The major goal of this paper is to throw light on and share the Mozambican experience of designing higher education projects for submission to international partners in the request for funding. Drawing from Mozambique’s experience over the last 12 years, it is argued that in order to assure ownership of any national policy governing higher education, it is important to involve ab initio all the stakeholders in the country, namely the Government, civil society, national and international partners and higher education institutions (HEIs). This constitutes the milestone leading to a successful design of projects and, consequently, their implementation. Judging from the Mozambican experience, for a successful conception of projects to be funded by the World Bank it is important to start from a participatory formulation of a national higher education strategic plan, thus involving all the stakeholders concerned.