The document discusses the role of universities in supporting the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It argues that universities and the SDGs are mutually beneficial. Universities can contribute to the SDGs through teaching, research, innovation, and partnerships. Meanwhile, engaging with the SDGs provides universities opportunities to demonstrate their societal impact, collaborate with other sectors, and rethink their role in solving global challenges. Moving forward, the document calls on universities to better map, integrate, and monitor their efforts to support the SDGs through activities like teaching, research, and external leadership.

1. SDGs and
Universities
SDGs and Universities: Action
Towards achieving
KNUST’s Mandate at 70 and beyond
How does what we do as academics align with the SDGs? What
opportunities are there to improve our contribution to SDGs?
Kwame Nkrumah University – Ghana
September 01, 2021
Andrew Chilombo, PhD

2. Presentation
outline 3. SDGs and Universities
 3.1 Why Universities need SDGs
 3.2 Why SDGs need Universities
1. Introduction – Philosophy of development work &
SDGs
2. Education in Africa and Agenda 2063
 2.1 Education in Africa: status quo
 2.2 Education in Africa: challenges
 2.3 Education in Africa: opportunities
4. SDGs and Universities - Looking forward

3. 1.
Introduction
Development is a transformational process of accumulation; a political
process characterised by the use of resources and power
• Sustainable development Goals (SDGs) fit squarely within this general
characterisation of development
• International development is a discursive product of the post-WWII period and
was institutionalised in the second half of the twentieth century.
o Rests on the assumptions of mainstream economic thinking:
 Economic growth leads to poverty reduction,
 Economics is the dominant discipline in international
development policy discourse, with the West driving
international development.
 Linked to SDGs, universities offer education, a resource for the
advancement of human capital and the modernisation of
societies.
• 17 SDGs adopted by all United Nations member states in 2015:
o Broad range of issues related to socio-economic, environmental and
technological development
o The ‘morality’ of SDGs - evoking and appealing to the humanity in us – we
are one another's keeper – ‘no one to remain behind’
o Galvanizing the political will of so called developed, developing and
emerging’ countries across the globe -> around issues of common
interest
o But – are we really in the same boat vis-à-vis SDGs and the challenges
they seek to address?

4. Introduction
cont.
The SDGs can be grouped into three broad areas:
1. Well-
being
2. Environment
3. Economy

5. 2. Education
in Africa
Agenda 2063
– The Africa
we Want
Education in Agenda 2063: The Africa we Want
• A key driver of Africa‘s prosperity will be its world class human capital developed
through quality education and healthy services.
• In the Africa of 2063, at least 70% of all high school graduates will go on to have
tertiary education with 70% of them graduating in the sciences, technology and
innovation programmes, thus laying the basis for competitive economies built
upon human capital to complement its rich endowments in natural resources.
• Africa of 2063:
o harmonization of education and professional qualifications system, with the
Pan African University and several centers of excellence across the continent;
and
o Pan African Virtual university that uses technology to provide mass post-
school education and indeed the university sector and intelligentsia playing
an instrumental role.
• Renaissance of the Timbuktu ‘era’, where Africa will be the center of
convergence of the world‘s best and brightest brains – halting both brain-drain
and draining brains

6. 2.1 Education
in Agenda
2063: status
quo
Education in agenda 2063: The Africa we want
Status quo
• Considerable progress over the past 20 years to improve access to education
o Basic education net enrolment rate of 77% in 2011.
o Early childhood education enrolment rates (17.8%)
o Secondary education (44.1%) and tertiary education (7.7%) are relatively
low.
o Gender - not significant except at the tertiary level, where male enrolment
is almost double that of females.
• Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) facilities -workshops and
laboratories / equipment are inadequate and obsolete in many countries.
• Africa scores the lowest in higher education participation rate in the world with
10% against a world average of 27%, with an annual global research
publications of less than 1.5 % and only 35 researchers per million inhabitants.
• Africa still had 215 million illiterate people in 2011; 63% of them women and 33
million out of school children, most of them girls and other vulnerable children.

7. 2.2 Education
in Agenda
2063:
challenges
Education in agenda 2063: The Africa we want
Challenges:
• Accessibility to early childhood education is a problem;
• Low enrolment rates and quality deficiencies at the secondary and tertiary
levels of education undermine Africa‘s effort at human development for
economic transformation;
• There is significant shortage of qualified teachers, particularly in science,
technology and mathematics, coupled with poor school facilities and lack of
relevant curriculum;
• Inadequate vocational and technical training facilities for youth employable
skill development;
• Many universities across Africa do not possess the research capabilities needed
to combine global knowledge with national experience in support of
innovation and problem solving; and
• The diverse systems of higher education limit recognition of university degrees
and certificates.

8. 2.3 Education
in Agenda
2063: status
quo
Education in agenda 2063: The Africa we want
Opportunities:
• Surge in demand for secondary education, vocational training, and higher
education -> Africa‘s human capacity for the 21st Century –> productive and
competitive Africa in a global context;
• Expand kindergarten, secondary and tertiary education by encouraging private-
public partnerships in education business development and growth;
• Make Technical Vocational Education and Training more holistic to embrace the
recognition of skills acquired from all learning environments – formal, informal, and
non-formal as means of enhancing the demand side for youth employment;
• Search for excellence in African education to provide the opportunity to have a
common standard for entry, training and graduation from Africa tertiary
institutions; and
• Creation of the Pan African University (PAU) to provide a model for strengthening
African higher education and research and addressing issues of quality, intra-
African collaboration and links with the African industry and social sector.

9. 2.4 Are we on
track with
education in
Agenda
2063?
Are we on track with Agenda 2063?
• Education is an essential social good to help people develop socially,
intellectually and economically.
• The Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG) shows that since the beginning
of the First Ten-year Implementation Plan (2014), average continental
performance in Education has deteriorated.
• Generally, there has been an increase in the level of access to education.
However:
o There is a decrease in the quality of education (decline by -0.3 points
since 2014); and
o Growing mismatch between the education system and job market
requirements - > decline in the performance of education since 2014
o 27 countries display a negative trajectory since 2014 and in 2017, and the
African average score has dropped to 44.5.
o -> Aspiration 1 of Agenda 2063 and SDG 4 remain a mirage
• 4/5 worst-scoring countries in education in 2017: -> fragile states (Chad, Libya,
Central African Republic and Somalia)

10. Are we on
track with
education in
Agenda
2063? Cont.
Where we are with education in Africa, are we on track with
Agenda 2063?
• In 2017, 5 highest scoring countries in education:
o Mauritius (83.8), Seychelles (78.8), Kenya (72.7), Algeria (71.6) and Tunisia
(67.7).
• 5 countries showing the worst performance in education:
o Chad (19.8), Libya (17.0), Gabon (16.4), Central African Republic (9.5) and
Somalia (0.0).
• Compared to an African average decline of -0.3 in education:
o Gabon, Libya and Liberia have deteriorated the most (-10.4, -8.3 and -6.5,
respectively).
o Ghana, São Tomé & Príncipe and Côte d'Ivoire have shown the largest
increases (+8.5, +6.6 and +5.3, respectively).

11. 3. SDGs and
Universities
SDGs and Universities
• SDG Hubs within higher education institutions: -> strengthening our empirical and
conceptual understanding of how SDGs can be achieved through higher education.
• Measurement of universities’ success in delivering the UN Sustainable Development
Goals.
• The SDGs are not a problem-free, consensual package that universities can simply
set their sights on and gather the political will and resources to achieve.
o Sustainable development is nested in a set of political, moral and
epistemic assumptions that are not shared by all
o Denial of anthropogenic climate change and scepticism of the role of
international organisations and agreements
o While many of the goals are mutually reinforcing, there are inevitable
tensions and trade-offs.
o There are also questions about the extent to which the university—at
heart an institution oriented towards the development of knowledge and
understanding—can and should be held to such practical and immediate
impacts on the world around.

12. 3.1 Why
Universities
need SDGs
Why Universities need SDGs
• Within SDGs, universities play a part in the development of their respective
countries and in contributing towards global SD.
• Universities can draw a range of benefits by engaging with SDGs:
o The SDGs provide a new and integrated way to communicate and
demonstrate to external stakeholders the universities’ impact and
relevance to society;
o The SDGs embrace all generations; the young and the old people as
global citizens facing global challenges but also with a role to play to
address the challenges;
o One of the strengths of the SDG agenda is its bringing together people of
shared interests. -> collaborations with government, industry and the
community in both research and education;
o SDGs have provided universities with reasons to re-think their role in the
twenty-first century -> championing solutions to local and global
challenges.

13. 3.2 SDG and
Universities
Why SDGs need universities
• In some historical contexts – universities and elitism (religious, administrative and
professional roles)
• Universities -> knowledge, innovations and solutions to support SDG
implementation;
• Universities can develop and assess policy options and implementation pathways
and also monitor the progress;
• To achieve SDGs, all must contribute –and universities are an important stakeholder
o provide professional and personal skills and capabilities to create future
leaders, decision-makers, innovators, entrepreneurs and citizens with the
knowledge and motivation who can contribute to achieve the SDGs
• Universities hold a position of trust in society -> key role in educating the public and
other sectors on the SDGs and in advocating for the importance of the SDGs.
Innovation
Technology
transfer
Youth
engagement
Research
Networks /
partnerships
Knowledge
generation
Teaching
Business /
entrepreneurship
Universities

14. 4. Universities
and SDGs –
looking
forward
Universities and SDGs – looking forward
• Education and research are explicitly recognized in a number of SDGs, and
universities have a direct role in these. However, the role and contribution of
universities to each of the SDGs are broader:
- They can support the implementation of each of the individual goals,
including the overall SDG framework.
• Some of the areas of contribution include the following:
- Learning and teaching
- Research and external leadership
• Universities ‘need to up their game’ to meaningfully contribute to the SDG
agenda. Steps:
- Mapping the current state of knowledge on SDGs and targets in a given
country;
- Building internal capacity and owning the SDGs;
- Identifying priorities, opportunities, challenges and gaps;
- Integrating, embedding and implementing the SDGs within university
strategies, policies and plans; and
- Monitoring, evaluating and sharing their actions on the SDGs.
• No illusion! We are not in the same boat, but we are certainly on the same
violent sea of environmental degradation, socioeconomic inequalities, illiteracy
etc.

15. The end
Andrew Chilombo, PhD
chilombos@yahoo.co.uk
+44 742 692 7966
+225 799 17 194
+260 962 525 541
‘The unexamined life is not worth living’ - Socrates
• In our own ways, as individuals and as institutions:
o Let’s make SDGs worth living for, worth our time, energy,
intellectual and financial investments, as we look with hope at the
road ahead to the Africa we want.