The Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) held the 2017 Triennale Continental Validation Meeting in Cairo, Egypt, from November 22 to 23, 2016. The meeting was held under the invitation of His Excellency Prof. Dr. Ashraf El Shihy, Minister for Higher Education and Scientific Research of the Republic of Egypt, President of the African Union’s Specialized Technical Committee on Education, Science and Technology (STC-EST) and Steering Committee Chairperson of ADEA. It will be followed by the 43rd Session of the ADEA Steering Committee from November 24 to 25.

The general objective of this continental meeting is to finalize the preparations for the ADEA 2017 Triennale that will take place in Marrakech, the Kingdom of Morocco, from March 15 to 17, 2017. The theme of the Triennale is "Revitalizing education towards the 2030 Global Agenda and Africa’s Agenda 2063".

The Egypt continental validation meeting is the culmination of the preparatory work involving the production and presentation of analytical work, online consultations as well as the following regional consultation meetings:

1) Libreville, Gabon, for Central Africa (May 30-31), on sub-theme 4 - Building peace and global citizenship through education;

2) Dakar, Senegal for West Africa (June 13-14), on sub-theme 2 - Promoting science, mathematics, and information and communication technology;

3) Rabat, Morocco for North Africa (June 13-14), on sub-theme 2 - Promoting science, mathematics, and information and communication technology;

4) Luanda, Angola for Southern Africa (July 27-28), on sub-theme 3 - Implementing education for African cultural renaissance and pan-African ideals;

5) Nairobi, Kenya for East Africa (August 30-September 1), on sub-theme 1 - Implementing education and lifelong learning for sustainable development.

The Triennale thematic coordinators and quality assurance experts have consolidated and reviewed the feedback emanating from these regional conferences, together with several contributions to the analytical work – in the form of studies and research reports for each sub-theme – and produced thematic syntheses. This continental meeting in Cairo will focus on assessing the results of the preparatory work done so far, and agree on a roadmap for the remaining work prior to the 2017 Triennale in Marrakech.

By Alkassoum DIALLO