COL recognises that participation by our partner institutions involves the contribution of their human and physical resources and acceptance of the values of INVEST Africa. These proposals for a partner recognition scheme are an attempt to recognise this contribution. The scheme has to be easy to implement. COL is not an accrediting authority, nor does it want to become one. It is not intended to be a comprehensive accreditation framework covering all operational categories of the institution. Formal national accreditation schemes are assumed to exist. Areas such as institutional policy and management are included only insofar as it relates directly to INVEST Africa aims, while financial stability, general estate management, national curricula and assessment are all assumed to be covered by the other accreditation frameworks that the institution will normally comply with. Also, the INVEST Africa scheme cannot be expressed in strict compliance terms and must try to operate unobtrusively alongside existing formal systems whether national or international e.g. ISO standards.