This Plan of Action for the Second Decade of Education for Africa (2006-2015) aims to address the First Decade's challenges, including a lack of evidence-based data for assessing education achievements. The plan focuses on eight priority areas, including Education Management and Information Systems (EMIS), with ADEA and AU IPED leading implementation. The initiative uses a three-phase strategy through regional economic community commissions or secretariats to assess EMIS capacities through self-reporting surveys.

ECOWAS Member States face challenges in producing quality education statistics due to institutional, organizational, human, material, and technical deficits. The ECOWAS EMIS capacity building strategy aims to establish effective mechanisms and strategies for EMIS development in the region, including national and regional cooperation frameworks. The strategy consists of six main components: policy and legal framework, statistical processes and methodologies, sub-sector EMIS development, data quality improvement, resource availability, adequacy, and education information reporting.

In conclusion, the development of EMIS is crucial to the success of the Second Decade Plan of Action, and its successful implementation is guided by strong leadership and coordination from the ECOWAS Commission, commitment and support from the region’s Member States and external partners, and the mobilization of adequate resources.