This presentation is part of the 5th African Regional Centre of Expertise (RCE) Conference in Uganda, 14-16 October 2015

1. THE 5TH AFRICAN REGIONAL
CENTRE OF EXPERTISE
(RCE)CONFERNCE UGANDA;14TH
TO 16TH OCTOBER 2015
An address by Prof. Gitile Naituli,
Multimedia University

2. Welcome to an opportunity
for professional
interaction, for
knowledge exchange and
for robust dialogue.

3. World Conservation
Strategy
Club of Rome Limits
to Growth
19th C
1990s
1980s
1970s
1960s
1950s
Mid
20th C
2000
SD- social and
economic agenda of
Needs Satisfaction
SD- integrated
agenda of caring for
community of life on
Earth
SD- as conservative
agenda of sustaining
development
SD- Green agenda of
Nature Preservation
SD- radical political
and ethical agenda
of transformation
Colonialism
Underdevelop-
ment/ Development
Earth Charter
WB/ IMF and WTO
Millennium
Development Goals
WSSD
NGO ForumRio Earth Summit
Our Common Future
(Brundtland)
UN Conference
(Human Env.)
Stockholm
Caring for the Earth
Silent Spring
Traditional
Systems
Principles of
Environmental
Justice
• America ‘must embark on a bold new
programme for making the benefits of our
scientific advances and industrial progress
available for the improvement and
growth of underdeveloped areas…’
• Indira Gandhi (1972) challenged the green
agenda of the environmental movement
arguing that ‘poverty is the worst form of
pollution’ and what was need was not
environmentalism but more development.

4. Sustainable Development
• “Meeting the needs of current generations
without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their needs”. (Brundland
Commission, 1987)
• “improving the quality of human life, while
living within the carrying capacity of
supporting ecosystems” (IUCN, 1991)
ecology
economysociety society
policyeconomy
culture
ecology

5. FOUR IMPORTANT QUESTION
•What on Earth are we doing?
•What world do we want to leave to future
generations?
•What future generations do we want to leave to
the world?
•How do we get from here to there?

6. • ”We are experiencing a very chaotic
time, where humanity determines the
outcome for the Planet – sustainability
or collapse…?” Professor Will Steffen
What on Earth are we doing?
 Trying desperately to balance
development needs and wants (of
who/ what?) against the ability of
the planet to absorbe the impact of
the resulting development.
 “The institutional capacities to
manage the earth’s ecosystems are
evolving more slowly than people’s
overuse of the same systems” (UN
MEA, 2005)

7. • We don’t really know!
• But this is important because:
• “Over the past 50 years, humans have changed
ecosystems more rapidly and extensively than in any
comparable period of time in human history…. This has
resulted in a substantial and largely irreversible loss in
the diversity of life on Earth.”
• “the harmful effects of the degradation of ecosystem
services are being borne disproportionately by the poor,
are contributing to growing inequities and disparities
across groups of people, and are sometimes the principal
factor causing poverty and social conflict.” (UN MEA 2005)

8. What world do we want to leave to
future generations?
• A rich and diverse environment
as the space within which
everything takes place.
• The sphere of society where
issues of qualitative
improvement need to be
considered along side fairer
distribution of environmental
goods - social justice
• The economy as a means of
enhancing quality of life and
equity rather than people and
resources servicing the
economy.
ecology
society
economy

9. • A place of equal opportunity and beauty!
What Wolfgang Sachs has termed “Fairness
in a fragile world.”
• This is important because the implication of
the image of the three embedded spheres
... is that economic, socio-political and
environmental considerations...are
intertwined to such an extent that a
fundamental rethink is required of
everything that we, up until now have
conceptualised as economic activity, socio-
political engagement, and the
environment." (Hattingh, 2002)

10. WHAT FUTURE GENERATIONS DO WE
WANT TO LEAVE TO THE WORLD?
• Ethical, creative and competent.
• This is important because:
– it shifts our attention from teaching facts and “correct”
moral values to building learners ability to work critically
and sensitively with diverse value positions.
– it recognizes that the role of the educator is perhaps
more about supporting learners to learn how to learn
than to teach them what to do.

11. • In the context of uncertainty and
complexity the way that we act
in the world and towards each
other is shaped by values and
interests.
• Future generations need the
abilities to critically evaluate
different perspectives on
environment- and development
issues; to construct alternatives
and to work towards the
realisation of those alternatives.

12. HOW DO WE GET FROM HERE TO
THERE?
• “…whenever the future is considered as a
pre-given … there is no room for utopia, nor
therefore for the dream, the option, the
decision, or expectancy in the struggle,
which is the only way hope exists. There is
no room for education. Only for training.”
(Freire, 1992)
• One of the tasks for us as educators is
through serious and critical analysis with
learners to unveil opportunities for hope, no
matter what the obstacles may be.

13. • Through hope, building capacity and action.
• RCE and Education for Sustainable
Development along with the many other
initiatives are contributing to realizing these
hopes, building capacity and taking action
for change.
• The initiatives that will be shared here and
worked on by all of us as participants in
this conference will no doubt produce
substantial movements for change and the
realization of our dreams.

14. WHAT IS OUR OBJECTIVES?
• To contribute to:
• poverty reduction and sustainable development;
• capacity development and change processes in
participating RCEs
• strengthening of partnerships, collaboration processes
• increase the awareness of the importance of effective ESD
in the higher education sector;
• improved institutional infrastructure for ESD.
• the enhancement and sustainability of networks in the
field of higher education.

15. THE OVERALL OBJECTIVE
• To provide an opportunity to exchange knowledge and
experiences in ESD.
• More specifically RCEs Collaboration seeks to:
• deepen understanding of the environmental, social-
cultural and economic dynamics of sustainable
development.
• enhance the teaching, learning, research, community
involvement and management of education institutions
with regard to ESD.

16. WHAT HAVE WE
ACHIEVED; THE MESA
PROGRAMME

17. Change
Projects in
Universities
approximately 100 completed
and ongoing in Africa in 23
countries
(52 in 12 Asian countries)
Review of these change
projects: Curriculum >
policy
research
community and student
engagement

18. Some Findings: In some universities
engagement with forms of knowledge
is changing
• Taken for granted constructions of
knowledge are being challenged via the
focus on sustainability issues
• A broader epistemological frame is being
introduced in universities
• Scholastic reasoning; Practical reasoning
• Inter-epistemological dialogues (e.g. IK and
Today)
• Re-valuing of indigenous knowledge

19. Findings: In some universities patterns of
participation are changing
Particularly student-lecturer relations
and decision making processes

20. • E.g. JKUAT, in collaboration with
the Ministry of Energy, has built
a bio-gas plant.
This recycles sewage waste from
the University into bio-gas for
energy. This saves on energy
and conserves the
environment.
20
Findings: In some universities ESD is
helping with new forms of technology
development

21. Findings: In some universities new forms of curriculum innovation
are emerging that break the boundaries between research,
teaching and community engagement
The Kigali Institute of Science and
Technology (KIST), through its Centre for
Innovations and Technology Transfer (CITT)
has developed biogas technology and
installed large-scale biogas plants in
institutions such as prisons and schools in
Rwanda since the year 2002 to treat
sanitation waste for generating biogas for
cooking and protect the environment.
Through its training programme involving
over 500 people, CITT have started the
development of private biogas companies
in Rwanda
200 m3 Biogas plants under construction /
ongoing training in Gicumbi District

22. Tentative Conclusion: ESD seems to be able to
‘seed’ transformative knowledge and
teaching processes in universities, and
deepen our understanding of HE
ENVIRONMENMT
What about broader uptake and system
development?

23. Wider System Change Initiatives
AAU Engagement with ESD and sustainability – raising
awareness amongst university leaders
African Association for the Development of Education
in Africa – raising awareness amongst education
partners
Sub-regional university organisations and associations
– can help to strengthen sub-regional co-operative
initiatives
University leadership and structures that support
change and innovation in universities

24. African RCEs: The depth of
the knowledge challenge
“African indigenous heritage has
seldom been represented in formal
education and community
development processes, primarily
due to colonial exclusion,
marginalisation and subjugation.
Against this background it is
important to document and work
with indigenous heritage practices
AND continuing social innovation in
response to the rapid changes of the
last 200 years and with the
anticipated climate change of the
21st century” (Shava, 2013

25. ADEA: The scope of the knowledge re-
construction challenge
The Association for the Development of Education in Africa says:
“… a revolution in teaching and learning is needed [for
HE to address SD challenges] in the sense that teachers
need to develop their approach to the curriculum in
cooperation with, and with the involvement of the
stakeholders, in order to provide access to the knowledge
and skills that ensure inclusion and integration into
everyday life, including as citizens and in the workplace”.
(ADEA 2012).

26. Is there a pattern
emerging at wider
systemic level?

27. Are new principles for knowledge co-production
emerging in and for universities?
• Relational – between different forms of knowledge and between
society, economy and environmental objectives
• Dialectic and change oriented – between tradition and new forms
of innovation needed for a sustainable and socially just life
• Political and ethical – recognition and validation of what has been
marginalized, and what is in the interest of ‘the common good’
• Inter- and trans-disciplinary - the single discipline is not adequate
on its own and new methodologies of teaching and research are
needed
• Transformative – learning must be linked to contemporary
concerns, be transformative and contribute to social changes

28. Three in one structure of curriculum
development and design

29. Concluding Remarks
• Re-designing: new ways of operating and innovating
beyond ‘hurting’ into ‘healing’(shifting from the
take/make/waste paradigm to a regenerative approach
which nourishes life).
• Re-establishing: reconciling our self –self within the
embodiment of our neighborhood, drawing on, for
instance: eco-psychology, phenomenology, co-creative
community engagement, leading-from-the-heart

30. • Re-kindling:
Igniting ancient African wisdom, traditions and
values through the inspiration of nature(enabling
organizations, communities and societies not merely
to reduce their adverse impact but to flourish in the
years ahead by practicing wise approaches to life
that draw on, for instance: ecological thinking, eco-
literacy, permaculture, biomimicry and indigenous
wisdom).

31. The Paradigm Shift
• Antagonistic Participatory
• Narcissistic Emphatic
• Materialistic Soulful
• Ego as Master Ego as assistant
• Dominator Partner
• Patriarchy Reciprocity
• Separation Inclusion