key to sustaining social and economic progress and achieving peace and democracy. STPD gives professional advice and makes technical contributions to support the Secretariat’s work, particularly in commitments to promote gender equality, supporting goals to achieve universal primary education, improvement of maternal and child health, and combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases by 2015. It achieves this through the work of its three sections: Education, Health and Gender.
The overall objective of the STPD Education Section is to support Commonwealth governments in their efforts to attain universal, sustainable and high quality education for all citizens. It works towards a world in which every individual has access to high quality universal education regardless of their age, gender, socio-economic status or ethnicity. In this context it works closely with ministries of Education and various partners to address the six action areas in education across the Commonwealth. These include achieving Universal Primary Education; eliminating gender disparities in education; using open and distance learning to overcome barriers; improving quality in education; supporting education in difficult circumstances and mitigating the impact of HIV/AIDS on education systems.
The Commonwealth of Learning (COL)
COL is an intergovernmental organisation created by Commonwealth Heads of Government in 1987. Starting from the vision that access to learning is the key to development, its mission is to help governments and institutions expand the scope, scale and quality of learning by using new approaches and technologies, especially those subsumed under the general term of open and distance learning (ODL). Its strategy is to make innovation sustainable by working in partnership to develop policies, build models, enhance organisational capacity and create materials that facilitate learning in support of development goals.
COL’s Education Sector helps target countries improve the accessibility and quality of their formal education systems at all levels through the use of ODL tools and strategies. It has four initiatives: Open Schooling; Teacher Education; Higher Education; and the Virtual University for Small States of the Commonwealth.
COL’s Livelihoods and Health Sector improves the incomes, livelihoods and quality of life of communities and their members through new knowledge, skills and economic opportunities gained by means of ODL tools and strategies. It also has four initiatives: Skills Development; Learning for Farming; Healthy Communities; and eLearning.
ROLES IN RELATION TO MEMBER STATES
These distinct purposes guide the roles of the two bodies in relation to the needs of Member States.
ComSec is often the first point of contact for Member States seeking assistance on educational issues and related matters. It assists with the development of policy and uses its convening power to bring member states together to develop common approaches to contemporary challenges in education. Although the relationships of the Education Section are most often at the level of ministries of education, programme implementation involves of actors and stakeholder partners at international, regional and domestic level. STPD can support interaction and collaboration with other ComSec divisions with regard to COL collaboration. For example, the Governance and Institutional Development Division (GIDD) and Commonwealth Connects, the Economic Affairs Division (EAD) on climate change, the Special Advisory Services Division (SASD) with regards to debt management, the Youth Affairs Division (YAD) for work with youth, and the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Division (LCAD) in regard to copyright issues.
COL has a specific mandate to help governments and institutions exploit new approaches and technologies to promote learning at all levels. It maintains liaison with Ministries of Education but also works with institutions and other country partners in implementing its programme. COL engages in grassroots interventions such as capacity building and materials developments. COL and STPD work together closely to ensure that requests from governments for assistance are addressed in a prompt and effective manner.
JOINT ACTIVITIES
In addition to continuing to harmonise their work closely in a strategic and general way as described above, COL and STPD will collaborate particularly closely during the 2009-2012 triennium in four areas that feature in the plans of both organisations. These are:
1. Teacher Development
The recruitment, training, professional development and retention of teachers is a key issue across the Commonwealth. In this area:
COL will work to ensure that ODL methodologies are used effectively to train and upgrade larger numbers of teachers and education support cadres and planners.
ComSec will focus on assisting member countries in developing and implementing sound teacher education policies and plans, notably through its leadership of the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) Teacher Working Group on the teaching profession.
Their joint activities will focus on the following elements of COL’s 2009-2012 TYP and ComSec’s Strategic Plan 2009-2012:
- Contributing to global debate and action regarding teachers for EFA;
- Supporting the training of teachers, teacher educators, planners, and policy makers through ODL;
- Adapting and developing materials for training of schools heads, school boards and education managers via ODL methods;
- Developing materials for a short ODL Professional Development Courses on multi-grade teaching for policy makers, teacher educators and administrators and piloting them in at least three countries from Africa, Caribbean and Pacific;
- Supporting the training of teachers for alternative models and contexts such as multi-grade, inclusive education and gender;
- Developing a Certificate Course in Post-Conflict areas and piloting it in Sri Lanka;
- Undertaking joint research in key areas and their implications for teacher education, e.g. feminisation of the teaching profession.
2. Virtual University for Small States of the Commonwealth (VUSSC)
The broad development objective of Virtual University for Small States of the Commonwealth (VUSSC) focusing on human resource capacity development through working with partner institutions produce and deliver relevant courses using eLearning strategies that are scalable and sustainable. VUSSC now involves all 32 Commonwealth Small States and the STPD, Education Section provides some funding through its Commonwealth Fund for Technical Cooperation (CFTC). COL plays a facilitating role in relation to the VUSSC; the activity which involves the Transnational Qualifications Framework (TQF) is closely linked to the ComSec’s initiatives in Teacher Qualifications Comparability and support of regional harmonisation of qualifications across Commonwealth regions.
The VUSSC has a management structure, created by the Small States, COL and ComSec, and this will provide the mechanism for appropriate educational work in the countries.
Commonwealth Small States are actively involved and participating in the VUSSC initiative and collaboration between COL and ComSec will also focus on the following key activities listed in COL’s 2009-2012 TYP:
- Capacity development for ODL in the development and delivery of courses;
- Networking Ministries and National Institutions to manage the VUSSC;
- Strengthening of Quality Systems through its Transnational Qualifications Framework.
3. Healthy Communities
ComSec and COL have a common interest in helping community organisations, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO) and local public institutions to improve the health and well-being of their communities. The Healthy Communities approach focuses on health issues within a broader context of community development, dealing for example with issues such as
- maternal and child health;
- HIV/AIDS; and
- nutrition.
The two organisations will share information and promote cooperation at both the activity level (interventions in the field) as well as with regard to policy. Areas of specific interest for collaboration include
- use of mobile technologies;
- use of traditional media;
- use of eHealth applications; and
- developing open and distance learning materials and programmes, both for healthcare intermediaries and citizens.
Specific results expected by COL during its three-year 2009-12 plan include 1) 40 community organisations, NGOs and local public institutions in at least 20 countries begin to use, or significantly enhance or extend their use of ODL for community health education; and 2) 16 new health-related ODL programmes are used by communities in four regions of the Commonwealth. COL and ComSec will further explore how they can collaborate in the achievement of these results.
4. Civil Paths to Peace
ComSec and COL will work together to involve a Commonwealth-wide audience in following up on the recommendations of the Commonwealth Commission on Respect and Understanding. This will involve:
- Facilitating the development and offering of innovative materials on the themes of Civil Paths to Peace by seven Commonwealth Higher Education Institutions (as per COL’s 2009-2012 TYP);
- Encouraging young people from across the Commonwealth to link community-based activities (e.g., short video or audio clips) about respect and understanding to a common website.
In addition, ComSec and COL will work together on determining key areas with regard to collaboration on Respect and Understanding.
5. Climate Change
ComSec will explore with COL how both organisations might work together to use teachers and schools as vehicles to articulate contents on Climate Change, consistent with the Lake Victoria Action Plan adopted by Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Uganda 2007. To this end, ComSec will seek COL’s advice on the development of materials on Climate Change for schools and teacher training through ODL.
OUTCOMES, IMPACTS, PERFORMANCE INDICATORS
Indicators of achievement for these five items and the means of verifying them will be included in the annual Log Frames developed by ComSec and COL as part of their planning process. They will also continue to work together closely and share information on all other aspects of their work plans, including monitoring and evaluating joint activities as mandated by the Ministers at 17CCEM.
COORDINATION WITH OTHER COMMONWEALTH ORGANISATIONS
ComSec and COL will continue to maintain working links with Commonwealth associations and inter-governmental organisations active in the field of education. The principal organisations in this category are:
The Association of Commonwealth Universities
The Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) is a voluntary membership organisation, founded in 1913. Its objective is to promote and contribute to the provision of excellent higher education for the ultimate benefit of all people throughout the Commonwealth.
The Commonwealth Foundation
The Commonwealth Foundation (CF) is an intergovernmental organization, resourced by, and reporting to Commonwealth governments, and guided by Commonwealth values and priorities. Its mandate is to strengthen civil societies in the achievement of Commonwealth goals and priorities – democracy and good governance, respect for human rights and gender equality, poverty eradication and sustainable, people-centred development, and to promote arts and culture.
The Foundation concentrates on programming and grant making in three MDG sectors: (i) Health, focusing on HIV and AIDS; (ii) Education, targeting gender equality in access to education; and (iii) Climate change and disaster risk management and mitigation.
The Commonwealth Consortium for Education
The Commonwealth Consortium for Education (CCfE) was established by a group of education-related Commonwealth civil-society bodies to: strengthen and coordinate their efforts on behalf of Commonwealth education; stimulate more coherence in their work and provide a collective mechanism for interaction with ministries; and official Commonwealth organisations. Among Consortium members the Council for Education in the Commonwealth has a particularly close and productive relationship with the Commonwealth Secretariat.
The Commonwealth Education Fund
The Commonwealth Education Fund (CEF) was established as a platform to help civil society organisations in low income Commonwealth countries pursue the ambitious education targets set in 2000, namely the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the World Education Forum Dakar Framework for Action. CEF works strategically with civil society in countries likely to miss the education and gender MDGs, in order to make education a sustained domestic priority and to make public schools work effectively for all children.
The Commonwealth Education Trust
The Commonwealth Education Trust (CET) was established in 2007 to advance education in the Commonwealth. It is the successor trust to the Commonwealth Institute and is regulated by the Charity Commission of England and Wales. CET has two ongoing projects: the Centre for Commonwealth Education at Cambridge University and the Lifestyle of our Kids (LOOK) project in Australia.
The Royal Commonwealth Society
Founded in 1868, the Royal Commonwealth Society (RCS) is an international Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) working to promote understanding of the nature and working of the Commonwealth, and of the factors which shape the lives of its peoples and the policies of its governments. The RCS is supported by a worldwide membership of over 10,000, with self-governing branches, honorary representatives and affiliated organisations in 39 countries and territories. The international headquarters are in London.
Signed at Vancouver, British Columbia
Date: 29 July 2009
For the Commonwealth Secretariat
Dr Caroline Pontefract
Director
Social Transformation Programmes Division
For the Commonwealth of Learning
Professor Asha Kanwar
Vice-President