On November 18, 2025, the partner universities of the SALDAE project held a meeting with the partners of the Erasmus+ GOOD MAUR-NIG project, which is working on aligned objectives in Mauritania and Niger. Eleven universities from Algeria, Mauritania, and Niger met online to discuss strategies and best practices for strengthening South-South cooperation and promoting the internationalization of higher education.
The meeting, organized with the support of UNIMED, created a space for dialogue, shared learning, and potential development of regional collaboration between universities, connecting the two consortia and encouraging them to build synergies. The meeting also aimed to bring partners together to combine their efforts and increase the impact of their actions within the framework of Erasmus+.
The project partners presented the higher education systems of Algeria, Mauritania, and Niger, their governance structures, ongoing internationalization strategies, and the needs of their institutions, followed by an interactive discussion on challenges, opportunities, and prospects.
Participants shared best practices and expertise tailored to local contexts, and reflected on the joint development of innovative solutions to the specific challenges facing universities.
They also focused on building strong, autonomous, and sustainable academic and institutional networks, as well as increasing the visibility and impact of both projects at the regional and international levels. Cooperation between the three countries is not new, having developed over the years through the admission of Mauritanian and Nigerien students to Algerian universities. However, joint research remains limited, even though the countries share many strategic priorities and themes, such as green hydrogen, offering promising opportunities for future collaboration.
The GOOD MAUR-NIG project, coordinated by UNIMED, aims to optimize the internationalization of five Mauritanian and Nigerien universities by helping them position themselves in relation to existing opportunities, strengthening the skills of their staff, and implementing international activities adapted to their context.
Both projects aim to strengthen the capacity of higher education institutions to engage in international cooperation. Bringing the two consortia together for the first time provided an opportunity to exchange practices, discuss common challenges, and explore concrete synergies. The universities also agreed to explore all possible avenues for collaboration, including joint funding initiatives. They explored how universities in the three countries can work more closely together, including through exchange visits, mobility programs, and framework agreements to formalize long-term cooperation. The meeting demonstrated how joint efforts can strengthen impact at the institutional, national, and regional levels, while supporting a broader agenda for South-South cooperation.