Africa’s education and training systems continue to face persistent challenges in access, equity, quality, and relevance, despite notable progress in recent years. An estimated 20% of children aged 6–11 are out of school, increasing to 33% for those aged 12–14, and about 60% of youth aged 15–17 remain excluded from education, with girls disproportionately affected. Additionally, a shortage of qualified teachers, uneven teacher distribution, and limited opportunities for continuous professional development undermine education quality and learning outcomes.
Addressing these challenges requires innovative, scalable, and cost-effective solutions tailored to Africa’s context and sustainably integrated into government-led systems. Innovations must tackle issues of access, relevance, and learning quality — including strengthening teacher training, deployment, and classroom practice.
In response, the African Union established the Innovating Education in Africa (IEA) program in 2018 to identify, promote, and support the systemic adoption of impactful education innovations across the continent. The program is designed to generate, validate, and scale solutions to persistent education and training challenges. Since its launch, IEA has engaged over 1,500 education stakeholders, promoted 180 innovations, and provided up to USD 1 million in technical and financial support to mainstream outstanding solutions within public education systems.
IEA Call
The AU Innovating Education in Africa Call invites innovators to propose practical education innovations with the potential for sustainability, scalability and replication on a wide scale. We are looking to mobilize continental education innovators to rethink solutions that will help address education and skills development challenges in Africa.
We aim to create change by:
Incentivizing innovators to identify major education and skills development challenges in Africa;
Sourcing innovative ideas and solutions to those challenges for adoption replication and scale-up; and
Encouraging innovation partnerships involving education and training institutions, governments, and other key stakeholders.
Eligibility Criteria
Applications will be accepted from citizens of AU Member States leading an organization that meets the following criteria.
Successfully implementing an education innovation in one or more AU Member States with verifiable outcomes. An education innovation refers to a product or service being offered by an organization which uses a relatively distinct approach—with respect to the African context—in addressing challenges in the education system.
Legally registered and licensed to operate in an AU Member State.
Directly responsible for the implementation and management of the innovation, i.e., not acting as an intermediary.
Benefits
Successful applicants will benefit from one or more of the following:
Three winners will receive grants of up to 50,000 USD to strengthen the interoperability of innovations with public education systems while collecting evidence on effectiveness.
Promotion of Innovation to AU Member States and Development Partners, including publication in the Africa Education Innovations Handbook 2025.
Certificate of recognition from the Commissioner of Education, Science, Technology, and Innovation of the African Union.
Application Procedure
Submissions should be made online in English or French at this link , with the following information.
Brief statement of the challenge being addressed (100 words).
Description of the innovation, specifically how it functions, the implementation approach, and revenue model (less than 500 words).
Report of the performance and outcomes of the innovation (less than 500 words).
Documentation of business registration and license of operation.
Please note that an organization may submit no more than one innovation; failure to comply will lead to disqualification. Recipients of grants under the IEA program in the past are not eligible to apply.
Evaluation and selection process
Submissions will undergo the following process
i. Eligibility Check
The longlist of eligible innovations
1st – 31st July 2025
ii Technical review and Shortlisting
50 promising innovations and 15 finalists for Early Pitch are selected.
1 August -30th August 2025
iii Early Pitch (Virtual)
10 finalists for Final Pitch are selected
September 2025
iv Final Pitch (TBC)
Innovations are selected and awarded grants
September 2025
Deadline for submissions: 30 JUNE 2025 by 23:00 (GMT). Inquiries may be sent to [email protected]
