Tomorrow Today

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African higher education networking for sustainability

More than one hundred academics from universities across the

African continent have formed the Mainstreaming Environment and

Sustainability into African Universities (MESA) network. All RCEs

in Africa (currently 12) are linked to the MESA initiative, which is

UNEP’s major contribution to the DESD. In fact, the establishment

of RCEs and sub-regional MESA networks has been included as an

important target in MESA Phase 2 (2008-2010) and Phase 3 (2011-

2014). Started in 2004 with the goal of enhancing the quality and

significance of universities in Africa in the context of sustainable

development, MESA strives to make universities more relevant to

local communities, civil society and business.

African universities actively engaged in existing RCEs, as well as

those developing new RCEs, are key members of the MESA network.

In its report to the 2009 UNESCO World Conference on ESD,

MESA

highlighted impressive results of its activities, including facilitating the

development of more than 65 courses, numerous research programmes,

policy work, student actions and engagement with local communities.

African RCEs therefore are also contributing to the African Union

Agenda to revitalize higher education in Africa and to ensure that

universities are able to work closely with their communities.

Cross-regional higher education collaboration

Impressive collaborative networks are developing on different

continents in parallel with programmes that open opportunities for

further South-South and North-South collaboration. Discussions

on finding synergies among existing networks by mapping their

outreach, educational and research activities began during the First

International MESA Conference in Nairobi in November 2008.

Continuation of this discussion is planned on the occasion of the

Fifth International Barcelona Conference on Higher Education,

organized by GUNI (Global University Network for Innovation),

in November 2010.

An interesting example of cross-continental partnership is offered

by the Education for Sustainable Development in Africa (ESDA)

project of the UNU Institute of Sustainability and Peace (UNU-ISP).

ESDA facilitates engagement of Japanese universities with African

universities towards development of Master’s-level programmes

offered jointly by African universities in the areas significant for

sustainable development of African countries. There are three

working groups focusing on:

• Integrated environmental, economic and social development in

rural Africa, led by the University of Ghana (Ghana) with active

partner cooperation of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science

and Technology (Ghana), the University of Development Studies

(Ghana) and the University of Ibadan (Nigeria) and input from

Nagoya University (Japan) and UNU-ISP and UNU Institute for

Natural Resources in Africa based in Accra, Ghana

• Community-based innovation for sustainable urban

development in Africa, led by Kenyatta University (Kenya) with

partner cooperation of the University of Nairobi (Kenya) and

Stellenbosch University (South Africa) and support of UNEP,

UN-HABITAT, UNESCO/Nairobi, the University of Tokyo

(Japan) and UNU-IAS

• Management of mining and mineral resources for sustainable

development in Africa, led by the University of Cape Town

(South Africa) with partner cooperation of the University of

the Witwatersrand (South Africa) and the University of Zambia

(Zambia).

The outputs of ESDA are expected to become UNU’s major

contributions to TICAD V (Fifth Tokyo International

Conference on African Development) in 2013 and to the

DESD.

Creating enabling environments to transform

governance and management

The interest in measuring university performance has

dramatically increased in recent years. This is driven by a

number of factors, including internal needs to benchmark

university performance, the need to demonstrate effective

use of resources to government funding agencies, and the

interest among the public in university rankings. But while

there is a clear need for objective performance measures,

there ismuch debate concerningwhat dimensions of perfor-

mance to measure, how to measure them, and how this

relates to the mission of the university and the concerns of

its various stakeholders. Most seriously, use of inappropri-

atemeasuresmay have the effect of driving the development

of higher education in undesirable directions.

The existing dominant higher education ranking

systems often reward discipline-oriented academic

output, favour low student/staff ratios, and rely on

peer reviewers from particular regions,

disadvantaging

new universities, particularly in developing countries,

as well as universities that strive towards more holistic

and sustainability-oriented learning and research.

This challenge, however, is gradually being recog-

nised, with the emergence of new assessment schemes

that look at the ESD performance of higher education

institutions. For example, the Alternative University

Appraisal (AUA) project initiated under the auspices

ProSPER.Net

aims at enabling higher education

institutions to conduct self-assessment while provid-

ing benchmarking for research conducted in the broad

area of sustainable development.

The road to sustainability

HESD pioneers face pressure to find solutions for the

pressing problems of today and at the same time to carry

out research whose long-term goals are yet to be widely

recognised. They must balance independence and poten-

tially radical innovations in their own structures and

actions with resources that are often given on the basis

of traditional structures and processes.

The majority of higher education institutions with

tremendous intellectual and other resources still need to

undergo transformation to act as leaders in developing

opportunities for the global society. The holistic and cross-

cutting nature of the concept of sustainability enables

institutions of higher education to formulate their visions,

goals and strategies in novel ways that are, at the same

time, culturally relevant and appropriate for the regions

where they operate. It is our hope that the concerted

efforts of DESD stakeholders, including HESD champions,

will create the necessary conditions for all universities to

become true partners on the road to sustainability.

Co-author: Yoko Mochizuki