The Role and Possible Partnerships with Institutions of Higher
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Transcript The Role and Possible Partnerships with Institutions of Higher
Consultative Seminar on the Role of Parliament
And Provincial Legislatures
In the Achievement of the
Millennium Development Goals
The Role And Possible Partnerships
With Institutions Of Higher Learning
Donald Gwambe
Research and Project Manager
Centre for African Heritage Studies (CAHS)
UNIVERSITY OF PRETORIA
The Institutions of Higher Learning
Need Own Introspection First
Articulate Clear Vision and Policies
Dispel traditional political and ideological
alignment and find a new ethos anchored
in the overall country’s agenda to achieve
the MDGs
Common Challenges
Limited resources: Government Funding
and fees are nor enough
Poor Managerial Skills
The Brain Drain Myth: Unable to retain
home grown talent
Appointment of Managers: Political
correctness vs. professional proficiency
MDGs: Possible Strategies for
Higher Learning Institutions
What Contribution???
Goal 1: Eradicate Extreme Poverty
And Hunger
Social Mobility Through Higher Education
Recognize educational levels of subaltern social
groups and poor communities
Removal of hurdles in order to facilitate entry of
subaltern and disadvantaged groups into the
more competitory ambits of education
Retention strategies: Deliberately design
programmes that will make academic career
attractively rewarding, especially for people from
subaltern social groups and communities;
Goal 1: Eradicate Extreme Poverty
And Hunger
Making experiential learning and
internship economically relevant:
Making research laboriously intensive,
employing both traditional and modern ICT
techniques in order to cover both classical
and mediated techniques
Goal 2: Achieve universal primary
education
Challenge conventional and orthodox systems
Contextualize education: Customise curriculum to actual
needs on the ground
Development of contextualized and relevant textual
materials
Review of inspection policy and advisory services: Who
should be the inspector at schools: Local man or outside
jetted?
Improve teacher’s training: Are our teachers redundant
or updated?
Train School Managers and Administrators: Are they
versed with the issues and legislation?
Goal 3: Promote gender equality and
empower women
Deliberately design policies that allow
women’s inclusion in teaching, research,
management and leadership of
institutions
Promote academic programmes at school
levels, which are prelude to university
standards
Promote gender-focussed academic
courses
Goal 4: Reduce child mortality
Provide health education on child survival
in relation to the mother’s reproductive
health;
Provide sexual reproductive education,
which help prevent teen pregnancy;
Collaborate with state departments,
international and UN
Goal 5: Improve maternal health
Establish research centres and units that
focus on reducing maternal morbidity
Outreach programmes to bring awareness
of Sexual Reproductive Health to poor
communities;
Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and
other diseases
Diversify research programmes that focus
on specific diseases and infirmities
Research into alternative treatments
including African indigenous medicines to
treat HIV and AIDS;
Design courses on infectious diseases
prevention and management for poor
communities
Goal 7: Ensure environmental
sustainability
Academic researchers should join hand with
state agencies to address environmental issues
and impact
Design educational awareness programmes for
subaltern communities and leaders
Develop relevant literature training tools in
vernacular languages in order to make the
subject matter
Offer refreshing and upgrading courses on
environment issues for current environmental
workers
Goal 8: Develop a global partnership
for development
Graduate exchange programmes and joint
research venture between universities, locally
and abroad
Expand virtual university education system
through the use of ICT and satellite
technologies;
Develop regional (SADC) graduate training
programmes customized to the needs of each
country and sector;
Develop graduate retentions strategies to
minimize “Brain Drain”
Traits of Progressive Institutions
Improved Administration & Accountability
Community-driven Institutions: deideologized and de-politicized universities
University decision bodies should include
reps from subaltern social groups,
traditional leadership, NGOs, CBOs,
community representatives, etc.
Promoting Progressive Institutions
Inter-multi-disciplinary approach to
research
Community oriented
Customer oriented research outputs
The Questions of the Sceptic
MDGs are mirrors of the already failed
global resolutions;
Are MDG indicators reliable? Are they
entirely inclusive of all poor communities?
Is there any universal “measuring rod” to
monitor progress? Countries are different.
Why are MDGs pre-conditions for Africa’s
monetary support?
“African governments, state departments,
parastatals, academic and research bodies, civil
society organisations and private sector leaders
have to be made aware of the evolution of the
MDGs, their significance for the attraction of
external development fund…”
Thank You!
Siyalbonga