Developing and Retaining the Next Generation of African
Academics: Sustaining the Next Generation
Bhekinkosi Moyo
TrustAfrica
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About TrustAfrica
Definitions and Context for Policy
Making
Frameworks on Sustainability
Dialogues on Higher Education
An African institution
 Rooted in Africa, with
headquarters in Senegal
 Led by trustees and staff
from across the continent
 Active in all sub-regions plus
the Diaspora
 Supported by a broad mix of
foundations, government
agencies and individuals
 About civic engagement and
policy advocacy on treaties
and committments
How we work
 We convene workshops where
Africans can forge partnerships
and set their own priorities for
democracy and development
 We make grants to civil society
groups working to build a safe,
free, and prosperous Africa
 We provide technical assistance
to strengthen civil society
organizations, including
mobility support
 We generate knowledge on
policy and advocacy related
strategies
Our core programs
 Democracy & Civil Society
Securing the conditions for
democratic governance by
strengthening civil society
 Equitable Development
Fostering African enterprise and
extending the benefits of economic
growth to all members of society
 African Philanthropy
Leveraging new and traditional forms
of African giving and minimizing
reliance on external donors
REFLECTIONS ON SUSTAINING THE NEW GENERATION
Definition and context
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Sustainability is simply defined as the ability to endure (endurance)remaining diverse and productive over a long timeframe (persistence).
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It is also a potential for long term life span taking on many dimensionseconomic, social and environmental (note that the economy and society
are constrained by environmental limits)
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The move to sustainability (institutional or otherwise) is driven by the
attention on outcomes based funding in part-arguing that outcomes must
be evident and must remain long enough to have an impact
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Yet it is difficult to formulate and implement sustainable policies in the
current context where decision making in the democratic or nondemocratic structure tends to be inherently short sighted due to pursuits
of electoral office and demands of the constituencies are of central
concern to officials and bureaucrats (this is against the needs of future
generations), essentially policy making is a political process-normally short
term.
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Democratic institutions are also weak; and social and economic structures
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are in-egalitarian
REFLECTIONS CONTINUED
• Four groups of independent variables affect policy implementation:
environmental (physical, socio-economic and political structures),
inter-organisational relationships (linkages, coordination),
resources and attitudes/skills etc)
• Most governments in Africa are funded by external donors-who
also take an interest and fund policies; by default most policies are
set by external actors. Even the innovations that are developed to
address this dependency are also funded by external donors
• The state is indispensable, hence the need for stable environments
In many ways what this shows is that addressing sustainability
requires;
 Rethinking organizational missions
 Restructuring programs (in the case of universities, restructuring
courses, research programs and life on campus)
 Contextualizing knowledge in a globalised society and opening up
closed spaces
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GENERATIONAL FRAMEWORKS ON SUSTAINABILITY
• Economic model: something is sustainable if recipients continue to
get the intended economic benefits even after economic inputs
have long stopped. Sustainability here refers to the ability of an
initiative to be financially self sufficient and maintain service levels
after funding has ended
• Socio-political model: sustainability here refers to the transfer of
power, skills, knowledge, structures, etc from initial project
implementers to subsequent generations of actors. In the field of
higher education, sustainability in this case refers to the
establishments of mechanisms that facilitate citizens participation,
for example associations, unions, governance structures that are
inclusive, etc
• Ecological model: refers to the survival of individuals and cultures-
focuses on preserving resources for future generations as opposed
to the economic model that focuses on the productive use of
resources. Emphasis here is how current decisions impact on the
productivity of future societies-making universities more viable
and
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enduring assets (community ownership and investments)
GENERATIONAL FRAMEWORKS
• Innovation-diffusion model: here sustainability depends on
community acceptance of values and mechanisms associated with
an innovation or initiative. In other words, a project is sustainable
if those involved feel ownership and are kept involved (collective
participation and partnerships are crucial from the planning phase,
and social processes are used for implementation and
dissemination). This is the approach that TA uses. Effective
leadership is also an important factor
 Here understanding one’s role in the project is important as it
facilitates local ownership and the re-organisation of power
structures within a particular community-a university in this case.
Thus decision-making ceases to be an exclusive domain of certain
groups (politicians or university officials) but rather collaborative,
and within a power-sharing model what in Political Science would
be an equivalent of consociations/consensus building to avoid
resistance
 Long term sustainability depends on local leadership (developed)
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and social cohesion (fostered)-even though good planning,
GENERATIONAL FRAMEWORKS
 Local leadership and social cohesion require patience and long
term frameworks-which sometimes are ad odds with outcome
based planning and evaluations
 Because at the end of it all, sustainability might be better assessed
in terms of subsequent behaviour of participants rather than in
terms of organisational structures
 Thus financial resources should not be the only focus of
sustainability, rather these should be seen as practical ways that
support ideas and innovations to sustain the new generation of
academics.
 Sustainability is both an outcome and process ( as a catalyst for
educational change and institutional innovation)
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POLICY DIALOGUE SERIES ON HIGHER EDUCATION IN AFRICA
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Goal: To promote higher education transformation in Africa through policy
dialogues
Strategic Objectives:
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Build an effective platform, network and a movement for the revitalization
of the African university system and identify reform issues in higher
education in Africa (linking various actors such as social movements,
private sector and various formations taking up higher education as a
platform for advocacy, campaigns and seismic shifts within the broader
sphere of governance, policy and leadership development);
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Initiate, own and sustain policy dialogues on higher education among key
stakeholders in higher education in Africa;
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Build an African constituency (coalition) that places higher education at
the centre of the generation of knowledge so crucial for societal
development (this is designed along TrustAfrica’s approach and valuesconsultations, solidarity and ownership, partnerships building and
collaboration, dialogue and African agency)
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Leverage resources for higher education transformation and ownership in
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Africa.
POLICY DIALOGUE SERIES ON HIGHER EDUCATION IN AFRICA
Key Activities:
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Scoping studies of organizations, situational analysis of policies and
database development (Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda)
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Policy dialogues and Convenings (six-two pan African and four in-country
dialogues) One held already at UB-whose main emergent trends are,
definition of transformation, ownership of the university, breaking down
the walls, mobilization of different stakeholders in the governance and
ownership of the university, etc.
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Capacity Strengthening-through a small grants facility around such areas
as governance, board development, policy analysis, report writing,
strategy development, policy engagements, internship programs,
exchange programs, communication, publications and conference
attendance
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Discussion forums, and policy briefs, and webcasts
Technical assistance
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