Western Africa - African Centers of Excellence (English)

Activities included: a regional IDA grant to the Association of African Universities to support capacity building and knowledge sharing among ACEs; monitoring and evaluation; project implementation support to the National Universities Commission in Nigeria (due to the high number of ACEs awarded funding in Nigeria); and the purchase of ACE services by faculty and students of The Gambia, a small co [...] At the time of project appraisal, Cote d'Ivoire was not able to participate in the project due to lack of IDA fund availability and the country's recent emergence from a prolonged crisis. [...] The regional approach, with the coordination of investments, will enable the concentration of qualified faculty into a Page 3 of 14 Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) Implementation Completion Report (ICR) Review African Centers of Excellence (P126974) critical mass to ensure impact, support sustainable institutions and programs, and encourage the flow of knowledge and students across countries. [...] Activities to increase the availability and quality of learning resources and facilities, updating and creation of new curricula, and faculty training were likely to lead to the intended outcome to increase the number of specialized academic programs in priority sectors relevant to market and industry demands. [...] For the academic year 2017/18, ACEs in Ghana, Nigeria, and Senegal represented more than 20 percent of postgraduate enrollment in the key fields of studies, indicating the proportion of the new qualified students attributable to the project.