The African Centres of Excellence for Development Impact (ACOE Impact) project is a regional higher education project involving 11 sub-Saharan African countries. It is supported by the World Bank and the French Development Agency (AFD). The project supports 43 centres of excellence, 5 emerging centres and 4 engineering colleges focusing on higher education, applied research and development problem solving. As a regional project, CEA Impact will strengthen the human resource capacity of sub-Saharan Africa while promoting excellence and networking, resulting in the reduction of unnecessary duplication and the matching of training to the labour market.
Togo, through the University of Lomé, is participating in the World Bank’s African Centres of Excellence Programme. Thus, following the renewal of the Regional Centre of Excellence on Avian Sciences (CERSA), two new centres have been selected, including the Regional Centre of Excellence on Sustainable Cities in Africa (CERViDA -DOUNEDON). It should be noted that the expression “dounedon” is the literal translation in the Ewe language, a dialect of Togo, of “let the city be sustainable”.
The establishment of this Centre of Excellence is in line with Togo’s National Development Plan (NDP) and aims to strengthen the visibility of the University of Lomé in terms of partnership, training and research in the sustainable urban development sector and to help African countries meet the challenges of urbanisation on the continent.
