About VVOB in Belgium

Active in Belgium for over 40 years and working within the Belgian education system since 2008, VVOB – education for development brings proven ideas from partners in Africa, Asia and South America into Belgian classrooms. We connect teacher educators and teachers with approaches that turn classroom diversity into better learning for all.

A young boy in a classroom eagerly raises his hand, surrounded by attentive classmates. The room is bright, with plants and colorful dividers.

The Context in Belgium 

Belgian classrooms bring many languages, cultural backgrounds, and learning needs together. Teacher educators and teachers are looking for practical, classroom-ready ways to make mixed-ability and multilingual classes work, and to build global citizenship and intercultural competences. These are often seen as challenges typical of Western education systems. However, many countries in Africa, Latin America, and Asia have long been navigating similar complexities and have developed valuable practices and insights that could inspire and inform approaches in Western contexts. 

Education faces major challenges worldwide. Dozens of organisations and individuals are active in the education and training sector in development cooperation in Belgium. To strengthen the effectiveness and efficiency of Belgian international cooperation in the education sector, Educaid.be was established in 2010. 

Our Solution 

We turn international exchange into classroom-ready practice. Learning from partners in Africa, Asia and South America, we’re able to adapt what works for Belgian teacher education and teachers’ professional development. 

What eNSPIRED does: 

Since 2022, eNSPIRED offers tailor-made process guidance to university colleges and partners. Together with these partners, we identify specific needs and challenges and work on international exchanges. We always do this with special attention to gender, environmental sustainability, climate change and decolonisation.  

Furthermore, we support teachers and future teachers before and after their international internship or work visit. Using the eduSHARE flow, we motivate them to look for interesting educational practices during their experience abroad. The eduSHARE flow helps to capture, distribute and apply international practices to the local education context. 

On the eNSPIRED-website, we share inspiring educational practices with you. To help our stories get an even bigger reach, we work together with several external partners. 

What Educaid.be does: 

Educaid.be is a recognised and efficient platform that offers a structured forum where over 50 Belgian organisations, institutions, and individuals come together to collaborate on quality and inclusive education and training in partner countries. It develops awareness-raising and policy activities, supports and helps shape Belgian policy on education and training within development cooperation, strengthens the capacity and exchange of knowledge and expertise among its members, and promotes complementarity and cooperation between them. 


What S-Cool-Links does:  

The S-Cool-Links platform encourages teachers to collaborate on climate action projects and exchange knowledge across borders. This interactive, online platform allows teachers to access scientifically accurate information about climate change, explore documented examples of climate change teaching activities across the curriculum and share insights with peers from other countries.    

Evidence of Success 

We create the conditions for shared learning to create lasting impact. Each year, Educaid.be’s international conference brings together over 100 professionals from Belgium’s education and development community — and beyond — to exchange experiences and set shared priorities. The conference fosters dialogue on global education issues such as digitalisation, health, decent work, inclusion, and climate change. For example, the 2022 edition on “The cross-impact of climate change and education” highlighted education’s role in climate action, with key recommendations shared with then-Minister Caroline Gennez. 

Between conferences, Connect&Learn sessions help to maintain momentum through short, practical gatherings and follow-up materials that participants can adapt to their own contexts. As Kaat Torfs (VIA Don Bosco, 2014–2024) noted: "The greatest achievement lies in the consistent and professional organisation of annual thematic conferences, evolving from in-person to online during COVID, and now hybrid — enabling people from around the world to participate and share their perspectives with minimal barriers." 

In parallel, international exchanges continue to generate tools, insights, and examples — from gender -aware teaching to climate learning sequences — which institutions refine for teacher training. 

In 2024 and 2025, over 40 students from VIVES University of Applied Sciences completed intercontinental teaching internships. Each developed an eduSHARE: a practical teaching resource based on their international experience, designed to enrich Flemish teacher education. To support this, students used the eduSHARE flow, a step-by-step tool co-created by eNSPIRED and VIVES to guide the creation of high-quality eduSHAREs.  

The Opportunity 

There is a clear, near-term opportunity: help more programmes and schools turn global insights into everyday practice. By connecting education experts from around the world — both in person and digitally — VVOB in Belgium fosters learning environments where Belgian stakeholders in education and development, including teachers and teacher trainers, can co-create, exchange ideas, and learn from one another. Together, they work to enhance the quality and inclusiveness of education, with a focus on digitalisation, gender equality, climate action, decent work, and decolonisation. The result: stronger teaching for every learner, and collaboration that lasts beyond individual projects. 

Partners 

We work within existing structures and through long-term, trust-based collaborations. In Belgium, this includes partnerships with teacher education institutions and pedagogical services — such as VIVES University of Applied Sciences, Artevelde University of Applied Sciences, Howest University of Applied Sciences, Catholic Education Flanders, and VELOV. We also collaborate with civil society and knowledge partners, including Djapo, RoSa vzw, and UCOS. 

VVOB co-implements the national platform Educaid.be together with APEFE, as an equal partner alongside 53 member organisations. Educaid.be represents the Global Campaign for Education (GCE) in Belgium. 

Internationally, we learn with educators and institutions across Africa, Asia and South America, and adapt that learning for our partners in Belgium and Europe.  

Join Us 

Are you a teacher trainer that would like to work on the internationalisation of your curriculum?  

Do you want to learn more about the or want to connect with the education-and-development sector in Belgium?  

  • Visit www.educaid.be, learn more about our activities and register for upcoming events or rewatch the recordings 
  • Follow us on LinkedIn 
  • Contact us via info@educaid.be  

Are you a teacher passionate about climate change education? Join the S-Cool-Links platform: www.s-cool-links.com  
 

Contact Us