Kenya and South Africa face considerable challenges in producing the number of doctoral graduates needed to contribute to social stability in newly democratic societies and to economic development for the Knowledge Economy. The EDE project aims to contribute to goals in the national plans of both countries by engaging competent national authorities responsible for Higher Education and those involved in providing doctoral education in universities in Kenya, South Africa, Slovenia and the Netherlands. Our overall objective is to support sustainable, systematic and structural improvement and innovation in national and regional doctoral systems in Kenya and South Africa at the level of policy and practice. As Kenya and South Africa are leaders in the East and Southern Africa regions respectively, the project has the potential to impact policy and practice in both regions. Activities begin with a collaborative identification of strengths, gaps and disjunctures in policies for doctoral education at institutional, national, and (in the case of the EU) regional levels. This is followed by an analysis of practices to identify disconnections with policy and areas for policy review and/or practice improvement. Thereafter, partners will work towards bringing positive and long-lasting effects on governance and policy systems for doctoral education in the East and Southern African regions through a series of cross regional dialogues and the production of policy briefs. The final phase of the project aims to enhance the quality of doctoral education by implementing innovative practices and developing high quality materials for sustained intra-university capacity building. We aim to produce ‘Key Considerations Guides’ to be used by policy makers and practitioners in relation to, for example, the introduction of coursework or changes to supervisory models. A module of doctoral coursework will be produced to guide developments in practice, to set the stage for continued innovation.