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ACE International Partnership Workshop: Experts Brainstorm Innovative Solutions to Africa’s Water and Agriculture Challenges

In May 2024, the Africa Centres of Excellence (ACE) program held its inaugural international partnership workshop. Over 400 higher-education stakeholders, researchers, and innovators from over 20 countries convened in Mauritius to foster partnerships and chart a sustainable path to Africa’s development, through the ACE program’s contribution. Several sessions were organized according to the ACE initiative’s thematic areas to ensure a well-coordinated workshop and fruitful deliberations. Session III featured a panel discussion focused on the research and innovations being conducted by the Centres of Excellence in the thematic areas of Water and Agriculture. Moderated by Dr Uchechi Obinna, a researcher at the Centre of Expertise Water Technology (CEW), Leeuwarden in The Netherlands, the session aimed to foster an engaging and dynamic discussion on current research, innovation, and partnerships, particularly among the African Centres of Excellence and the European Centres of Excellence in the water and agriculture sectors. 

The esteemed panel of speakers included Prof. Harouna Karambari, Coordinator of the Centre of Excellence for Training and Research in Water Sciences and Technologies, CEA 2iE, Burkina Faso; Prof. Eric Danquah, Director of the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI), Ghana; Dr Hans Komakech from the Water Infrastructure and Sustainable Energy Centre for the Futures (WISE FUTURES), Tanzania; and Dr Sera Gondwe from the Centre of Excellence in Transformative Agriculture Commercialisation and Entrepreneurship (TACE), Malawi. The other panelists were Messrs Pieter De Jong from the Wetsus European Centres of Excellence for Sustainable Water Technology, The Netherlands; Olof Blomqvist from the Climate Knowledge and Innovation Community (KIC), Lund University, Sweden; and Matija Zulj, Founder and CEO of the Digital Agriculture Solutions for Agri-Food Value Chain (AGRIVI), a specialized AgTech company that delivers farm management softwares. 

Image of Prof Danquah

The session commenced with a discussion on agriculture and water innovations and emphasised the significance of these areas for development in Africa and globally. 

Speakers from the various participating Centres of Excellence demonstrated strong performances across key performance indicators (KPIs) in these thematic areas. They discussed various topics such as water treatment, digital education, agricultural innovation, and research and their associated challenges, raising concerns about issues related to water, agriculture, and contamination, particularly in regions known for e-waste contamination like Nigeria and Ghana and emphasising the need to explore areas of potential collaborations in addressing these safety and pollution issues. They also discussed the impact of agricultural programmes in West Africa, including specific examples of successful initiatives, partnerships, and future goals, and outlined clear next steps, which emphasised the importance of collaboration, innovation, commercialization, and strategic management in dealing with the related challenges. 

Challenges and Interventions

The panellists highlighted some of Africa’s development challenges. They identified malnutrition, low food production, and hunger as some of the numerous challenges in Africa, revealing that one out of every five Africans suffers from chronic hunger. They also mentioned the impact of climate change, loss of soil fertility, and the barriers to technology adoption in agriculture, especially the cost of technology.  

In tackling Africa’s numerous challenges, especially the issues of malnutrition, low food production, and chronic hunger, the speakers of this all-important session acknowledged the significant contributions of various interventions, such as the establishment of the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI) in Ghana, the Regional Centre of Excellence on Avian Sciences (CERSA) in Togo, and other Centres of Excellence in other countries like Cote d’Ivoire, Malawi, Nigeria, Niger, and Senegal. 

The speakers also unanimously emphasised the importance of international partnerships and collaborative research for the centres of excellence to consolidate their contributions and achieve sustainable impact. In terms of these international partnerships and research impact, reference was made to, and lessons drawn from, the success stories of the establishment of Wetsus European Centres of Excellence for Sustainable Water Technology and their international collaborations with countries like Kenya and South Africa and partnerships with development organisations like the World Bank Group. 

In his presentation, Wetsus’s Pieter De Jong emphasised the importance of collaborations and partnerships, especially to overcome the barriers to technology adoption in agriculture. He expressed his Centre’s continual commitment to ensuring effective water treatment, enhancing digital education, and supporting appropriate tailor-made technology solutions. To this end, Pieter revealed Wetsus’s imminent plan to launch the World’s first water MBA programme and a special Water-For-All Programme, aimed at enrolling students in solution-oriented programmes in Europe. 

He also outlined the organisation’s plan to work on implementing carbon filters, testing water filters, developing standards, and establishing digital education centres in collaboration with partners to provide safe water and enhance learning opportunities. 

On agricultural innovation and partnerships, Wetsus aims to commercialise crop varieties, support entrepreneurship activities, and leverage regional and international partnerships to enhance agricultural innovation and agribusiness ventures. 

Proposed Solutions and Key Next Steps

For impactful research and innovation in the water and agriculture sectors, the panellists proposed engaging in dialogue and generating ideas in tackling current challenges and fostering future collaborations and partnerships between Africa and Europe. They also emphasized optimism that such collaborations and partnerships between the two continents will occur despite possible financial challenges. 

The panellists outlined some collaboration strategies in research projects, emphasising the need to coordinate research projects and prioritize infrastructure investments to create impact and optimise water systems for better efficiency. They also agreed on the importance of selecting a few strategic research partners and industry collaborators for effective collaborations, emphasising quality over quantity. 

To ensure efficient private-public partnerships and innovation collaboration, participants expressed the need to seek guidance from institutions with experience in forming partnerships to avoid common mistakes and accelerate the commercialisation of innovations. 

In terms of commercialisation of research findings, the speakers discussed the approach of translating research findings into practical applications, identifying innovations, supporting innovations, protecting IPs, and collaborating with partners for commercialisation. The next steps also involved assessing the readiness levels of innovators, supporting them, and moving towards specialisation. The speakers highlighted the importance of partnering with internal and external institutions, focusing on common goals, leveraging partnerships, and identifying value within partners to drive commercialisation. 

The session was a testament to global collaboration for innovative water and agriculture solutions, covering discussions on agriculture and water innovations, and emphasising their significance for development not only in Africa but globally. Panellists shared great insights on the importance of focusing on innovations in these areas, underscoring the shared commitment to addressing the associated global challenges. Clearly there are immense opportunities for ACEs to collaborate and partner among themselves and also with institutions in Europe and elsewhere. 

Universities Planning Digital Transformation Initiatives Advised to Consider the C-CoDE Model

Effective and learner-centered digital transformation of African higher educational institutions requires a holistic and sustainable approach so that the intended outcomes from higher education can be realized. A well-thought-out digital transformation strategy by African Universities would also ensure that budgets are identified, staff and students are continuously trained, appropriate infrastructure is set up, sustainability and partnership plans are implemented, and supportive institutional policies and strategies are put in place.

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck the world, the infrastructural challenges and limitations in Africa’s higher education system further exacerbated equity & access challenges. Digital Skills among faculty and students were also identified to be a major challenge. Faculty in most of the African Universities had limited or no experience with implementing and using online teaching and learning tools, platforms, and methods. Furthermore, most of the teaching content was also found to be inappropriate for online use. Again, emergency online teaching methods were not supported by institutional policies and practices. Academic faculty and other stakeholders continue to be concerned about quality assurance and recognition of online courses and programs.

One of the plenary sessions during the 7th ACE Impact Regional Workshop, hosted in Cotonou, Benin, was dedicated to the discussion of digital transformation activities that are supported by the Africa Higher Education Centres of Excellence Project (ACE Impact). This session was chaired by Professor Gikiri Thuo, one of the subject matter experts supporting the ACE Impact Project. The session featured a presentation by Dr Dimitris Noukakis from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne who gave a report on the progress of the Centres of Competence in Digital Education (C-CoDE) Initiative being implemented in partnership with the Association of African Universities and six competitively selected ACE Impact Centres since September 2021. The participating ACE Centers are the Africa Centre of Excellence on Technology Enhanced Learning (ACETEL) at the National Open University in Nigeria; the Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Power and Energy Development (ACE-SPED) at the University of Nigeria Nsukka; the Africa Center of Excellence in Population Health and Policy (ACEPHAP) and the Center for Dryland Agriculture (CDA) at Bayero University in Kano. The others are the Regional Center for Energy and Environmental Sustainability (RCEES) at the University of Energy and Natural Resources in Ghana; CEA-Centre d’Etudes, de Formation et de Recherche en Gestion des Risques Sociaux (CEFORGRIS) at the Université Joseph Ki-Zerbo in Burkina Faso and Centre d’Excellence Africain en Sciences, Mathématiques, Informatique et Application (CEA-SMIA) at the Université d’Abomey-Calavi in Bénin.

Dr. Noukakis said that the C-CoDE model has been well thought-out to address all the dimensions of digital transformation in higher education and to ensure that academics are well trained to drive the transformation themselves. Thus, universities planning to digitally transform their institutions are encouraged to consider the adoption of this model.

Dr. Noukakis explained that the six participating universities are being supported to strengthen themselves towards establishing Centers of Competence in Digital Education on their campuses to promote the sustainable integration of digital education in their teaching processes, as a means of strengthening the quality of teaching as well as the competencies of graduates.

He explained that the C-CoDE concept facilitates the digital transition of Higher Education by addressing key underlying issues such as the adaptation of pedagogy to the digital environment, provision of infrastructure and building of technical competences. The objective of the C-CoDE initiative is to sustainably integrate digital education in African universities. The expected outcome from C-CoDE is strengthened quality education and skilled graduates. Dr. Noukakis said that the C-CoDE model proposes that the solution to digital transformation is to “place all the needed skills, competences and infrastructure under one roof”. The outputs of the C-CoDE concept are resident experts in digital education; a pool of faculty members trained in and championing digital education, and conducive environments/places to design, produce and distribute digital educational content.

Dr. Noukakis said that there were already significant outputs from the C-CoDE initiative since its launch in September 2021.  Using the ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation) pedagogical model, 18 digital education experts were trained and required to convert one of their courses for online delivery so that they learn the practical skills. Two cohorts, one English and the other French, went through three online workshops that applied the flipped classroom style and tutoring teaching methods. The fourth workshops were held as face-to-face activities in Abuja and Cotonou.

A total of 180 faculty members from the six participating universities are being trained between January 2022 to July 2022, using four facilitated Digital Education Masterclass Small Private Online Courses (SPOCs). Twelve Technicians are being trained on-site and would also receive two weeks hands-on training so that they are able to support the digital education studios.

Reflecting on some of the key next steps in relation to the C-CoDE initiative, Dr. Noukakis intimated that the finalization of construction works for the digital education studios in the participating universities is programmed to be completed in July 2022, whilst the procurement of information technology and multimedia equipment is planned for August 2022. Plans are underway, to inaugurate the six C-CoDE centres in September 2022.

Dr. Noukakis concluded by reporting that the training in Digital Education was highly appreciated by the participating academic faculty and institutions. Tutoring and facilitation were also recognized as being very important when training students online. Similarly, the need to add more modularity to the trainings to accommodate busy academics through shorter modules was also mentioned.   Finally, he said that it is important to engage trained faculty in digital course development and to align the sustainability plan of the C-CoDE initiative with universities’ strategies.

During the question-and-answer session, the participants sought to find out how the mindsets of stakeholders could be transformed to accept digital education. In response, Dr. Noukakis advised that motivating academic faculty and students could not be achieved “by just introducing technology”. However motivating people to transform their teaching methods could be achieved through training them and demonstrating the benefits of digital education to the faculty and students. He said that the faculty must understand the whole cycle and must be fully engaged. In addition, institutional policies must be changed to accommodate the adoption of digital education and include learner-centric approaches to digital transformation to ensure the success of the implementation of digital education. Participants at this session were asked to reflect on who was at the center of focus in their campus digital transformation initiatives because campuses need to be organic places that respond to the needs of students.

 

Written By: Ms Nodumo Dhlamini, Director ICT Services, Communications & Knowledge Management at AAU

ACE Impact Partners with IBM to Offer STEM Training to Students

ACE Impact Partners with IBM to Offer STEM Training to Students

Enhancing STEM education in Africa has been one of the cores focuses of the ACE Impact project and it’s participating centres. The ACE Impact project has partnered with International Business Machines Corp (IBM) to build the capacity of centers through training workshops for ACE faculty and students on Artificial Intelligence, and Cloud Application  and providing student internship opportunities at IBM Research Labs in Kenya and South Africa.

This collaboration aims to ensure that students are gaining practical research experience and developing key advanced digital skills, which in turn will improve their employability, including their participation in the workforce as entrepreneurs. Since its inception in 2020, 110 faculty and students have benefited from the training workshops.

Concerning the internships, an initial set of 11 students will be selected for the first year. Students will carry out research in areas such as developing analytics and AI tools and methods; and creating cloud and blockchain solutions for health, climate risk, food supply chain and other domains. The selection process is underway and interviews with shortlisted applicants will take place in March 2022.

Highlighting the usefulness and benefits derived from the training, Mr. Patrick Hussaini, a student from the Africa Centre of Excellence for Mycotoxin and Food Safety (ACEMFS), Nigeria noted that the training on Artificial Intelligence that he participated in improved his knowledge and deepened his interest in that area. “The training has heightened my love for Artificial Intelligence such that I have picked up a master’s degree in Artificial Intelligence at the University of Johannesburg, to enhance my understanding of the field. Additionally, it expanded my knowledge as I am now able to create a Chatbot using the IBM platform”, said Mr. Hussaini.

Speaking on the relevance of the training to industry needs, he added that the skills acquired is crucial to the African market, as it can help improve organizational processes and strengthen systems. The IBM Watson (application/software) for instance, simplifies the use of Machine Learning, Natural Language processing, creation of Chatbot and Computer Vision. Thereby automating complex processes and optimizing employee’s time.

Pre-Call for Applications for Additional Financing under the African higher Education Centers of Excellence (ACE II AF)

In collaboration with the Governments of Ghana, Malawi, and Mozambique, the Inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA) and Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) are jointly launching a Call for Proposals under the Eastern and Southern Africa Higher Education Centers of Excellence Project (ACE II). This initiative is proposed to be financed through Additional Financing to ACE II to be reviewed by the World Bank Group (WBG) Board in May 2022 (tentative). The main objective of the proposed project is to strengthen linkages between universities in participating countries and regional agricultural sector needs through strengthening (i) agri-food related education and training enhanced with trans-disciplinary approaches and applied research; (ii) university linkages to the regional agricultural sector – its priorities, needs and stakeholders; and (iii) university partnership with private and public entities related to agri-food both within and outside the region.

The ACE II AF is a result of broad consultations with the governments of Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique; and IUCEA and RUFORUM. Six key regional gap areas have been identified and prioritized for this Project: (i) agribusiness and entrepreneurship; (ii) agri-food systems and nutrition; (iii) agricultural policy analysis; (iv) agricultural risk management and climate change; (v) rural innovations and agricultural extension; and (vi) statistical analysis, forecast and data management. The Project will support the governments of the three participating countries to collectively address challenges in the aforementioned key gap areas by (a) selecting African Centers of Excellence (ACE) through a competitive and transparent process from existing higher education institutions which have certain capacity for research and training in agriculture; (b) strengthening selected universities through professionalizing leadership and management, streamlining administration and capacitating faculty to produce excellent training and applied research which can meet the needs of highly-skilled personnel and knowledge transfer for the agri-food sector; (c) building networks among these institutions to promote regional collaboration, foster partnerships with other institutions including industries for  training and applied research to produce innovative solutions for real development impact; and (d) developing a culture of results-orientation and accountability in institutional management through a performance-based financing mechanism. As a regional project, ACE II AF will be governed by its Regional Steering Committee (RSC) and facilitated by its Regional Facilitation Unit (RFU).

 

The submitted proposals will be evaluated by an Independent Evaluation Committee and the RSC will make the final selection decision. Interested institutions should meet all the following eligibility criteria: (i) be from the participating countries; (ii) offer PhD program(s) or demonstrate readiness to offer a PhD program; and (iii) have programs in at least two disciplinary areas related to one of the regional gap areas.

Proposals are expected to encompass the following elements: Enhancing capacity to deliver regional high quality training in agriculture to address challenge(s) in at least two key gap areas; a) enhancing capacity in addressing emerging challenges such as COVID-19 b) enhancing capacity to deliver applied research to address the challenge(s); c) the strength of the partnership (national and international) and capacity to build networks and offer capacity development for TVET and other Higher Education Institutions; d) building and strengthening national, regional and inter-regional academic collaboration to raise the quality of higher agriculture education and training; e) partnerships with relevant agro-based institutions that deal with processing,  storage and distribution of agricultural produce f) building and using industry/sector partnerships to enhance the impact of the project on development, and increase the relevance of these centers of education and research; g) enhancing governance and management of the ACE and the participating universities to improve monitoring and evaluation; and h) demonstrated evidence of the applicant university engagement as well as its willingness to take a leadership role in agriculture transformation in the target country.

Higher education institutions from the Republics of Malawi, Mozambique and Ghana interested to participate in the program are requested to submit their Expression of Interest through https://bit.ly/ACEIIExpression not later than 31st January 2022. The development of final proposals will be undertaken with support from RUFORUM and IUCEA.  The governments in collaboration with the World Bank, may offer additional technical support to institutions to develop strong proposals.

The submitted proposals will be competitively evaluated by an Independent Evaluation Committee. However, the Regional Steering Committee will make the final selection decision for successful proposals.

For further information contact the Dr. Jonathan Stephen Mbwambo, email: jmbwambo@iucea.org or Prof. Majaliwa Mwanjalolo, email: m.majaliwa@ruforum.org

Vacancy for Industry Liaison Officer

REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST

INDUSTRY LIAISON OFFICER

(CONSULTING SERVICES – INDIVIDUAL CONSULTANT SELECTION)

 

Africa Higher Education Centers of Excellence for Development Impact (ACE Impact) (P164546)

 

Consultancy Services for the engagement of Industry Liaison Officer at the Regional Facilitation Unit of the Association of African Universities.

 

The Association of African Universities has received financing from the World Bank toward the cost of the First Africa Higher Education Centers of Excellence for Development Impact Projects (ACE Impact 1) and intends to apply part of the proceeds for consulting services for the recruitment of an Industry Liaison Officer.

 

The detailed Terms of Reference (TOR) for the assignment can be found at the following link: ToR_ScopeofServices_IndustrialLiasionOffice or can be obtained at the email address given below.

 

The Association of African Universities now invites eligible individuals (“Consultants”) to indicate their interest in providing the above Services.

 

Competency and Expertise

Interested Consultants should provide information demonstrating that they have the required qualifications and relevant experience to perform the Services. The shortlisting criteria are available in the Terms of Reference under Qualifications and Experience.

 

The attention of interested Consultants is drawn to Section III, paragraphs, 3.14, 3.16, and 3.17 of the World Bank’s “Procurement Regulations for IPF Borrowers” July 2016 and revised in November 2017, and August 2018 (“Procurement Regulations”), setting forth the World Bank’s policy on conflict of interest available on this link http://pubdocs.worldbank.org/en/178331533065871195/Procurement-Regulations.pdf .

 

A consultant will be selected will be selected in accordance with the Individual Consultant Selection method set out in the World Bank’s “Procurement Regulations for IPF Borrowers” July 2016 and revised in November 2017, and August 2018 (“Procurement Regulations”). Further information can be obtained at the address below during office hours 0900 to 1700 hours.

 

Expression of Interest. Interested individual Consultants complete the online application at the Industry Liaison Officer Job at Association of African Universities in Accra, Ghana | africa.edujobs.com Expressions of interest must be received by close of day Friday 30th September 2022. Clarifications may be requested per email to smkandawire@aau.org.

 

Admission to ACETEL

Africa Centre of Excellence on Technology Enhanced Leaming (ACETEL) is a World Bank, Association of African Universities, and Nigeria’s Nanonal Universities Commission supported centre of excellence focusing on the development of human capacity and research in solutions that will lead to the utilisation of technology for education. Domiciled at the headquarters of the National Open University of Nigeria, Jabi, Abuja, the Centre team comprises Of national and international scholars drawn from relevant fields Of science as well as and private sector stakeholders.

Application forms for 2021/2022 Academic Session are available at https://acetel.nou.edu.ng/ from 1st to 15th December 2021 in the following programmes:

  • MSc Artificial Intelligence
  • MSc Cyber Security
  • MSc Management Information System
  • Ph.D Artificial Intelligence
  • Ph.D Cyber Security
  • Ph.D Management Information

ACETEL is therefore, requesting interested and suitably qualified candidates to apply for admission into any of the above indicated postgraduate programmes. Application forms and requirements are available at www.acetel.nou.edu.ng. Interested candidates should follow the online application procedure laid down via the ACETEL Website https://acetel.nou.edu.ng/. While ACETEL offers equal opportunity for enrolment and studies to all, female members of the society are specially encouraged to apply. Scholarship is also available for eligible candidates.

APPLICATION FEE

  • MSc = N20,OOO
  • PhD = N30,OOO

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.

Call for Proposals for the Unit of Competence in Digital Education (U-CoDE) Initiative

Objectives and Action Plan

The Africa Higher Education Centers of Excellence for Development Impact (ACE Impact) Projects in collaboration with the EPFL – École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (Switzerland) are launching the Call for Proposals for the Center of Competence in Digital Education (C-CoDE) Initiative (Deadline for submission of proposals 25 June 2021). This Pilot initiative aims to promote the sustainable integration of digital education in the teaching process in selected ACE Impact host universities, as a means to strengthen the quality of teaching as well as the competencies of graduates.

The participating institutions will be provided with the necessary training and coaching to transform their educational curricula by integrating modern digital education methods. As a Pilot, the initiative will launch in six (6) ACE Impact host institutions in 2021. The key element at each institution will be the creation and the development of a C-CoDE (see the attached Powerpoint for further details on the initiative).

By encouraging the use of innovative digital technologies in educational practices, the aim is to strengthen the techno-pedagogical skills of lecturers and to train them in the production of digital content and its use in university courses.

The initiative will proceed in two steps, to:

  1. Enable the participating university to acquire the necessary skills, infrastructure, capacity and quality standards to operate a C-CoDE serving the institution. Such a Center will contribute to the design, production and dissemination of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and Open Educational Resources (OER). The faculty of the institution will also be trained in the integration of ICT-enabled teaching methods.
  2. Extend the Center’s sphere of activity to serve other African institutions (using a training-the-trainers model), for example within the broader ACE Impact project portfolio and beyond – across the Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) region.

AAU, as the regional facilitation unit, through its grant under ACE Impact is bearing the delivery, coaching and out-of pocket costs of the experts providing the training to the more than 200 participants from the 6 ACE Impact host institutions for the entire pilot period. EPFL, through its Center of Excellence in Africa (EXAF), is providing the content and training methodology.

For this initiative to have long-term institutional impact and to be transformative, the institutions participating in the Pilot, will commit to:

  • Deploy digital education capabilities in its institution (a C-CoDE) and integrate the use of the resources produced by the C-CoDE in their educational programmes
  • Encourage the pooling and sharing of digital educational resources – at the institution, within the ACE Impact project portfolio, and across the SSA region and beyond
  • Boost the development of new teaching practices by motivating and supporting the lecturers engaged in this initiative, at first within the participating institution and then more broadly.
  • The following additional conditions:
  • Appoint a C-CoDE Project Leader, an Academic Coordinator and a Technical Coordinator (see the Local Coordination Team template for a description of the profile of each of these appointees)
  • Appoint 1 Techno-pedagogical Engineer to serve as the point of reference for digital education projects
  • Appoint 2 Technicians – one specialized in multimedia acquisition and post-production, and one specialized in IT and LMS
  • Nominate 3 Techno-pedagogical Specialists – faculty members who will receive extensive training as part of the initiative and will support subsequent training activities on campus
  • Nominate 30 faculty members who will participate in the training and appoint 3 of them who will be trained to coach their peers (15% of their time)
  • Building space to install the C-CoDE (min. 100m2)
  • Financial investment of approximately $100,000 to cover travel; accommodation; multimedia and IT equipment; refurbishment and adaptation of premises to install the C-CoDE

Please note that beyond a strong commitment from the university management and a strong technical proposal, preference will be given to universities that prioritize female and junior faculty members when nominating the 30 faculty members to be trained. The performance of the related Centers within the ACE Impact Project will also be highly considered.

 

REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST CONSULTING SERVICES – FIRMS SELECTION

Country:                    Ghana

Name of Project:       Second Africa Higher Education Centers of Excellence for Development Impact Project (2nd ACE Impact)

Grant No.:                  D5330

Assignment Title:     External Evaluation of the Development Impact of the Africa Centres of Excellence Impact Project 

Reference No.:           GH-AAU-GHANA-229175-CS-QCBS

 

The Association of African Universities has received financing from the World Bank toward the cost of the Second Africa Higher Education Centers of Excellence for Development Impact Project (2nd ACE Impact Project) and intends to apply part of the proceeds for consulting services.

 

The consulting services (“the Services”) include an independent external evaluation of the extent to which the ACEs have contributed towards development Impact as per the agreed indicators. Secondly the evaluation will make an overall independent assessment about the past performance of the project, paying particular attention to the impact of the project activities against its objectives. Finally, the consultancy will identify key lessons and propose practical recommendations for follow-up actions.

 

The assignment will be undertaken for a maximum period of four (4) months effective the time of signing the contract until the submission of the final report. The services are expected to commence in May 2021.

 

The detailed Terms of Reference (TOR) for the assignment are attached to this request for expressions of interest. Click here to download it.

 

The Association of African Universities now invites eligible consulting firms (“Consultants”) to indicate their interest in providing the Services. Interested Consultants should provide information demonstrating that they have the required qualifications and relevant experience to perform the Services.

 

The shortlisting criteria are:

  1. Demonstrated experience in conducting evaluations of higher education projects that span across various countries.
  2. Broad experience with universities, international and regional research, and development projects in Africa will be a requirement.
  3. Demonstrated practical field level support for regional / international organizations in Africa on the development and use of monitoring and reporting tools.
  4. Experience in and knowledge of capacity development and higher education in Africa
  5. Demonstrated and internationally recognized consultancy service delivery.
  6. Full working knowledge of English and of French languages.

Key Experts will not be evaluated at the shortlisting stage.

 

The attention of interested Consultants is drawn to Section III, paragraphs, 3.14, 3.16, and 3.17 of the World Bank’s “Procurement Regulations for IPF Borrowers” July 2016, revised in November 2017, and in August 2018 (“Procurement Regulations”), setting forth the World Bank’s policy on conflict of interest.

 

In addition, please refer to the following specific information on conflict of interest related to this assignment: The attention of interested Consultants is drawn to Section III, paragraphs, 3.14, 3.16, and 3.17 of the World Bank’s “Procurement Regulations for IPF Borrowers” July 2016 and revised in November 2017, and August 2018 (“Procurement Regulations”), setting forth the World Bank’s policy on conflict of interest available on this link http://pubdocs.worldbank.org/en/178331533065871195/Procurement-Regulations.pdf

 

Consultants may associate with other firms to enhance their qualifications but should indicate clearly whether the association is in the form of a joint venture and/or a sub-consultancy. In the case of a joint venture, all the partners in the joint venture shall be jointly and severally liable for the entire contract, if selected.

 

A Consultant will be selected in accordance with the Consultant’s Qualification-based Selection method set out in the Procurement Regulations.

 

Further information can be obtained at the address below during office hours i.e., 0900 to 1700 hours GMT.

 

Expressions of interest must be delivered in a written form to the address below (in person mail or by e-mail) by 1700 hours GMT on 07 May 2021 and specifically mentioning Consultancy Services for the External Evaluation of the Development Impact of the Africa Centres of Excellence Impact Project for the attention of:

 

Sylvia Mkandawire (Dr.)

 Program Manager, ACE Impact

Association of African Universities

African Universities House, Trinity Avenue, East Legon, Accra, Ghana

P. O. Box AN 5744, Accra-North, Ghana

smkandawire@aau.org     

https://ace.aau.org/  |  https://www.aau.org /

 

Call for Application to Study PhD in Cyber Security at ACETEL

Call for Application to Study PhD in Cyber Security at the Africa Centre of Excellence on Technology Enhanced Learning (ACETEL), National Open University of Nigeria.

The Africa Centre of Excellence on Technology Enhanced Learning (ACETEL), National Open University of Nigeria, is pleased to invite qualified and interested
candidates to apply for scholarship to study PhD in Cyber Security by submitting a Research Proposal for the thesis entitled: ‘A Secure Data-Centric Architecture for Digital Learning’

Context:
The emergence of the Corona Virus (COVID 19) pandemic prompted several Universities across the world and particularly in West Africa, to switch to the digital
learning space as their mode of service delivery. Typically, a huge volume of sensitive data is generated in the course of the online interaction between lecturers and students in the digital learning space. At the core of this mode of learning, are the issues of secure data management and effective mechanisms for authentication and authorisation of endusers. This increased participation of schools in the digital learning space has given rise to the high exposure of the massive volume of sensitive data to various forms of cyberattacks. Although researchers have designed architectures for securing data in the digital learning space, yet, existing architectures have been ineffective for protecting data in this setting. Consequently, this research seeks to design and implement an effective
data-centric architecture for a digital learning system.

Supervisor: Dr Vivian Nwaocha, Africa Centre of Excellence on Technology Enhanced Learning, National Open University of Nigeria

Co-supervisor: Dr Jules Degila, African Centre of Excellence in Mathematical Sciences and Applications, University of Abomey-Calavi, Republic of Benin

Other contributors on the PhD supervision: Dr Adebukola Onashoga, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria

Eligibility of candidates: All the requirements for admission into PhD in Cyber Security at ACETEL

Additionally, candidates must submit an explicit Research Proposal of not more than 6,000 words highlighting the following: background, problem statement based on current related works, objectives, expected results, proposed methodology, planned activities for the duration of the PhD and references.

Duration of Scholarship: 3 years
Grant: Doctoral Programme of the ACE-Partner DSTN project, 540 euros. The DSTN Project will also sponsor internship for Masters students

The deadline for the application of the DSTN Scholarship is 31st December, 2020.

NOTE:

  • All Ph.D. candidates must upload the concept note of their research interest in not more than 5500 words.
  • ACETEL will offer scholarship to suitably qualified candidates. Please visit ACETEL website at www.acetel.nou.edu.ng for the Scholarship Application Form and further details.
  • Enquiries on ACETEL Programmes, Scholarship as well as the DSTN Scholarship should be forwarded to ACETEL email: acetel@noun.edu.ng or call 08123030665
  • For national students, application form cost N20, 000.00 and N30, 000.00 for MSc and Ph.D. programmes respectively.
  • For international students, application form cost $155 and $233 for MSc and Ph.D. programmes respectively

Contact: smkandawire@aau.org | Association of African Universities | P. O. Box AN 5744,
Accra-North, Ghana | Tel +233-547-728975 All Rights Reserved © 2022