Gambia is known as the smiling coast of Africa, and on days like these there is extra cause to smile. For over six years, Technopolis Group has supported the ACE IMPACT project through M&E support and, more recently, through evaluating the sustainability of the African Centres of Excellence in terms of their development impact. This whole week, West-African leaders in higher education gathered in Banjul to exchange knowledge and ideas on how to improve the African Centres of Excellence IMPACT project.

The ACE IMPACT project is a World Bank initiative, which on the basis of results-based financing, and funded through national governments and the World Bank, sets up university centres which focus on providing excellent education and high quality research results to address the challenges in the region. Technopolis Group has acted as verification agent for the last six years, verifying over 60 million dollars and recently worked on the evaluation of the development impact of the centres.

Our colleagues Lonneke Schrijver and Anneloes de Ruiter will speak at the conference about the progress the centres have made with regards to their monitoring and evaluation efforts, as well as have 1-to-1 sessions with centres for capacity building.

Picture credits: African Association of Universities