Africa Centers of Excellence: Project Overview and Improvements
"Explore the status, lessons, and proposed improvements for Africa Centers of Excellence in productivity and capacity building. Learn about the objectives, project components, and preparations towards enhancing African universities and professional development. Find insights on required capacity, consortia models, and regional strategies for optimal impact and collaboration."
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Presentation Transcript
Africa Centers of Excellence for Productivity and Capacity Building Pre-concept meeting
Overview 1. Status and Lessons 2. Improvements to be made 3. Objective 4. Project components & sub-components 5. Country scope 6. Preparation Activities 7. Prep Timeline
1. Status and Lessons ACE West and Central at mid-term in short: On track to meet PDO objectives in 2019 (one year extension) The project can help African universities to change and produce demanded professionals and knowledge Excellent platform for improvements govt, uni & partner buy-in Need to continue improve: Show results and invest A ton of Lessons
2.Improvements to be made to the ACE model Sharper targeting on required capacity and professions Broader fields (economics, education?), but with more engineering, etc. Pushing a consortia model for more impact on the economy: Clearly defining the demanded professions and knowledge upfront for each targeted ACE area Involve companies & employers in the management, funding and supervision structure from the start Build more institutional capacity building: Establish an African-funded & run Centers of Excellence program Support countries regionalization strategies Integrate with PASET on scholarships and benchmarking
Improvements cont More impact at the institutional excellence (beyond a center) benchmarking and governance focus ACE to become the Bank s multi GP capacity building platform Broader partner outreach from the start Private sector (FDI, multinationals, large national firm), DPs (research councils, bilaterals), University associations and disciplinary organizations More flexible ACE model: Results (DLIs) & funding to be customized to each ACE Support Regional networks?
3. Objective So far the same: Regional specialization & collaboration for regional development challenges Some changes /additions to sub-objectives (TBD)
4. Project Components 1. Deepening reforms and strengthening highly-performing ACE institutions. Support highly performing Institutions - Additional support 5- 7 of the highly performing ACE centers Deepen reforms in the existing ACE institutions? 2. New ACEs / Consortia 3. Scholarship funds for countries and ACEs Regional Education services incl. scholarships for the ACEs following the successful Gambia model. Regional scholarship fund (RSIF) under PASET. 4. Regional Project Facilitation and Benchmarking ($10m, IDA grant)
5. Country scope New ACEs: All countries in West and Central Africa eligible? PASET Scholarship: SSA
6. Preparation activities key elements Request for participation from Ministry of Finance work with governments (steering committee) Prioritization of key areas - GP outreach, private sector, governments Regional ownership and institutionalization (also policy marking and benchmarking) Selection process & ACE /consortia model improvements Development partner outreach Scholarship component
7. Timeline Country requests for participation by August? Concept note - September Partner and government workshop (large) Pre-announcement on the call for proposal Call for proposal launched April? 1 or 2 stage process? Completion and selection by August 2018? Negotiations September 2018? Board December 2018
