This webinar assesses the impact of multilateral and UN conventions in higher education governance. The speakers will reflect on the history and purpose of the different regional UN qualification recognition conventions (including the Bologna convention), the backdrop to the 2022 UNESCO global convention and the different meanings and policy contexts of recognition. The speakers will then introduce the HAQAA initiative, a decade-long partnership between the EU and the African Union that began with a vision to develop a harmonized quality assurance system. Subsequent funding for the partnership (HAQAA2 and HAQAA3) have sought to go beyond developing quality frameworks to promoting higher education policy convergence across the continent, as well as credit transfer schemes, data collection and quality capacity building.