Middle East and North Africa
Since 2004 we have become more involved in the Middle East and North Africa as part of the G8 / BMENA (Broader Middle East and North Africa) process to help support education reform in the Middle East and North Africa. Since that time we have been working with the Foreign Office, the Department for International Development and the British Council to provide a more joined up UK approach to supporting reform in the region.
Education ministers meet annually to provide a platform for high level dialogue on the challenges we all face in trying to deliver an education system that meet the needs of globalisation and changing economies. G8/BMENA workshops are also held throughout the year to look at particular issues of concern to the Middle East North Africa. These workshops provide an opportunity for senior government officials and experts to look at how to implement change and exchange expertise and good practice. Issues covered so far have included vocational education, literacy and numeracy, information technology, development and planning in schools and quality assurance in higher education.
Our main engagement is through policy dialogue and facilitating institutional partnership activity. Many UK universities, colleges and schools already have links with the region and this is likely to continue as countries in the Middle East and North Africa become interested in sharing our experience of education reform and more and more countries look to develop partnership activity with UK universities and colleges. A particularly successful partnership programme is the UK/Iraq Rawabit Programme where a consortium of UK Further Education and vocational institutions is working with a consortium of Iraqi colleges and the Iraqi Foundation for Technical Education on a programme of capacity building and support to help rebuild the vocational education system in Iraq. A key to the success of the programme is that has been designed jointly with Iraq and was in response to needs identified by Iraq. This is an important element of our work with the region; it is about working in partnership and responding to needs articulated by the region.
