ASSOCIATION OF AFRICAN UNIVERSITIES (AAU)
12th General Conference
Abuja, Nigeria
May 4 – 9, 2009
Sustainable Development in Africa: The Role of Higher Education
Concept Paper
Sustainable Development
When the World Conservation Union (IUCN) coined the term “sustainable development” in 1980, it received several interpretations, which buttress the definition given by the Brundtland Commission in 1987 when it stated in its report ‘Our Common Future’ that development will be sustainable if it "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". The Brundtland Report was specific on three components of sustainability, namely, equity, growth and the environment.
In a world undergoing rapid changes, driven prominently by technology and globalisation, it is often forgotten that the drive towards sustainable development is about change in people - their ideas, their fears, and the capacity to imagine and work together for a different and better future. More than any other region of the world, Africa remains unprotected and at risk of being exploited without due recognition and remuneration of its resources. There is also the fact that Africa’s sustainability problems hinges on threats to food security, poverty, disease, land degradation, water security, climate change, conflicts, deforestation, natural disasters, and urbanization.
It is now widely acknowledged that education is crucial to the achievement of sustainable development. However, it was at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio that the centrality of the role of education for achievement of sustainable development was particularly highlighted. Agenda 21, as it is commonly referred to, had 41 African nations endorsing a comprehensive international framework and action programme for sustainable development. This consensus of the international community was consolidated by the UN General Assembly at its 57th meeting in December 2002, when it declared the period 2005-2014 as the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UN DESD) to be implemented by UNESCO. UNESCO, in fact, defines Education for Sustainable Development as “a dynamic concept that encompasses a new vision of education that seeks to empower people of all ages to assume responsibility for creating and enjoying a sustainable future”.
The UN DESD offers a strategic guide to the African higher education community to review its curricula, set and undertake development relevant scientific research, forge partnerships and set practical examples towards ensuring social, economic, environmental and overall inter-generational equity within the concept of the Millennium Development Goals and other African development agenda.
The Role of Higher Education in Promoting Sustainable Development in Africa
The essence of education, formal or informal, primary or tertiary, is to explore the edges of possibility and probability needed to transform and improve upon the conditions of both the learner and the community. Though basic education is essential in taking an individual to the "threshold of self-sufficiency" by providing literacy and a knowledge of how and why things happen, higher education, on the other hand, has a special responsibility to conduct the scholarship and scientific research necessary to generate the new knowledge needed, and to train the leaders and teachers of tomorrow, laying emphasis on integrative learning and the ability to apply knowledge and skills to real-world settings.
On its website, UNESCO has emphasised the importance of higher education to sustainable development as follows:
“Higher education has a vital role to play in shaping the way in which future generations learn to cope with the complexities of sustainable development. Universities and higher education institutions educate highly qualified graduates and responsible citizens able to meet the needs of all sectors of human activity; they provide opportunities for higher learning and for learning throughout life; they advance, create and disseminate knowledge through research and provide, as part of their service to the community, relevant expertise to assist societies in cultural, social and economic development; they help understand, interpret, preserve, enhance, promote and disseminate national and regional, international and historic cultures in a context of cultural pluralism and diversity; they help protect and enhance societal values by training young people in the values which form the basis of democratic citizenship; they contribute to the development and improvement of education at all levels, including through the training of teachers.”
The three main activities of higher education, whether in Africa or elsewhere, are teaching and learning, research and development and service to the community. Within the ambit of sustainable development, African higher education institutions are provided with the tools to redesign their educational structures to provide answers to the environmental and developmental challenges confronting the continent.
Teaching and Learning
The art of imparting knowledge is based on the knack to communicate, and higher education institutions provide the responsibility for training teachers and decision makers who need to be sensitised and trained to promote the goals of sustainable development in schools and, ultimately, to the public at large. Re-orienting the curricula of all university programmes, be they in pure or applied sciences, in social science or in humanities, and introducing new teaching approaches and methods (multi- and inter-disciplinary, team work, project-based) - towards programme of studies (academic learning), guidance (support and counselling in career choices), and activities (community engagement and curricula activities) - to respond adequately to the challenges of education for sustainable development (ESD) is therefore key to developing the knowledge, skills, perspectives and values that empower people to assume responsibility for creating and enjoying a sustainable future. Life-long learning is equally important for Africa, and higher education institutions are expected to mount appropriate programmes for training key professionals such as engineers, architects, economists, etc. in relevant aspects of sustainable development.
Research and Development
The real challenges for sustainable development in Africa are the promotion of economic and industrial development, the eradication of poverty, the resolution of conflicts, and the optimum use of its natural resources. Because of the “publish or perish” syndrome, the African higher education research agenda tend to focus on purely academic and scientific objectives, to ensure publication in refereed journals, with little regard to developmental needs. Not surprisingly, the results of such research are rarely relevant to the search for continental solutions to health, education, water, climate change, energy and food security, all sustainable development indices. And even where research has been conducted in these areas, the findings have remained largely on shelves and unavailable to those who need to take action or implement the often useful recommendations. Strong emphasis on the use of scientific and technological methods and tools, and innovative approaches are essential in guiding the setting of the African research and development agenda. Institutional collaboration, such as trilateral university-industry-government linkage would not only ensure the direction of research but also the optimum and efficient use of both human and physical resources. Other forms of collaboration, such as bilateral between institutions, or between higher education and industry, need to be forged, while efforts to stem the brain drain of the best researchers from higher education institutions, as well as to encourage African Diaspora to participate actively in addressing the critical challenges facing the continent must be pursued rigorously.
Engaging the Community
Opportunities abound in Africa for higher education institutions to engage with and serve their communities. In the traditional university setting whose orientation is basically knowledge production, provision of community service has often been an academic exercise engaging students to undertake obligatory activities within defined communities for the award of marks. However, given the reality of limited state funding and other constraints, higher education institutions are now disposed to discharge extension function, leading to the setting up of specific structures, such as consultancy or commercialised units and providing incentives for their staff to undertake more development-oriented societal activities, including serving both industry and policy makers on all aspects of sustainable development.
It is envisaged that through talks and seminars and generally the dissemination of research results, higher education would sensitise the public at large about the issues pertaining to sustainable development. By extension, they could also, for example, promote adult literacy or assist in educating women on health and sanitation matters. The role of students, who form a huge potential for undertaking community service in the changing paradigm of sustainable development has not been fully tapped. Service to rural areas requires particular attention for which students can be of enormous assistance. Their involvement in rural areas can be a useful way of identifying developmental problems, which could be solved at their institutions, and then devolved back to the community. There are also a large number of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Africa that make laudable efforts in providing community service that are directly relevant to achieving the goals of sustainable development. But they need assistance and advice and higher education institutions are well positioned to support them.
Greening the Campus
While examples exist of efforts by African higher education institutions to ‘green’ their campuses, these are not monitored, nor is there a central organ coordinating these efforts. Elsewhere on the globe, such as the United States and Canada, half of the 200 institutions with the largest endowments in the these countries are cutting carbon emissions; a quarter have pledged to achieve carbon neutrality; more than two-thirds have green building policies; and nearly a third have endowment investments in renewable energy or similar funds.
To be effective in preaching sustainable development, higher education institutions in Africa must practice it in all their day-to-day activities on campus. They should introduce energy saving measures, encourage a reduction in the use of paper and other materials, recycle their waste products wherever possible and, generally, help to create a clean, pleasant, healthy and safe campus environment conducive to teaching and learning for both staff and students. To effectively achieve these objectives, they should encourage their staff and students to participate fully in the process. Governance and management practices at all levels must be consultative, participatory, fair, transparent and accountable.
The AAU’s 12th General Conference is intended to explore these and similar issues of major interest and importance to the African higher education community. It is hoped that the presentations and discussions would not only challenge African universities to play active roles in fostering quality of teaching and learning for sustainable development but also engage them into nurturing networks, linkages and exchanges towards producing answers to the continent’s debilitating problems. Lively, well-informed and policy-rich discussions are therefore anticipated.
19 September 2008 |
AAU 12th General Conference 
AAU 12th General Conference
CONCEPT PAPER
