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ACE Impact achieves high aggregate performance – Nimble Evaluation Report

The Africa Centers of Excellence for Development Impact (ACE Impact) project has achieved notable figures (results), according to an independent evaluation, and is on track to exceeding the project’s overall objectives. Despite many challenges impacting its implementation, including the devastating COVID-19 pandemic, the project has produced innovative and groundbreaking research, maintained large scale enrollment, driven capacity building and more, becoming a model example for host universities, as well as the entire Africa higher education ecosystem. 

The independent nimble evaluation report findings were presented by Mr. Jamil Salmi, an education economist, on Tuesday, 31st October 2023 during the ongoing ACE Impact 10th regional workshop at Latrille Events, in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire. Mr. Salmi described the project as a ‘transformative program’ and ‘driver of change’ in the education sector. The report highlighted the overall significant progress and impact recorded by the project, especially in academic quality, sectorial engagement, regional networks, gender equity, and digitalization. The report sampled four ACE-participating countries—two anglophone (Ghana and Nigeria) and two francophone (Cote d’Ivoire and Niger)—for the independent rapid assessment, assessing program documentation, databases, interviews of country and centre team leaders for the entire ACE program series, encompassing ACE I, ACE II, and ACE Impact. 

As ACE Impact ends in June 2025, one major talking point raised in recent stakeholder engagements has been the project’s beyond-funding sustainability. It also emerged from the report that while some of the studied centres have weaned themselves off project funding and attained a sustainability status, having developed capacity for revenue generation for themselves as well as their host universities, other centers are working towards achieving the same effect. 

For these centers to be able to efficiently implement their long-term sustainability strategies and consolidate their gains, would depend not only on the centers themselves, but also their host universities, countries, and funders. Thus, while centers were encouraged to scale up resource diversification efforts focusing on continuing education and technology transfer, their host institutions were also incentivized to prioritize centers as part of the institutions’ research strategies, coordinate academic staff and administrative positions, and allocate budgetary resources to centers on a structural basis, such as scholarships for regional students. On their parts, Central governments and donor communities were respectively urged to adequately fund host institutions and centers and align with the universities’ long-term strategic plans. 

Standing tall as a story of success in the Africa higher education and scientific ecosystem, the ACE Impact project is jointly funded by World Bank Group and French Development Agency (AFD) and coordinated by the Association of African Universities (AAU).  

By consolidating their educational progress and capacity building successes whilst leveraging each other’s strengths and opportunities through collaborations, partnerships, and networking, centers are in a convenient position to individually and collectively contribute to the ACE project’s aim of enhanced quality and quantity of postgraduate education in Africa. 

Discussions of the nimble evaluation session of the 10th regional workshop were moderated by World Bank Senior Education Specialist and ACE Impact Core Team Leader, Dr Ekua Bentil. 

ACE Impact at 10 Celebrations Officially Launched in Abidjan Cote d’Ivoire

Representatives from the World Bank Group, the French Development Agency, the Association of African Universities, and the Ministry of Higher Education of Cote d’Ivoire have formally launched the ACE Impact at 10 (ACE@10) celebrations.

This pivotal launch event took place at the Latrille Events, Abidjan, as part of the official opening of the 10th Africa Higher Education Centres of Excellence for Development (ACE Impact) Regional workshop, currently underway in Cote d’Ivoire – from October 31 – November 3, 2023.

Guided by the theme ‘A Decade of Advancing Postgraduate Education Excellence in Africa’, the celebrations will spotlight the enormous impact and key achievements realised under the ACE Impact project, while positioning and mapping out its future of endless possibilities for transforming Africa’s higher education landscape.

Dr. Ekua Bentil, Senior Education Specialist at the World Bank Group provided an insightful overview of the Africa Centres of Excellence Project. She stated that for nearly a decade, the World Bank has invested over $650 million in Sub-Saharan Africa through the ACE Program to enhance the quality of higher education to solve developmental challenges in the region. Dr. Bentil took participants down memory lane to 2012 when the World Bank, in consultation with African governments, recognised the need to support the strengthening of various universities and their teams to drive Africa’s transformation and champion development within the sub-region.

The engagements and partnership led to the launching of ACE I in the year 2014, which featured 22 centres from nine countries in west and central Africa – Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo.  ACE II followed in 2016, supporting 24 centres in eight countries in Southern and Eastern Africa, specifically, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

Following the significant successes achieved by the two phases of the project, the World Bank Group and the French Development Agency (AFD), in collaboration with African governments, launched the ACE Impact Project in 2018, to strengthen post-graduate training and applied research in existing fields, whilst supporting the development of new fields essential for Africa’s economic growth. ACE Impact is being implemented in 11 countries, with 53 centres, including 18 renewed from ACE I. Aside from the funding by the World Bank, Dr. Bentil highlighted the financial support provided by the French Development Agency (AFD), including €72 million to support Benin, Cote d’Ivoire and Nigeria, under ACE Impact.  The AFD has also contributed an additional €6 million to support the ACE Partner Project, an initiative aimed at promoting the influence and collaboration of thematic research networks between African Centres of Excellence, key actors in quality education and research, mobilised around national and regional developmental issues.

Dr. Sylvia Mkandawire, Senior Program Manager of ACE Impact at AAU, outlined the plans for the celebrations. These include the generation of articles documenting the project’s key achievements over the 10-year period, profiling innovations and research breakthroughs, highlighting students’ research and alumni impact, and producing documentaries on the project’s journey, among others. The pinnacle of the celebrations will be a project-level celebration event scheduled to take place in Ghana in 2024.

Country teams were encouraged to make plans to mark the ACE@10 celebrations at the local level and to spotlight the tremendous achievements of the project. Groundbreaking and lifesaving research have been consistently produced by these centres of excellence, on many occasions when Africa and the world have faced global pandemics and crisis. The development of innovative solutions and nurturing of high-level human capacity have remained at the forefront of the project and will continue to be key focus of African universities in the years to come.

Cote d’Ivoire Welcomes Africa’s Higher Education Stakeholders to the Landmark 10th ACE Impact Regional Workshop

Over 400 delegates from 23 countries have convened in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire for the 10th ACE Impact Regional Workshop, marking a critical milestone in the project’s pursuit of advancing higher education excellence in Africa. The workshop, taking place from October 31st to November 3rd, 2023, has brought together vice-chancellors, project teams, subject matter experts, government representatives from various African countries, policy think tanks and other stakeholders. High-level government officials from Cote d’Ivoire graced the workshop with their presence at the opening ceremony.  The central theme of sustainability is at the forefront of discussions as the project progresses towards its culmination in 2025.

Co-organised by the French Development Agency (AFD), the World Bank Group, and the Association of African Universities, in collaboration with the Ivorian Ministry of Higher Education, the workshop’s hybrid format combines virtual and onsite activities. The opening and closing ceremonies are being held at the Latrille Events, whiles other key workshop activities, including plenary, parallel sessions and steering committee and experts’ meetings, will be held from November 1st –2nd, 2023 at the Noom and Movenpick Hotels concurrently. The opening ceremony witnessed a compelling address by Mrs. Marie-Chantal Uwanyilligira, the World Bank Country Director for Cote d’Ivoire, who highlighted the critical role of Africa’s youth population. She underscored the projection that by 2050, Africa’s population will reach close to 2.5 billion, representing 35% of the world’s population and having the largest share of youth globally.  The heightened need to leverage the opportunities presented and change the ‘youthquake’ into an opportunity was said to be critical. ‘Timely, deliberate and purposive actions must be taken now to harness this demographic advantage effectively’ – said Mrs. Marie-Chantal.

Already, numerous successes of Africans solving Africa’s developmental challenges through innovations exist, as evidenced by the ACE Impact project, demonstrating that indeed, ‘Africa can’. The data demonstrates the remarkable strides the centres of excellence have made in addressing the continent’s most pressing needs and continue to do so in impactful ways.  Since 2014, Centres have trained 71, 987 students, published 8,528 research articles, and raised USD 170 million of externally generated funds. They now host over 116 internationally accredited programmes.

Education, research, and innovation were said to be pivotal in attaining a SMART economy and therefore needed to be prioritised and placed at the core of capitalising Africa’s demographic transition. Mrs. Marie-Chantal indicated that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is positively correlated with levels of education, STEM education and scientific output, thereby investment in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education and the encouragement of girls to take up studies and careers in the STEM fields needed to be promoted to boost country GDP.   Moreover, it was added that the ACE Impact project goes beyond training and graduating students, to innovating and driving solutions to Africa’s challenges. Stakeholders were invited to partner with the project teams and join in transforming Africa.

The workshop was officially opened by Prof. Arsène Kobéa, the Director of Cabinet of the Minister of Higher Education, who reiterated the numerous benefits of investing in human capital. He emphasised the need to strengthen collaboration between governments and academic institutions to overcome key challenges faced by their economies.  Prof. Kobéa called on African countries to promote sustainability and ensure that the various phases of the project, continue to drive innovation and economic growth.  Commending the efforts of the ACE Impact project’s facilitators and funders, he urged all stakeholders to contribute synergistically to building a stronger and more resilient continent.

Prof. Olusola Bandele Oyewole, the Secretary General of the Association of African Universities, underscored the importance of project sustainability, and encouraged robust collaboration and partnerships. He acknowledged the Ministry of Higher Education in Cote d’Ivoire for its pivotal role in hosting the workshop and recognised the unwavering commitment of government representatives, subject matter experts, the World Bank Group, AFD, AAU, and the 53 participating centers.

Highlighting the significance of the workshop, Prof Oyewole emphasised that “the workshop serves as a vital platform to assess the Africa Higher Education Centers of Excellence project’s progress while providing the avenue for the sharing of knowledge, experiences, and innovations. The project’s collaborative spirit and innovation have had a profound impact, not only on academia but also on Africa’s socioeconomic and technological evolution”.

Prof. Oyewole encouraged participants to form robust collaborations and strategic partnerships with industry, governments, and international organizations, to leverage existing resources and expertise, citing that the trajectory of higher education and its role in sustainable development hinges upon the combined efforts of all stakeholders. The Association of African Universities’ commitment to supporting the various key components of ACE Impact and the common goal of advancing higher education in Africa was reaffirmed. He also encouraged the pursuit of funding opportunities from diverse sources to sustain and expand the programme beyond the World Bank and AFD funding.

Representing the French Development Agency, (AFD), Mr. Lionel Yondo, the Regional Director for Gulf of Guinea, urged stakeholders to harness Africa’s geographical dividends and the various opportunities.  He highlighted the transformative role of the 53 centres in achieving tangible results across various thematic areas. Emphasizing the achievements of the centres in the areas of scientific publications in high-impact journals, number of PhDs trained, attraction of externally generated funds, among others.  Mr. Yondo stressed the need for close collaboration with governments and the effective leverage and use of stable resources.

The workshop came to a close with the official launch of the 10-year Anniversary of the ACE Impact project (ACE@10), which will be celebrated in 2024 to mark a decade of remarkable achievements and contributions to Africa’s development.

The Move Towards Digitalisation of the Water and Sanitation Sector

In the face of rising populations, changing demographics, natural disasters among others, the adoption of digital solutions, is a highly needful measure in catalysing innovations and supporting smarter water management. Digitally transforming Africa’s water and sanitation sectors is again critical in addressing the myriad of challenges confronting these sectors. 

According to a 2022 special report by the UNICEF/WHO Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene, achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) targets on water, sanitation and hygiene in Africa will require a dramatic acceleration in the current rates of progress. A statement released on this report projects that Africa requires a 12-fold increase in current rates of progress on safely managed drinking water and a 20-fold increase for safely managed sanitation to achieve its SDG targets.    

Higher education is indeed well placed to champion the digital transformation of the water and sanitation industry through the conduction of research, development of new knowledge, training of highly skilled manpower, leveraging start-of-the-art laboratories to develop new technologies and creating important platforms to educate and facilitate dialogue among stakeholders in the sector, as well as the public, just to mention a few.  

In a move to address the underlying challenges confronting the ICT and water/ sanitation sectors, the Regional Water and Environmental Sanitation Centre, Kumasi (RWESCK), hosted by the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), together with its partners are working to address the skill gaps identified in the application of digital innovations and smart circular economy in water and sanitation utilities management.   

Speaking at a national workshop on Digital Transformation Skills Development in the water and sanitation sector in Ghana, Prof. Sampson Oduro-Kwarteng, the Centre Director for RWESCK called on tertiary institutions across the continent to review their curriculum to include digital education in order to produce industry-ready graduates equipped with the requisite skills to transform the sector.  The centre is leading the way, by training over 300 PhDs and more than 200 master’s students from across the region on digital skills.  

Under the Nyansapo project, which is funded by the French Embassy in Ghana and implemented by RWESCK, the centre is focusing on introducing digital transformation skills into water and sanitation education to enhance the employability of young Ghanaian graduates with digitalisation innovation skills during their masters training, research and internship periods.

Again, RWESK has undertaken various projects aimed at employing innovative solutions to addressing water and sanitation issues. These include the 13 million Euros SWITCH project funded by the European Commission initiated to adopt modern technologies in realizing sustainable urban water management. That notwithstanding, the ACE Impact project has been instrumental in contributing to the centre’s overarching goal of delivering quality education and applied research at world-class standards. 

Breaking Barriers in Digital Innovation – The Story of Fatoumata Thiam

Fatoumata Thiam is a PhD student at the Centre of Excellence in Mathematics, Informatics, and Applications (CEA-MITIC) in Senegal. Her research focuses on Self-optimized Irrigation System based on the Internet of Things (IoT) in the Sahel. The Sahel is characterized by desertification and advancement of the sea, which accounts for limited access to arable farmland, as well as increased urbanization that threatens water resources. The resultant conditions are affecting farmers and their yields significantly, with the need for immediate advanced alternative irrigation. Ms. Thiam’s study aims to provide modern and affordable technology to farmers in water management, and precision irrigation with IoT. 

Fatoumata noted that she developed a passion for science at an early age which influenced her choice of study. She stated:

“I’ve always loved science and I grew up in it. Very early on I had access to computers, digital equipment, music players, etc. and it has always caught my attention and curiosity. The operation behind these technologies has always aroused my curiosity. Later, when the opportunity to do computer science at university arose, I seized it.” 

Noting some challenges, Fatoumata indicated that as a woman in a male-dominated area of IT, she is faced with gender-related impediments. She said “It can be difficult to evolve in this professional environment where the majority are men.  As a woman, one may face unique barriers in the IT industry, such as work-life balance. For example, being more likely to take time off to care for our families can affect career progression.  It is important to recognize that women have an important place in the information technology industry and must be treated fairly and justly.  Conscious efforts should be made to remove barriers and promote an inclusive and diverse work environment for all.” In spite of these challenges, her family has been a robust support system for her growth and career path. 

In the future, Fatoumata seeks to further broaden her horizon in IT and its related fields. She looks forward to commercializing her research on a large scale for maximum impact. She believes that with the necessary support and mentorship, women possess the ability to provide solutions and positively impact the digital sector.  

Building Towards a Vibrant Biotech Start-up Ecosystem in West Africa

Since 2018, WACCBIP began a series of efforts to engage local biotech industries. In the process, the Centre discovered that the biotech ecosystem in Ghana, and by extension, in West Africa, are less dynamic and had little capacity for the uptake of biomedical innovation originating from Ghana. Consequently, the Centre reviewed its strategy to focus on enabling the set-up of biotech startups within Ghana and West Africa. This led to the creation of a cancer immunogenetics start-up, Yemaachi Biotech, a brainchild of a WACCBIP research fellow, Dr. Yaw Bediako.  WACCBIP closely supported the start-up and has since partnered with Yemaachi in some of its COVID-19 studies. Yemaachi Biotech, which has raised over $ 4 million, in 2022 performed the first human exome sequencing in Ghana.   

To inspire and enable the next generation of the indigenous biotech industry, the Centre’s first step is the develop a Biotech Entrepreneurship programme in collaboration with the University of Ghana Business School (UGBS) Innovation Hub, and the Institute of Applied Science and Technology (IAST). The programme will encapsulate a training course, and a business incubation programme, run concurrently. In addition, the centre is implementing a small projects scheme to provide funding support to innovative, industry relevant research projects proposed and run by WACCBIP students and faculty: 

  1. The Essentials of Biotech Entrepreneurship Training Course- The Biotech Entrepreneurship Training Course is a one-month sessional course with at least 7 contact sessions. The course will have an in-person format with expert facilitators sourced from our training partners.  
  2. The Business Incubation Programme will be a 3-month business ideation and pitch development programme. Outstanding trainees from the training course, as well as other WACCBIP students and alumni with good business ideas, from the training course will be selected for the incubation programme. The incubation programme will provide advanced training in entrepreneurship, product development, finance, etc. Through the incubation process, trainees will develop their products and develop their business models under the mentorship of experienced scientists and biotech industry experts. At the end of the training programme, trainees will have prototypes and feasible business models, ready for execution. The final stage of the programme is a final pitch competition amongst the trainees, to select the most well-developed and feasible ideas for funding. Seed funding will be awarded to selected, outstanding business pitch ideas.   
  3. The ‘small projects’ scheme is a funding scheme for innovative, and industry-relevant research projects led by WACCBIP students and faculty. Each year, students and faculty members will be allowed to submit projects, which have the potential to be taken up by the industry. These projects will be screened, with the projects demonstrating the greatest potential, selected for funding.  

 Moreover, through several networks, WACCBIP is driving innovation in the West African sub region. The centre joins, lead and co-lead a number of projects aimed at enhancing South-South Collaborations and through these are helping to build the innovative capacity of other partners. Currently, WACCBIP is a vaccine development hub for the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA), as well as a coordinating centre for the West African Network of Infectious Disease ACEs (WANIDA). The centre has leveraged these to train partner institutions in Ghana, Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Cameroon, Nigeria, Benin and Togo in next-generation sequencing techniques. 

CEALT Students Win 2023 AUF Hackathon for Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Students of the Centre of Excellence in Logistics and Transport (CEALT) hosted by the University of Djibouti once again emerged winners in the 2023 Hackathon organized by the Agence universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF). Represented by a team of five-  Mr Aboubaker Yassin Cheik-Frah (MSc Civil Engineering), Mr Kadar Youssouf Ahmed (MSc Civil Engineering), Mr Mohamed Saïd Mahamoud (MSc Electrical and Energy Engineering), Mr Abdi Omar Obsieh (MSc Electrical and Energy Engineering)
Ms Oumoukaltoum Youssouf Ahmed (DUT- Commerce, Option marketing technology), CEALT competed against Universities of Alexandria and Cairo in Egypt, and other universities in Lebanon.  

Noting the existing timing and scheduling challenges in the Djibouti public transport system, the CEALT team developed Baskaagi – an AI powered application that tracks and provides real-time bus routes, schedules and delays, while providing tailored planning features. 

Baskaagi aims to make life easier for citizens by giving them access to real-time information on bus services and optimising their routes to save users time, while improving their travel experience. In the long term, Baskaagi could be a widely used application across East Africa, benched on cutting-edge technologies to help improve transport infrastructure and create new economic opportunities for the local people.

Baskaagi represents a promising initiative to solve public transport problems in Djibouti and across East Africa, using technological innovation and artificial intelligence to improve the accessibility and efficiency of public transport services. 

The Hackathon provided a unique opportunity for the teams to create innovative projects that explored possibilities offered by Artificial Intelligence to respond to key challenges in the priority areas of Logistics and Transport, Health, Economy and Education. The teams were selected following a competitive and rigorous selection process including idea pitching.  The selected teams also benefited from training and coaching sessions held to nurture their ideas and potential.  

CEALT’s sterling performance at the Hackathon is worthy of note since it is not the centre’s first win. In 2022, the centre’s EcoLAIR project was announced as the winner at the AUF Hackathon. Aimed at promoting waste recycling, the EcoLAIR- an air conditioning system was created from recycled bottles.  

CEALT continues provides quality training relevant to producing the next generation of engineers and IT specialists needed to bridge developmental gaps through research and innovations. 

WACCI (Ghana) Establishes Kofi Annan Enterprise Hub to Unlock Students Entrepreneurial Skills

Background 

The Africa Higher Education Centres for Development Impact project aims to propel entrepreneurship and innovation. Through disbursement linked indicator 5.3 (DLI 5.3), ACE Impact Centres are expected to prioritize innovation and entrepreneurship as part of their activities. Entrepreneurship and innovation are related concepts that go hand in hand. IThrough support from the ACE for Development Impact project, the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI) runs postgraduate programmes to train Plant Breeders at the PhD level at the University of Ghana focusing on Agronomy, Pathology, Entomology, Genetics and Plant Breeding, Post-harvest Technology, Horticulture, Agribusiness and Entrepreneurship and Agricultural Extension. WACCI aspires to become an African Centre of Excellence for Agricultural Innovation and Entrepreneurship and is committed to quality assurance and is guided by the core values of excellence, integrity, commitment to people, culture of mentoring, accountability, and shared governance.  Through the establishment of the Kofi Annan Enterprise Hub for Agricultural Innovation (KAEHAI) in 2019, the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI) has achieved great strides in strengthening entrepreneurship and innovation in its programmes.    

KAEHAI was established by WACCI, and the University of Ghana with the aim of contributing to food and nutrition security in Africa by delivering innovations to agricultural value chain actors especially farmers and creating employment opportunities to empower the youth. The Hub also partners with strategic local and international organisations to drive agricultural transformation in sub-Saharan Africa through entrepreneurship. KAEHAI was named after His Excellency Kofi Annan for his instrumental role in giving visibility to youth-empowering projects while serving as Board Chair for the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), the institution that provided initial funding for the establishment of WACCI.   

Activities undertaken by KAEHAI 

KAEHAI has launched 4 impactful programmes since its inception, and these are:

  1. WACCI-MIT Global Startup Labs 
  2. Conversations on Agricultural Innovation and Entrepreneurship 
  3. KAEHAI-ECE Entrepreneurship Training Programme 
  4. KAEHAI – KGL Foundation Incubator Programme 

WACCI-MIT Global Startup Labs

KAEHAI partnered with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA to organize a five-week Summer Entrepreneurship Programme at WACCI in 2019. The initiative, dubbed “Global Startup Labs (GSL) Entrepreneurship Programme”, was an intensive course designed to take students through the process of starting a company, to expose them to relevant entrepreneurship lessons and to improve their technical skills. The GSL programme was founded by MIT to cultivate young technology entrepreneurs all over the world and the curriculum was modelled after incubator courses at MIT and covered two major topics, namely (1) Entrepreneurship & Business Skills and (2) Technical Skills. Out of over 100 applications, 29 applicants were competitively selected and invited to participate in the programme at no cost. At the end of the period, the teams pitched their innovative ideas to a panel of judges consisting of potential investors from the Greater Accra Agricultural and Entrepreneurship communities. 

Conversations on Agricultural Innovation and Entrepreneurship

As part of conversations on agricultural innovation and entrepreneurship KAEHAI hosted Mr. Alhassan Andani, CEO and Executive Director of Stanbic Bank Ghana Ltd, during its maiden edition in October 2020. This first edition featured theaward-winning journalist (Mr. Joseph Opoku Gakpo) as host of the discussion between Mr. Andani and Professor Eric Danquah, Director of WACCI, on the topic: Funding Agricultural Entrepreneurship and Scientific Innovations: The Role of the Private Sector, Government and Philanthropic Organizations. The programme forms part of a series of planned agricultural policy dialogues initiated to host agribusiness executives, policymakers, politicians, the diplomatic corps, and other influential stakeholders to discuss issues on the transformation of agriculture in Ghana.  

KAEHAI-ECE Entrepreneurship Training Programme

KAEHAI in collaboration with the Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship (ECE) from Rotterdam, the Netherlands, organized a five-day Entrepreneurship Training Programme in 2021.  This programme was developed with the aim of introducing the basic principles and concepts underlying the entrepreneurship process to empower students, young graduates and new entrepreneurs to apply these to their entrepreneurial projects and startups.  The curriculum was developed by select faculty from the WACCI, University of Ghana Business School, Crop Science and Agribusiness and Agricultural Economics Departments of the University of Ghana in collaboration with the ECE and the Dutch Centers for Entrepreneurship (DutchCE) following a six-week virtual Entrepreneurship Skills “Train the trainer” workshop. Twenty-four students from the above-mentioned units of the University of Ghana participated in the programme. The programme wrapped up with a Pitch Day competition, during which nine teams pitched innovative ideas before a jury panel comprising academics from the University of Ghana and representatives from entrepreneurial support organizations active in Accra. 

KAEHAI – KGL Foundation Incubator Programme

The KAEHAI – KGL Foundation Incubator Programme is a 5-year project to be launched in 2023. The project seeks to address the challenge of youth unemployment by bringing together like-minded individuals from the private and public sectors to provide training and support to students. The model will create opportunities to mentor participants to become entrepreneurs with relevant and appropriate ideas, networks, and support services. This will help trained youth to drive innovation and new product development for agricultural transformation in Ghana. This will be achieved by operationalizing an incubator programme at KAEHAI, in partnership with the KGL Foundation, to train a critical mass of young agribusiness entrepreneurs. It is anticipated that there will be at least 20 agribusiness startups successfully established by the end of the project, providing job opportunities for the youth in Ghana.  

Evidence of the impact of KAEHAI through the WACCI-MIT Global Startup Labs

Mr Evans Larbi participated in the WACCI-MIT Global Startup Lab (GSL) programme in 2019 and described it as a ‘life-changing experience’. Prior to the programme, Evans worked as a smallholder farmer in Agomeda, Accra. During the training, he and his team were ranked second during the final business plan pitches. He then proceeded to use the knowledge he gained to establish the Beit Farms Company together with a group of young graduates who had been exposed to agricultural innovations and agribusiness. In his own words, Evans tells us how the WACCI-MIT GSL platform enabled him to develop practical skills,

“I have been able to build more networks and reach more customers, as well as develop innovative initiatives that will help transform and scale up businesses along the entire agricultural value chain”.

Beit Farms currently employs 20 field workers and 4 permanent staff working on his 25-acre vegetable farm in Agomeda, where he produces onions, tomatoes, cabbages, lettuce, cucumbers, carrots, okro, chilli pepper and sweet pepper. In 2021 Beit Farms won the Bizz Hybrid Excellence Award by the World Confederation of Businesses.   

Evans also received additional training through the National Smallholder Farmers’ Summit at WACCI, and the WACCI Maize Workshop – and had the opportunity to share his experiences with other farmers and key stakeholders along the maize value chain. After the maize workshop Evans created DUAPA a mobile app to help farmers in Ghana and Africa to have access to ready markets, creditors, advisories and information on farm research activities.  Following the various trainings, Evans has also registered a cooperative group called the Beit Smallholder Farmers Association with a membership of over 60,000 farmers across Ghana and 80% being women and youth. Since its establishment a little over 3 years ago, the Kofi Annan Enterprise Hub for Agricultural Innovation (KAEHAI) is clearly demonstrating great strides towards advancing entrepreneurship and innovation skills for students at the University of Ghana and for youth in Ghana as a whole. Entrepreneurship and innovation skills development are critical in solving the unemployability challenges faced by youth in Africa.  KAEHAI is also a clear demonstration of how WACCI is delivering on the important disbursement linked indicator 5.3 as is expected under the Africa Higher Education Centres for Development Impact Project.

CEA-MITIC (Senegal) Promotes Green Technology Through Transformative Research

The Centre of Excellence in Mathematics and ICT (CEA-MITIC) hosted by Gaston Berger University (UGB) of Saint-Louis in Senegal actively develops human capital through its Masters and PhD ICT degree programmes and short courses, strengthening research capacities in the areas of secure networks and systems with mobility (including the Internet of Things); modeling of complex systems; materials-components-systems; mathematics and modeling; and computer systems and knowledge (including artificial intelligence). MITIC aims to develop strong and relevant research activities that can solve developmental challenges  impacting Africa, produce knowledge and innovative solutions connected with the productive sectors of agriculture, environment, health, and the digital economy. 

MITIC  is spearheading the Saint-Louis Digital 2025 project. The project engaged all departments at UGB, as well as local authorities in the Saint Louis region, to develop the city as an industrial center based on digital technology.    

Green technology and climate have also incresingly become key areas of research pursued at MITIC. In an article published on the EARTH.ORG website, green technology is defined as “the type and use of technology that are considered environmentally friendly based on its production process or its supply chain, which as a result reduces our carbon footprint“. 

The April 2022 climate change report on mitigation of climate change by the Working Group III of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s appropriately emphasized that: “Digital technologies can promote large increases in energy efficiency through coordination and an economic shift to services …”. 

MITIC has produced several impactful research outputs toward promoting green technology and climate change adaptation and mitigation. 

  1. MITIC is involved in the following green technology research: reduction of energy consumption of electronic devices through implementation of biodegradable electronic circuits and devices; energy recovery from agricultural residues by gasification for electricity production; and has installed a pseudo-gasification reactor to champion waste to energy technologies.
  2. The case of incomplete meteorological data: To mitigate climate change and green technology MITIC analysed missing meteorological data from the Senegal databases. Climate change studies and mitigation require complete and reliable meteorological databases to analyse climate indications, monitor its evolution, and accurately predict future variations. MITIC evaluated 5 methods and found that that the missForest method was able to reconstruct temperature data most accurately. The significance of this study on green technology and climate change mitigation was that the Senegal meteorological data from 1973 to 2020 could be reconstructed to support the readiness of Senegal to alleviate climate change impacts. 
  3. Malaria community-based early-warning systems and adaptation strategies:
    Illnesses that are transmitted by organisms that act as routes such as mosquitoes, flies, ticks are sensitive to climate and weather conditions. MITIC examined malaria data from the Senegal National Malaria Control Program and outputs from climate data and compared these data sets. The findings revealed that seasonal malaria transmission was closely associated with the variation of the rainfall. This study revealed that the peak of malaria takes place from September to October, with a lag of around one month from the peak of rainfall in Senegal. These results indicated that the southern part of Senegal was at the highest risk of malaria epidemics. The conclusions in the paper are projected to guide community-based early-warning systems and adaptation strategies in Senegal. These strategies would strengthen the Senegal national malaria prevention, response strategies, and care strategies that are tailored to the needs of local communities.
  4. Weather forecasting using the Ensemble machine learning model.
    Machine Learning is one of the technologies used in agriculture for weather forecasting, crop disease detection and other applications. Machine learning entails computers learning from data provided so that they carry out certain tasks. MITIC conducted research to develop Machine Learning-based models designed to handle daily weather forecasting for rainfall, relative humidity, and maximum and minimum temperature in Senegal. In this research, MITIC compared ten Machine Learning Regressors with their Ensemble Model. These models were evaluated based on mean absolute error, mean squared error, root mean squared error and coefficient of determination. The results showed that the Ensemble Model performed better than the other models. The importance of this study affirmed that the Ensemble machine learning model could support the protection of the environment through accurate weather forecasting in Senegal.
       
  5. An IoT based system for pollution prediction and assessment. 
    MITIC developed a distributed and intelligent system to assess and predict pollution in Southern Senegal. The Internet of Things (IoT) intelligent platform assesses the impact of incineration in public dumps of households and similar waste, as well as the impact of burning sugar cane on the health of populations. The system collects data on the type of atmospheric pollutants resulting from the incineration of garbage in the communities of Saint Louis and Richard Toll. The research also analysed the possible links between types of pollutants (that is, CO, CO2, NO, NO2, PM10, PM2.5, PM1, black carbon, and volatile organic compounds) and respiratory diseases (Asthma, Acute Respiratory Infections, and Meningitis). The platform is an IoT Fog/Edge network that distributes computation, communication, control, and storage closer to the end users along the cloud-to-things continuum. The relevance of fog/edge is entrenched in both the inadequacy of the traditional cloud and the emergence of new opportunities for the Internet of Things, fifth generation cellular network standards (5G) and embedded artificial intelligence. This MITIC study demonstrates the use of high-end computer science technologies to address pollution challenges and associated health challenges.
  6. Energy Efficiency related research
    MITIC is also involved in research on “low energy consumption” by studying the reduction of energy consumption of electronic devices through implementation of biodegradable electronic circuits and devices. MITIC is also working on energy recovery from agricultural residues by gasification and the evaluation of the potential of different crop residues. The research also evaluated the gasification systems for electricity production and tested / optimized the selected models. MITIC has installed a pseudo-gasification reactor to champion waste to energy technologies. MITIC has optimized biogas production from residues obtained after the processing of fish products. This research aims to solve the problem related to waste management, in particular fish product residues. The goal is to develop a biogas production industry from fish waste. 

The research by MITIC clearly demonstrates their leadership in the areas of green technologies and climate change mitigation through high-end research. Green technologies based on internet of things, machine learning and artificial intelligence have been developed by MITIC to improve weather forecasting, assess pollution and develop energy efficient devices. Through quality research MITIC has also supported the reconstruction of Senegal’s meteorological data and developed malaria early warning systems. 

Female Students Equipped with Strategies and Skills to Succeed at the Bargaining Table

Gender disparity has contributed to systematic differences in job opportunities and salaries for men and women.  Economic development statistics show that men often earn more than women for the same work. Further studies have confirmed that some reasons women earn less are because they often find it difficult to negotiate remuneration due to the fear of damaging a relationship and because they have learned that society can react negatively towards women being assertive. However, this culture of unspoken assumptions tends to perpetuate the inequalities in gender-related issues even though women tend to achieve better results when negotiating on behalf of a group as this is consistent with gender norms of being caring and protective. The growing need for women to take the lead in negotiation is crucial to empowering women to bridge the gender gap.

In view of this, key partners of the Africa Higher Education Centres of Excellence for Development Impact (ACE Impact), the World Bank and the Association of African Universities, organised a training workshop to provide a blueprint for effective and result-oriented negotiation. The Negotiation Workshop was organized in two sessions: the French Session on October 24 and October 31, and the English Session on October 25 and November 1. The training targeted female final-year masters and PhD students at the centers of excellence. Participants were selected through a widely publicized Call for Applications.

The objectives of the workshop were to: Increase participants’ awareness of their negotiation responsibilities; build competencies for negotiation analysis; enhance negotiation skills and repertoire; provide tools for better negotiation planning; improve working relationships internally and externally; build efficient processes and promote more active communication; teach peaceful conflict resolution strategies and enhance negotiation related knowledge and competencies.

Sixty students from the 53 centers of excellence participated in the training. For increased interaction and engagement, role play was employed. Participants took up roles as negotiators and discussed their approaches and results with the facilitators. Two seasoned negotiators were engaged to facilitate the sessions – Michele Pekar, an Associate Professor at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford and also a founding partner of Co-Dev Inc. (a negotiation and conflict resolution consulting firm) and Expert Facilitator for the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative; and Alain Lempereur, a Professor at Brandeis University’s Heller School for Social Policy and Management and Affiliate Faculty, Executive Committee Member and Global Instructor for the Harvard Law School Program on Negotiation (PON). The content of the workshop varied per session. The first session centred on Negotiation Preparation which comprises the 3 pillars of negotiation, reporting of results, and how to prepare for negotiations based on the 3 pillars, while the second session focused on the Negotiation Process including the use of the negotiation matrix, reporting results, and managing the process.

 

Results of the post-workshop evaluation showed that 90% of the participants felt highly confident in applying the knowledge acquired and all participants confirmed that their expectations for the training had been sufficiently met and that the takeaways would be useful beyond their career pathways.  Some participants reported that the workshop was an eye-opener in terms of assessing their value. As one participant noted, “this workshop led to an increase in my self-worth. Other observations included “I used to undervalue myself but I feel more confident now”; “I have not been taught or personally learned how to really go about negotiation professionally. This was the first of its kind, and I learnt a lot.”

The Negotiation Workshop is one of a series of initiatives under the ACE Impact Project to encourage gender inclusivity in higher education and other priority areas. Platforms have been provided through webinars and face-to-face interactions with the various centres, including, Experience Sharing Talk on Women’s Month (March 2021); Discussions on policies and initiatives undertaken (Benin workshop, June 2021); Negotiation workshop (November 2022); and an Alumni/Centre Leader Panel on “Navigating Barriers as a Woman: (November 2022). Other scheduled activities comprise ‘the women talk series capacity-building sessions in topical areas such as leadership; the launch of a mentorship program; and the organisation of webinars, among others.

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