North Africa

The North Africa regional office coordinates the projects of Morocco and Tunisia, and has been based in Tunis since early 2019. The projects in both countries aim at accompanying the development, the assessment and the ongoing improvement of national policies and strategies for literacy and adult education. The projects partner with various categories of stakeholders, at the macro, meso and micro levels. Those stakeholders include public institutions in charge of the implementation of policies/strategies, civil society organisations (NGOs and networks), parapublic bodies, local collectivities, and private sector companies that believe Education for All (EFA) and lifelong learning is a national priority and that therefore they can be part of its achievement.

In Morocco, DVV International has been in operation since 2008. It has kept assisting the public institutions which host the fight against illiteracy and provide programmes that take the issue of illiteracy to the next level: embracing adult education and EFA as a whole, to better align with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 4 in particular). It has created a network of  "Universities for All" (Univiersités pour tous), following the concept of the German adult education centres (Volkshochschulen) and has spread the use of innovative approaches to literacy in particular and non-formal adult education in general over a number of civil society organisations.

In Tunisia, in early 2019, DVV International initiated support for the Direction for Adult Education of the Tunisian Ministry of Social Affairs in order to prioritise the implementation of the actions of its ambitious national strategy for literacy, non-formal education and adult education (2017-2027). It has also partnered with civil society organisations to pilot innovative projects that may, in turn, nurture the actions of DAEL. In addition, the Tunisia office has begun a collaborative research project in partnership with a Higher Institute of Education and Continuous Training (ISEFC) which is intended to become the umbrella organisation for all the work in Tunisia as regards formulation of concepts, approaches, and methodologies for adult non-formal education.