The overall objective of Joint AQ Africa is to contribute to the harmonization of higher education in Africa by setting up comparable quality assurance systems, defined by the cooperation of national authorities and HEI. The project will engage three pilot countries (Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire), in the development of a model for university institutional and programme level evaluation, based on a joint and complementary approach (national/regional/African continental) in order to inspire joint accreditation in French-speaking Africa, in particular. The methodology involves several stakeholders in this process and ultimately addresses the different gaps that exist in the various countries targeted, in terms of consolidating their QA and accreditation systems:a)Ministries and QA agencies and their capacities to agree on a common model for joint assessment;b)Universities and their abilities to assess their performance against these standards and to build their own internal QA processes;c)The main networks and associations for higher education and quality assurance in Africa, and their capacities to work collectively in the region and internationally, and to promote and apply similar approaches to other African countries and regions.The main outputs will be the development of a joint evaluation model, guidelines for its execution and six pilot evaluations. African partner universities will build capacity for self-assessment, through training for quality assurance staff. Training is also offered to the staff of ministries, and spaces are created whereby ministries and universities co-create approaches and build trust towards their respective QA systems. Through CAMES and important associated partners, awareness will be raised at the political level on the importance of the consolidation of a regional accreditation approach, which can serve systems which do not yet have QA agencies and can put forward mutual recognition of accreditation decisions.