The African Centre for School Leadership (ACSL), UNESCO IIEP, and the Learning Generation Initiative (LGI) of the Education Development Center (EDC) co-hosted Working Group 4 on School Leadership and Teacher Professional Development at the 2026 Yidan Prize Conference in Dakar, Senegal, on 30th June 2026. The session brought together policymakers, researchers, and practitioners to examine what it takes to move school leadership and teacher development from isolated interventions to sustainable, system-wide change across Africa.
Opening the session, Albert Nsengiyumva, Executive Secretary of ADEA and co-host representing ACSL, framed the central challenge directly: “Why do good policies so rarely make it into classrooms?” He situated the working group within the accountability agenda established at the 2025 ADEA Triennale in Accra — where African governments committed to a decade of implementation, not more frameworks — and argued that the answer to the implementation gap lives in two places: the quality of the person leading the school, and the quality of support available to the teachers inside it.
He drew on ACSL’s recently completed continental mapping of school leadership — the most comprehensive evidence synthesis conducted at this scale — to ground the discussion. Among its most striking findings: 83 per cent of researchers examined school leadership only as part of broader education studies, not as a dedicated field of inquiry. The result is that governments are making consequential decisions about leadership policy in a near-vacuum of relevant evidence. ACSL’s response has been concrete: USD 865,000 committed to 39 research grantees across 14 countries, organised around eight thematic priorities including leadership preparation pathways, gender equity in leadership, and school leadership in crisis contexts.
The first panel, moderated by Chinedu Anarado, ACSL Strategic Advocacy and Communication Advisor, drew insights Jihane Lamoure of UNESCO IIEP, Dr. Michael Boakye Yiadom of the Institute of Education Planning and Administration (IEPA) in Ghana and Jocelyn Cirezi, ACSL Strategic Education Advisor. The discussion converged on a distinction that ran through the entire session: Africa does not have a shortage of school leadership training programmes. It has a shortage of school leadership systems. Panelists identified the critical difference — programmes end when funding cycles close; systems endure because they are embedded in national policy, ministry structures, career pathways, and domestic budgets. Key priorities included developing clear competency frameworks and career pathways for school leaders; institutionalising coaching and mentoring through district and sector structures rather than as project add-ons; ensuring appointments to school leadership roles are based on demonstrated competencies rather than seniority; and investing in monitoring, evaluation, and learning systems that generate evidence policymakers can act on. The panel also stressed that leadership development must embed principles of inclusion and equity from the outset — including gender-responsive leadership and attention to the needs of diverse and underserved contexts.
The second panel, moderated by Olawale Samuel of EDC, featured Patrick Nkenge, Deputy Team Lead from the Regional Teacher Initative in Africa (RTIA), Deborah Kimathi of the Learning Generation Initiative and Youssouf Ouattara, Officer in Charge of the Teaching and Learning Cluster, Education Sector, UNESCO Regional Office for West Africa. The discussion centred on a recurring failure in teacher professional development across the continent: programmes designed without teachers, without alignment to classroom realities, and without the involvement of middle-tier structures do not scale — and do not last. Panelists called for co-construction of TPD programmes through inclusive partnerships involving governments, teacher education institutions, schools, researchers, development partners, and teachers themselves. Strengthening district and regional structures as the engine of TPD coordination, mentoring, and monitoring emerged as a critical enabling condition, alongside the systematic use of data to identify and target actual teacher needs rather than delivering standardised programmes regardless of context.
Across both panels, one conviction held: school leadership and teacher professional development must be treated as strategic national investments embedded in ministry systems and domestic budgets — not as donor-funded initiatives with a project end date. The two themes are not separate policy levers. A teacher’s classroom practice is shaped by the quality of leadership around them. A school leader’s impact on learning outcomes is mediated entirely by how well they support, develop, and challenge the teachers in their school. Investment in one without the other leaves the system incomplete.
The outcomes of Working Group 4 feed directly into the continental school leadership agenda that ACSL — through its consortium partners ADEA, VVOB, ESSA, and FAWE — is advancing across Africa. A full summary of the session’s findings and recommendations were shared in plenary. The conversation continues at FLEX 2026 in Lilongwe, where peer accountability on education commitments moves from aspiration to scorecard.
