IIEP-UNESCO Dakar and the IFEF have carried out a joint study on contextualizing and adapting the competency-based approach (CBA) in seven African countries: South Africa, Benin, Ethiopia, Ghana, Morocco, Rwanda, and Senegal. This study has identified good practices and their use for making the CBA more effective in TVET systems, as well as the difficulties encountered in introducing or sustaining this approach. Particular attention has been paid to identifying the turning points (positive or negative) that characterized the process for implementing the CBA, in order to draw the lessons learned from them. Based on the conclusions drawn from analysing the implementation in these 7 countries, the study makes recommendations for successfully adapting the CBA to the context of African countries. [Financial support was provided by French Development Agency (Agence française de développement) (AFD). The following country reports are indexed in ERIC: Ethiopia (ED617240), Ghana (ED617241), Rwanda (ED617242), and South Africa (ED617243).]