1. Africa Centers of Excellence for Productivity and Capacity Building
Pre-concept meeting

2. Overview Status and Lessons Improvements to be made Objective
Project components & sub-components
Country scope
Preparation Activities
Prep Timeline

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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?

6. 3. Objective So far the same:
Regional specialization & collaboration for regional development challenges
Some changes /additions to sub-objectives (TBD)

7. 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)

8. 5. Country scope
New ACEs: All countries in West and Central Africa eligible?
PASET Scholarship: SSA

9. 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

10. 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