Global Initiative Bi-weekly site updates
July 27th to August 14th, 2025
Rwanda
Like other levels of education in Rwanda, higher learning is undergoing reforms aimed at boosting quality, aligning academic programmes with evolving labour market needs; promote internationalization, and positioning the country as a competitive education hub on the continent.
In an exclusive interview with The New Times, Edward Kadozi, the Director General of the Higher Education Council (HEC), outlined his priorities since assuming office six months ago, as well as reforms designed to improve service delivery, streamline accreditation, equivalence issuance processes, and strengthen links between academia and the industry. “When I joined HEC, my priority was to understand the higher education sector from multiple perspectives: the institutions we regulate, the national priorities we must align with, and HEC’s capacity to deliver on its mandate,” Kadozi said.
Kenya
A roundtable dialogue on Refugee Workplace Inclusivity in Kenya brought together employers, civil society and development partners to discuss the private sector’s role in supporting the inclusion of refugees in the labour market. The event, held in Nairobi on 22 July, was hosted by the Federation of Kenya Employers (FKE), the Refugee Consortium of Kenya (RCK), and the Centre for Mediation in Africa (CMA) with support from the ILO.
This dialogue forms part of a broader initiative under the ILO’s PROSPECTS project funded by the Government of the Netherlands, which aims to enhance access to education, social protection, and decent work for both host communities and forcibly displaced persons. In Kenya, the Shirika Plan seeks to create an enabling environment for refugee inclusion in formal employment, while supporting social cohesion and regulatory alignment.
The World Food Programme (WFP) has said it will need to drastically cut rations to refugees in Kenya due to reductions in global aid, including major funding cuts from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Residents of the Kakuma and Dadaab refugee camps were beginning to feel the impact of food aid cuts on Monday as the WFP implemented a new assistance system there in which certain groups are prioritised over others. The WFP said aid is being cut by 60 percent for the most vulnerable groups, including pregnant women and disabled people, and by 80 percent for refugees with some kind of income. The two camps host nearly 800,000 people fleeing conflict and drought in Somalia and South Sudan, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). “WFP’s operations supporting refugees in Kenya are under immense strain,” Baimankay Sankoh, WFP’s deputy country director in Kenya, said in May. “With available resources stretched to their limits, we have had to make the difficult decision to again reduce food assistance. This will have a serious impact on vulnerable refugees, increasing the risk of hunger and malnutrition.”
Lebanon
As Lebanon implements its “voluntary return” plan for Syrian refugees, the Access Center for Human Rights (ACHR) documents a significant increase in violations against refugees by Lebanese authorities – these include forced deportations, mass arrests, evictions, and raids. The increase in violations and compounding pressures on Syrian refugees in Lebanon creates an environment that is unlivable for these refugees. At the same time, conditions in Syria continue to remain unsafe and unsuitable for large-scale return programs.
ACHR calls for transparent and public information on the return plan and calls for all stakeholders—including the Lebanese government, UNHCR, and the international community- to prioritize creating safe and sustainable conditions in Syria, upholding the rights of refugees, and ensuring that any returns are truly voluntary, safe, informed, and conducted with dignity.
Syrians in Lebanon are living in a state of constant tension and fear. Their presence becomes a bargaining chip each time a political or diplomatic dispute erupts; whether between Lebanese factions themselves, or with Syria, or even neighbouring states. While the Lebanese government exerts pressure on Hezbollah, Syrians fear retaliatory actions, especially as deportation campaigns targeting them intensify.
Recently, the humanitarian situation for Syrian refugees in Lebanon has grown increasingly dire. Local rights organizations have reported a sharp uptick in violations against them. The Access Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) stated in a recent report that forced deportations, mass arrests, evictions, and raids targeting refugee communities are on the rise; creating an unliveable environment for this vulnerable population.
Vietnam
According to Article 4 of Decree No. 222/2025/ND-CP, general education institutions implementing Vietnam’s general education program may teach and learn certain subjects, educational activities, and certain contents of certain subjects and educational activities in foreign languages.
Priority is given to subjects in the fields of mathematics, natural sciences, technology, and informatics.Current general education institutions include primary schools, lower secondary schools, upper secondary schools, and multi-level general education schools. Under Article 9 of Decree No. 222/2025/ND-CP, the collection of tuition fees for organizing teaching and learning in foreign languages at public general education institutions shall be carried out based on the principles of accurate and adequate calculation, offsetting revenues against expenditures, and obtaining the consensus of learners.
South Africa
The Department of Basic Education has gazetted two sets of regulations for public schools in South Africa, which are now open for public comment.
Broadly, the two sets of regulations deal with classroom sizes and admission policies of public schools and come from the controversial Basic Education Laws Amendment Act, which was signed into law late last year. According to the department, the two sets of regulations are just the first of many to come under the BELA Act, with the minister opting for a “modular release” approach to avoid delays. Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube said that the regulations mark a “significant milestone” in the years-long process, which she said will strengthen governance and bring inclusion and equality for South Africa’s 13.5 million learners.
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