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.

The Centre works particularly with Uganda and Lesotho, and therefore has also partnered with the University of Kyambogo in Uganda, the Ministry for Education and Training, Kampala, Uganda. In Lesotho, the Centre has partnered with Lesotho College of Education and Lesotho’s Ministry for Education and Sport.

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 in operation between Ireland and Africa, and CGDE through Irish Aid and the HEA, also support a number of PhD scholarships.