Higher technical education in Africa for a technical and innovative workforce

The China Funds-in-Trust (CFIT) Project Phase III: Higher technical education in Africa for a technical and innovative workforce is a joint initiative between UNESCO and the People’s Republic of China to support the development of higher technical education in Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Gabon, Senegal, Tanzania, and Uganda. Two higher education institutions from each of the 6 countries were involved in the project.

BH Associates has been involved throughout the life of the project.

Ellen Hazelkorn was wrote the initial background paper, and coordinated the project formulation stage in 2021. This involved undertaking scoping studies by a team comprising participating HEIs and government leads, national and international experts and UNESCO staff. The aim was to gain insights into the key issues, needs and challenges for the enhancement of higher technical education. 

The six international experts were each responsible for one of the countries: Ellen Hazelkorn - Ethiopia; Tom Boland - Tanzania; Anne Murphy - Uganda; Richard Hopper - Senegal; Fabrice Henard - Gabon; Jean-Pierre Finance - Côte d’Ivoire.

Analytical Report on High-Impact Solutions for Strengthening Higher Technical Education in Africa developed under the UNESCO China Funds-in-Trust Project III (CFIT III) was produced in 2025. This report provides a cross-country analysis of interventions developed under the project as practical and replicable solutions to key challenges in higher education; it identifies specific high impact solutions with the greatest potential and examines how these solutions have responded to systematic challenges; it assesses enabling and limiting factors for the development, implementation and potential future scale-up of the identified solutions and synthesizes cross-country insights and experiences to inform institutional reform, policy dialogue and future capacity development.

6 Country Reports were produced identifying High Impact Solutions. Based on the projects undertaken by the 12 HEIs, these are examples of good practices with the highest potential for addressing challenges and informing institutional reform, policy dialogue and future capacity development.  

The closing conference of the CFIT III project was held in UNESCO, Paris, on 11-12 May 2026. Ellen Hazelkorn gave the keynote address to the conference almost 90 delegates from the countries’ institutions and ministries, and UNESCO.

Further information including links to the Analytical Report and the Country Reports is available here.