EDULINK Proposal Working title: Education and Training Network of Excellence for the Improvement of Agricultural Productivity and Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa

Learning globally to address needs locally

African universities face strong pressure in an increasingly competitive, globalised
and knowledge-driven world economy. Africa needs academics and policy makers who can tap knowledge from global knowledge networks. However, it is equally important that they play an active role in re-appropriating and adapting knowledge for local development. 

To address this issue, the project “African Universities develop strategies addressing the implications of globalisation” aims to increase the expertise of eight African universities
in developing strategies that will deliver graduates equipped to tap global knowledge resources and apply what they have learned in support of local and regional development.

Boosting the international dimension of Caribbean universities

The universities of the Caribbean region increasingly recognise the direct link between boosting their international dimension and consequent socioeconomic development. Cooperative university actions such as international scientific consortia, exchange programmes and joint academic degrees can boost the role of universities as social actors, offering opportunities and delivering resources that meet the needs of their labour markets and societies. However, Caribbean universities are faced with a lack of capacities in administrative support for international activities, poor visibility at international level and insufficient intra-regional cooperation.

The EUCANET project aims to establish the first university network of the Caribbean region that will serve to raise the region’s academic and scientific profile internationally.
Specifically, the “EU-Caribbean Network for Internationalisation of Higher Education”
(EUCANET) will modernise International Relations Offices (IROs) by proposing
management improvement measures and facilitating the mobility of students, teachers
and researchers.

Traditionally, Pacific Island people have lived a subsistence lifestyle with taboos and practices that ensured sustainability of resource use. However, in a world that is becoming increasingly networked, globalised and western knowledge-based, the situation of the Pacific Island Countries (PICs) continues to be one of growing vulnerability with an increasing inability to respond to these changes. The small size, remoteness, fragile ecosystems and economies make these countries very special cases of environment and development. In order to address this challenge, the PICs have embraced sustainable development as a pathway for the future by becoming party to various international, regional and national agreements. However, the capacity needed for the implementation of these agreements, strategies and action plans is grossly lacking in the Pacific region. Recognising that education is the key to sustainable development and with the declaration of the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) by the United Nations (UNDESD, 2005), the Pacific Island Countries have started taking special measures to use ESD to build capacity for progress towards sustainable livelihoods for all.

The NIU Project is designed to promote a greater collaboration among the three major Universities in the Pacific Island region – The University of the South Pacific (USP), University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) and the National University of Samoa (NUS), will be required to mainstream ESD principles and practices in the curriculum to produce graduates, especially postgraduate, who will have the capacity to address the SD challenges of the vast Pacific Island region. The practical problems to be addressed within the NIU project are:

• The lack of institutional structures and mechanisms for the infusion and mainstreaming of ESD into the teaching and research programmes;
• The lack of dedicated courses and programmes on SD and ESD, especially at the postgraduate level;
• The disjointed and limited body of research-based information and knowledge relevant to ESD/SD issues.