THE ACE IMPACT PROJECT

The Africa Centre of Excellence on Development Impact (ACE Impact) is a World Bank funded project. The Project Development Objective is to improve the quality, quantity and development impact of postgraduate education (defined to include Master’s and PhD degrees, and short-term professional level courses and training) in selected universities through regional specialization and collaboration.

There 12 participating African countries namely; Republic of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Republic of Cameroon, Republic of Djibouti, Republic of Ghana, Republic of Guinea, Republic of Niger, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Republic of Senegal, Republic of The Gambia, and Republic of Togo.

The expected results of the proposed project include:

• Increase in the number of students, in particularly regional and female, enrolled and graduating from Master’s and PhD programs.
• Improvement in the quality of programs including an increase in the number of programs – and ACE host institutions – that obtain international accreditation.
• Development impact attributable to the project, including improvement in the relevance of the education/training programs and of the applied research evident through:
• Increase in the number, and strength, of sectoral partnerships that lead to production and hiring of high-performing graduates, internships for students, application and commercialization of research results, advisory board participation, etc.
• Increase in the amount of externally generated revenue, including from companies and other sectoral partners