The methodological approach considered the different facets of the African QA and Accreditation Framework (PAQAF) that is under development and currently backed at African Union level. It simultaneously reinforced national quality assurance agencies/bodies (QAAs) and higher education institutional quality culture and planted the seeds for aligning different existing regional QA initiatives (East Africa, for example) with PAQAF. The methodology is premised on the following principles, which are inherent to the way in which the activities are designed:

• The Initiative is rooted in not only African stakeholder buy-in but also African organisational capacity to sustain the endeavour. This is why AAU has set up an ‘Africa Centre for Capacity Development in QA’ which channeled a number of the training activities that the Initiative facilitated. Furthermore, AAU had a critical role in pan-African stakeholder communication, driving the QA Platform and also facilitating the conception, communication and registration of events that were organized.
• As a means to maximize impact, synergies with other current African QA-related initiatives, especially those that are EU and AUC supported, were critical

– Many activities were planned alongside continental and regional events in Africa, such as the African Quality Assurance Forum (‘AQAF’), ‘COREVIP’ (AAU Conference of African Vice Chancellors) and also AUC, and UNESCO related events.

– There are key synergies with TUNING events, another important initiative supported by the EU under the EU-Africa Strategic Partnership

• A number of activities have required training delivered by QA experts. Such training and knowledge transfer has come not only from European experts but also from experts from other African countries that had good practice to share. This contributed to internal African knowledge transfer.
• Knowledge transfer has been bi-directional

– The Implementing Consortium used its European dissemination and policy channels to ensure that the African QA experience were also shared in Europe and that many of the activities planned also incorporated a discussion on how Africa-European collaboration and mutual exchange around the topic of QA can be enhanced. This underpined the EU-Africa Strategic Partnership and also benefit the European Higher Education Area (EHEA)

• Emphasis was placed on engaging countries, organisations and institutions that have participated less frequently in the past in African continental activities, so as to bring some countries/individuals ‘up to speed’.
• Participants were also be encouraged to avail of EU-funded programmes targeting higher education and Africa such as Erasmus, the the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions and the Intra-Africa Academic Mobility Scheme to further implement and enhance work in these fields.