In many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, schools do not operate in stable environments; they operate in uncertainty. A school year might begin with optimism and structure, only to be interrupted by floods, conflict, or a public health emergency. Yet across Global Partnership for Education (GPE) partner countries in Africa, something more complex is unfolding than repeated disruption. Education systems are not just reacting, they are adapting, improvising, and, in some cases, transforming.
In this blog, we share key insights from a desk review report that examined how GPE partner countries in Africa understand and operationalize education system resilience, the types of disruptions they face, and the strategies they use to sustain learning. Drawing on education policy documents and a wide range of academic and grey literature, the report offers a unique cross-country perspective on what it takes to keep education systems functioning amid constant change.
This is where education system resilience (ESR) becomes more than a technical concept. It becomes a lens for understanding how learning continues against the odds and why it sometimes does not.
Resilience looks different depending on where you stand
One of the most striking insights from the study is that there is no single, shared definition of resilience. Instead, countries interpret it through their lived realities.
In countries frequently hit by climate disasters, resilience often looks like preparedness—building safer schools, integrating disaster risk reduction into curricula, and training teachers to respond to emergencies. In places recovering from epidemics, it shows up as the ability to switch quickly to radio, print, or digital learning when classrooms close.
In conflict-affected settings, resilience takes on a different meaning altogether. It becomes deeply local. Communities step in where formal systems falter, organizing learning spaces, mobilizing volunteer teachers, and keeping education going even when the state cannot. In these contexts, resilience is less about systems “bouncing back” and more about communities holding things together.
This diversity of perspectives challenges any one-size-fits-all approach. It also raises an important question: if resilience looks different everywhere, how do we design policies that truly respond to context?
Disruption is rarely singular – it’s layered
Another key insight is that education systems are not dealing with isolated shocks, but overlapping crises.
A drought does not just damage school infrastructure; it affects livelihoods, pushes children into labour, and increases dropout rates. Conflict not only closes schools; it displaces families, strains host communities, and disrupts entire education systems across borders. Public health crises like COVID-19 expose digital divides and deepen existing inequalities.
For example, countries like Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Djibouti face droughts and erratic rainfall, causing school closures, food insecurity, displacement, and psychosocial stress, particularly among rural and pastoral communities.
What emerges is a picture of a “polycrisis” in which climate, conflict, poverty, and health emergencies interact and reinforce one another. The result is not just a temporary interruption, but a cumulative erosion of learning outcomes, system capacity, and equity. Moreover, it is the most vulnerable learners, such as girls, children with disabilities, and those in rural or conflict-affected areas who bear the greatest burden.
If disruption is inevitable, then the real question becomes: can learning continue?
Across GPE partner countries, some of the most promising practices focus on this very challenge. During COVID-19, countries rapidly expanded distance learning through radio, television, and online platforms. While access was uneven, these efforts marked a shift toward more flexible education systems. Countries like Madagascar and the Gambia also use distance learning tools to support learning continuity in the face of adverse climatic events. But resilience is not just about technology. It is also about teachers: how prepared they are to adapt, support learners through uncertainty, and shift between teaching modalities. It is about curricula that reflect real-world risks, from climate change to conflict, and it is about planning, having contingency systems in place before a crisis hits.
In this sense, resilience is less about responding to emergencies and more about embedding flexibility into the system itself.
Communities and equity are at the heart of resilience
One of the quieter but still powerful themes emerging from the study is the role of communities.
In fragile and conflict-affected contexts, community actors, including parents, local leaders, and civil society, are often the backbone of education continuity. They manage schools, mobilize resources, and create informal systems of support when formal structures break down. In Liberia, community participation and local leadership both played a key role in restoring educational services following conflict, the Ebola outbreak, and repeated infrastructural shocks.
Even in more stable settings, community engagement strengthens accountability, supports vulnerable learners, and anchors education systems in local realities. Yet, this role is not always formally recognized or supported in policy. Bridging this gap could be key to building more grounded and sustainable resilience strategies. At the same time, it is precisely where policy recognition matters most. When communities are formally supported, as seen in Sierra Leone’s re-entry programs for pregnant girls, targeted policies can transform informal resilience into lasting systems change.
Resilience is often framed in terms of systems, policies, infrastructure, and planning. However, the study makes it clear that resilience is also about considering who gets left behind.
Gender inequality, poverty, and marginalization consistently shape who can continue learning during disruptions. Girls face increased risks of early marriage and dropout. Children from poorer households struggle with access to remote learning, while learners with disabilities are often excluded.
Sierra Leone’s approach illustrates this broader challenge, beyond re-entry programs for pregnant girls, the country has pursued targeted policies for social protection measures and inclusive education initiatives.
So why does it matter?
Without resilience, progress in education remains fragile. Years of investment in access and quality can be undone by a single crisis. In regions where disruptions are frequent, the cost of not building resilience is simply too high.
The study also offers a more hopeful perspective. Across GPE partner countries in Africa, there is clear momentum and meaningful efforts to integrate resilience into planning, invest in adaptive systems, and learn from past crises.
What is emerging is not a perfect model, but a growing body of practice. One that shows resilience is possible when it is context-driven, inclusive, and embedded across the system.
Looking ahead: from coping to transformation
If there is one takeaway from this study, it is that resilience cannot remain a reactive agenda. Too often, systems are designed to cope with the last crisis rather than prepare for the next.
Looking ahead, the challenge—and opportunity—is to shift from short-term responses to long-term transformation. This means embedding resilience into the core of education planning, not as an add-on, but as a guiding principle. It means investing not only in infrastructure and technology, but also in people, teachers, communities, and learners, who ultimately carry systems through disruption. It means prioritizing equity so that resilience efforts do not reinforce existing gaps but instead close them.
There is no single pathway to building resilient education systems. However, the experiences across GPE partner countries in Africa show that progress is possible when solutions are grounded in context, informed by evidence, and driven by collaboration.
As part of the Lake Victoria Improved Water Level Management through Advanced Modelling (LIVWA) Project, newly developed tools were unveiled during a dissemination workshop hosted by the College of Engineering, Design, Art and Technology (CEDAT) on August 26th, 2026. The project seeks to develop advanced hydrological and climate models to enhance water level management in Lake Victoria, East Africa’s largest freshwater resource.
The tools were designed to integrate remote sensing and reanalysis climate datasets with advanced hydrological modeling, enabling researchers and policymakers to better predict fluctuations in water levels in the lake. By combining historical data with AI and Machine Learning forecasting, the models aim to provide actionable insights for sustainable water resource management. Click here for details
Makerere University School of Public Health (MakSPH), through the Africa-Europe Cluster of Research Excellence (CoRE) for Preparedness and Response to Pandemics and Shocks, has shared findings from its study of Uganda’s Mpox response with stakeholders in Kasese, Amuru, Nakasongola and Mayuge districts to strengthen district preparedness for future outbreaks.
The Africa-Europe CoRE is a partnership co-led by MakSPH and the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters at UCLouvain, Belgium. It brings together universities in Africa and Europe to strengthen research, training and preparedness for pandemics and other public health shocks.
The district-level dissemination meetings, held from 10 to 14 August 2026, brought together more than 100 local government, health and security officials, Village Health Teams, implementing partners and community representatives. The meetings enabled stakeholders to validate the district-level findings, identify practical actions and provide feedback for the study’s final analysis and national dissemination.
Mr. Philliam Jabim shares the Mpox response study findings with participants during the dissemination meeting in Nakasongola District on 12 August 2026.
Uganda confirmed its first two Mpox cases on 24 July 2024 at Bwera Hospital in Kasese District. The Ministry of Health declared an outbreak on 2 August 2024. As documented in the study, the response involved health workers, communities, local governments, security agencies, political leaders, and implementing partners.
In response to the outbreak, a MakSPH research team led by Prof. Rhoda Wanyenze, Dr. Rawlance Ndejjo, Dr. Steven Kabwama and Mr. Douglas Bulafu conducted a study in May 2025 to assess Uganda’s Mpox response, including its policies, interventions, strategies and challenges, and generate lessons to inform recovery and strengthen preparedness for future public health emergencies.
Using purposive sampling, the research team conducted 20 key informant interviews and five focus group discussions in each of the four districts, drawing perspectives from western Uganda in Kasese, northern Uganda in Amuru, central Uganda in Nakasongola and eastern Uganda in Mayuge.
Participants and the MakSPH research team at the Mpox response study dissemination meeting in Nakasongola District on 12 August 2026.
The study, titled Assessment of the Mpox Response in Uganda: Documenting Challenges, Lessons and Innovations to Strengthen Emergency Preparedness and Response Capacities, was funded by the Government of Uganda through the Makerere UniversityResearch and Innovation Fund (Mak-RIF).
“This study is helping us move beyond recounting the Mpox response to identifying the actions that districts and national partners can take before the next outbreak. By validating the findings with stakeholders who led and experienced the response, we are ensuring that the evidence reflects local realities and can inform stronger surveillance, risk communication, coordination and community engagement,” said Mr. Bulafu, who led the MakSPH team during the dissemination meeting in Amuru.
Mr. Douglas Bulafu engages participants during the Mpox response study dissemination meeting in Amuru District on 10 August 2026.
In Amuru, the 10 August meeting brought together over 25 stakeholders from the district health team, political leadership, security agencies, Village Health Teams, implementing partners and the community. On the same day, a second MakSPH team, led by Mr. Keneth Sebukeera and Mr. Filimin Niyongabo, convened stakeholders in Kasese for a parallel validation meeting. The consultations then continued in Nakasongola on 12 August and concluded in Mayuge on 14 August, extending the study’s engagement across all four districts.
Across the districts, stakeholders said the results reflected their experience during the outbreak. They pointed to strengths in leadership, coordination, community engagement and partner support, while also describing gaps in documentation, logistics, diagnostic access, staffing, risk communication, public trust and continuity of essential health services.
They also noted inconsistent implementation of the World Health Organization (WHO) 7-1-7 target, which calls for detecting a suspected outbreak within seven days, notifying public health authorities within one day and completing early response actions within seven days.
The MakSPH research team, led by Mr. Keneth Sebukeera and Mr. Filimin Niyongabo, with participants during the Mpox response study dissemination meeting in Kasese District on 10 August 2026.
In Kasese, stakeholders highlighted gaps in documentation, financial and logistical resources, and human resources. They identified Village Health Teams and grassroots, religious and cultural leaders as important resources for community surveillance and risk communication. They called for stronger collaboration between technical and non-technical leaders, engagement with traditional healers, greater use of local radio for public sensitisation, and better facilitation of district epidemic response teams to reach distant communities.
Amuru participants called for proactive preparedness in the border district, citing misinformation and rumours as barriers to risk communication. They urged timely, accurate information from health workers and other authorities; training in disease surveillance and grant writing to strengthen capacity and resource mobilisation; and compassionate care, psychosocial support and community awareness to reduce stigma and support survivor reintegration.
During the meeting in Nakasongola, stakeholders identified Community Health Workers and Community Health Extension Workers as potential resources for strengthening community surveillance and addressing workforce shortages. Given the district’s position around Lake Kyoga and along the Kampala-South Sudan transit corridor, they also called for stronger documentation, note-taking and reporting, accurate real-time information, closer communication with the Ministry of Health, and collaboration among technical, political, religious and community leaders.
Ms. Eunice Vivian Asingo, Senior Nursing Officer at Nakasongola Health Centre IV, contributes to the discussion during the Mpox response study dissemination meeting in Nakasongola District on 12 August 2026.
Ms. Eunice Vivian Asingo, Senior Nursing Officer at Nakasongola Health Centre IV, called for a permanent, adequately resourced outbreak-management centre to help protect routine services during future epidemics. “We appeal for better facilities to manage epidemics and outbreaks. At Nakasongola Health Centre IV, spaces previously used for outbreak management have been repurposed for other services, and we have limited staff. During the Mpox response, colleagues assigned to manage patients later returned to the general team, creating fear among staff already under pressure,” she said.
In Mayuge, Dr. Basembeza highlighted leadership, coordination and surveillance structures operating from district to community level as important factors in the response. He said the structures enabled the district to receive and respond quickly to community alerts. “Whenever there is a rumour or an alert, we are able to respond. Within 20 minutes, we had a response because of the structure we have,” Dr. Basembeza said.
Based on the findings, the research team recommends increased preparedness financing, stronger community engagement, decentralised diagnostic services through stronger district laboratory capacity, and improved health information and research systems.
Across the four districts, stakeholders reaffirmed that trusted community structures and coordinated action across sectors are essential to strengthening outbreak preparedness.
It is a pleasure to present the January – June 2026 edition of the MakGrad Newsletter by Makerere University Directorate of Graduate Training. At the Directorate of Graduate Training we are committed to building an enabling environment where our students can flourish and their academic journey is well-supported. Formerly one of the two main divisions that constituted the Directorate of Research and Graduate Training, the stand alone Directorate of Graduate Training is mandated to coordinate and administer all matters related to postgraduate studies.
At time when Makerere University is steadily transforming into a research led institution, we are on hand to review and initiate policies meant to provide a conducive environment for graduate training and innovative research. From redesigned PhD crosscutting courses, enhanced supervision structures, improved infrastructure, to stronger partnerships with global institutions — we are laying the foundation for increased success.
In this edition of our newsletter, we share with you highlights of some of the activities during the period January – June 2026. The 76th graduation ceremony in February 2026 recorded key important in roads in Makerere University’s efforts to respond to the country’s need for increased capacity in doctoral training. The 213 PhDs was a significant increase from the previous number of 144. It reflects an intentional progress towards increased completion rates. Beyond focusing on technical expertise, the Directorate coordinates efforts to cultivate critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, and interdisciplinary fluency of all our graduate students. Today’s challenges rarely fit neatly into one discipline; they demand collaboration across disciplinary fields. In this edition of the Newsletter, we share some of the training of trainers and learners’ trainings we have conducted to achieve this objective.
I thank all the staff of the Directorate and the university at large, the graduate students and all the stakeholder for the support and collaboration. You are part of a growing, supportive community committed to excellence and transformation that our country prides in.
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