The World Bank Implementation Status & Results Report Africa Higher Education Centers of Excellence Project (P126974) Africa Higher Education Centers of Excellence Project (P126974) AFRICA | Western Africa | Education Global Practice | IBRD/IDA | Investment Project Financing | FY 2014 | Seq No: 12 | ARCHIVED on 29-Dec-2019 | ISR39690 | Implementing Agencies: Ministry of Finance, National University Commission, Ministry of Higher Education, Ministry of Higher Education, Ministry of Higher Education, Ministry of Higher Education, Association of African Universities, Ministry of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology, Ministry of Higher Education, Cameroon, National Commission for Tertiary Education, NCTE, Ghana, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Ministry of Higher Education, Ministry of Higher Education, Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research Key Dates Key Project Dates Bank Approval Date: 15-Apr-2014 Effectiveness Date: 16-May-2014 Planned Mid Term Review Date: 01-Jun-2016 Actual Mid-Term Review Date: 17-Nov-2014 Original Closing Date: 31-Dec-2018 Revised Closing Date: 30-Sep-2020 pdoTable Project Development Objectives Project Development Objective (from Project Appraisal Document) The Project Development Objective is to support the Recipients to promote regional specialization among participating universitiesin areas that address regional challenges by strengthening the capacities of these universities to deliver quality training andapplied research. Has the Project Development Objective been changed since Board Approval of the Project Objective? No Components Table Name Component 1: Strengthening Africa Centers of Excellence:(Cost $153.75 M) Component 2: Enhancing Regional Capacity; Evaluation and Collaboration:(Cost $9.20 M) Overall Ratings Name Previous Rating Current Rating Progress towards achievement of PDO Satisfactory Satisfactory Overall Implementation Progress (IP) Satisfactory Satisfactory Overall Risk Rating Moderate Moderate Implementation Status and Key Decisions  Project disbursement is strong, with ACE project wide disbursement at 90 percent (up from 80 percent in June 2019). Although there is a high disbursement rate under the project, there is variation across countries, with high levels of disbursement in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Benin, The Gambia and Nigeria. Countries like Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal have lower disbursement rates, however the project teams in these countries have received additional implementation support from the World Bank and the AAU to accelerate DLI achievement and disbursement. 12/29/2019 Page 1 of 9 The World Bank Implementation Status & Results Report Africa Higher Education Centers of Excellence Project (P126974)  Strong results with targets for four out of the five PDO-level indicators’ related to post-graduate expansion, international accreditation, revenue generation and regional student enrollment being met or exceeded. The fifth PDO-level indicator measures number of internships is yet to be met, however the project has achieved 93 percent of the target with over 4,000 students benefitting from an internship as part of their studies. Also, end-of project targets for all 15 intermediate results indicators have been achieved.  Ownership of ACEs at the university-level is strong and ACEs continue to push to meet international benchmarks with 21/22 ACEs having obtained international accreditation in 56 programs (up from 35 in June 2019) and at least US$50 million generated in external revenue across the ACEs.  Significant improvements in teaching and learning environment. At least ten ACEs have fully completed construction and installation of top-level equipment to improve the learning environment on ACE hosting university campuses. This includes the Poultry Science ACE in Togo that was inaugurated by the World Bank Vice President on November 1st, 2019. A further 5 ACEs are expected to be commissioning their new ACE-financed buildings including offices, laboratories, conference and lecture rooms in the next 3 months. The full completion of the teaching and learning environment disbursement-linked indicator (DLI) is a key priority for the ACEs in the last quarter of implementation. The project team is working extensively to ensure all buildings are completed well before the project closing date of March 31, 2020.  Preparation for project closing has begun including the project completion report. The project closing date for 8/9 countries is March 31, 2020 and for the Cote d’Ivoire portion of the project (additional financing - AF), it is September 30, 2020. A draft project completion report will be prepared by the AAU that includes contributions from all the countries. Thus, the official implementation and implementation completion and results report (ICR) due date is March 30th, 2020, six months after the closing of the AF portion of the project. However, the project will endeavor to finalize the ICR by December 31, 2020 given the project closing date for eight countries is March 31, 2020. Key challenges under the project include (described in further detail below): o Fund Utilization. Whilst the rate of utilization of funds – i.e. the rate at which disbursed funds are being utilized by the ACEs –- has improved across all the ACEs from 56 percent in December 2018 to 70 percent in June 2019, it remains a challenge in in 6 ACEs. An updated set of figures will be submitted as part of the next Interim Financial Reports (IFRs) due December 31, 2019. However, all centers need to continue to accelerate implementation and complete infrastructure and purchase of equipment to ensure all the funds are effectively utilized by the project closing. o Governance of centers. Although there has been a significant improvement in governance of centers, both institutional ownership and project management, there are still a few centers that need consistent oversight and support. o University-Industry Linkages. There has been some progress on university-industry linkages, however, this has been a consistent challenge throughout the project. More details on this may be found in the key challenges section below. Overall Status of Implementation  Progress towards achievement of PDO. PDO-level indicators for this project are: (i) number of regional and national students enrolled in new specialized short-term courses, Master, and PhD programs; (ii) number of regional students enrolled in specific specialized/new ACE courses; (iii) number of internationally accredited education programs; (iv) number of students/faculty with at least one month internship in a company or local institution; and (v) amount of externally generated revenue by ACEs. The ACE project continues to show strong results and implementation. Most of the centers have made strong progress on key DLIs, with the project supporting at least 9,000 MSc and 2,000 PhD students, of which at least 2,530 are regional students, exceeding the targets for these PDO-level indicators. The project is continuing to make progress on international accreditation with at least 56 programs now obtaining international accreditation from a baseline of 1 in 2014. This focus on meeting international benchmarks is a key feature of the results-based financing approach of the project and is continuing to yield results. The target for the PDO-level indicator on internships is the only one which has not been met yet, but a last round of verification on student results is currently being finalized and it is expected that the target will be achieved thereafter. Finally, the centers have demonstrated strong ownership at the university level, and the revenue generation PDO-level indicator target being exceeded achieved under ACE 1.  In terms of project sustainability, most of the ACEs have now set-up the necessary mechanism for external revenue generation. Additionally, following the First and Second regional ACE Impact competition, 18 out of the 22 ACEs have been successfully selected for renewal under an ACE Impact Project. For example, in the last six months, Benue State University in Nigeria, leveraged a grant of $7 million on Food and Nutrition Security from University of Greenwich. A key concern on sustainability after project closing remains for the four centers that have not been renewed. Additional support will be provided to them to ensure that they are linked to the ACE Impact network and that strategies are in place to guarantee that the centers will continue generating revenue after the ACE project closes and funding ceases. Planning of ACE1 Project Closing  Project closing guidelines. During the Dakar September 2019 workshop, project closing guidelines were shared with the ACEs. ACEs were encouraged to accelerate their achievements and verification has been accelerated to make sure that all DLIs have been verified at least three months in advance of project closure. The main verifications remaining are on number of internships – DLI 2.4 - and the last verification on infrastructure – DLI 2.8. Discussions were held on procedures and policies of funds that have been earned by the ACEs, but not yet spent in view of the project closing date of March 31, 2020. It was agreed that all efforts will be made to ensure all funds are utilized towards achievement of the PDO by project closure. As it currently stands, the results-based financing approach of the project, means that all earned DLIs are funds of the respective governments, and if there are unspent funds at project closure, there is a possibility that these funds will be returned to the government. The Project Steering Committee (PSC) discussed this at length, and it was recommended that accelerated implementation support is provided to those ACEs that are at high risk of not fully spending their funds by project closure. 12/29/2019 Page 2 of 9 The World Bank Implementation Status & Results Report Africa Higher Education Centers of Excellence Project (P126974)  Planning of the Implementation Completion and Results Report (ICR). The structure of the ICR was shared with the PSC. It was agreed that the regional facilitation unit (AAU) will prepare an aggregated borrower ICR, with inputs from each country. Operational and fiduciary progress  In terms of verification of results, since February 2019, three verification exercises on the DLI on teaching and learning (DLI 2.8) for infrastructure and equipment milestone have been completed. Additionally, the sixth verification exercise of the education and research DLIs results (DLI 2.1-2.4) for all the centers was completed in September 2019. Additionally, a final verification of student-related DLIs is being processed in December 2019 as many ACEs still have results that need to be verified. Key challenges  Fund utilization. The fund utilization (rate at which ACEs have used funds over the funds allocated to the center) has improved under the Project from 56 percent in February 2019 to 70 percent (on average), with the top performing centers such as the Center for Education and Research with Water, Energy, Environment sciences and Technologies (2iE) in Burkina Faso; the West Africa for Crop Improvement in University (WACCI), West African Center for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP), Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology KNUST, in Ghana; and the Center for Oil Field Chemicals (CEFOR) in University of Port Harcourt and Africa Center for Infectious Genomics Diseases (ACEGID) in Redeemers University having utilization rates of over 80 percent. This fund utilization data is based on the submitted Interim Financial Reports (IFRs) between December 30, 2018 and June 30, 2019. A key priority for the next four months is to ensure all the funds are effectively utilized before the close of the project.  Governance and Project Management. Although governance and project management challenges at most of the centers have significantly improved, these continue to remain a concern in some centers. In Cameroon, although some minor progress on project implementation continues, there continues to be a need to closely monitor and provide support to the project team. In Cote d’Ivoire, The Center of Excellence in Mines and Mining Environment (CEA-MEM) has also experienced governance issues. Specifically, at the CEA- MEM a recommendation had been made at the last supervision mission in February 2019 to hire a project manager. This has now been completed, with the new project manager recruited after a delay of almost nine months.  University Industry Linkages. A key remaining challenge is meeting some of the difficult DLIs around university-industry linkages. Specifically, achieving the DLI on revenue generation has been difficult with five centers below 10% of achievement rate on this DLI, although 16/22 ACEs have achieved 100% on this DLI. Similarly, on short-term trainings, six centers are below 50%, but this is expected to increase after the next round of verification. The completion rate, on average, is 72% for this DLI on short term professional training, thus it is expected that this will be achieved before closure. On the DLI on outreach, including student internships, achievement of this DLI has improved from 54 percent to 61 percent achievement, however, the risk of not attaining full achievement of this DLI by project closure is high. The project provided additional guidance and an additional round of verification to the ACEs to provide an opportunity to meet this DLI by December 31, 2019. Centers have been urged to accelerate disbursement on these indicators, and discussions were held to articulate strategies to this end.  Ensuring the Regional Facilitation Unit (RFU - AAU) completes all activities. The AAU has exhausted most of its funds given the ACE project underwent a cost neutral extension of 15 months. Thus, in terms of managing the ACE1 RFU activities, some of the priority activities such as verification consultancies have been budgeted and other activities such as PSC meetings and regional workshops have been funded by the ACE Impact Project given that 18 out of the 22 ACEs supported under this Project have been renewed under the ACE Impact Projects. In terms of reporting these costs, guidance was provided to the RFU on accurate reporting of expenditures and that if an activity is funded under ACE Impact budget, this should be reflected under the ACE Impact budget and not the ACE1 IFR. Thus, the AAU is working closely with the Bank team to ensure that the RFU budget is managed well and key activities pertinent to the project are maintained until project closure. Risks Systematic Operations Risk-rating Tool Risk Category Rating at Approval Previous Rating Current Rating Political and Governance -- Substantial Substantial Macroeconomic -- Moderate Moderate Sector Strategies and Policies -- Moderate Moderate Technical Design of Project or Program -- Moderate Moderate 12/29/2019 Page 3 of 9 The World Bank Implementation Status & Results Report Africa Higher Education Centers of Excellence Project (P126974) Institutional Capacity for Implementation and Sustainability -- Substantial Substantial Fiduciary -- Moderate Moderate Environment and Social -- Low Low Stakeholders -- Moderate Moderate Other -- Low Low Overall -- Moderate Moderate Results PDO Indicators by Objectives / Outcomes Strenghening Africa Centers of Excellence IN00777550 ►No. of national and regional students enrolled in new specialized short-term courses, and Master and PhD programs (Number, Custom) Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) End Target Value 1,580.00 26,617.00 30,616.00 15,000.00 Date 14-Apr-2014 31-May-2019 27-Nov-2019 30-Sep-2020 IN00777566 ►No. of regional students enrolled in new specialized short-term courses, and Master and PhD programs (Number, Custom) Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) End Target Value 987.00 9,364.00 9,480.00 8,900.00 Date 14-Apr-2014 31-May-2019 27-Nov-2019 30-Sep-2020 IN00777567 ►No. of internationally (regionally/sub-regionally) accredited education programs (Number, Custom) Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) End Target Value 3.00 35.00 56.00 15.00 Date 14-Apr-2014 31-May-2019 27-Nov-2019 30-Sep-2020 IN00777568 ►No. of students and faculty with at least 1 month internship in companies or institutions relevant to their field (Number, Custom) Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) End Target Value 1,037.00 4,962.00 5,490.00 5,900.00 Date 14-Apr-2014 31-May-2019 27-Nov-2019 30-Sep-2020 IN00777569 ►Amount of externally generated revenue by the ACEs. (Number, Custom) Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) End Target 12/29/2019 Page 4 of 9 The World Bank Implementation Status & Results Report Africa Higher Education Centers of Excellence Project (P126974) Value 976,877.00 50,636,317.00 50,753,521.00 29,170,077.00 Date 14-Apr-2014 31-May-2019 27-Nov-2019 30-Sep-2020 Intermediate Results Indicators by Components Component 1: Strenghening ACEs IN00777570 ►No of faculty trained by the ACEs (Number, Custom) Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) End Target Value 100.00 3,583.00 3,583.00 900.00 Date 14-Apr-2014 31-May-2019 27-Nov-2019 30-Sep-2020 IN00777571 ►No of newly established or revised curricula (meeting labor market skills), as approved by the appropriate institutional organ (Number, Custom) Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) End Target Value 0.00 231.00 231.00 60.00 Date 14-Apr-2014 31-May-2019 27-Nov-2019 30-Sep-2020 IN00777574 ►Increase of internationally recognized research publications in disciplines supported by the ACE-Programme (Number, Custom) Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) End Target Value 1,098.00 2,593.00 2,593.00 1,331.00 Date 14-Apr-2014 31-May-2019 27-Nov-2019 30-Sep-2020 IN00777577 ►ACE project implementation team meetings with openly disclosed minutes (Number, Custom) Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) End Target Value 0.00 990.00 990.00 136.00 Date 15-Nov-2015 31-May-2019 27-Nov-2019 30-Sep-2020 IN00777578 ►Number of regional faculty trained by the ACEs (Number, Custom) Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) End Target Value 27.00 657.00 657.00 325.00 Date 14-Apr-2014 31-May-2019 27-Nov-2019 30-Sep-2020 IN00777579 ►Number of female faculty regionally trained by the ACEs (Number, Custom) Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) End Target 12/29/2019 Page 5 of 9 The World Bank Implementation Status & Results Report Africa Higher Education Centers of Excellence Project (P126974) Value 7.00 185.00 185.00 80.00 Date 14-Apr-2014 31-May-2019 27-Nov-2019 30-Sep-2020 IN00777581 ►Number of national faculty trained by the ACEs (Number, Custom) Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) End Target Value 73.00 2,926.00 2,926.00 685.00 Date 14-Apr-2014 31-May-2019 27-Nov-2019 30-Sep-2020 IN00777582 ►Number of national female faculty trained by the ACEs (Number, Custom) Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) End Target Value 14.00 740.00 740.00 195.00 Date 14-Apr-2014 31-May-2019 27-Nov-2019 30-Sep-2020 IN00777583 ►Direct project beneficiaries (Number, Custom) Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) End Target Value 2,717.00 18,354.00 18,354.00 18,765.00 Date 01-Nov-2013 04-Dec-2017 04-Dec-2017 30-Sep-2020 IN00777584 Female beneficiaries (Percentage, Custom Supplement) Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) End Target Value 332.00 4,652.00 4,652.00 4,464.00 IN00777585 ►No. of partnership agreements between ACEs and engaged partner institutions (Number, Custom) Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) End Target Value 48.00 447.00 447.00 70.00 Date 14-Apr-2014 31-May-2019 27-Nov-2019 30-Sep-2020 IN00777586 ►ACE project implementation team meetings with openly disclosed minutes (Number, Custom) Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) End Target Value 0.00 990.00 990.00 176.00 Date 14-Apr-2014 31-May-2019 27-Nov-2019 30-Sep-2020 IN00777587 ►Annual disclosed unqualified external financial audit with the ACE annual budget (Number, Custom) Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) End Target Value 0.00 73.00 73.00 37.00 12/29/2019 Page 6 of 9 The World Bank Implementation Status & Results Report Africa Higher Education Centers of Excellence Project (P126974) Date 14-Apr-2014 31-May-2019 27-Nov-2019 30-Sep-2020 IN00777588 ►Direct project beneficiaries (Number, Custom) Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) End Target Value 1,995.00 29,037.00 29,037.00 16,690.00 Date 14-Apr-2014 12-Dec-2018 12-Dec-2018 30-Sep-2020 IN00777589 ►Female beneficiaries (Number, Custom) Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) End Target Value 332.00 6,827.00 6,827.00 3,606.00 Date 14-Apr-2014 12-Dec-2018 12-Dec-2018 30-Sep-2020 Enhancing Regional Capacity, Evaluation and Collaboration IN00777572 ►RFU holding regular meetings with at least 15 ACEs participating (Number, Custom) Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) End Target Value 0.00 10.00 11.00 8.00 Date 14-Apr-2014 31-May-2019 27-Nov-2019 30-Sep-2020 IN00777573 ►Level of satisfaction of ACE and ACE Steering Committee on quality of support provided by the Regional Facilitation Unit (Number, Custom) Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) End Target Value 0.00 80.00 80.00 75.00 Date 14-Apr-2014 31-May-2019 31-May-2019 30-Sep-2020 IN00777575 ►No of ACE-Institutions reporting on at least 85% of their indicators, submitting the RF to the AAU in time (Number, Custom) Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) End Target Value 0.00 22.00 22.00 19.00 Date 14-Apr-2014 31-May-2019 31-May-2019 30-Sep-2020 IN00777576 ►Annual program report prepared and submitted to WB (Text, Custom) Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) End Target done (exceeded) Six done (exceeded) Six semi-annual activity semi-annual activity Value N/A Done program reports have program reports have been delivered by AAU been delivered by AAU Date 01-Nov-2013 31-May-2019 31-May-2019 30-Sep-2020 IN00777580 12/29/2019 Page 7 of 9 The World Bank Implementation Status & Results Report Africa Higher Education Centers of Excellence Project (P126974) ►Annual program report prepared and submitted to WB (Text, Custom) Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) End Target Value n/a Done Done Done Date 14-Apr-2014 31-May-2019 31-May-2019 30-Sep-2020 Data on Financial Performance Disbursements (by loan) Project Loan/Credit/TF Status Currency Original Revised Cancelled Disbursed Undisbursed % Disbursed P126974 IDA-54120 Effective USD 2.00 2.00 0.00 1.85 0.00 100% P126974 IDA-54150 Effective USD 70.00 70.00 0.00 60.89 2.23 96% P126974 IDA-54190 Effective USD 16.00 16.00 0.00 11.52 2.91 80% P126974 IDA-54200 Effective USD 8.00 8.00 0.00 7.12 0.16 98% P126974 IDA-54210 Effective USD 8.00 8.00 0.00 6.18 1.19 84% P126974 IDA-54220 Effective USD 8.00 5.99 2.01 3.65 1.62 69% P126974 IDA-54230 Effective USD 24.00 24.00 0.00 19.56 2.15 90% P126974 IDA-54240 Effective USD 8.00 8.00 0.00 6.65 0.62 92% P126974 IDA-57330 Effective USD 15.00 15.00 0.00 11.04 3.94 74% P126974 IDA-H9300 Effective USD 1.00 1.00 0.00 0.99 0.00 100% P126974 IDA-H9320 Effective USD 5.00 5.00 0.00 4.74 0.00 100% Key Dates (by loan) Project Loan/Credit/TF Status Approval Date Signing Date Effectiveness Date Orig. Closing Date Rev. Closing Date P126974 IDA-54120 Effective 15-Apr-2014 05-Jun-2014 02-Sep-2014 31-Dec-2018 31-Mar-2020 P126974 IDA-54150 Effective 15-Apr-2014 25-Feb-2015 22-May-2015 31-Dec-2018 31-Mar-2020 P126974 IDA-54190 Effective 15-Apr-2014 10-Jul-2014 18-Dec-2014 31-Dec-2018 31-Mar-2020 P126974 IDA-54200 Effective 15-Apr-2014 16-May-2014 16-May-2014 31-Dec-2018 31-Mar-2020 P126974 IDA-54210 Effective 15-Apr-2014 20-May-2014 20-May-2014 31-Dec-2018 31-Mar-2020 P126974 IDA-54220 Effective 15-Apr-2014 14-Aug-2014 02-Apr-2015 31-Dec-2018 31-Mar-2020 12/29/2019 Page 8 of 9 The World Bank Implementation Status & Results Report Africa Higher Education Centers of Excellence Project (P126974) P126974 IDA-54230 Effective 15-Apr-2014 10-Apr-2015 23-Jul-2015 31-Dec-2018 31-Mar-2020 P126974 IDA-54240 Effective 15-Apr-2014 15-Jul-2014 07-Jan-2015 31-Dec-2018 31-Mar-2020 P126974 IDA-57330 Effective 29-Sep-2015 20-Oct-2015 17-Feb-2016 31-Dec-2019 30-Sep-2020 P126974 IDA-H9300 Effective 15-Apr-2014 05-Jun-2014 02-Sep-2014 31-Dec-2018 31-Mar-2020 P126974 IDA-H9320 Effective 15-Apr-2014 27-Jun-2014 18-Aug-2014 31-Dec-2018 31-Mar-2020 Cumulative Disbursements Restructuring History Level 2 Approved on 17-Sep-2018 ,Level 2 Approved on 30-Apr-2019 Related Project(s) P153111-Africa Higher Education Centers of Excellence Project Add. Fin. 12/29/2019 Page 9 of 9