The aim of the Centre (CGDE) is to contribute to poverty reduction by enhancing the quality of basic education through capacity building in teacher education in Africa.

The institutional members of the Centre who are represented on the Centre’s Steering Committee are from various teacher education departments/faculties from other higher educational institutions in Ireland and Northern Ireland, including the university sector; the various colleges of education as well as some NGOs (see www.cgde.ie for further details).

The Centre works particularly with Uganda and Lesotho. Its partners in Uganda are Kyambogo University and the Ministry for Education and Sports, Kampala; its partners in Lesotho are the Lesotho College of Education and the Ministry of Education and Training, Maseru.

CGDE primarily works with teacher educators and ministries of education in the South to enhance the quality of teaching, learning and educational research in teacher education. The Centre has a number of research projects involving both African and Irish researchers and, through Irish Aid and the HEA, it also supports a number of African and Irish PhD scholars.