ACE Comms Team – Page 11 – ACE – Africa Higher Education Centres of Excellence

August 11, 2021August 24, 2021

Student voices-Archam Ben Cheikh Hamidi

Archam Ben Cheikh Hamidi is a Comorian student enrolled at the African Centre of Excellence in Mines and Mining Environment (CEA MEM) of the National Polytechnic Institute Félix Houphoet Boigny – Cote d’ivoire. Archam is currently in his third year undertaking a Masters in Design Engineer Cycle. Archam tells us that he chose CEA-MEM because of the quality of technical water training that was being offered by the center. This, along with his passionate belief that this area is a “core pillar for the development of Africa” are what drives Archam in pursing post-graduate education.

When asked what he appreciated most about being a CEA-MEM student, Archam tell us “the work environment which greatly facilitated my course, both in terms of the equipment made available for training, and in terms of supervision.” ACE Impact project facilitates the provision of state-of-the-art equipment and facilities for the centres to ensure students have the highest quality education. Archam’s career goals is “to carry out projects with socio-economic impacts and greatly contribute to the development of my country and Africa in terms of scientific research, particularly those aimed at providing solutions to water-related problems.” When asked what advice he would give to other young students beginning the journey in pursuing master’s degree, Archam said “strive for excellence in work. A centre of Excellence like this is the perfect place to ensure good training.”

August 11, 2021August 25, 2021

Profiling the Centre of Excellence for Environment and Mining (CEA-EMIG)

Profiling the Centre of Excellence for Environment and Mining (CEA-EMIG) in Niger

The Centre of Excellence for Environment and Mining (CEA-EMIG) is one of the 53 Africa Centres of Excellence for Development Impact (ACE Impact) in West Africa. CEA-EMIG is hosted by the School of Mines, Industry and Geology in Niamey, Niger. As part of the centres specialized in the thematic area of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), the EMIG has Mining and Environment as its primary focus areas with special interest in Geology, Civil, Industrial and Electrical Engineering.

CEA- EMIG seeks to be one of Africa’s leading training hubs in environment and mining, providing high quality training to address regional challenges in Africa. The centre delivers specialized training in Minerals Extraction and Processing, Environment and Waste Management, Mining Safety, Restoration and Rehabilitation of Mining Sites and Management of Water, Soil and Noise, among others. These trainings are available in Bachelors, Masters, and short-term programmes. In addition, the center focuses on providing improved teaching and learning through regular availability of training of trainers’ programmes for faculty, and the promotion of applied research through university-industry linkages.

The centre has conducted transformative research in validation of a natural material for sealing uranium processing discharge ponds, Geochemistry and Remote Sensing applied to the study of metal pollution of the environment by mine tailings, and Optimization of gold panning techniques and reduction of environmental impacts. With its ultra-modern classrooms and laboratories, as well as innovative teaching staff, the centre is committed to equipping students with the necessary skills and expertise required by industries as well as the applied knowledge to meet the demand skills for Africa’s development. The centre also provides a serene learning atmosphere and environment for students by providing accommodation and recreational facilities. Currently, there are 54 students enrolled under the project – 22 Masters and 32 Bachelors.

To achieve its objectives, CEA-EMIG has collaborated with various institutions within and outside the region. Notable among these are the Abdou Moumouni University of Niamey (Niger); Institut Catholique Polytechnique Saint Jérôme de Douala (Cameroon); University of Lomé (Togo); National Polytechnic Institute Félix HOUPHOUET BOIGNY; National School of Mineral Industries of Rabat (Morocco); International Institute of Water and Environmental Engineering 2iE; Polytechnic School of Abomey-Calavi (Benin) and the University of EXETER (England). The centre is also part of the “Responsible Mining Activity and Sustainable Development Network”(RAMR2D) of the ACE Impact Thematic Network project. In strengthening its engagement with industry, EMIG has renewed its partnership through an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with the Société des Mines de l’Air (SOMAIR). The partnership has resulted in joint publication and implementation of research, internship opportunities for EMIG students, use of EMIG laboratories, and experts in carrying out SOMAIR activities.

Works of EMIG have received utmost recognition through awards such as the International Prize on Innovative works in Earth Sciences and Civil Engineering by the Vinci Construction, a global leader in the mining and construction industry. Again, in 2020 EMIG placed second in the world and first in Africa at The Trail Students Challenge also organized by Vinci Construction. 506 teams from 78 countries across the globe participated in the competition.

For more information on CEA-EMIG visit their website here

Follow CEA Impact Mining Environment on Facebook

August 11, 2021June 11, 2022

ACE Impact Partners with Japanese Government to strengthen University-Industry Linkages

In February 2021, funded by the Japanese Government’s PHRD Trust Fund, the World Bank Group and Kopernik launched a Pilot University-Industry Collaboration Program to enhance partnerships between African universities and Japanese companies as part of ongoing initiatives with the Africa Centres of Excellence (ACE) and the Partnership for Skills in Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology (PASET) Regional Scholarship and Innovation Fund (RSIF). The objective of this pilot is to build partnerships between African universities and Japanese companies with a focus on technology transfer.

The pilot initiative aims to enable African universities to experience a number of opportunities, including the following (i) identify how to improve institutional technology transfer capacity at the university level, (ii) receive recommendations on bridging capacity gaps and developing the institutions to be known for conducting technology transfer, adaptation and prototype development, and (iii) receive hands-on experience in enterprising by working directly with Japanese companies, focusing on user perspectives for applied research.

Given the interests from the Japanese government, universities, and companies to collaborate with African universities, the World Bank team facilitated the partnership development since 2018 through two study tours.

The pilot has recorded some substantial progress and has so far held two separate launch events for African Universities (March 2021), and for the Japanese Companies (April 2021). An online matching event for selected African universities and Japanese companies was also held in May 2021. In total, 35 universities and 8 companies applied to partake in the initiative. Among them, three (3) partnerships will receive in-depth technical assistance through the Kopernik. Kopernik will provide some facilitation and light support for 7 companies, which will work independently with 12 matched universities. A summary of the partnerships developed through the initiative is below.

Recipients of the In-depth Technical Support

ACE/PASET Universities Involved	Companies	Potential Areas of Collaboration (to be finalized)
Moi University	SPEC Co.Ltd	Conduct the testing of soil samples from Kenya. After the soil testing, conduct soil and STEIN (soil hardening agent made by SPEC) mixture research and test the right consistency.
University of Ghana	Challenge Co.Ltd	Collaborate in localizing an earthquake detection and alarm system to suit the local condition in Ghana. Measure the impact of the evacuation training in the case of earthquake.
Nelson Mandela African Institute of Technology	Nikken Co.Ltd	Identify potential test site and use cases for CLINCA 205 (Water disinfecting ceramic sand) in Tanzania. Joint research on how the product could treat and improve water condition in Tanzania. Develop a product distribution plan.

Recipients of the Light Support

Universities	Companies
Université Gaston Berger de Saint-Luis	Challenge Co.Ltd, Oui Co.Ltd, LocationMind
Ahmadu Bello University	Oui Co.Ltd
University of Ghana	Oui Co.Ltd
Institute of Mathematics and Physical Science	LocationMind
Federal University of Technology Owerri	LocationMind
Moi University	Marubeni Corporation, Nikken Co.Ltd.
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science of Technology	Nikken Co.Ltd., LocationMind(TBD)
Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology	SEMCO Co. Ltd.
Egerton University	SEMCO Co. Ltd.pk7jolu6y6t
International Institute for Water and Environmental Engineering	Nikken Co.Ltd (TBD)
University for Development Studies	Nikken Co.Ltd (TBD)
Universidade Eduardo Mondlane	SPEC Co.Ltd (TBD)

As a next step, the capacity assessment for technology adaptation has started for the three partnerships. From October 2021 to April 2022, testing and prototyping of the technology will take place and the dissemination of the initiative’s results is planned in May 2022.

Further questions on this initiative should be directed at Saori Imaizumi at simaizumi@worldbank.org

August 11, 2021August 26, 2021

Investing in Inter-ACE Impact Thematic Networks

The ACE Impact Project has three components:

Component 1: Establishing new Africa Centers of Excellence and scaling-up well-performing existing ACEs (from ACE I) for development impact;
Component 2: Fostering Regional Partnerships and Scholarships; and
Component 3: Enhancing Regional Policymaking as well as Project Facilitation and Monitoring

In order to stimulate the further development of the Regional Partnerships for multiplier effects in achieving the Project Development Objective, the AAU launched a new Call for Proposals for ACE thematic networks. A total budget of $800,000 was availed to support the strengthening of the thematic networks among the ACEs and their relevant partners. The Association of African Universities invited expressions of interest from the eligible ACE Impact thematic networks.

The aim is to advance collaboration on cutting-edge research, hence broadening the ACE Centers’ contribution to the knowledge economy. This networking support specifically contributes to accelerating scientific research activities anchored in world class academic practices, strengthen the interlinkages between specialized research centers across ACE Institutions; and deepen partnerships among ACE Impact Centres and collaborators across the continent. This support has been designed to increase the number and scope of networks that currently are coordinated through the PARTNERs initiative by the IRD (French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development).

This initiative is supporting 8 thematic networks covering Agriculture, Health (outside of infectious diseases); Education, Energy, Urban and Transport; Environment; and the network of Colleges of Engineering. These networks have held their inception meetings to jump start and plan their activities for the next 2 years which will include joint resource mobilization for collaborative research and training.

August 11, 2021August 23, 2021

FUTMINNA MANAGEMENT COMMENDS ACEMFS

FUTMINNA MANAGEMENT COMMENDS Africa Centre of Excellence for Mycotoxin and Food Safety (ACEMFS)

The Management of the Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State Nigeria has commended the Africa Centre of Excellence for Mycotoxin and Food Safety (ACEMFS), FUT, Minna for its achievements so far. The Vice-Chancellor of the University, Prof. Abdullahi Bala, gave the commendation recently while receiving a team from ACEMFS led by the Centre Leader, Prof. Hussaini Makun who gave a presentation on the centres activities and achievements.

The Vice-Chancellor stated that the presence of the Centre, has improved the ranking especially in the area of post graduate programmes as the Centre has international students. Prof. Bala praised the doggedness of ACEMFS highlighting its commitment to work and assured of Management’s continuous support for the project. While commending and congratulating the relentless efforts of ACEMFS, he urged the Centre to do more in the area of short courses and accreditations which will boost its earnings.

Earlier, Centre Leader, Prof. Hussaini Makun in his presentation on the activities and achievements of the Centre so far expressed appreciation to the University Management for their support at all times and assured of continuous commitment to the project. Prof. Makun disclosed that ACEMFS, FUT, Minna has earned a total sum of $1,668,880 in the last two years, making her the 3rd and 7th performing Africa Centre of Excellence (ACE) in Nigeria and Africa respectively. Other achievements by ACEMFS, he disclosed, include appointment of the Centre Leader as a member of the National Food Safety Advisory Committee, an indication of the centres strong industrial link.

He added that the Centre has also led a consortium of three ACEs to win the Association of African Universities grant of $100,000 for the establishment of West African Food Safety Network (WAFOSAN), while four of her students are on West Africa Network of infectious Diseases ACE (WANIDA) scholarship and ACEMFS is one of the centres that have fully adopted the online training mode using FUT, Minna based Google classroom and lectures are ongoing with members of International Scientific Advisory Board (ISAB), Sectoral Advisory Board (SAB) and faculties within the University amongst other achievements.

The Deputy Centre Leader, Dr. Hadiza Muhammad, in her presentation disclosed that a total of 87 students were enrolled in the Centre for the 2019/2020 session, out of which 27 are international students from various African countries and Britain. The African countries include Ghana, Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Malawi, Kenya, Uganda, Niger Republic and Nigeria. The students, she said, received online lectures and have supervisors from Belgium, Italy, India, South Africa, United States and other partner institutions in Nigeria, mainly University of Abuja and the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration Control (NAFDAC) and others.

On her part, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer and Nanotechnology Research Theme Leader, Dr. Mercy Bankole said that the researchers in the Centre are performing well and their publications have increased the Centre’s earnings. She also revealed that the total earnings so far by the centre is 28% of the first year, effective from 2021.

Dr. Bankole took the Management team through the indicators known as Disbursement Link Indicators (DLI), which showed how the centres earn from various activities ranging from institutional readiness, development impact of ACE, quality of students, short courses, programme accreditation, internship, teaching and research infrastructure, external revenue, research publications and entrepreneurship.

At the end of the presentation, the VC, as mandated by the project, appointed the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic), Prof. Faruk Adamu Kuta as the DLI 7 Officer to work closely with the Centre to execute the institutional impact aspect. DLI 7 is the institutional impact which is controlled by the Vice- Chancellors.

ACEMFS, FUT, Minna is one of the World Bank funded centres of Excellence, which aims at creating learning opportunities and research results that will address Africa’s shortage of expertise in food safety and applicable solutions to ensure the safe, controlled and sufficient food supply that will support economic growth and public health, particularly in West and Central Africa.

Centre Leader; ACEMFS, Prof. Hussaini Makun making a presentation to FUT, Minna Principal Officers.

Centre Leader; ACEMFS, Prof. Hussaini Makun making a presentation to FUT, Minna Principal Officers.By: Dorothy Elaigu.

August 11, 2021August 23, 2021

WACCI Holds its Annual Review and Strategic Planning Workshop

Day One of the WACCI Annual Review and Strategic Planning Workshop

The West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI) held its Annual Review and Strategic Planning Workshop from May 16 – 22, 2021 at the Peduase Valley Resort, Eastern Region. The purpose of the workshop was to review key strategic decisions for the sustainability of the Centre and to develop clear roadmap to achieving this objective.

Twenty-five participants comprising associate faculty members from the Departments of Crop Science, Agricultural Economics & Agribusiness, and the Biotechnology Centre, University of Ghana (UG), as well as administrative and management staff of the Centre participated in the workshop. Other invited guests who engaged the participants include Professor Felix Asante (Pro-Vice Chancellor – Office of Research, Innovation and Development, UG), Professor Mohammed Salifu (Director General – Ghana Tertiary Education Commission), Dr Sylvia Mkandawire (Programme Manager – African Higher Education Centres of Excellence for Development Impact) and Professor Gordon Awandare (Founding Director – West Africa Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens). Representatives from three agribusinesses, the Legacy Crop Improvement Centre (LCIC), KOD Farms and Weddi Africa Limited, were also present to outline their plans for win-win public-private collaborations with the Centre.

The Director of WACCI, Professor Eric Yirenkyi Danquah in his remarks stressed on the need for WACCI to continue to strategize and evolve in order to meet its aspirations.

Prof Eric Danquah giving his opening remarks on the first day of the workshop

“We have come a long way. WACCI turns fourteen this year thus it is imperative that we have a solid strategy to drive the Centre and its activities forward”, he said.

Professor Salifu and Dr Sylvia Mkandawire in their remarks commended WACCI for all its achievements and continuous efforts in changing the narrative of agriculture and food insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa. Professor Salifu congratulated the Centre on being one of the most successful Africa Centres of Excellence (ACEs) and emphasized the need for the Government of Ghana to use ACEs as entry points for a complete shift in postgraduate education in Ghana and to foster collaboration instead of competition. Professor Asante acknowledged WACCI’s contribution to alleviating food and nutrition insecurity in the sub-region and enhancing the global visibility of the University of Ghana. He pledged the University of Ghana’s support in creating sustainable environments for the Africa Centres of Excellence to continue to thrive.

The Pro-Vice Chancellor of the Office of Research, Innovation and Development (ORID), University of Ghana – Professor Felix Asante

Professor Gordon Awandare, the Director of the West Africa Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP) delivered a talk on the topic: Creating and Sustaining a Globally Competitive Ecosystem for Research Excellence. He said that universities were the best places to build sustainable research capacities. He added that the recent major capacity building initiatives like the ACE Impact project were signs of hope for a rising Africa.

The week-long workshop featured several updates from the Centre’s academic and administrative staff. These included updates from current faculty and postdoctoral fellows on their research, donor activities, communications strategy, human resources & administration, sectoral and industry partnerships, and Information & Technology infrastructure.

About WACCI

WACCI was established in 2007 as a partnership between the University of Ghana and Cornell University, USA with funding from the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) to train African students on African crops in Africa for Africa. Since its inception, the Centre has enrolled 149 PhD students in Plant Breeding and 65 MPhil students in Seed Science and Technology out of which 95 and 30 have graduated respectively. In 2015, WACCI was selected as one of the first Africa Centres of Excellence (ACE) by the World Bank. In 2019, the Centre was selected as one of the winners of the World Bank ACE Impact project grant. Under this new project, WACCI is charting a new path to becoming an “African Centre of Excellence for Agricultural Innovation and Entrepreneurship.”

For more information, visit the WACCI website: https://wacci.ug.edu.gh/.

Facebook: West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement

Twitter: @wacci_gh

LinkedIn: West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement

Final Day of the WACCI Annual Review and Strategy Planning Workshop

The Centre’s women in agricultural science striking a pose

August 11, 2021August 23, 2021

Centre for Dryland Agriculture and JR Biotek Foundation Conduct Training Workshop on Molecular Laboratory

The Centre for Dryland Agriculture (CDA) and JR Biotek Foundation conducted a hands-on plant molecular biology laboratory training workshop held at the CDA from 28th to 2nd July, 2021.

The training workshop funded by the Global Challenges Research Fund was part of JR Biotek Foundation’s Reach and Teach Science in Africa flagship program which aims to advance agricultural research and innovation to achieve food security in Africa.

Speaking through zoom platform, the founder and President of JR Biotech Foundation, Dr. Carol Ibe expressed pleasure in welcoming outstanding early-career agricultural researchers from Nigerian universities and research institutes to participate in this high quality laboratory training facilitated by excellent researchers.

She said the training workshop would avail the participants the opportunities to learn new transferable scientific laboratory skills and connect with other researchers, possibly leading to new professional relationships and collaborations that promote new avenues and perspectives to solving Africa’s challenges.

According to her, JR Bioteck Foundation’s vision is to train, inspire and empower Africa’s present and future research and bio-industry leaders who can effectively tackle food and nutrition insecurity on the continent. Dr Ibe further commended the immense contribution of CDA, saying that “we can work together to transform Africa’s agricultural sector into a productive, effective, and efficient sector that provides useful opportunities and practical solutions to sustainable food production.”

In his welcoming remarks, the Director, Centre for Dryland Agriculture (CDA), Professor Jibrin Mohammed Jibrin, said the training is apt and timely considering the geometrical increase of population without corresponding food production in Africa and the persisting food loss. “We have problems of pest and diseases which devastate our crops. In Africa the loss is so high.”

The Director further said that there is a need for cutting edge science and knowledge of molecular biology to address some of the problems that constrain food production which the training workshop provided. He urged the participants to learn well and apply the knowledge into practice to help solve the perennial Africa’s food security challenges.

“You can also train others so that we have mass human resources that can assist in tackling our problems,” said the Director CDA, Professor Jibrin.

The main objective of the laboratory hands-on session is to demonstrate the basic principles of molecular biology, including the Polymerase Chain Reaction (a technique used to amplify genomic DNA from plant or animal tissues), complimentary DNA synthesis by reverse transcriptase, real-time or RT-PCR, and the phenotypic characterization of root infecting mutualistic fungi in maize and peanut.

In addition to the hands-on training is a Bio innovation for Africa Pitch Challenge, developed to encourage African scientists and stakeholders to work more collaboratively to develop solutions to some of the most pressing challenges hampering Africa’s sustainable development. This initiative is the 4th edition whilst previous editions have led to the creation of innovative projects (in Africa) that are making a huge impact on smallholder farmers and farming systems in the region.

July 12, 2021

RWESCK Monthly Snippet and RWESCK Enrolment Summary

The Regional Water and Environmental Sanitation Center Kumasi (RWESK) has developed its Monthly Snippet and Enrolment Summary. Download to read more about the project.

Click to download RWESCK Monthly Snippet and

Click to download RWESCK Enrolment Summary

July 12, 2021

C-CoDE Press Release

For immediate release 9th July 2021

AAU and EPFL launch the Centers of Competence in Digital Education Initiative

Accra, Ghana, 9th July 2021 – The Association of African Universities under the Africa Higher Education Centers of Excellence for Development Impact (ACE Impact) Project in collaboration with the EPFL – École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (Switzerland) have launched the Centers of Competence in Digital Education (C-CoDE) Initiative. The AAU as the regional facilitating unit of the ACE Impact Project is using a portion of its World Bank regional International Development Association (IDA) grant to fund the activities of this initiative. EPFL, a World Class University of Technology in Switzerland, is also a leader in digital education.

Six (6) ACE Impact host Universities will be competitively selected and supported to strengthen themselves and establish Centers of Competence in Digital Education on their campuses to promote the sustainable integration of digital education in the teaching processes, as a means of strengthening the quality of teaching as well as the competencies of graduates. The pilot initiative will provide the participating institutions with the necessary training and coaching to transform their educational curricula by integrating modern digital education methods. Each selected University will commit some funding from their ACE Impact project (s) towards acquisition of the necessary equipment and venue to house their C-CoDE. 30 faculty, 3 pedagogy engineers and 2 technical specialists will be trained in each Center by the end of the project. The pilot will be implemented from September 2021 to July 2022.

Selected Centers will contribute to the design, production and dissemination of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and Open Educational Resources (OER). The broader goal is for the selected Centers to eventually serve other African institutions using a training-the-trainers model, within the broader ACE Impact project portfolio and beyond – across the Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) region.

Note to Editors

For further information, kindly contact Dr Sylvia Mkandawire via smkandawire@aau.org and copy Mr Yann Kerloch yann.kerloch@epfl.ch

Background information

The Africa Higher Education Centres of Excellence (ACE) Project is a World Bank initiative in collaboration with governments of participating countries to support Higher Education institutions in specializing in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), Agriculture, and Health. The Project aims to promote regional specialization among participating universities in areas that address specific common regional development challenges. It also strengthens the capacities of these universities to deliver high quality training and applied research as well as meet the demand for skills required for Africa’s development. Based on the initial successes, the World Bank and the French Development Agency (AFD) in collaboration with the African governments, launched the ACE Impact Project in 2018 to strengthen post-graduate training and applied research in existing fields and support new fields that are essential for Africa’s economic growth. There are 43 ACEs (25 new ones and 18 from ACE l); 5 Emerging Centers;l “top up” center in Social Risk Management; and 5 Colleges and Schools of Engineering.

About the Association of African Universities (AAU)

The Association of African Universities is an international non-profit, non-governmental organization created by African Universities to promote cooperation among them on the one hand, and between them and the international academic community on the other. Created in 1967, the AAU is the voice of higher education in Africa. AAU aims to improve the quality of African higher education, and to strengthen its contribution to Africa’s development by supporting the core functions of higher education institutions and facilitating critical reflection and consensus building on issues affecting higher education in Africa. The AAU is the Regional Facilitation Unit of the Africa Centres of Excellence project.

About the World Bank Group

The World Bank Group is a multilateral development institution that works to reduce poverty. Its subsidiary IDA (International Development Association) finances the Africa Centres of Excellence series of projects. Established in 1960, IDA helps the world’s poorest countries by providing grants and low to zero-interest loans for projects and programs that boost economic growth, reduce poverty, and improve poor people’s lives. IDA is one of the largest sources of assistance for the world’s 75 poorest countries, 39 of which are in Africa. Resources from IDA bring positive change to the 1.5 billion people who live in IDA countries. Since 1960, IDA has supported development work in 113 countries. Annual commitments have averaged about $18 billion over the last three years, with about 54 percent going to Africa.

About the French Development Agency

For more than 75 years, the French Development Agency (AFD) has been fighting global poverty by supporting policies and investments that benefit the poorest populations. Strengthening the social link between individuals, groups and territories is now at the heart of its actions in education, health, employment, urban planning, climate or biodiversity. For AFD, balanced development requires a real reduction in inequalities.

About EPFL (École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne)

About EPFL (École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne). EPFL is Europe’s most cosmopolitan technical university with students, professors, and staff from over 120 nations. Founded in 1853, the École Spéciale de Lausanne was renamed École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne in 1969. EPFL is a research-intensive institution specializing in Science, Technology and Engineering with a strong focus on Life Science and Digital Sciences. It is one of the two Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology, and it has three main missions: education, research and technology transfer. EPFL is a bilingual Technological University (French-English) located on the shores of Lake of Geneva in Lausanne (Switzerland). EPFL works together with an extensive network of partners including other universities and institutes of technology, secondary schools and colleges, industry and economy, political circles and the general public, to bring about real impact for society.

June 14, 2021June 16, 2021

Leveraging blockchain to create learning and employment pathways for African Youth: Regional Digital Skills Project launches Recruitment Dashboard

A new and impactful online platform has launched to equip young African students with a repository to digitally house their credentials whilst directly connecting them to potential employers. The recruitment dashboard piloted under the Africa Centres of Excellence (ACE) Digital Skills Pilot Initiative provides a single platform for students/graduates and companies to match more efficiently, addressing the challenges of university- to-work transitions and improving recruitment practices in Africa.

A first of its kind in Africa, this collaboration between the World Bank, the German Development Cooperation represented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and Digital Skills Accelerator Africa (DSAA) merges public and private sector engagement in a unique way, addressing Africa’s most pertinent issues, youth skills mismatch and youth unemployment. Through the ACE projects, the World Bank is providing funding to African universities to train their future workforce, whilst GIZ and DSAA connect international and African companies to training and hiring talented African students.

The recruitment dashboard is being piloted in two ACE universities, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Ghana and Moi University in Kenya, with just under 200 undergraduate engineering and computer science students who have collectively completed more than 110 courses, receiving a total of 9,500 blockchain certificates through the platform. It allows students and recent graduates to create personalised profiles and upload their credentials online, that are fully accessible to multiple employers, thus significantly cutting down recruitment time and costs. IBM and FutureLearn provide access to over 150 free accredited courses to help students bridge the identified digital skills gap.

Allowing for a seamless connection to recruiters, the dashboard provides a single space for companies to search and directly email potential recruits. “We have partnered with VerifyEd, a UK-based company, on this innovative platform to give recruiters easy access to a large pool of qualified and skilled potential workforce, whilst increasing student’s online visibility, giving them a competitive advantage”, says Halil Dundar, Practice Manager, Education Global Practice at the World Bank. “This investment has a great potential and supports Africa’s jobs and economic transformation agenda”.

In the context of Invest for Jobs of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), GIZ mobilises international and African companies through DSAA initiative. DSAA is an independent organisation focused on training highly skilled digital workforce talent in Africa, creating business opportunities for companies and individuals. Two member companies of DSAA, AmaliTech and getINNOtized, each with 300 vacancies in the 2021 calendar year, are participating in the recruitment dashboard pilot, providing a wide array of core digital skills- related job opportunities (both in-person and remote work) for the students.

“We believe the ACE Recruitment Dashboard will augment our recruitment strategies to target graduates with IT, Computer Science, and Engineering backgrounds to join our AmaliTech Training Academy. This will enrich our pool of graduate recruits for free professional IT/digital skills training for employment pathways in the tech ecosystem.” Richard Botchway, AmaliTech’s HR Specialist (Diversity & Inclusion) says.

The platforms filter functionality has been popular amongst recruiters. For Gideon Sackey, Dean of Students, getINNOtized: “Identifying the right candidate for the right job is always a hurdle for recruiters. This process is made simpler and efficient by the platform. The filtering features on the platform enable us to filter by skill, certifications, etc, saving time in our candidate selection process”.

Jerry Kponyo, the Dean of Faculty at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, one of the pilot universities, sees great potential and success of the recruitment dashboard: “Where recruiters are able to have access to such critical information [verified credentials], the students seeking employment would not have to struggle to communicate what they are capable of. The displayed certifications are self-advertising.”

The World Bank, GIZ, DSAA and the various partners hope this initiative opens the doors for innovative use of blockchain technology in education on the continent; promotes a strong culture of micro-credentialing; creates an ecosystem promoting job opportunities for the African youth, as well as continued private and public collaboration. The results of the pilot are highly anticipated and will be key to the evolution of blockchain technology for the development of the African continent.

About Invest for Jobs

DSAA is supported by German Development Cooperation in the context of Invest for Jobs. Under the Invest for Jobs brand, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) has put together a package of measures to support German, European and African companies in investment activities that have a high impact on employment in Africa. The Special Initiative on Training and Job Creation – the official title – offers comprehensive advice, contacts and financial support to overcome investment barriers. The development objective is to team up with companies to create good jobs and apprenticeships in the partner countries, of which there are currently eight, and to preserve them during the Covid-19 pandemic. Further information is available at www.invest-for-jobs.com

About Africa Centers of Excellence Program

The Africa Centers of Excellence (ACE) program is a series of regional higher education projects that aim to improve education, training and applied research at the post-graduate level in key priority fields, including science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM), agriculture, health, industry and related fields. The World Bank is supporting the overall ACE Digital Skills Pilot Initiative (launched in 2020) through a trust fund, the Korea-World Bank Partnership Facility. Further information is available at www.ace.aau.org