SDDs and Universities Actions Towards KNUST's Mandate at 70 and beyond. How can we use the SDG framework to improve and showcase what we currently do? _ Prof. R.C. Abaidoo

1. Kwame Nkrumah University of
Science & Technology, Kumasi, Ghana
SDGs and Universities’ Actions
Toward KNUST’s Mandate at 70 and
Beyond
How can we use the SDG Framework to
improve and showcase what we currently
do?
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Significance of the SGDs
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Outline
• Significance of the SDGs
• Why the SDGs Need Universities
• Why Universities Need the SDGs
• KNUST’s Situation
• Becoming a SDG-Engaged University?
• Teaching and Learning
• Research (Knowledge Creation and Innovation)
• Align University Governance Structures and Operational Policies with the
Aims of the SDGs
• External Leadership
• Becoming a SDG-engaged University- The 5 Steps
• Reporting and Communicating Contributions to SDGs

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Why the SDGs need universities
• Providing the knowledge and solutions to underpin the
implementation of the SDGs
• Creating current and future SDG implementers
• Embodying the principles of the SDGs through organisational
governance, operations and culture
• Providing cross-sectoral leadership in implementation
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Why universities need the SDGs
• Demonstrating university impact
• Capturing demand for SDG-related education
• Building new external and internal partnerships
• Accessing new funding streams
• Adopting a comprehensive and globally accepted definition of a
responsible and globally aware university
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KNUST’s Situation
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BECOMING A SDG-ENGAGED UNIVERSITY?
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Adopt Education for Sustainable Development
Concepts-Paradigm Shift
• Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) aims at developing
competencies that empower individuals to reflect on their own
actions, taking into account their current and future social, cultural,
economic and environmental impacts, from a local and a global
perspective
• Individuals should also be empowered to act in complex situations in
a sustainable manner
• ESD has to be understood as an integral part of quality education,
inherent in the concept of lifelong learning
• ESD can develop cross-cutting key competencies for sustainability
that are relevant to all SDGs. ESD can also develop specific learning
outcomes needed to work on achieving a particular SDG
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Teaching and Learning
(SGDs 4.3, 4.4, 4.7, 4a, 4b, 4c)
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• Provide students with the knowledge, skills, and motivation to
understand and address the challenges of the SDGs
• Empower and mobilise young people
• Provide in-depth academic or vocational training to
implement SDG solutions
• Enhance opportunities for capacity building of students and
professionals from developing countries to address challenges
relating to the SDGs
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Research (Knowledge creation and innovation)
(SGD 2a, 3b, 7a, 12a, 9.5, 9.6, 14.3, 14.4, 14.5, 17.6, 17.8)
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• Understanding the challenges
• Localising the SDG agenda
• Developing solutions
• Identifying and evaluating options and pathways
• Supporting the operationalisation of the SDG framework
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• Encourage and promote the SDGs as a topic of research
within the university
• Support the full spectrum of research approaches needed to
address the SDGs, including interdisciplinary and
transdisciplinary research
• Support and incubate innovation for sustainable development
solutions
• Actively support national and local implementation of the
SDGs
• Advocate for national support and coordination of research
on the SDGs
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Encourage and promote the SDGs as a topic of
research within the university
• Raise awareness and the profile of the SDGs among
researchers, including Early Career Researchers looking to
build their profile and presence in new spaces
• Help researchers to understand how their research currently
relates and connects to various goals
• Map how the university’s research and research strengths
align with the SDGs and identify the key researchers
• Prioritise research relating to the SDGs and recruit suitable
academic staff
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• Develop academic promotion criteria that value contributions
to the SDGs
• Showcase research relating to the SDGs and highlight the
SDGs in major flagship projects
• Regularly report on how university research is contributing to
the SDGs
• Encourage and support researchers to engage in global
research community efforts to support the SDGs (such as
international assessments and syntheses of the current state
of knowledge)
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Spectrum of research approaches needed to address
the SDGs
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Fundamental empirical research to fill gaps in our knowledge
and answer ‘what currently is’
Applied or pragmatic research on ‘what is feasible’ for solving
particular SDG challenges.
Sustainability Science – or more broadly research for sustainable
development – interactions between natural, social and
economic systems
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Interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches that bring
different disciplines, sectors, and types of knowledge together to
address all aspects of complex social, environmental and
economic challenges.
Co-design and co-production approaches, which work closely
with policy makers and users of knowledge from the start to
define the problems, plan the research methodology, and carry
out the research.
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Inclusive approaches that recognise and engage with
important groups – such as women, indigenous people,
and diverse cultures, worldviews and ideologies – and
forms of knowledge –such as traditional knowledge – that
are often under-represented in research
Policy-relevant advice that uses existing knowledge and
research to assist policy makers understand the
implications of different policy options and design new
policies
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• Map university research onto the SDGs and identify
opportunities for interdisciplinary linkages
• Identify existing SDG-related interdisciplinary research
efforts and capabilities within the university
• Build capacity of all researchers (including Early Career
Researchers and graduate students) in interdisciplinary
research and other new research approaches
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• Provide seed funding and scholarships towards
interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary work on the SDGs
• Provide structures and forums to encourage interaction, idea
generation, and integration across disciplines
• Reflect the value and validity of collaborative research and
integrative systems design, and solutions-oriented approaches
in research incentive structures, and promotional
opportunities
• Encourage formation of Research Groups
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Create Conducive Research Environment
• Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls”-
SGD and ensure equal opportunity and reduce inequalities
of outcome…” SGD 10)
• The lack of diversity in STEM and Medical research
• Possible detraction from the quality and outcomes of
scientific research
• “… ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills
needed to promote sustainable development”-SGD 4.7
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Align university governance structures and
operational policies with the aims of the SDGs
(SGDs 1-17)
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• Map how high-level university strategies, policies, plans and
reporting indicators align with the SDGs and identify which
organisational units are relevant to which SDGs
• Identify and address any key gaps in the university response
across the SDGs
• Incorporate the SDGs into university organisational reporting
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EXTERNAL LEADERSHIP
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• Leverage our unique position in society that makes us particularly suited
to provide leadership on SDG implementation
• Trusted by the public and seen as neutral actors by other sectors
• Expertise in research and education that is essential for building
capacity and supporting policy making
• Critical role under ‘rationalisation and commercialisation’ processes, the
SDGs provide an opportunity to enhance this role
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• Strengthen public engagement and participation in
addressing the SDGs
• Initiate and facilitate cross-sectoral dialogue and action on
SDG implementation
• Play a lead role in policy development and advocacy for
sustainable development
• Demonstrate the importance of the university sector in SDG
implementation
• Demonstrate university sector commitment to the SDGs
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BECOMING A SDG-ENGAGED UNIVERSITY- THE 5
STEPS
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STEP 1: RECOGNITION
• Make the SDGs part of ‘business-as-usual’ for the university
• Recognising and integrating the SDG framework into all
relevant university governance structures and frameworks
• Identify key stakeholders and potential champions for the
SDGs
• Identify strengths and gaps as a basis for identifying
priorities and actions on the SDGs
• Help build a business case for further university engagement
in the SDGs
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STEPS 2 and 3: Opportunistic alignment
• Build capacities and ownership of the SGDs
• Identify opportunities and gaps
• Conduct a stakeholder engagement workshop
• Build the business case for university engagement
• Demonstrate University Commitment to the SDGs
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STEPS 4 and 5: Organizing Principle
• Integrate, implement and embed the SGDs
 Embedding commitment and actions on the SDGs into a
whole-of-university strategy and its supporting elements;
or
 Commitment and actions on the SDGs are reflected in a
university policy that governs a whole-of-university
approach to sustainable development
• Monitor, evaluate and communicate
 Create and share compelling stories to draw both the
necessary support for their future engagement with the
SDGs
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Reporting and Communicating Contributions to SDG
• Sharing experiences with our network universities
• Proposal Development
• Presentations at workshops , conferences, other public fora
• Scientific publications and monitor their citations
• Review world SDG impact university ranking to motivate us map
out progress in the sustainable development journey
• Participate in the rankings
• Support Ghana SGD reporting by publishing and disseminating
data and statistics on the SDG indicators for key stakeholders.
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Sources
1. Getting started with the SDGs in Universities: A guide for universities, higher
education institutions, and the academic sector; Australian, New Zealand and
Pacific Edition
2. Education for Sustainable Development Goals: Learning Objectives.
Published in 2017 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization, 7, place de Fontenoy, 75352 Paris 07 SP, France
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THANK YOU