Action for Life Skills and Values in East Africa (ALIVE) is a RELI Africa collaborative initiative that aims to ensure children in East Africa acquire life skills and values in order for them to thrive both during and beyond schooling. Phase 1 of the initiative kicked off in August 2020 with a three-fold target: i) to develop contextualised and open-source tools, and generate large-scale evidence through household-based assessments; ii) to raise awareness among policymakers, teachers, parents, and youth to better understand and focus on values and life skills;  iii)  to strengthen the capacity and amplify the voice of local experts in East Africa on matters of life skills and values.

Phase 2 of ALiVE (April 2023 – December 2025) focuses on enhancing the capacity of education systems to focus on life skills and values (Pedagogy, curriculum, and assessments), collaboratively develop/adapt contextualised assessment tools for 6–17-year-olds, generate evidence by conducting assessments and collating evidence from other life skills approaches (both in assessments and nurturing); then use the evidence for learning and public policy advocacy.

ALiVE’s vision is that learners in East Africa are equipped with life skills and values to support learning, working, and living in the context of the 21st century. This vision will be achieved through three pathways: System shift, Assessment shift, and a learning hub.

Through the system shift, strategic partnerships with the national curriculum and assessment institutes, as well as pre-service teacher training, will harness evidence to better assess competencies. This pathway will be supported through coalition-building across government and non-state agencies from the Regional Education Learning Initiative (RELI-Africa) through greater movement-building with parents and teachers’ associations, as well as players in the industry and other key actors.