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• By 2050, Africa will be home to a billion children. African States have committed to “reap this demographic dividend” by realising the right of all children to develop to their full potential.

• But sub-Saharan Africa is falling behind in achieving the SDGs, and COVID-19 has reversed previous gains and deepened poverty, social exclusion and access to critical services.

• To address these challenges, national education systems must strengthen the civic and political agency of every child to ensure a post-COVID recovery and get the region back on track to achieving the SDGs.

The CSTL Policy Framework provides a roadmap for Member States to strengthen their educational ecosystems as vehicles for developing human capital. The complementary CYAF provides a roadmap for education for agency and is being tested in 40 schools in four SADC Member States.

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The immediate cause of some of the persistent development problems SADC Member States are faced with is risky and unsustainable behaviour by young people.

The education sector has provided teaching Life Skills, CSE and environmental studies to inform learners with a view to changing their behaviour. However, this has not resulted in the required change in behaviour among the growing young population. The reasons are many, but in summary, many vulnerable children still do not access and complete school because of social, economic and health-related barriers, and most children and youth are not empowered to act on the information provided. They are not acquiring the skills and competencies and afforded the opportunities to apply their learnt knowledge—as is required of a 21st century education for sustainable development—to change their behaviour.

While the CSTL Policy Framework provides detailed guidance on the partners and social and economic services and support that should be provided to address social and economic barriers to inclusion, participation and retention, it does not provide guidance on what is required to develop and deliver quality, relevant education to develop children’s agency. The complementary Child and Youth Agency Framework (CYAF) has therefore been developed to address this gap.

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Teachers cannot, nor are expected to, provide the services, support and teaching necessary for developing agency; rather, this is the responsibility of a range of role players from whom children learn and who are responsible for providing care, support and services to them. Children and youth are empowered and enabled—or disempowered and dis-enabled—to acquire and apply knowledge to change their behaviour from the following co-educators who make up an educational ecosystem for developing agency:

• Their caregivers and families
• Their friends and peers
• Their teachers
• The media
• Community, religious and political leaders
• Service providers, such as healthcare and social workers
• NGOs and development partner

However, many co-educators are unable to provide the support and continuing education and opportunities children need because of their own circumstances, such as poverty, harmful traditional and religious values and practices, and lack of knowledge, support and resources.

To develop agency of a growing youthful population, national educational ecosystems must be strengthened to ensure all co-educators understand their role and are mandated and supported to provide the required support, education and opportunities. This requires the strengthening of an enabling system made up of:

• Laws, policies and strategies that mandate and enable co-educators, and which do not create legal barriers to children and youth acting responsibly
• Programmes at scale to provide co-educators with the support they need to fulfil their roles and that secure the provision of quality education for agency (information, skills, competencies and opportunities) facilitated through a universalised network of CSTL schools.

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