Signed by Mostapha Terrab, president of the OCP Group, and Audrey Azoulay, director-general of UNESCO, the agreement “strengthens an alliance built on a shared willingness to act closely on African issues,” specifies UM6P in a statement.
Based on a mechanism for joint implementation between UM6P and UNESCO, with the support of the OCP Foundation, this initiative develops projects where education, science, technology, and cultural heritage are not treated in silos, but articulated as joint levers for endogenous, sustainable, and sovereign development, explains the same source.
Since 2017, it is recalled, the three institutions have built a dynamic of cooperation around converging values: long-term investment in knowledge systems, the structuring role of higher education, the enhancement of cultural resources, and the importance of innovation rooted in local realities.
Rather than proposing a unique model, the collaboration between these institutions is based on a modular architecture, structured into five complementary axes. Each is the subject of a distinct agreement, allowing for a diversity of timelines, tools, and governance modes, depending on the themes addressed.
“We consider this partnership as a catalyst, a true engine of impact and innovation in service of the African continent. By uniting our strengths around structuring axes such as artificial intelligence – which is essential to perceive as a powerful lever for enhancing heritage, innovation, and empowerment – as well as sustainable development, history, culture, and higher education, we are convinced that we can support and accelerate the profound transformations of the African continent,” declared Mr. Terrab, quoted in the statement.
For her part, Ms. Azoulay stated that “Africa is at the heart of UNESCO’s mission and priorities. With the OCP Foundation and Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, we are deepening the partnership that binds us for the coming years, investing in knowledge, communities, and territories, focusing on education, heritage, and the environment. These are essential fundamentals in service of Africa.”
In the field of artificial intelligence, the collaboration prioritizes the operationalization of the African Consensus of Rabat on AI. This includes designing training modules adapted to regional realities, developing applied research programs, and exploratory deployment of generative AI technologies in certain public services.
The underlying logic is to test pathways allowing African countries to appropriate AI technologies not just as users, but as institutional actors capable of defining issues, ethical thresholds, and infrastructure needs specific to their administrative realities, adds the same source.
In higher education, the program focuses on facilitating cross-border academic mobility, co-producing research, and developing academic ecosystems less dependent on imported models of excellence.
Scholarship schemes, mobility programs, and co-supervision of research projects will be implemented through Campus Africa, a platform designed by UNESCO to encourage horizontal collaboration among African universities. The emphasis is on the circulation of talents, knowledge, and pedagogical practices, with the aim of strengthening regionally rooted institutional capacities connected internationally, specifies the UM6P statement.
The integration of the General History of Africa (HGA) program, led by UNESCO, illustrates, according to the same source, the desire to leverage historical knowledge as an operational resource for curriculum reform.
The project, details UM6P, consists of supporting African universities in integrating the General History of Africa into their academic offerings, through the provision of multilingual educational materials, teacher training, and the development of monitoring tools to assess its implementation.
For its part, the Maou’root initiative, dedicated to cultural heritage, aims to structure a pan-African network of professionals in the field of heritage conservation. It breaks with siloed approaches by favoring community and interdisciplinary models, covering both tangible and intangible heritage. Through targeted training, localized diagnostic tools, and inter-institutional exchanges, the program aims to develop technically rigorous heritage governance capacities while remaining socially anchored.
On environmental issues, the ecosystem restoration component adopts a methodology based on pilot projects, the statement emphasizes, noting that selected protected areas in Africa will serve as test sites for integrated restoration projects linking biodiversity conservation, climate resilience, and economic revitalization.
The goal is to determine whether ecological outcomes can be achieved alongside income generation and diversification of livelihoods for local populations. This work will contribute to the development of reproducible models that take into account the interdependencies between natural systems, economic pressures, and institutional mandates.
This new phase reflects a shared conviction among the three institutions: development outcomes in Africa depend less on isolated projects than on the architecture linking knowledge production, institutional design, and operational feasibility, concludes the statement.
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