[House Hearing, 117 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]




 
         IMPROVING ACCESS TO QUALITY PUBLIC EDUCATION IN AFRICA

=======================================================================

                                HEARING

                               BEFORE THE

                 SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH,
                        AND GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS

                                 OF THE

                      COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
                        HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                    ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS

                             SECOND SESSION

                               __________

                            FEBRUARY 8, 2022

                               __________

                           Serial No. 117-103

                               __________

        Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs
        
        
        
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             U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE 
 46-696 PDF            WASHINGTON : 2022 
 
 
                        
                       
                       
                       
                       
                      COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS

                  GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York, Chairman

BRAD SHERMAN, California             MICHAEL T. McCAUL, Texas, Ranking 
ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey                  Member
GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia         CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey
THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida          STEVE CHABOT, Ohio
KAREN BASS, California               SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania
WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts       DARRELL ISSA, California
DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island        ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois
AMI BERA, California                 LEE ZELDIN, New York
JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas                ANN WAGNER, Missouri
DINA TITUS, Nevada                   BRIAN MAST, Florida
TED LIEU, California                 BRIAN FITZPATRICK, Pennsylvania
SUSAN WILD, Pennsylvania             KEN BUCK, Colorado
DEAN PHILLIPS, Minnesota             TIM BURCHETT, Tennessee
ILHAN OMAR, Minnesota                MARK GREEN, Tennessee
COLIN ALLRED, Texas                  ANDY BARR, Kentucky
ANDY LEVIN, Michigan                 GREG STEUBE, Florida
ABIGAIL SPANBERGER, Virginia         DAN MEUSER, Pennsylvania
CHRISSY HOULAHAN, Pennsylvania       AUGUST PFLUGER, Texas
TOM MALINOWSKI, New Jersey           PETER MEIJER, Michigan
ANDY KIM, New Jersey                 NICOLE MALLIOTAKIS, New York
SARA JACOBS, California              RONNY JACKSON, Texas
KATHY MANNING, North Carolina        YOUNG KIM, California
JIM COSTA, California                MARIA ELVIRA SALAZAR, Florida
JUAN VARGAS, California              JOE WILSON, South Carolina
VICENTE GONZALEZ, Texas
BRAD SCHNEIDER, Illinois

                                     

                    Jason Steinbaum, Staff Director

               Brendan Shields, Republican Staff Director
                                 ------                                

     Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Global Human Rights

                     KAREN BASS, California, Chair

DEAN PHILLIPS, Minnesota             CHRISTOPHER SMITH, New Jersey, 
ILHAN OMAR, Minnesota                    Ranking Member
AMI BERA, California                 DARRELL ISSA, California
SUSAN WILD, Pennsylvania             GREG STEUBE, Florida
TOM MALINOWSKI, New Jersey           DAN MEUSER, Pennsylvania
SARA JACOBS, California              YOUNG KIM, California
DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island        RONNY JACKSON, Texas

                            C O N T E N T S

                              ----------                              
                                                                   Page

                               WITNESSES

Sengeh, The Honorable David, Minister of Basic and Senior 
  Secondary Education, Office of the President, Sierra Leone.....     7
Winthrop, Dr. Rebecca, Senior Fellow and Co-Director, Center for 
  Universal Education, The Brookings Institution.................    17
Sherif, Yasmine, Director, Education Cannot Wait.................    27
Kaufman, Robert, Executive Director, Abaarso Network.............    36

                                APPENDIX

Hearing Notice...................................................    66
Hearing Minutes..................................................    67
Hearing Attendance...............................................    68

                  OPENING STATEMENT FROM CHAIRMAN BASS

Opening statement from Chairman Bass.............................    69

             ADDITIONAL MATERIALS SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD

Additional materials submitted for the record....................    75

            RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD

Responses to questions submitted for the record..................    85


         IMPROVING ACCESS TO QUALITY PUBLIC EDUCATION IN AFRICA

                       Tuesday, February 8, 2022

                          House of Representatives,
 Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Global 
                                      Human Rights,
                      Committee on Foreign Affairs,
                                                    Washington, DC.

    The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:02 a.m., 
via Webex, Hon. Karen Bass [chairwoman of the subcommittee] 
presiding.
    Ms. Bass. The Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and 
Global Human Rights will come to order.
    Without objection, the chair is authorized to declare a 
recess of the subcommittee at any point, and all members will 
have 5 days to submit statements, extraneous material, and 
questions for the record subject to the length limitation in 
the rules.
    To insert something into the record, please have your staff 
email the previously mentioned address or contact full 
committee staff.
    As a reminder to members, please keep your video function 
on at all times, even when you're not recognized by the chair. 
Members are responsible for muting and unmuting themselves, and 
please remember to mute yourself after you finish speaking.
    Consistent with H. Res. 965 and the accompanying 
regulations, staff will only mute members and witnesses as 
appropriate when they are not under recognition to eliminate 
background noise.
    I see that we have a quorum and I will now recognize myself 
for opening remarks.
    Pursuant to notice, we are holding a hearing on improving 
access to quality public education in Africa to discuss the 
ways in which the United States can help enhance the delivery 
of quality education on the continent.
    To lead that conversation, I want to thank our witnesses 
for being here today: the Honorable David Sengeh, minister of 
basic and senior secondary education for the Office of the 
President in Sierra Leone; Dr. Rebecca Winthrop, senior fellow 
and co-director for the Brookings Institution in the Center for 
Universal Education; Ms. Yasmine Sherif, director of Education 
Cannot Wait; and Mr. Robert Kaufman, executive director of the 
Abaarso Network.
    I welcome your testimony and the discussion surrounding it. 
I look forward to hearing from our experts to describe the ways 
in which the U.S. can strengthen basic education systems in 
Africa and what we can do to increase access to quality 
schooling be it public or private.
    Across the continent to varying degrees the pre-primary, 
primary, middle, and secondary education system, what we in the 
United States would generally refer to as pre-K to 12, or basic 
education, requires support.
    The African Union's Continental Strategy for Africa from 
2016 to 2025 reports progress in expanding access to primary 
education across Africa from 59 to 79 percent between 1999 and 
2012.
    However, these gains could be increased should there be 
greater policy emphasis and investment in target areas such as 
pre-primary education, educating girls and children with 
disabilities, increasing funding for infrastructure and 
educators.
    These types of strategies are important and must be 
specific to local context. But the fundamental goal remains the 
same--get all children to school early, develop solutions to 
coherently link the stages of basic education to ensure they 
acquire a strong foundation without interruption.
    It is disheartening to hear that by the time children reach 
primary school age an estimated 34 million of them go 
unenrolled. The trend continues and is even greater for middle 
and secondary school-aged children, respectively.
    The COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated these 
challenges through the closure of schools, pushing hundreds of 
millions of students out of school since the beginning of the 
pandemic.
    I feel it is important for us to do more to create policy 
and investment opportunities on the continent to improve access 
to education.
    This Congress, I plan on introducing a bill that focuses on 
promoting access to inclusive, uninterrupted quality pre-
primary and secondary education in Africa, reauthorizing the 
Reinforcing Education Accountability Act, also known as the 
READ Act.
    I want to prioritize the importance of education at a young 
age that goes uninterrupted because these children will grow to 
contribute to the expanding and growing economies on the 
continent, which will in turn strengthen the continent's 
capacity for self-reliance.
    In recent discussions with USAID education experts, I 
learned that under the auspices of the READ Act the United 
States seeks to work within local contexts to improve quality 
and expand access to education across the continent.
    Beyond its traditional engagement, USAID is expanding 
outreach to include nongovernmental education providers through 
new financing approaches. Again, the goal is to improve the 
quality of education and to reach more children as early as 
possible and have them finish basic levels.
    These fresh ideas are needed and must be realized to meet 
the mutually beneficial goals of the U.S. and Africa. Further, 
it must be a priority for U.S. national security interests to 
educate on the importance of democratic principles and free 
market economies.
    Hopefully, young people will be taught about democracy, the 
rule of law, free speech, freedom of the press and assembly, 
and have the hope of real prospects of employment that these 
ideals provide and protect.
    Finally, children who have access to quality education go 
on to partake in opportunities for young professionals through 
programs such as the Young African Leaders Initiative, which 
includes the Mandela Washington Fellowship that I introduced 
and passed in the House--the YALI Act--to strengthen young 
leaders' knowledge and skills
    [inaudible].
    I now recognize the ranking member for the purpose of 
making his opening Statement.
    Mr. Smith. Thank you very much, and I want to thank my good 
friend and colleague, Chairwoman Karen Bass, for convening 
today's very important hearing on improving access to quality 
public education in Africa.
    I know that this is a topic that she is passionate about, 
and over the years, she has repeatedly shown her deep concern 
for Africa's youth, who are, indeed, Africa's future.
    This has been shown by her efforts while here in Congress 
as, first, ranking member and then chair of the Africa 
Subcommittee to solidify and strengthen the Young African 
Leaders Initiative, or YALI.
    It is also demonstrated by her convening today's hearing on 
improving access to quality public education.
    I think one of the concerns, which we have shared over the 
years, is the compelling need for the State sector throughout 
Africa to provide for the people, be it in the area of health, 
education, or simply protection and good governance.
    That's why reviewing successes and what works is important. 
We also need to realize that in many countries, a robust public 
education system is, at this point, aspirational and that has 
to change.
    Indeed, if you go to a place such as the eastern Democratic 
Republic of Congo, which is very remote from the capital of 
Kinsasha--and I know I've been there twice--we see a minimal 
State presence in education as well as in healthcare.
    Thus, there is a role for the private education as well, 
and, in particular, faith-based schools. This is especially 
true in Africa, which, as a witness at one of our hearings a 
few years ago put it, is a faith-based continent.
    Indeed, there's probably no institution more active at the 
grassroots level of communities throughout Sub-Saharan Africa 
than the churches and variously affiliated schools, be they 
Christian or Muslim, and in all education efforts, we need to 
place the interests of children, their parents, and families, 
as paramount.
    The Universal Declaration of Human Rights envisions a 
system of free education, quote, ``directed to the full 
development of the human personality, and to the strengthening 
of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.''
    Wisely, the Universal Declaration also proclaims that, 
quote, ``Parents shall have a prior right to choose the kind of 
education that should be given to their children,'' closed 
quote.
    With these words from the great inspirational and 
aspirational document, I look forward to this hearing, and 
again, I thank my good friend for convening it.
    And I yield back.
    Ms. Bass. Thank you very much. I appreciate your comments.
    I would now like to introduce our witnesses for today's 
hearing.
    First, we have the Honorable David Sengeh. He's the 
Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education and the Chief 
Innovation Officer for the government of Sierra Leone. He also 
serves as the chair of the advisory board of UNESCO's Global 
Education Monitoring Report, board member of the Global 
Partnership for Education, and a member of the High Level 
Steering Committee for Sustainable Development Goal Number 
Four, which is a quality education.
    Next, we have Dr. Rebecca Winthrop. She is a senior fellow 
and co-director of the Center for Universal Education at the 
Brookings Institution.
    Her research focuses on education globally, with special 
attention to the skills young people need to thrive in work, 
life, and as constructive citizens. She was educated at 
Columbia University Teachers College, Columbia University 
School of International and Public Affairs, and Swarthmore 
College.
    Our third witness is Ms. Yasmine Sherif. She is the 
Director of Education Cannot Wait, a global fund for education 
emergencies and protracted crisis as established by the World 
Humanitarian Summit.
    A lawyer specialized in international humanitarian law and 
human rights law, she has 30 years of experience with the U.N. 
and international NGO's. She has served in some of the most 
crisis-affected countries on the globe.
    I would now like--oh, I'm sorry.
    And our final witness is Mr. Robert Kaufman. Mr. Kaufman 
has been a co-founder, director, and senior representative for 
humanitarian and education institutions for two decades.
    He began his career as a grant-funded researcher in West 
Africa working for Save the Children and the American Red Cross 
in various positions on four continents.
    We appreciate all of you being here today and look forward 
to your testimony. Your written statements will appear in the 
hearing record, and under Committee Rule No. 6, each witness 
should limit your oral presentation to a 5-minute summary of 
your written Statement, and I believe there will be a clock 
that you will see on the screen when your 5 minutes is up.
    And with that, I would like to welcome our first guests 
again--our first witness, Dr. David Sengeh.

    STATEMENT OF DAVID SENGEH, MINISTER OF BASIC AND SENIOR 
   SECONDARY EDUCATION, OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT, SIERRA LEONE

    Mr. Sengeh. Chair Bass, Ranking Member Smith, and other 
distinguished members of the subcommittee, thank you for 
inviting me to this important hearing on improving access to 
quality public education in Africa.
    While I must admit it is a tough task to speak on behalf of 
the entire African continent, I do also believe that 
investments in quality public education is the closest thing we 
have to a silver bullet that solves the world's intractable 
problems.
    If we achieve this, we will lay the foundation for gender 
equality, climate action, social inclusion, and economic 
growth.
    In Sierra Leone, upon assuming office in 2018, His 
Excellency President Julius Maada Bio announced the free 
quality school education program for all children in public 
schools.
    Three years in, we have simultaneously improved access, 
quality, and gender equity, and all this is against the 
backdrop of COVID related school closures.
    On access, between 2018 and 2020, we added more than 700,00 
new learners to our schools. We have achieved while attending 
gender parity and enrollments at nearly all levels.
    We have more girls than boys in primary and secondary 
schools, and we're actively working to improve transition of 
girls into senior secondary and tertiary at higher 
institutions.
    On quality, we now have more students succeeding in passing 
the National Transition exams than at any point in our 
country's history. For junior secondary school, we were able to 
improve the pass rates from 72 percent to 79 percent in 3 
years, while adding more than 40,000 students to the 
examination roster.
    Although hard, we're seeing that this is possible to 
achieve quality while expanding access. We have also made 
significant headway on our early grade reading and math 
assessments known as EGRA and EGMA.
    I'm proud to say that across nearly all reading and math 
tasks, we have cut the percentage of students who score zero in 
half since the last assessments in 2014.
    How did Sierra Leone get there? In a word, we invested. We 
pay the full bill for school fees in public schools and pay the 
examination fees for nearly all students.
    Moreover, we have hired more than 12,000 teachers, 
increased all teacher salaries by 30 percent, and doubled down 
on continuous professional development.
    In addition, we invested in new teaching and learning 
materials and school feeding programs. We believe that children 
must have access to nutritious meals for learning and their 
holistic development.
    We have created a new set of curricula relevant for the 
21st century at all school levels.
    Furthermore, we innovated. For example, we introduced 
digital SMS-based learning tools including a free SMS 
dictionary where students can now check their exam results and 
school placements with their mobile phones instead of waiting 
for the paper results to travel to their schools. Our digital 
tools have been used millions of times.
    Just recently, we introduced the Learning Passport, which 
gives students access to past exam papers. On the first day, it 
was downloaded 4,000 times.
    We also launched the Education Innovation Challenge where 
service providers support primary schools to generate evidence 
on how learning can even further improve. This year we'll scale 
the concept to cover more than 100,000 children.
    Our goal is clear. We should have impacts and learn through 
the process of achieving that. We have laid the policy 
groundwork for education to improve on all fronts.
    Our radical inclusion policy ensures the inclusion of 
girls, especially pregnant ones, disabled learners, learners 
from remote areas, and learners from impoverished backgrounds 
in our educational system.
    We have already overturned the 2010 ban on pregnant girls 
attending school, and we're only getting started. This year, 
we'll update the Education Act of 2004 to match our 
aspirations.
    Also, we're spending 22 percent of our national budget on 
education. We have made hard choices to protect this budget, 
but we are confident that Sierra Leone will reap the rewards 
for decades to come.
    In the year of COVID-19, Sierra Leone is one of the few 
countries who have expanded its education budget. This has been 
a journey, but we are very far from finished. So how can the 
United States help accelerate progress?
    I serve as board member on GPE and I believe that it is the 
best vehicle for pooling international efforts to accelerate 
progress toward our common educational goals.
    The U.S. has supported the GPE generously over the years. 
But if the distinguished members will forgive me for the 
observation, these contributions are surpassed by accumulated 
contributions from countries such as Denmark, whose populations 
are smaller than the State of Maryland.
    In short, the GPE is the best place to start, and I believe 
the United States can do more.
    On the personal note, I studied in the United States for 10 
years. I know that when the United States supports bold goals 
alongside the international community there is nothing that can 
stop us.
    To underscore my point, I think I need only mentioned 
PEPFAR to recall the United States' massive investment in 
saving millions of lives and helping African countries control 
the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
    This kind of investment is now needed in quality public 
education. Sierra Leone will be honored to continue our 
partnership with you on the journey to improving access to 
quality public education.
    Together, nothing can stop us. Thank you.
    [The prepared statement of Mr. Sengeh follows:]
    
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]    
       
    Ms. Bass. Thank you. Thank you very much.
    Dr. Rebecca Winthrop?

    STATEMENT OF DR. REBECCA WINTHROP, SENIOR FELLOW AND CO-
    DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR UNIVERSAL EDUCATION, THE BROOKINGS 
                          INSTITUTION

    Dr. Winthrop. Hello. Thank you very much for having me, 
Representative Bass, Representative Omar, Representative Smith, 
and the distinguished members of the committee. It's a pleasure 
to be here.
    I am sharing my perspectives from my personal experience, 
both as a practitioner on the continent for some years and also 
in our current work at the Center for Universal Education.
    We work with about 35 African partners across 21 countries, 
including a host of about 12 fellows on girls education. We 
have a girls education fellowship every year who, who are based 
in Sub-Saharan Africa.
    I am really, really thrilled that you're focused on this. 
It is such an important issue for all the reasons you said but, 
you know, it's important for Africa but it's important for the 
whole globe.
    Africa is the youngest continent in the world. Sixty 
percent of the population is below the age of 25, and by 2050, 
it'll be home to about 70 percent of the world's working age 
population. It is, literally, going to be the global talent 
pool for everybody, and so we really do need to put education 
at the center.
    In terms of what the United States can do, in 2010, I wrote 
a piece when I came to Brookings initially called ``Punching 
Below its Weight: The U.S. Government's Approach to Education 
in the Developing World,'' and the reason I came to that 
assessment was because I found that there were 13 different 
agencies working on education and development with very little 
coordination and synergy, and the sum of the parts, you know, 
did not make for a greater impact.
    I am really pleased that this is beginning to change. With 
the U.S. Government strategy on international and basic 
education, which came to being in 2019 and is coming up in 
2023, this is really the first time this whole of government 
approach has been taken.
    I urge the committee to make sure this is renewed. We're 
seeing the benefits already. And I would put forward the 
recommendation to renew this with four main additional focus 
areas. I have four recommendations.
    The first one is, really, around harnessing the innovative 
capacity of African communities. One of the things that I note 
and a lot of our partners talk about is that anytime you get in 
a discourse about foreign aid or international development 
there's lots of problems, which there are, but it really 
obscures all the innovation and creativity and ingenuity on the 
ground that African communities are using to solve their 
problems every day.
    I've done a global study of education innovation around the 
world and found a very robust education innovation sector on 
the continent. And I would--we hear a lot from our partners 
about U.S. Government strategies funding that.
    So, bilaterally, I would continue the small steps that the 
basic education strategy has started of funding more local 
partners and really flip it--really put African innovators and 
actors at the center and bring the international community into 
support them rather than the other way round.
    And second, I agree wholeheartedly with Minister Sengeh. 
Increasing, multilaterally, support for GPE would be very 
important.
    The entire approach puts African governments at the center 
and, at the moment, the U.S. gives about $125 million, which 
is--annually, which is a far cry from the $1.5 billion annually 
it gets to the Global Fund for Health. So that's recommendation 
one.
    Recommendation two is to keep focusing on enriched teaching 
and learning experiences around foundational literacy and 
numeracy. This is an area the U.S. Government has really led 
on. It is no time to take your eye off the prize.
    Eighteen percent of children and youth--only 18 percent 
master basic foundational literacy and numeracy. And in stable, 
you know, contexts, working to train teachers on differentiated 
instruction and more interactive pedagogies and scaling that 
approach that has shown to be effective is great.
    The U.S. Government should do more, though, to think about 
flexible approaches like catch-up classes and tablet-based 
learning that have been shown to work without having a 
consistent teacher for all the kids, whether it be COVID or 
conflict or climate impacts, that aren't able to readily access 
stable education and learning.
    Additionally, family engagement and really supporting 
communities to support their kids learning has shown to be 
highly cost effective, and I would encourage the U.S. 
Government to invest more there.
    My third recommendation is around investing in models of 
learning to prepare youth for the work force. There are 
estimates that there's about $175 billion needed in Sub-Saharan 
Africa to educate all kids in secondary education but only $25 
billion currently is being invested.
    This is a big area wide open. There's not one massive 
global--you know, sort of global bilateral leading on it. The 
U.S. could really harness its whole of government approach and 
bring in the public-private partnerships that are needed to 
actually revolutionize what secondary education looks like on 
the continent.
    There's huge demands from people like Minister Sengeh and 
others with very large youth populations that have only been 
exacerbated by COVID, and the U.S. Government could play a lead 
role.
    Ms. Bass. Thank you, Dr. Winthrop.
    Dr. Winthrop. My fourth and last recommendation is really 
around leading on system transformation for climate change. 
This is an area that we are just in the education sector 
beginning to grapple with. Only 25 percent of countries around 
the world even mention children's youth education in their 
national climate plans.
    Ms. Bass. Excuse me. Let me interrupt.
    Dr. Winthrop. Yes?
    Ms. Bass. Your time is up but you will get additional time 
in Q&A.
    Dr. Winthrop. OK. Thank you.
    [The prepared statement of Dr. Winthrop follows:]
    
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]    

        Ms. Bass. Let me now introduce Ms. Yasmine Sherif.

  STATEMENT OF YASMINE SHERIF, DIRECTOR, EDUCATION CANNOT WAIT

    Ms. Sherif. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, and I 
will really do my best to stick to the time. I have very long 
talking points here in testimony.
    Distinguished members of the committee, thank you for the 
invitation to testify on improving access to quality education 
in Africa and the United States' leadership is critically 
important and we really appreciate the investments made by you.
    So as I was introduced, I'm the director of Education 
Cannot Wait, which is the world's first global fund for 
education in emergencies and protracted crisis, the very global 
fund that is hosted by the United Nations, and we were founded 
and became operational in 2017.
    The United States is a key donor to Education Cannot Wait 
and has pledged a total at $82.3 million and is, therefore, 
also one of our largest contributors, and these have been very 
timely contributions, especially in our cooperation with the 
United States in Africa where we worked in the Sahel and many 
other countries and the neighboring countries.
    Now, for my testimony I draw on over 30 years of working 
with the United Nations in crisis countries, including in 
Africa, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, and 
have led many missions to the Sahel and Sub-Saharan Africa.
    When you go to the Sub-Saharan Africa, you see that of all 
the ordinances we have around the globe when it comes to the 
education sector, that is the most underfunded and the most, I 
will say, lacking the most basic infrastructure for quality 
education. They are truly those left behind.
    Now, there are--the importance of education, we all 
understand that. If we do not provide young children and youth 
in Africa with education, not only is it a legal or a moral 
responsibility, but it's a game changer that will eventually 
have impact not only the African continent but all of us.
    Here we speak about an estimated in total globally 128 
million refugees and displaced populations in crisis of whom 
the majority are in Africa. So just imagine they not receive a 
quality education today how that will impact not only the 
region but the rest of the world in the near future.
    So in Africa, especially, we also have to focus on girls' 
education and the benefits of investing in girls because that's 
also a benefit for the family and for the communities. And it's 
more about--it's not just about getting girls into school, but 
also making sure that they have a safe school environment to go 
to.
    Just look at Nigeria and the Boko Haram where girls are 
being kidnapped going to school. So it's safety. It's about 
curriculum that are gender sensitized so that these young girls 
learn they can be empowered educated leaders, and it also is 
about nutrition, health. No child, no girl, can go to school on 
a hungry stomach.
    Now, if you look at the situation across Africa, there have 
been, of course, achievements over the past 20 years. But we 
also know that there's a huge gap that remains.
    In year 2000, almost a third of the primary school-aged 
children were out of school. Now, for 2019, this had decreased 
to 17 percent.
    So in 19 years, we saw a decrease because investments were 
made and basic education were made compulsory across Africa. So 
this--indeed, progress has been made.
    However, despite this progress, Africa continues to face 
the highest rate of out of school children and adolescents. The 
Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest rates of education exclusion 
in Africa.
    Over one-fifth of the children between the ages of six to 
11 are out of school, followed by one-third of youth between 
the ages of about 12 to 14, and according to data from UNESCO's 
Institute for Statistics, almost 60 percent of school-aged 
children between ages 15 and 17 are not in school.
    And so we see definitely that situation is going to worsen, 
and to achieve Sustainable Development Goal Four, access to a 
quality education, again, they are left further behind, and if 
we do not achieve that goal, all other sustainable development 
goals will fall behind because without an education we cannot 
have gender equality. We cannot eradicate poverty, hunger, and 
so forth.
    So the scale of the challenge is quite remarkable. What is 
important for Education Cannot Wait is it's not enough to bring 
children and youth back to school. It's also to achieve 
learning outcomes where they actually learn something.
    We need to make sure that teachers are properly trained. We 
make sure that we are not excluding the refugees and that we 
take a holistic whole of child approach and that we reach all 
girls and adolescents and focus on children with disabilities.
    Ms. Bass. Thank you.
    Ms. Sherif. I'm afraid that my time is running out. I can 
see that. There's much more in my talking points. But, again, I 
thank you very much for inviting Education Cannot Wait, the 
Global Fund for Education Emergencies in the United Nations to 
provide this testimony.
    Thank you very much, and thank you for all the generous 
support from the United States of America.
    [The prepared statement of Ms. Sherif follows:]
    
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]    
        
    Ms. Bass. Thank you very much.
    Our final witness is Mr. Robert Kaufman.

   STATEMENT OF ROBERT KAUFMAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ABAARSO 
                            NETWORK

    Mr. Kaufman. Thank you, Chair Bass, Ranking Member Smith, 
and distinguished members of the committee for an opportunity 
to testify at this hearing.
    My name is Rob Kaufman, and I'm the executive director of 
the Abaarso Network. I'm here to share extraordinary stories of 
success and lessons we can draw from this experience to improve 
access to quality education in Africa.
    In 2009, and American social entrepreneur set out to create 
a rigorous, inclusive high school that would transform 
Somaliland.
    Despite the fact that many of our students entered with 
little or no English--some had never even been to school 
before--they absolutely thrived. In a few short years, our 
graduates were earning full scholarships to some of the world's 
most elite universities.
    There was Mubarak, a nomad who had never been to school 
before, who earned a full scholarship to MIT, and Nadira, whose 
father was reluctant to send his daughters to school at all, 
who very likely became the first woman from Somaliland to get a 
full scholarship to an Ivy League school when she was accepted 
at Yale.
    In the last 8 years, more than 200 Abaarso students have 
earned over $37 million in scholarships for schools around the 
world.
    That's not even the best part of the story. While the 
Abaarso model is highly successful, we needed a scalable model 
built around local staff and day schools to reach thousands 
more. So we created the Kaabe model, the first ever Montessori 
primary schools in Somaliland.
    Today, there are three Kaabe schools serving over 200 
students. In order to staff our Kaabe schools, we created an 
all-female residential college called Barwaaqo University that 
today offers one degree, a degree in education.
    Last year, we had our first graduating class. Sixteen women 
graduated and we hired 15 of them. As we continue to grow, many 
alumni have returned from abroad to teach or manage our 
schools.
    In fact, both Barwaaqo and Kaabe included Abaarso graduates 
as co-founders. How did Abaarso realize such success in one of 
the most fragile and complex settings in the world? Here's a 
brief explanation, although definitely not comprehensive.
    From the beginning, Abaarso set extremely high 
expectations. Students go to class five and a half days a week 
and have significantly more learning time than typical schools.
    By the time someone graduates from Abaarso, they know 
what's at stake: opportunities for scholarship, self-
improvement, and a career, and they have the skills and 
confidence to achieve them.
    Our founding teams worked with local leaders to ensure that 
we honored local customs, like including a mosque on campus and 
the establishment of a local board.
    The mission of the school--to graduate the leaders of 
tomorrow and transform Somaliland--is reinforced every day. We 
fully expect Abaarso graduates will be leaders at the highest 
levels of public service and commercial enterprise, driving 
development, innovation, and inclusion.
    The stories of success inspired huge demand. Parents like 
Nadira's father, once skeptical about Abaarso, have become some 
of our most vocal advocates. Today, we accept less than 3 
percent of our applicant pool.
    Here are three recommendations to take from our experience 
that would help improve access to quality education in Africa.
    One, investing in quality with better teachers. More than 
computers or any other resource, the teacher is the single 
biggest factor in student success. Provide a great teacher and 
you can change the trajectory of a child's life.
    Two, generate demand by incentivizing success. In many 
communities throughout Africa, sending a child to school may 
jeopardize a family farm or business. There is often little 
sense that it will lead to genuine opportunity.
    We have to change the cost benefit analysis so that 
families believe the education offered is worth their time and 
money. Curricula that are context specific and partnerships 
with local employers give students the skills and networks to 
be competitive in local markets.
    And three, more access. We have to redefine public 
education. Government alone will never be able to manage the 
supply side of education. We must leverage the impact of--the 
interest of impact investors, social entrepreneurs, and others 
to mobilize resources.
    NonState schools are already ubiquitous in much of Sub-
Saharan Africa. These schools can work in tandem with local 
authorities. Influential partners should energize and finance 
public systems and support choice and scaling models that work.
    In conclusion, Abaarso Network is a rare solution in a 
fragile setting, with evidence of success raising learning 
outcomes, creating gender equity, and increasing productive 
employment.
    Abaarso was fortunate to get support from USAID ASHA in 
2015. But we first had to prove our success. And since ASHA 
only funds secondary and post-secondary schools, we still had 
to raise philanthropic dollars for primary schools.
    To scale up quality education in Africa, partners must 
capitalize on demand for these models and support their growth. 
Replicating models that work is in the interest of the 
government from the United States. Failure to improve access to 
quality education breeds poverty and leaves few options for 
young people, which can drive violence and extremism.
    When people have tasted a great offering and are hungry for 
more, the U.S. should put its full weight behind these programs 
and give youth and their families a reason to hope.
    As Abaarso has shown, doing show can transform entire 
communities.
    Thank you, Chair.
    [The prepared statement of Mr. Kaufman follows:]
    
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    Ms. Bass. Thank you very much, Mr. Kaufman.
    I want to thank the witnesses for their testimony and we 
will now question witnesses under the 5-minute rule. But before 
we begin, I'll start with questions. Let me ask Erica if you 
would come back with a little instruction for members and 
witnesses.
    Ms. Baganza. Sure. Hello, everyone. So the timer--the 
easiest way to see the timer and ensure that you are within the 
5-minute time allotment is if you go up to the right hand 
corner and click layout. You can click the option of grid. Then 
you will be able to see the 5-minute timer.
    Or, additionally, you can click the stack option. Hover 
over the timer. There is a button with three little dots on it. 
Click that and press move to stage. Therefore, the timer will 
remain stationary and it'll be within your view.
    Hopefully, that is more helpful to everybody.
    Ms. Bass. Thank you very much, Erica.
    I would like to ask my first question to Dr. Winthrop, who 
was in the middle of giving us recommendations around the READ 
Act and I wanted her to finish. I think she was on 
recommendation four.
    Dr. Winthrop. Thank you, Representative Bass, and I now see 
the timer, which I did not before. So that was helpful.
    [Laughter.]
    Dr. Winthrop. Yes. Recommendation four was, basically, the 
idea that climate change is here and education systems are not 
prepared, and we in the education sector have not really put--
globally, put our arms around how--what would a climate smart 
education system actually look like.
    And this is something that the U.S. Government has started 
to do. I think, you know, with the whole of government approach 
in the basic ed strategy it could really be a leader in this 
space and there's huge need, given what I said before about the 
fact that, you know, only 25 percent of countries even mention 
education in their climate plans.
    Ms. Bass. Let me ask you something, because you were 
talking about the innovation on the ground and when--and 
talking about the READ Act and the fact that the READ Act funds 
educational organizations, it sounded as though you were 
emphasizing that we need to fund instead of the massive NGO's 
that are U.S.-based or other countries that we need to fund 
African organizations. Is that what you were saying earlier?
    Dr. Winthrop. That is what I was trying to say, though 
perhaps not as clearly as you. The new strategy--yes, go ahead.
    Ms. Bass. I have a question to you and to also Dr. Sengeh, 
who I'll move to in a quick second because I only have 3 
minutes left.
    How do we identify those organizations and are there 
particular countries that have a number that we should focus 
on--a number of strong organizations?
    Dr. Winthrop. I think that actually there are lots of 
people who could help--who could help the U.S. Government 
identify these strong organizations. We have a running list of 
several hundred. There's many other organizations that do that.
    I would go to Minister Sengeh and his peers. The GPE has an 
entire civil society sort of empowerment theme. They could help 
identify organizations.
    Ms. Bass. OK.
    Dr. Winthrop. So I think there's absolutely good ways to do 
it.
    Ms. Bass. OK. Dr. Sengeh?
    Mr. Sengeh. Yes. Yes. Thank you very much.
    Ms. Bass. Let me ask you--hold on a second. You talked 
about GPE and that the United States needed to support that 
more. Are you suggesting that READ Act funding should go to 
that? But what about U.S. Government supporting the public 
sector of different countries and is there recommendations that 
you have there?
    Mr. Sengeh. Yes, I do. I mean, I do think, yes, the U.S. 
should expand its support to GPE. GPE is the largest fund 
dedicated to developing countries and education, and I think 
the U.S. should definitely expand its support there.
    And in terms of the conversation that you were just having 
with Dr. Winthrop, we actually just published a blog on the GPE 
website today that talks about an NGO consortium that includes 
global international NGO's and local NGO's who are working with 
governments to deploy lots of advanced solutions here, 
particularly with our response to COVID, and it's quite 
interesting to see what we're able to do together.
    But other institutions like the MCC--you know, the MCC does 
not generally support education. But one of the metrics that 
are looked at for seeing whether a country is eligible is 
education and girls education and completion levels.
    So I think that's also really important, and I will then 
say supporting things like MCC, which ultimately supports 
infrastructure based on the indicators like school completion, 
are all very important and I think that the U.S. Government can 
do.
    Ms. Bass. You were--you mentioned the U.S. government's 
support, and I think you compared it to Denmark--was that 
support for GPE or was that support for something--another 
program?
    Mr. Sengeh. That's--yes, thank you very much, Republican 
Bass. Representative Bass.
    Ms. Bass. Thank you.
    [Laughter.]
    Mr. Sengeh. The U.S. Government, from inception, has paid, 
I think, about $550 million, whereas the Norwegian government 
has about $800 million cumulative to GPE, and I think that the 
U.S. Government can support more in GPE.
    And the reason why I stress GPE is not because I'm on the 
board for it. It is because I know that Sierra Leone, for 
example, has benefited tremendously, and most of our programs, 
particularly with early childhood education and primary 
education, comes from such multilateral support.
    Ms. Bass. OK. Thank you.
    And I would now go to the ranking member, Mr. Smith.
    Is Mr. Smith with us? If not--because I know he was going 
to have to step away. If not, I will go to Mr. Issa.
    Mr. Issa. Thank you very much. And Madam Chair, I was 
almost ready.
    Mr.--no, I am--Mr. Kaufman, how does your organization 
tailor the curriculum to training students to reach--to make 
sure they receive and ensure that they're prepared for jobs?
    In other words, it's very expensive to educate, generally. 
If we educate, generally, in Africa where there isn't enough 
money, we're, obviously, not going to educate the amount we 
need.
    So how do you get that focus of education that leads to 
specific employment and how do you determine what those 
employment opportunities are?
    Mr. Kaufman. That's great. Can you hear me all right?
    Mr. Issa. I sure can.
    Mr. Kaufman. Great. Thank you. I appreciate the question.
    It's so important that when we design a degree program at 
our university it's done in consultation with the private 
sector and the largest employers in Somaliland.
    So right now, we have 100 percent education to employment 
from our graduates. But that's because our private sector 
partner is, largely, ourself.
    We need to generate many more teachers in order to scale 
the Kaabe primary schools. So we're generating ready, 
professional, qualified educators and hiring them.
    Our next degree will be a management degree, that we're 
talking with the leading CEOs and private sector companies 
throughout the country to make sure that they're informing our 
curriculum, and the people that they need to hire in the next 
five and 10 years are the ones that we're graduating.
    So it's that partnership that's really key.
    Mr. Issa. That's great. What I'd like you to do, and I 
think each of our witnesses can help us in this, how do we 
contrast things like what we're doing--you know, what you're 
doing is very similar to what Ohio did with its land grant 
universities. All the original public universities were 
teaching universities because that had the greatest leverage 
for the future.
    If you teach the teacher, you can then teach the next 
generation of students. But how does it--would you contrast 
that with how China is competing with us in Africa? What are 
they doing and what makes your program different?
    Mr. Kaufman. Well, I have to admit, I'm not expert enough 
to comment on the Chinese government's strategy around 
education.
    I can tell you that in Somaliland, because of its unique 
status as an unrecognized country that's formally considered 
part of Somalia, they do not have access to financial aid and 
assistance from most multilateral institutions or the Chinese 
government.
    So in Somaliland, there's very little investment from the 
Chinese government. But, otherwise, we just need to make sure 
that from the primary school up through secondary and into our 
university that we're adapting the curricula based on the local 
context.
    And I think it was Honorable Minister Sengeh who talked 
about that they were doing the same thing to make sure that 
their graduates were ready for the work force.
    So I just think it's a matter of being flexible. But maybe 
Dr. Sherif can respond vis-a-vis China.
    Mr. Issa. Please.
    [No response.]
    Mr. Issa. Maybe I'll respond. My understanding is that 
China does not prioritize any actual equivalent of what we 
would call USAID for these kinds of purposes as some training 
programs related to their projects.
    But I'm going to followup with just one question. The kind 
of support we're giving to your organization, Mr. Kaufman, are 
you seeing any other nation step forward and, if so, would you 
recognize them, either in Somaliland or in the case of the 
other witnesses?
    Because I'd like to understand who our best partners are 
and I often see what we're doing, but I do not see similar 
partnerships with other countries.
    Obviously, France has a huge presence. Are they doing 
something similar or helping in this project?
    Mr. Kaufman. We do have some really strong partners but 
very few of them are financial sponsors, particularly from 
governmental entities.
    The British government has been a good friend to the 
Abaarso Network in providing advice and support. But so far, 
they're not a financial contributor, and the government of 
Somaliland also has provided----
    Mr. Issa. Thank you. Does anyone else have any examples of 
what the four nations----
    Mr. Sengeh. Sure. In Sierra Leone--in Sierra Leone, I do 
think the EU is a great supporter of education so we will be 
able to see what the EU is doing. And now we have the Africa-EU 
Summit is just next week that many of the EU leaders will be 
at.
    I think with China, for example, something that China does 
differently is with government grants at the higher and 
technical institutions. I benefited from scholarships in the 
U.S. but it wasn't through the U.S. Government.
    And I think you see what the U.K. does through the 
Commonwealth Scholarships, or with the Chinese or the Russian, 
there are many country levels scholarships. We know that in the 
U.S. that's much different, and that's the major difference.
    Ms. Bass. Thank you.
    Mr. Issa. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chairman.
    Ms. Bass. Thank you.
    Mr. Phillips?
    Mr. Phillips. Thank you, Chairwoman Bass, and greetings to 
all of our witnesses today.
    I think it's fair to say that U.S. support for public 
education programs in Africa cannot and shouldn't be a one-
size-fits-all approach. So I'd love to talk about best 
practices, Mr. Kaufman and Dr. Sengeh, starting with you.
    Mr. Kaufman, in fact, a group from Minnesota, my home 
State, from the Wellstone School traveled to your school, 
Abaarso, in Somaliland recently to see your secrets of success, 
and I know Sierra Leone has seen a lot of progress in accessing 
quality of education since they introduced universal public 
education just a few years ago.
    And I'm sure there are many other successes in other 
countries and we'd love it if you might each speak to some of 
those. What scalable and replicable and cost beneficial best 
practice models can other countries draw on to improve baseline 
education?
    Mr.--Dr. Sengeh, if you want to start, I'd welcome your 
comments. Other models.
    Mr. Sengeh. I mean, I think one of the things that's worked 
really well for us in Sierra Leone is this relationship between 
civil society, and not just with NGO's. It's not just about 
government to government, and we see that the relationship with 
civil society, the relationship with NGO's, including parents 
there.
    And in Sierra Leone we have a decentralization for basic 
education that we're trying to move forward. So that also works 
very well in terms of effective models for quality education.
    And something I do want to also emphasize and stress on is 
the use of technology and digitization, and there are different 
parts to that.
    It cannot be disparate, you know. When COVID--with COVID 
school closures, every country had their own platform. I 
imagine in the U.S. every State had their own platform, their 
own systems, their own content.
    And it does not work that way, and I think we really have 
to think about how we share the architectural and the 
technology systems such that we are taking advantage of our 
best resources in terms of quality content, quality platform, 
modes of engagement, that actually reaches and includes as many 
more people as possible.
    Mr. Phillips. Right. And just, quickly, before we move to 
Mr. Kaufman, any--are there any of the external development 
partners in Africa that have made interesting investments of 
which you're aware that we should take note of?
    Mr. Sengeh. I think the EU and I think for girls education 
we do a lot of work with IrishAid. So I mentioned radical 
inclusion, which is--will stop at nothing until everybody, 
girls--but organizations like IrishAid.
    FCDO--we do have a lot of work with them with evidence-
based policy support from FCDO, and, as I mentioned, China with 
enhanced technical institution.
    I think there does need to be, and I think one of the 
respondents mentioned, USAID needs to step up a little bit on 
education and I must say in Sierra Leone, we do not have a 
large footprint of USAID, particularly on education and 
innovation, and I feel like that's a miss for the U.S.
    Mr. Phillips. I appreciate the challenge to us. Thank you, 
sir.
    Mr. Kaufman, any thoughts on scalable and replicable models 
that you think, you know, could be employed across the 
continent?
    Mr. Kaufman. Yes. Thank you. First, let me just take a 
moment to acknowledge and really thank the group from Wellstone 
International School. They are a great--great friends of ours.
    They've been out to the school and we have been talking 
with them about a deeper project to draw some of those lessons 
that can help kids in Minnesota and, perhaps, beyond.
    Mr. Phillips. I love it.
    Mr. Kaufman. So thanks so much for acknowledging them.
    Yes, there are a few really important takeaways that go 
beyond the three that I mentioned and I want to highlight those 
again.
    It was said by a few of the witnesses that it's not just 
about access. It's not just about the supply side of schools. 
Equally critical is the quality of what we're offering and the 
relevance in the classroom. Good teachers make a huge 
difference and 10 great teachers are much better than a hundred 
bad or mediocre teachers.
    Mr. Phillips. Correct.
    Mr. Kaufman. The other side of that is this demand piece--
you know, the cost benefit analysis that families have to do to 
decide if it's worth the time and money to send their kids.
    If there aren't job prospects, if there aren't post-
graduate or secondary opportunities, if they're leaving a good 
primary school but have no decent secondary school to go to, 
then the incentive to continue your education is greatly 
diminished, and that has a deleterious effect on the prospects 
of employment, innovation, economic growth.
    Just really quickly, the few other things I want to mention 
is I think that key are to scale or to incentivize, both with 
financial incentives and otherwise, public-private 
partnerships.
    We have to promote choice. As you said, one size does not 
fit all. We need a proliferation of models, and then when we 
find one that works we have to hold on to it and invest in it.
    The other thing is businesses can also be incentivized to 
provide not just scholarships but apprenticeships and 
internships, because in developed countries we know that your 
network plays a huge role in your job prospects post-
graduation. We need to help kids in remote and fragile settings 
develop those same networks.
    Mr. Phillips. OK. I know I'm out of time. Thank you both. 
Appreciate your perspectives and contributions.
    With that, I yield back, Madam Chair.
    Ms. Bass. And thank you, Mr. Phillips. It's my 
understanding that Mr. Meuser is not here, so I will go to the 
committee vice chair, Representative Omar, who will chair the 
rest of this meeting.
    Thank you very much, Representative Omar.
    Ms. Omar [presiding]. Thank you, Chairwoman Bass. Thank you 
for convening this really important discussion as well.
    Mr. Sengeh, according to UNICEF, the COVID pandemic has 
created the worst crisis of education access on record. But you 
talked in your testimony about Sierra Leone's success in 
continuing to invest in education during the pandemic.
    Can you tell us more about the programs you instituted to 
ensure students could continue to learn during COVID?
    Mr. Sengeh. Thank you very much, Representative Omar.
    Yes. I think one thing I must say is the leadership. His 
Excellency President Julius Maada Bio made education his 
priority, and so in 2018 we are at 19 percent of our budget and 
then we went to 20 percent, 21 percent, and we decided that we 
have to keep expanding the percentage of our budgets to 
education until we can reach our targets.
    So it was really a leadership decision and understanding 
that the only way out of this and preparation for this pandemic 
is through public education. So we had to keep investing.
    Some of the things that we did was we brought back all the 
kids who were in transition classes, give them dry rations and 
made sure that they did the examinations 5 months after school 
closed.
    We expanded education radio. So now, as we speak, we bought 
transmitters and hoping to ensure that all across the country 
people can continue learning with educational radio, and the 
new EGRA EGMA study shows that about 87 percent of kids listen 
to education radio.
    We also printed materials. We know that not everybody has 
access to technology so we printed materials and mailed it to 
communities who were hard to reach and who were not in radio 
reach or who could not have TV, and we built mobile systems, 
right.
    So 87 percent of the population has access to mobile 
connectivity. So we built SMS USSD solutions that we made 
available to poor kids as well.
    So it's really a combination, what we have--what we call 
hybrid technology solutions within the directorates of science, 
technology, and innovation, so things that work on paper, 
online, offline, mobile, that we really extended.
    Ms. Omar. OK. Excellent. And are there ways we can use some 
of these programs as a model for policies we should support in 
other countries in Africa and in the developing world?
    Mr. Sengeh. Thank you. I think it's a great question.
    By the way, something as well I think the U.S. can do is be 
part of what we call the Digital Public Goods. It's a platform 
that we have with the United Nations, with UNICEF, and within 
the Digital Public Goods framework is that we should build 
technologies and solutions that should be shared across the 
world, and I think the U.S., being a leading technology 
country, should see how it can be part of these global networks 
that create solutions for sharing for everybody.
    I do think investing in education and data technology--ed 
tech--in ways that was not what we imagined before but, rather, 
that is inclusive, that does not leave poor communities out, 
that does not leave women and girls out, is something that you 
can invest in a little bit more.
    Ms. Omar. Thank you so much.
    Ms. Sherif, does the United States provide enough 
assistance for education to refugees and displaced children, 
and what more could we be doing? As you know, I was a child in 
a refugee camp for 4 years and missed the opportunity to be 
educated in those 4 years.
    Ms. Sherif, are you there?
    Ms. Sherif. Yes. Yes. Yes. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Hold 
on. Sorry. Sorry. I am here.
    Ms. Omar. OK. Did you hear the question or do you want me 
to repeat it?
    Ms. Sherif. Please repeat it. I'm so sorry.
    Ms. Omar. I was asking if you thought the United States 
provides enough assistance for education to refugees and 
displaced children, and what more could we be doing.
    As you probably know, I was a child in a refugee camp in 
Kenya for 4 years and missed the opportunity to be fully 
educated while I was there.
    Ms. Sherif. Yes. We have--we did a special COVID-19 
response where Kenya was included because they host a large 
number of refugees. So they have definitely provided support 
directly to Kenya.
    We have also worked very closely with the U.S. in Burkina 
Faso, in Cameroon, and many other places. And the U.S., 
especially--the way the U.S. provided money to ECW--Education 
Cannot Wait--is one is from our trust fund in New York, and 
then they provide money in country because you have the USAID 
missions in country.
    So they're always part of the Education Cannot Wait's 
programs. And so across the Sahel and in Kenya and refugee 
education. PRM has been very strong in refugee education.
    So yes, my answer is yes. And the U.S. is often very 
flexible, very fast, very speedy.
    Ms. Omar. All right. Thank you so much. My time has 
expired, and I will now recognize Mr. Bera for 5 minutes.
    Mr. Bera. Thank you, Madam Chair.
    Let me direct the first question to Mr. Kaufman. You know, 
I'm still on faculty at the University of California Davis and 
I've had conversations with both my chancellor but also the 
University of California system in general, and have thought 
about the utility of how we take the talents that we have 
within our university system but make that accessible to the 
rest of the world, whether that's, you know, in the farming 
agriculture sector or climate change, et cetera.
    And what I've explored with them is, you know, we're able 
to interact in a virtual setting right now. Is there a way for 
us to build capacity so it's not that those students who are 
graduating now have to travel abroad and attend university, you 
know, in another country but can we in a virtual setting, and 
are there any examples where U.S. universities in a virtual 
setting are taking their talent, partnering with institutions 
in Africa and various countries, and doing some of that online 
training, which may, ultimately, lead to their students 
studying in the United States or elsewhere? And can we do that 
in low cost way that takes the talent and builds capacity in 
some of these countries?
    Mr. Kaufman, maybe the question is for you.
    Mr. Kaufman. Yes. Thank you. I appreciate it.
    First of all, a few things. I think that an online support 
both for teacher training and for students is a super-efficient 
and effective way to expand opportunities. It's expensive to 
bring people and travel around the world. So I think there's 
more we can do that.
    And if you're looking at ways to help share the expertise 
of UC Davis faculty and students, then we need it, and I think 
schools all around the continent need it.
    The truth is, in a place like Somaliland and many other 
fragile settings we do not yet have the cadre of qualified 
teachers who are proficient in contemporary pedagogical 
strategies.
    So until we bring them up to speed through support with 
different programs that you and others have mentioned, we're 
going to struggle to promote learning among kids.
    So the more support we can get from people like your 
colleagues and students would be great and the more we can 
expand digital access would be really helpful.
    And if I can, just a super quick response to Representative 
Ilhan Omar's question about does the U.S. Government do enough.
    The answer is no. I'm grateful for all the support of the 
U.S. Government and you've done a lot. The U.S. Government has 
made opportunities possible that otherwise would not have 
existed.
    But we need to do more. The risks are too great, not just 
in fragile settings but for spillover that can drive violent 
extremism if we do not give people a reason to hope and other 
opportunities.
    Mr. Bera. Right. Let me ask a quick question to Ms. 
Winthrop.
    You know, one of the areas that I've done some work is 
thinking about global fragility in fragile States in Sub-
Saharan Africa and, you know, one of the best strategies is 
that investment in women and girls--you know, pregnancy 
spacing, you know, providing full reproductive access, but also 
that investment in girls education. I think you mentioned that 
in your opening Statement.
    You know, when I was in Sierra Leone a few years ago, I 
also had a chance to visit some CARE-sponsored programs that 
were targeting boys and fathers, which, I think, if we want to 
get the full capacity of girls education we also have to start 
with boys so as those girls become young women, you know, and 
those boys become young men, there's that value in that 
recognition.
    And I do not know, Ms. Winthrop, if you want to touch on 
that and how we cannot forget about educating boys.
    Dr. Winthrop. Thank you very much for the question.
    Yes. It's true that if you--educating women and girls, 
especially up through secondary education, is--has such good 
ripple effects across a community.
    But I have seen, running programs on girls education 
myself, if you really just focus on the girls and leave out the 
boys you'll have a backlash and you'll undermine your work.
    But also, certainly, our scholars we work with on girls 
education around the world are saying the next frontier is 
really to make sure that boys are brought into the conversation 
around gender equality.
    You know, it's no point in, you know, having a really 
empowered group of women if the men, their counterparts and 
peers, aren't right there beside them lockstep. So I think that 
is the next frontier for sure.
    Mr. Bera. Right. Thank you. And I see my time has expired. 
So I'll yield back.
    Ms. Omar. Thank you. I now recognize Ms. Jacobs for 5 
minutes.
    Ms. Jacobs. Thank you, Madam Vice Chair, and thank you to 
our witnesses for being here.
    I want to start with Dr. Winthrop. Thank you for talking 
about directly supporting local organizations in your 
testimony. I absolutely agree and think that we can do much 
more on this and that there are plenty of local organizations 
that the U.S. can and should support.
    So I was hoping you could highlight some successful 
examples of USAID doing this well in the education sector in 
certain African countries, and maybe also describe the issue a 
little more with governments and partners wanting to find 
funding for their solutions without the many competing 
priorities that come with donors.
    Dr. Winthrop. Thank you. Thank you very much.
    We hear a lot about this from our decades of work with 
African partners. One of the things we hear, and I'm sure 
Minister Sengeh can attest to this, is that, you know, it's 
very hard to navigate the competing donor partners--the U.S. 
Government priorities, the U.K.'s priorities, EU's priorities, 
multilaterals' priorities--and that's part of why GPE is so 
helpful because they pool everybody together, and frequently 
what we hear is that folks on the ground feel like they do not 
get a say in what the strategy really is.
    And we have heard a lot about sort of flipping--you know, 
USAID is beginning to move in this direction where they've--you 
know, rather than giving--basically, the tradition has been, 
and I think they've been mandated to do it for some time, you 
know, fund international U.S. American organizations to go 
forth and maybe then find African partners to support 
implementing.
    There are--like in Malawi, this organization CRECCOM, which 
is a community-based organization nationally across the 
country, is now getting direct funding and helping to design 
some girls education empowerment work, and it's highly, highly 
effective because they work with local tribal leaders to try to 
change gender norms, which really only they can do.
    So I really think what we're hearing and what we have been 
doing with our partners trying to flip the narrative where 
international organizations who are--have lots of expertise, 
lots of things to offer, including universities that we have 
talked about, come in behind local organizations to try to give 
the--hear what they--what their ideas are for the solution and 
try to lend global expertise, including something we hear a lot 
about are sharing across borders.
    That's a great thing for international groups to do. You 
know, what are my--you know, what are my peers in Africa doing 
or in Latin America, et cetera? And there's a--we have been 
doing a lot of exchange of innovative, scalable models that was 
mentioned before, some great, amazing strategies on expanding 
and scaling quality secondary education in the Amazon jungle, 
really useful for remote areas of Sub-Saharan Africa, for 
example.
    So that--the U.S. Government is just taking baby steps in 
this direction, in my opinion, so I would encourage it to keep 
going and lean in even more.
    Ms. Jacobs. Well, thank you. I want to move to Minister 
Sengeh.
    You know, I appreciated that you talked about the Digital 
Public Goods platform. I actually helped work on that when I 
worked at UNICEF and as the CEO of Project Connect, which is 
now part of the Giga Project, which I know you all in Sierra 
Leone are working on as well.
    But, you know, I wanted to ask you about how we can think 
about what we should be teaching these kids. You know, many 
schools in Africa still focus on the sort of old colonial rote 
memorization model.
    So it's not enough just to get bodies into schools but make 
sure we're teaching them the right thing. And even when we're 
doing the more sort of tech focus, it's often just teaching a 
specific coding language that, frankly, will be obsolete by the 
time they graduate and go into the work force.
    So how are you thinking about what skills these kids really 
need and how can we do more to invest in these kinds of 
education practices?
    Mr. Sengeh. That's an excellent question and I think this 
is also linked to, again, back to the president's vision and 
human capital development.
    In Sierra Leone, one of the things we have done, and this 
is much more difficult to do in other countries, it's changing 
the curriculum whole frame, so being able to change the civics 
curriculum, being able to change the basic education in the 
early childhood development and the secondary school 
curriculum.
    We have what we call the five C's: critical thinking, 
creativity, civics; computational thinking, and comprehension. 
If you're teaching computational thinking, then you are not 
teaching coding, which is one language. You're helping the 
child learn how to think.
    If you're thinking comprehension, you're going beyond 
literacy. Certainly, the child needs to be literate, but it's 
about whether they understand.
    And the value of education--what we teach them is that they 
should be problem solvers and they should be creative and that 
they should participate in civic life. So for us in Sierra 
Leone it's these five C's that we go with and we're thinking 
beyond just what literacy and numeracy means.
    Ms. Jacobs. Thank you.
    And, Madam Vice Chair, I yield back.
    Ms. Omar. Thank you. I now recognize Mr. Meuser for 5 
minutes.
    Mr. Meuser. Thank you, Madam Chair. Appreciate it. Thank 
you to Ranking Member Smith as well. So a very important 
subject. Glad to be a part of it.
    Africa's demographics alone, certainly, underscore the need 
to make impactful investments in African education now. The 
data shows that in the next 30 years the working population in 
Sub-Saharan Africa will--is expected to double, accounting for 
two-thirds of the world's total population growth, and Africa's 
development depends on this predominantly young and growing 
population to be as practically educated and scientifically 
educated, I guess we could say, as possible.
    So, Mr. Kaufman, I'll start with you. Thanks for being 
here. You mentioned that your school has developed a curriculum 
in coordination with local private sector employers. Certainly, 
that's done in the U.S. as well.
    Love to hear a little bit more of your creativity and 
synergies that you create on how Abaarso tailors the curriculum 
in training students to ensure students are prepared for jobs, 
entrepreneurship, and, of course, future higher education.
    So if you if you would, Mr. Kaufman, maybe elaborate some.
    Mr. Kaufman. Yes, thank you. I so appreciate you coming 
back to the Abaarso Network on that. To begin with, our 
students who go to the Abaarso School--the secondary school--
the key to making sure they're prepared for a changing, 
dynamic, and competitive global world and in order to come back 
to Somaliland and make a difference, we have to keep the 
standards as high as we would for anyone else around the world.
    We can say, well, we're in a difficult place. We're in Sub-
Saharan Africa. I'm so glad that more kids are going to school 
and that they're reading at a higher level.
    We need to keep the standard at proficiency and readiness 
to compete on the world stage, and our graduates from the 
Abaarso School are doing just that and they're coming back and 
starting businesses, working for various ministries.
    The other part of that is the liaison that we have with the 
university and our own network. So the 15 women who graduated 
and are now working in our primary schools, we have been 
watching and monitoring this year, well, how are they doing?
    Are they good teachers? Are they reliable professionals? 
And the early returns have been fantastic. They are some of our 
best and most dedicated teaching staff, and we fully expect 
that some of them will go on to lead additional schools.
    But we need to greatly expand our throughput on graduates 
from the university because unless there are more great 
teachers available, we can only expand as quickly as we can 
grow great teachers, or other partners can.
    You asked about our creativity. So when I went around and 
spoke with CEOs from around the country and asked them, who are 
you going to be hiring for--what do you need, as one quick 
example, the director of the bottling plant that owns the Coke 
franchise in Somaliland said, well, they need quality 
assessors--people who are expert in planning and processes.
    So we said, well, give us your forms, give us your tools, 
and we'll make that part of our curriculum in our school of 
management. We do not need to create a program in the abstract 
or that's theoretical. It can be specifically for their program 
or for their work force.
    Mr. Meuser. Well, you know what? You're really doing some 
great work. Congratulations, really, to all of you. It's so 
important.
    Do you do--do you offer semesters abroad and any sort of 
student exchange?
    Mr. Kaufman. We send some of our students. They get 
scholarships to go to secondary schools in the United States. 
But we also are very happy to receive students and young 
professionals who want to take a gap year or having a program 
to support and teach or learn teaching in our schools.
    We provide about three to 4 weeks of professional 
development before the school year starts with everybody in 
country. So if we have got really smart, super dedicated young 
people, we're ready to help them make a difference in our 
classrooms.
    Mr. Meuser. Yes. Well, you know what? Let us know on the 
semesters abroad opportunities. Maybe we can be helpful within 
our districts or within our State. But really, really, 
congratulations for your enthusiasm and the important work that 
all of you are doing.
    And I yield back, Madam Chair.
    Ms. Omar. Thank you. I think that concludes our first round 
of questions. I have some followup for a second round. If any 
member has or wants to do that as well please flag it for me.
    I just wanted to begin with Mr. Kaufman. Earlier, you said 
that there was more the United States could do. Can you give us 
maybe two or three examples of ways the United States could be 
more helpful in regards to investment in education?
    Mr. Kaufman. Yes. Thank you. The U.S., I think, can 
mobilize some of its partners of which it is a major 
shareholder, from different multilateral banks and government 
partners, to make sure that they're providing support to the 
most proven models that are scalable.
    I've worked in the nonprofit and humanitarian community for 
a long time and I know that a lot of inertia can buildup within 
that community, and sometimes we struggle to make creative use 
of those finances and they keep going to the same people for 
the same things to little effect.
    So I think the U.S. Government can really incentivize and 
influence how those dollars are spent so that more money can go 
to things that work and that it be scaled.
    Ms. Omar. Thank you.
    And, Dr. Winthrop, I wanted to ask you about USAID's 
distribution of textbooks and other school materials, 
especially in the context of the shift to locally driven 
programming that you talked about.
    How does USAID ensure that these materials are student 
centered, meaning available in local languages and are covering 
appropriate subjects, and how will USAID's localization 
strategy affect the provisions of these materials?
    Dr. Winthrop. That's a good question, and I'm not sure I 
have the full answer because I do not think I have a super 
great grasp on exactly what they're doing in textbook and 
materials distribution.
    But what I can tell you from what I do know from my 
experience is that, you know, while there is a general strategy 
in USAID, everything is run through the country office.
    So, you know, mother tongue instruction is definitely high 
on the list and it is one of the most effective ways of 
ensuring young people can learn to read because, often, 
children are being asked to come to school and learn in a 
language that they do not even know how to read, and I know 
USAID is very much on top of that and they are focused on 
mother tongue instruction in multiple languages.
    I wonder if you're also getting at this question of if you 
were to support local African groups and bringing the 
international community behind them, you know, what might be 
some of the new strategies that USAID should take?
    And, to me, I think, you know, folks that--partners that we 
work with on the ground, the things that they ask for are often 
very technical, like, come tell us the latest evidence on--from 
the learning sciences and how we can apply it, and less about 
how to implement rollout and understanding the contextual 
nuance of a country.
    I do think that USAID could be very helpful in coming 
behind folks on the ground, who often have more creative ideas 
of how the different assets in their communities can be put 
together to really accelerate change and not--that is, I think, 
the single biggest shift that would really be helpful because 
often the U.S. Government comes in with a solution--you're 
going to do this, et cetera.
    Ms. Omar. Thank you.
    And, Ms. Sherif, I was very interested in your point about 
COVID teaching us a valuable lesson in how to provide education 
in extremely difficult circumstances. What are some of the 
COVID-related programs that were used--that could be in use for 
other situations?
    Ms. Sherif. Yes, I think how we respond to COVID-19 depends 
on the context, and when we speak about Africa, we have the 
poorest infrastructure there to use technology because we often 
speak about the need of technology, and that works in countries 
like Lebanon where you have an infrastructure.
    But when you go to countries like Mali, Central Africa 
Republic, they do not have infrastructure even for wifi. So to 
shift, I would say, also, our resources to ensure this campus 
can build an infrastructure that allows for technology to 
respond to remote learning is going to be very, very important.
    You know, you have to flesh out a little bit of the 
resource distribution on the globe, to be honest, because you 
go into a place--and I've been to camps and IDP camps in places 
like Mali or Burkina Faso.
    I mean, they do not even have--they do not even have 
electricity. So now how do you install wifi? How do you move on 
to technological solutions?
    We're dealing with very, very primordial situations where 
there is nothing available. So not always look at technology as 
the only answer.
    Ms. Omar. Thank you.
    Ms. Sherif. That's No. 1. One more thing I would like to 
say--what is going to be very important and you see a very 
strong U.S. leadership here, and the U.S. has two big interests 
in the kind of Administration especially--a strong United 
Nations and strong delivery in the education sector.
    Now, as a U.N. fund, we are a living example of how we can 
cap bureaucracy and show for more accountability, and when we 
delivered in COVID-19, the moment the pandemic was declared we 
actually picked up Martin Luther King's quote, the fears are 
larger now and we moved faster than most in delivering a 
response.
    So I would say more funding and trust that our 
entrepreneurship and our less bureaucracy actually deliver 
results on the ground, bringing all actors together and in the 
competition and deliver real results.
    Ms. Omar. I see that we are out of time.
    I do not see any other members who want to ask questions. 
And before I adjourn, I wanted to see if you all can do 1 
minute of closing remarks and we will start with Minister 
Sengeh.
    Mr. Sengeh. Thank you very much. I mean, I do think, as I 
said, our most powerful weapon is not a silver bullet to 
solving the world's intractable problems is public education.
    Quality public education is our only way of ensuring that 
we achieve inclusion, we are better prepared to face pandemics 
of the future, and that we can help our children learn what 
they need to learn to fulfill their human potential, to 
participate in the global economy, and also to have great civic 
life, and that's what we have to do is support quality public 
education everywhere.
    Thank you.
    Ms. Omar. Thank you. Mr. Kaufman?
    Mr. Kaufman. Thank you. Yes.
    First, I want to respond really quickly to Ms. Jacobs' 
question about what should we teach in class. I talked a lot 
about the relationship between the private sector and schools, 
and there's a great study that I've been carrying around for 7 
years with--from McKinsey that noted that while there's 800 
million unemployed youth, the vast majority of private sector 
companies or at least close to 50 percent of them say that they 
cannot find people--young people--who are qualified for entry 
level jobs. That disconnect is devastating and driving youth 
unemployment.
    So one of my big takeaways is continue to recognize that 
schools are more than just buildings. We need to make them part 
of communities, part of a dynamic economic system and 
infrastructure, and then we have to incentivize and generate 
demand and ensure good quality.
    Invest in the programs that have evidence of success, 
whether it's Abaarso or anyone else.
    Thank you.
    Ms. Omar. Dr. Winthrop?
    Dr. Winthrop. Well, I would just second both what Minister 
Sengeh and Mr. Kaufman said. I think those are great.
    I agree with all of it, and I think the final thing I would 
urge the committee to think about is, you know, there are lots 
of good examples--someone asked about scalable examples of what 
works--that are out there from different parts of the world 
that could--both within Sub-Saharan Africa but from outside 
Sub-Saharan Africa that could really be applied to effectively 
accelerate the pace of change and much more quickly close these 
big inequality gaps, part of which Mr. Kaufman referenced.
    And, to me, this idea of leapfrogging at the core is to 
really think creatively about how to bring, whether it's 
employers to bear, technology companies to bear, communities to 
bear, all in this effort of educating kids.
    We have seen really effective models of that being done, 
and I agree that the opening the mind and then investing in 
scaling is the best way to get the job done.
    Ms. Omar. Thank you.
    Ms. Sherif?
    Ms. Sherif. Thank you very much.
    Well, I would like to just lift up one incredible program 
where USAID has really played an instrumental role, and that is 
the first ever Refugee Education Response Plan in Uganda when 
you had refugees coming from South Sudan.
    And the USAID played an instrumental role in making it one 
of the successful investments of Education Cannot Wait and that 
has continued throughout the Sahel and other countries.
    You have incredibly strong USAID officers on the ground. 
They are there to determine strategic focus, moving and shaking 
everyone else to work together, and I think that besides the 
strategic contribution--the Uganda Refugee Response Plan is a 
great example in time--is financing and bring in the private 
sector.
    Private sector, together with governmental resources, can 
make that difference. It's not impossible. Strong people, 
financing, private sector, and we can turn the tide around.
    Nothing is impossible. We can do it.
    Ms. Omar. I just want to thank all of our panelists and our 
colleagues for participating in this wonderful discussion 
today.
    I want to thank Chairwoman Karen Bass and Ranking Member 
Smith. And, you know, my father used to say education is the 
greatest equalizer, and if we want to create a more equitable 
world we have to make sure that we're investing in the 
education and the well-being of every child in every corner of 
the world.
    So thank you all. This meeting is adjourned.
    [Whereupon, at 11:27 a.m., the committee was adjourned.]

                                APPENDIX
                                
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                  OPENING STATEMENT FROM CHAIRMAN BASS
                  
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             ADDITIONAL MATERIALS SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD
             
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            RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD
            
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