In May 2015, the Shenzhen Municipal Government and UNESCO signed the Funds-in-Trust Framework Agreement between UNESCO and the Shenzhen Municipal Government, People's Republic of China, concerning support for UNESCO's activities for the development of higher education in Asia and Africa.

Following this agreement, the UNESCO-Shenzhen Funds-in-Trust (SFIT) Programme (hereinafter referred to as « the Fun») was established, with $2 million in funding from the Shenzhen Government. At the same time, a UNESCO category 2 center, the International Centre for Higher Education Innovation under the Auspices of UNESCO (UNESCO-ICHEI, Shenzhen, China), was established to carry out activities in the field of international higher education.

The Asian component of the SFIT program focuses on innovation in higher education and university capacity building, driven by information and communication technologies (ICTs). This component is implemented by the UNESCO Regional Bureau for Education in Asia and the Pacific in partner countries Cambodia and Sri Lanka.

The African component of the SFIT program aims to strengthen quality assurance mechanisms and institutions in higher education. It is implemented by the Bureau of Higher Education at UNESCO Headquarters in ten African countries: Egypt, Gambia, Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Togo, Mali, Niger, Zambia, Malawi, and Namibia.

As an international cooperation fund for the development of higher education in developing countries, established by the Shenzhen Municipal Government in partnership with UNESCO, the program has received considerable attention from the UNESCO system, Asian and African countries, and the international higher education community.

The governments of the two Asian countries and the ten African countries, as well as the pilot universities directly benefiting from the Fund, welcomed the project as a successful example of international cooperation in higher education, playing a leading and exemplary role in the region.

The Asian part of the program closed in September 2019, while the African part concluded in 2022.

UNESCO assessed that the program played a unique and significant role in supporting UNESCO in fulfilling its missions in higher education and that it constitutes a model of South-South cooperation.

During the project, a new self-assessment framework on blended learning for quality higher education was tested in Cambodia and Sri Lanka (see Blended Learning for Quality Higher Education).

A second part of the project focused on the role of MOOCs in the Asia-Pacific region.