The African Virtual Campus is one of three flagship projects contributing to implementation of the Science and Technology Consolidated Plan of Action (CPA) adopted by the African Union in January 2007. The other two flagship projects are Capacity-building in Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) Policy and Enhancing Science and Technology Education.

These three flagship projects were approved by UNESCO’s General Conference in October 2007, within UNESCO’s plan of action for contributing to the CPA.

The African Virtual Campus is developing a network of fully operational e-learning national centres across Africa – one per country – by 2012, with initial financial support from the Government of Spain. This Internet-based network will be used for large-scale student and teacher training.

The African Virtual Campus will work closely with universities around the Mediterranean basin belonging to the first network founded by UNESCO and the European Commission in 2002, the Avicenna Virtual Campus. From day one, the participating university in each African country will be able to use the modules developed by the Avicenna network over the past five years. Ultimately, each African centre will produce modules of its own which will then be pooled among institutions participating in both the Avicenna and African Virtual Campuses.