Reimagining Life Skills and Citizenship Education in the Middle East and North Africa: A Four-Dimensional and Systems Approach to 21st Century Skills; Conceptual and Programmatic Framework

The MENA Life Skills and Citizenship Education (LSCE) Initiative represents a country and regional collaborative endeavour towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 - Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. It seeks to reformulate traditional understandings of life skills and citizenship education in the region, while recalling fundamental questions about the purpose and role of education in societal development that are relevant to the current context.

The LSCE Initiative focuses on three inter-locking challenges:

• An elusive knowledge society, as a result of poor quality of education, low levels of learning outcomes, and limited equity and inclusion.
• Declining economic growth, as a result of a lack of employability skills, high youth unemployment rates, gender disparities in accessing the labour market, lack of job creation, and a weak business environment.
• Weak social cohesion, as a result of mounting violence and radicalization as well as weak civic engagement.