Technical and Advisory Meeting RFU Progress Report Philip O Ayoo Ag. Project Coordinator Saturday, May 04, 2019 Quality Education for Development

Quality Education for Development Purpose The combined meeting for RSC members and Center Leaders provides optimal opportunity for interactions and dialogue to accelerate strategies for enhancing implementation of the ACE II Project The technical and advisory meeting provides a unique opportunity for all stakeholders to contribute to ACEs key developments, assess issues and challenges facing ACEs and propose potential solutions to optimize project implementation Participants include: Center leaders of the 24 ACEs RSC members World Bank team IUCEA/RFU team Vice-Chancellors/principals of host institutions Private sector partners Various experts/facilitators Saturday, May 04, 2019 Quality Education for Development

Quality Education for Development Objectives To review ACEs key developments in terms of overall results achieved, as well as issues and challenges faced; To receive and review progress report of ACE II project activities by IUCEA/[RFU] (under Components 2 and 3) To provide appropriate guidance on emerging issues for continued project implementation; To discuss the next steps for ensuring achievement of project goals in an effective and efficient way. Saturday, May 04, 2019 Quality Education for Development

POST-GRADUATE TRAINING COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH ACE II Project FOCUS/PDO POST-GRADUATE TRAINING Masters, PhD, Short Courses COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH Partnerships 5 PRIORITY AREAS Industry Health Agriculture Education Applied Statistics 8 COUNTRIES Ethiopia Kenya Malawi Mozambique Rwanda Tanzania Uganda Zambia Saturday, May 04, 2019 Quality Education for Development

Quality Education for Development REPORT OF ACTIVITIES Saturday, May 04, 2019 Quality Education for Development

ACE II Components Component 1 Component 2 Component 3 strengthening the 24 higher education institutions into regional ACEs in Eastern and Southern Africa in a set of defined regional priority areas providing capacity building support to these ACEs through regional activities supporting coordination and management of the implementation of components (i) and (ii)

Quality Education for Development 2.0 COMPONENT 2 Provides capacity building support to ACEs through regional interventions RSC guidance on Nov 10 2017: development of incubation centers in 4 disciplines facilitation of regional internships of MSc students carrying out tracer studies awarding MSc scholarships to female students Saturday, May 04, 2019 Quality Education for Development

Quality Education for Development 2.1 MSc Scholarships RSC directed that IUCEA should provide all the 60 MSc fellowships to female graduate students to encourage the participation of young African female students at postgraduate level to promote regional female student mobility. On May 4 2018, IUCEA/RFU launched a call for the first 30 Fellowships available for the 2018/2019 academic year successful applicants will be placed in their respective universities by September 2018 to pursue academic programs within any of the 24 ACEs Saturday, May 04, 2019 Quality Education for Development

Quality Education for Development 2.2 Incubation Centers RSC directed IUCEA/RFU to support development of eligibility criteria for ACEs to compete through co-financing development of incubation centers or learning factories by 4 disciplines (Industry, Agriculture, Health and Education/Statistics) the region’s four (4) best ACEs would be turned into regional research hubs that will demonstrate the pathways for the transformation of research outcomes into innovative products or policies A concept note was developed with guidelines for ACEs to compete through co-financing development of incubation centers a request-for-proposals to host incubation centers is now ready for sharing with all 24 ACEs evaluation panel is being constituted first role will be to come up with an evaluation protocol for the proposals About USD 250,000-300,000 set aside as seed financing from the project Saturday, May 04, 2019 Quality Education for Development

2.3 Indian-ACE Collaboration Pursued by World Bank and the Department of Science and Technology (DST), India facilitating linkages between academic and research and development institutions in India and ACEs in universities in Africa covered by ACE I and ACE II projects identified in four (4) areas for collaboration: (1) material science & renewable energy; (2) water, infrastructure & environment management; (3) railways; and (4) information and communication technology USD 2.5 million has been set aside by DST for use by Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) faculty to support ACEs activities a lead coordinator (Prof Kiprop) was selected from amongst the identified ACEs to work out the implementation plan with DST Saturday, May 04, 2019 Quality Education for Development

Quality Education for Development 3.0 COMPONENT 3 Facilitation, coordination and administration of the project implementation coordinating M&E activities across the ACEs to ensure their achievement of the agreed DLI results facilitating regional collaboration and networking through knowledge sharing events for ACEs and their partners Saturday, May 04, 2019 Quality Education for Development

3.1 Regional Steering Committee Meeting ACE II Project operates under the overall guidance and oversight of the RSC meets at least twice a year to set guidelines for the project, and to ensure that the ACEs achieve the project development objectives The 8th RSC meeting was held on November 10 2017 in Accra, Ghana 10 action points were identified to guide the work of IUCEA/RFU over the coming period Next RSC Meeting will be held on May 11 2018 Saturday, May 04, 2019 Quality Education for Development

3.2 Technical and Advisory Meeting An important platform for effective and efficient transfer of information to the ACEs A joint ACE I and ACE II technical and advisory meeting was held on November 7-9 2017 in Accra, Ghana, to: provide a platform for networking among the ACEs (particularly on partnerships and accreditation); learn from ACE I experiences present and discuss the expected project operational procedures Saturday, May 04, 2019 Quality Education for Development

3.3 Technical Support Missions To take stock of progress made in project implementation and discuss any challenges that may require support or facilitation by the World Bank and/or the IUCEA/RFU RSC directed that technical support missions to ACEs should be more harmonized through mutual participation of both IUCEA and the World Bank Technical support missions were successfully conducted to ACEs in: Uganda (November 13-15 2017) Ethiopia (January 29-30 2018) Malawi (April 9-13 2018) Zambia (May 7-8 2018) Some of the emerging/crosscutting issues include: independent results verification regional and international accreditation regional students intake attracting female students definition of certain DLIs/DLRs operationalization of the partnerships Emerging issues have been distilled for more detailed discussion (in a separate session) Saturday, May 04, 2019 Quality Education for Development

3.4 Monitoring and Evaluation ACE II project design has a strong focus on M&E RFU provides M&E technical support to ACEs Production of the semi-annual reports review of the ACEs Annual Work Plans (AWPs) Standardized reporting format (template) has been developed for use by the ACEs and the RFU ACEs are at different levels in implementation of project activities Capacity building in M&E is being organized for the ACEs Saturday, May 04, 2019 Quality Education for Development

3.5 Independent Results Verification Disbursement Linked Indicator (DLI) 1… 2… 3… 4… Disbursement Linked Result (DLR) 1.1… 1.2… 2.1… 2.2… Disbursement Amount 1.1m… 4.3m… 0.3m… Action Achieved Verification Next DLI

3.5 Recruitment of the Independent Verifier Firm The process of hiring an independent verification firm started when 5 firms submitted proposals on Dec 12 2018 following an earlier request-for-proposals. Negotiations with the best technically-evaluated firm, KPMG East Africa Ltd, commenced on March 9 2018 were terminated recently due to their financial proposal, which was significantly higher than the budgeted amounts Contact has now been made with Technopolis, the independent verifier firm for ACE I Project methodological approach (online) being considered more information will be provided in a separate session Saturday, May 04, 2019 Quality Education for Development

3.6 Communication and Networking Implementation of the ACE II Communications Strategy (approved by RSC in October 2016) is on schedule: project website is updated bi-weekly project newsletter is circulated quarterly three social media platforms are in place media mentions about the ACEs in the local media of participating countries is on the increase higher education news platforms such as University World News frequently feature project activities On networking: a meeting of higher education agencies from ACE II participating countries was held in August 2017 in Kigali 1st Africa-China World Bank Education Partnership Forum was facilitated during July 10-15, 2017 Saturday, May 04, 2019 Quality Education for Development

Quality Education for Development 3.7 Effectiveness With Zambia being declared effective in January 2018, all countries in the ACE II Project have now become effective. Launch for the ACEs in Zambia was held on April 25 2018 Saturday, May 04, 2019 Quality Education for Development

3.8 Human Resources Capacity New staff were recruited: M&E Officer (Mr Samson Ojesi) reported on November 15 2018 Procurement Assistant (Mr Christopher Kakooza) reported on April 19 2018 Following resignation of Dr. Eugene Mutimura, interviews for the recruitment of a new Project Coordinator was held on May 9 2018 TORs are being revised for recruitment of a full-time Audit Assistant to serve both projects (ACE II and EASTRIP) Continuous capacity building for staff through training Saturday, May 04, 2019 Quality Education for Development

Challenges and Reflections Late submission of semi-annual progress reports and AWPs by some ACEs. Delays in completion of the recruitment of an independent verifier. Staff gaps e.g. to support procurement and internal audit functions. Absence of communication and M&E staff at a number of ACEs has led to poor or no submission of reports or success stories and achievements made. Saturday, May 04, 2019 Quality Education for Development

Quality Education for Development Next Steps Implement component 2 of the project i.e. capacity building support to ACEs through regional interventions, through: Placement of (and providing financing to) the first cohort of 30 MSc Fellows for their studies. Providing financing support to the 4 ACEs to host incubation centers Development of an action plan for details of carrying out tracer studies. Complete the recruitment process of the independent verification firm. Complete the recruitment process of the Audit Assistant. Continued guidance to ACEs in implementation of their projects as appropriate Saturday, May 04, 2019 Quality Education for Development

Quality Education for Development Required Support World Bank to continue supporting IUCEA in facilitation of coordination of the project through (bi-)monthly meetings. ACEs to submit their reports in the stipulated time to allow timely compilation/consolidation of reports by IUCEA as an RFU. As well as timely submission of the AWPs by the ACEs RSC, NSC and host universities to continue providing project implementation support and guidance as approriate Saturday, May 04, 2019 Quality Education for Development

Thank you Saturday, May 04, 2019