African evidence informs global dialogue on leadership for education transformation
At UNESCO IIEP’s Strategic Debate, the African Centre for School Leadership contributed evidence from seven African countries to a global conversation on leadership as a driver of education transformation.
Paris, France, 30 June 2026 – As education systems around the world seek to translate ambitious policies into improved learning outcomes, strengthening leadership is emerging as the decisive link between policy and implementation. This message featured prominently at UNESCO’s International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) Strategic Debate on Strengthening System Leadership for Implementation and Change, where the African Centre for School Leadership (ACSL) brought comparative findings from seven African countries into a global dialogue on how education systems can strengthen implementation and deliver meaningful change.
Drawing on comparative school leadership mapping across Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Uganda, ACSL — represented at the debate by Mamadou Lamine Sow, Policy Strategic Advisor — highlighted a consistent finding: while many countries have established education policies and leadership frameworks, implementation continues to be constrained where leadership is developed through fragmented initiatives rather than coherent national systems that connect policy, institutions and practice.
Structured around four strategic questions, the debate explored how education systems can strengthen implementation, the competencies policymakers require to lead reform, the role of middle-tier leadership in driving improvement, and how leadership development can be sustained over time. Presenting findings from UNESCO’s Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report, its Director, Manos Antoninis, emphasised that effective implementation depends on strengthening leadership across every level of the education system, pointing to instructional leadership, stronger use of learning data, empowered middle-tier structures and sustained professional development as critical enablers of real gains in the classroom.
Regional perspectives from Latin America, East Asia and the Pacific reinforced these priorities, highlighting distributed leadership, stronger institutional capacity, collaborative decision-making, gender-responsive leadership and sustained investment in leaders’ growth. Sonia Parag, Minister of Education of Guyana, pointed to her country’s recent launch of the National Education Leadership Academy, established to strengthen the professional development of education leaders at every level, alongside an EMIS-linked leadership dashboard giving system and school leaders real-time data to guide decisions and target support where it is most needed.
These global priorities resonate strongly with ACSL’s evidence from across Africa. The mapping shows that school leaders are increasingly expected to improve teaching quality, support teachers, promote inclusion, engage communities, strengthen accountability and use evidence to drive school improvement. Yet these responsibilities are often not matched by coherent professional preparation, structured induction, continuous professional development or sustained institutional support — underlining why embedding leadership within education sector planning, human resource systems, inspection and accountability frameworks is essential to translating policy into improved learning outcomes.
“School leadership should not be viewed as an administrative function but as a strategic driver of education system transformation. When leadership standards, professional preparation, continuous development, evidence and accountability are aligned, countries are better positioned to translate policy ambition into meaningful improvements in teaching and learning,” said Mamadou Lamine Sow, ACSL Policy Strategic Advisor.
The debate demonstrated that Africa’s experience is increasingly informing global thinking on how stronger leadership can accelerate education transformation, and reaffirmed the value of nationally owned leadership systems that equip leaders at every level with the competencies, support and evidence needed to lead sustainable change. This aligns closely with the African Union’s Continental Education Strategy for Africa (CESA 2026–2035), which identifies effective leadership, institutional capacity and evidence-informed policymaking as essential to improving education quality across the continent.
It also builds on a deepening continental recognition of school leadership over the past year. The 2025 ADEA Triennale in Accra placed school leadership among the pillars of education transformation. In April 2026, the 1st International Conference of the Kenya Education Management Institute in Nairobi convened ministers and senior technical officials around ACSL’s continental mapping findings, and the following month, ministers of education meeting in Gaborone under the Africa Federation of Teaching Regulatory Authorities committed in their communiqué to recognising school leadership as a distinct professional track. The IIEP Strategic Debate extends this momentum into a global policy planning forum.
The conversation does not end with global dialogue. In Tanzania, the upcoming Education Leadership Week will launch the country’s first School Leadership Mapping Report, coordinate national action on school leadership and build consensus on a shared reform agenda — demonstrating how evidence can move beyond dialogue to drive lasting education transformation.