Virtual 12th Regional Workshop Highlights Progress and Sustainability

The virtual 12th Africa Higher Education Centers of Excellence for Development Impact (ACE Impact) Regional Workshop on Tuesday, October 22, 2024, marked a decisive milestone in the ACE Impact project’s mission to transform African higher education.  Convening over 200 stakeholders, including the 54 ACE centers, international experts, and key partners from the World Bank, French Development Agency (AFD), and the Association of African Universities (AAU), the workshop served as a pivotal forum to assess the progress, address ongoing challenges, and strategize for the project’s final phase as it approaches its scheduled conclusion in June 2025.

Opening remarks from AAU’s Secretary General – Professor Olusola Oyewole, the World Bank’s Task Team leader – Dr. Namrata Tognatta, and AFD’s Regional Education Manager – Mr. Wassim Hadj Ali, set a decisive tone, emphasizing higher education’s critical role in Africa’s socio-economic development. Each speaker highlighted the ACE Impact’s tangible achievements and stressed the importance of crafting sustainable models to ensure these centers continue their transformative work beyond the project’s lifespan. Notably, Dr. Tognatta commended the resilience of ACE Impact institutions, acknowledging their agility in adapting to pandemic-related challenges. Professor Oyewole called for robust partnerships with industry and government to secure ACE Impact’s legacy within African universities.

Project’s Progress updates from AAU’s Senior Program Manager responsible for the ACE Impact Project, Dr. Sylvia Mkandawire, showcased impressive strides in meeting ACE Impact’s ambitious targets, reporting overachievement in key metrics like internships (103%) and near-completion in student enrolment (99%), program accreditation (95%), research publications (88%), and external revenue (86%). Proposing ways to navigate the few governance, procurement, safeguards, and communication challenges, she was upbeat that the ACE Impact project could attain a 100% achievement rate before closure in June 2025. While the project is progressing toward a 100% achievement rate, Mrs. Adeline Addy, AAU’s Monitoring and Evaluation Manager, urged lower-performing centers to intensify their efforts. Notably, out of the $305 million allocated, $259 million has been disbursed, with further releases expected to reach $291 million by early 2025. Even though the project has so far disbursed approximately 259 million dollars to the 54 centers of excellence, the centers were reported to have utilized only 157 million dollars, representing 61% of the total disbursements. This relatively low average utilization rate was mainly attributed to procurement challenges and expenditure delays. Acknowledging these challenges, World Bank’s Education Consultant, Ms. Wura Mosuro, especially encouraged the low fund-utilizing centers to leverage the technical and financial support available to overcome these challenges and maximize their fund utilization and overall impact. Rounding off the project updates, financial contributions by AFD were detailed by Mr. Hadj Ali, who emphasized development finance’s critical role in sustaining project momentum.

Another key highlight of the workshop was the presentation on verification exercises, with a specific session focusing on recent reviews and outcomes. Mrs. Adeline Addy outlined the rigorous verification processes conducted alongside the World Bank, reporting over $22.6 million earned by centers from June to October 2024. Indicators such as student enrollment and research publications were tracked, revealing that some countries still have 6% to 35% of funds yet to be earned. Mrs. Addy also announced three upcoming verification rounds from November 2024 through April 2025, encouraging centers to maximize their earnings while addressing specific challenges. Ms. Veerle Bastiaanssen of Technopolis concluded with a review of submitted research publications, confirming that out of 471 submissions, 438 were eligible, and 270 were SCOPUS-indexed. She shared positive survey findings on ACE Impact graduates, showcasing their skill relevance, research impact, and high employment potential.

With the ACE Impact project’s closure on the horizon, Dr. Mkandawire charted a roadmap for the final months, underscoring priorities such as verification exercises, closeout activities, and comprehensive reporting.

The workshop concluded with insightful closing remarks from Drs. Xiaonan Cao and Namrata Tognatta of the World Bank. Both speakers commended the ACE Impact centers for their dedication and resilience throughout the project. Dr. Cao was particularly enthused about the capacities that the centers of excellence had developed to take off, highlighting the critical need for continued collaboration among themselves and with development partners and regional governments to sustain the gains made through the ACE Impact project. In her final words, Dr. Namrata Tognatta, encouraging the ACE Impact centers to maintain their momentum as they work towards the final stages of the project, advised them to continue to comply with safeguard and fiduciary requirements and attend implementation support meetings. She reiterated the World Bank’s commitment to supporting the ACE Impact centers in their mission to enhance higher education and research in Africa to ensure a long-lasting transformative project impact.

Preceding the 12th Reginal workshop, the Project Steering Committee Meeting on October 21, 2024, identified strategic solutions to project bottlenecks. This workshop also sets the stage for a series of participating Country Roundtable and Implementation Support Meetings on November 11 -25th, 2024, aiming to offer targeted assistance in financial management, procurement, and evaluation as the ACE Impact centers enter the final stretch of this transformative project.