The ALESBA is a tool which can guide governments, civil society organisations, universities and other stakeholders (e.g., donors, the private sector, etc.) in the complex task of building sustainable adult education systems that can deliver ALE services to youth and adults in Africa. This includes ALE services such as adult literacy, non-formal skills training (agricultural, TVET, etc.), business skills training, life skills training, etc. depending on the context and needs in each country.

The conceptual framework at the heart of the ALESBA provides a holistic view of an ALE system. It identifies four system elements and 20 system building blocks within a generic systems framework applicable to all countries. The approach is implemented across five phases and includes all stakeholders involved in the implementation of ALE services, programmes and projects. The ALESBA can be implemented at any stage of system building. This applies to countries that want to improve their existing systems of ALE service delivery or wants to redesign the services and system completely.

The ALESBA was developed though an action learning process in the East/Horn of Africa region over the course of 6 years and has since been adopted by more than 10 countries in the Africa region. The approach is captured in a series of six booklets. It assists countries to build consensus among stakeholders and start the journey to assess the status of their current ALE system (from both a qualitative perspective and with a scoring tool), diagnose the challenges and blockages in the system to consider alternatives for redesigning/improving the system so that the new system can be piloted and tested before reviewing it for up-scaling at potentially national level.

Read more about the ALESBA by downloading the ALESBA booklets here:

• Introduction to the Approach and Toolkit
• Phase One – Consensus Building
• Phase Two – Assessment and Diagnosis
• Phase Three – Alternatives Analysis and Design
• Phase Four – Implement and Test
• Phase Five – Review, Adjust and Up-scale