7th ACE Impact Regional Workshop to hold from June 13-17, 2022

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Accra, Ghana (May 30, 2022) – The 7th bi-annual meeting of the Africa Centres of Excellence for Development Impact (ACE Impact) is scheduled to take place from 13th-17th June 2022 in Cotonou, Benin. Considering the impact and mobility restrictions posed by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the ACE Impact stakeholders are meeting for the first time in-person in two years (the last in-person meeting was held in February 2020 in Abuja, Nigeria).

The meeting, which will make provision for virtual participation is bringing together leaders of the fifty-three (53) Centres of Excellence, government representatives from the 11 participating countries, key higher education stakeholders, policy think tanks, and partners such as the World Bank, the French Development Agency (AFD) and the Association of African Universities (AAU).

Committed to enhancing the capacity of universities to deliver high-quality training and applied research to address regional development challenges, the ACE Impact project is convening stakeholders to accelerate project implementation by measuring the impact accrued and exploring ways to address bottlenecks. With the project reaching its Mid-Term Review (MTR) in 2021, results of the MTR process will be evaluated during the upcoming workshop, with the teams finalizing recommendations and next steps. ACE Impact is being implemented over a five-year duration, 2019 -2024.

The workshop will further provide an opportunity for peer-learning and regional knowledge sharing among the centers and strengthen partnerships and networks to drive successful project implementation and sustainability. The meeting seeks to provide implementation support and share global best practices with centers on the project objectives, especially development impact, entrepreneurship and innovation, gender initiatives, digital transformation, and institutional impact activities.

In addition, selected students from the three centers in Benin will be given the opportunity to share their innovative research outputs during a poster exhibition on 14th June 2022 at the Palais des Congrès. The opening and closing sessions of the workshop will be held on 14th and 17th June, respectively, at 10:00 GMT+1.

The ACE Impact project remains committed to training and providing Africa with the needed skills in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM); Agriculture, Environment, Applied Social Science, Education, and Health to realize its economic transformation.

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Note to Editors
A press conference will be held virtually/in person on 14th June 2022 at the Palais des Congrès in Cotonou. Benin To participate or for further information, kindly contact Millicent Afriyie via email makyei@aau.org.