Strategic memo - Prospects for the development of quality assurance policies and systems in the West and Central Africa and Sahel sub-region

At the end of 2017, Hcéres, the CTI and the AFD (French Development Agency) signed a tripartite partnership agreement including the organisation of a workshop in French-speaking Sub-Saharan Africa in the presence of African quality assurance stakeholders and partner organisations.
The international workshop was organised on 8 and 9 October 2018 in Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire), under the aegis of the Ivorian Minister for Higher Education and Scientific Research and with support from the “Debt Reduction and Development Programme” run by the AFD and the French embassy. The event enabled participants to take stock of quality assurance in higher education in the sub-region, to review the issues and prospects, and to exchange good practice.

After the workshop, Hcéres, the CTI and the AFD produced a strategic memo on the prospects for developing quality assurance and systems in the sub-region. Several areas of work have been identified for the future: 

• define, implement and evaluate a process for accompanying quality assurance agencies and quality assurance units in ministries and schools;
• conduct pilot evaluations and accreditations with certain agencies, mainly using French procedures and standards; 
• carry out a study of the fit between the ASG-QA (African Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in Higher Education), existing standards (CAMES, ANAQ-Sup, AfriQAN, etc.) and the ESG (European Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in Higher Education); 
• help the agencies to become more autonomous, to start a continuous improvement process and to boost their long-term effectiveness.