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Courtesy of University World News
Gulu University, located in the heart of Northern Uganda, has emerged as a pioneering force in the integration of academic knowledge and community wisdom to tackle local and global challenges.
In a keynote presentation at the recent Southern African Regional Universities Association (SARUA) conference in Lusaka, Zambia, Professor George Ladaah Openjuru, the vice-chancellor of Gulu University, discussed the transformative power of Community University Engagement (CUE), Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR), and socially responsible higher education. It was one of several contributions that explored universities’ role in communities and societies.
Openjuru’s presentation was themed, ‘Exploring Community University Engagement and CBPR for Sustainable Development’.
The work at Gulu University, engineered under the leadership of Openjuru and the Knowledge for Change (K4C) initiative, reflects the critical role of universities in driving social change by using the indigenous knowledge and wisdom of local communities and integrating them into research, thereby charting a path towards more inclusive and sustainable futures.
The K4C initiative is a model that blends academic rigour with the lived experiences and knowledge of local communities.
Since 2017, the K4C model has trained about 160 mentors across 31 hubs in 18 countries, including Uganda, Canada, India and South Africa. This cascade training approach empowers both academics and community practitioners, bridging the gap between theory and practice.
According to Openjuru, this approach not only challenges conventional academic paradigms, but also places the epistemic privilege of those experiencing social, political and environmental challenges at the centre of research and action.
“CBPR is a contribution to the practices of knowledge democracy and cognitive justice, knowledge inclusivity and not knowledge colonialism. At Gulu University, we have different faculties collaborating with communities in areas of climate change mitigation, traditional medicinal knowledge, teaching and learning,” he explained.
Universities as hubs of social responsibility
The vice-chancellor also highlighted the vital role universities play as ethical and social actors, which meant that, beyond imparting knowledge, universities had an obligation to act ethically and sustainably, promote trust and credibility, and to drive impactful research that benefits society. An integral part of this work is the inclusion of indigenous knowledge systems and local experiences.
Through initiatives like the ‘Wang Oo fireplace sessions’ at Gulu University, communities and scholars come together in shared spaces of learning, fostering mutual respect and co-creation of solutions.
To support these efforts, Openjuru called for curriculum reform to include CUE and CBPR principles, dedicated funding and grant schemes for participatory research, institutional policies recognising community impact in academic evaluations, as well as regional and national frameworks to scale and sustain these collaborations.
“CBPR incorporates local knowledge, perspectives and experiences, thus making it culturally responsive. This relevance improves the effectiveness of the interventions,” he explained.
“I encourage stakeholders in higher education, government, NGOs, and communities to build stronger partnerships and dedicate themselves to shared goals for sustainable development,” he urged.
The role of science shops
In a further exploration of the role of universities in communities, Sizwe Khoza, the professional officer on engaged research at the South African Agency for Science and Technology Advancement, or SAASTA, which forms part of the National Research Foundation, or NRF, in South Africa, said a number of universities in South Africa have been advocating for more community-based participatory research by providing more support and incentives to researchers in these fields.
He argued that universities are mandated to go beyond conducting research, learning or teaching but are also mandated to do community engagement. His presentation was themed, ‘Promoting Knowledge Co-production in Local Public Universities to Address Pressing Societal Issues in South Africa’.
He outlined that some of the areas of focus for NRF-SAASTA included embedding engaged research, enabling public access to research and science engagement infrastructure, supporting the development of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, education, and building science engagement capacity and capability.
The Science Engagement Strategy (SES) approved by the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation (DSTI) in South Africa provided further strategic direction for the coordination of system-wide science engagement initiatives to enhance the relationship between science and society.
Science shops, which were established as part of the department’s drive for knowledge co-production, showcased real-world situations in which problems or challenges encountered by citizens were addressed through multi- or interdisciplinary research as part of three-year projects at universities in South Africa.
Some of these research projects presented at the conference included, ‘Re-Imagining community education post-COVID 19’, by Professor Lesley Wood from North-West University and ‘Co-creating Wellness and Human Dignity”, by Professor Carin Combrinck from the University of Pretoria.
“A critically engaged society does not solely [focus] on dialogues on science issues but is also able to confidently form and express independent opinions on science issues, challenge government decisions or make recommendations. The research expertise and infrastructure for community-based participatory research could be supported at local universities through science shop grants.
“The vision for the DSTI-SES is an engaged South African society that is inspired by and values scientific endeavour, critically engages with key science and technology issues, and participates in a fully representative innovative science and technology workforce,” Khoza stated.
Enabling societally impactful research
The presentations on initiatives in the various countries emphasised that societally impactful research is a priority for SARUA.
For instance, a one-year project on societally impactful research that was spearheaded by SARUA and funded by the International Development Research Centre, delved into the ecosystem of incentives and barriers shaping societally impactful research in the Southern African Development Community, or SADC.
Project lead Professor Birgit Schreiber and researcher Professor Nomalanga Mpofu-Hamadziripi discussed the findings of the project’s extensive survey and literature review at the SARUA conference, highlighting both the opportunities and challenges within the region’s research environment.
Mpofu-Hamadziripi has more than 26 years of experience in university teaching, training, research and administration and is the director of the Teaching and Learning Institute at Marondera University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology in Zimbabwe.
Said Mpofu-Hamadziripi: “The country case studies are each unique in their own way … what stands out in one country may not be as significant in the other country. This diversity includes variations in GDP, research funding, and institutional structures, but a common thread runs through the region – a struggle to translate research potential into tangible societal impact.
“Some of the crosscutting issues are the lack of clear policy frameworks, low research and development funding as well as low national incentives strategies across institutions.
“One telling figure is the Gross Domestic Expenditure on Research and Development. Seychelles leads the region with 0.34% of GDP, while South Africa follows at 0.2% – both well below the African Union’s 1% target. These figures show a worrying trend, which is that research funding and policy frameworks are either absent or inconsistently applied, limiting the ability to address pressing societal issues,” she explained.
However, she cited national incentives systems that were working in countries such as South Africa through its NRF, in Namibia through the Namibian National Commission on Research, Science and Technology, and in Mauritius through research support schemes.
Mpofu-Hamadziripi added that, despite pockets of incentive structures, both monetary and non-monetary, which include promotions, tenure, and publication rewards, the region’s research landscape remains constrained by systemic barriers including poor physical and digital infrastructure, heavy teaching loads, lack of skilled research mentors, disincentivising collaborative work, and a disconnect between research and society.
These obstacles resulted in low research productivity on the continent, increasing the region’s inability to tackle challenges like climate change, disease management, food insecurity and water scarcity.
“There is a strong correlation between a country’s GDP and the resourcing of its universities. The higher-income countries have national and institutional systems. For the majority of countries within the SADC, the barriers outweigh the incentives as they have limited resources to direct towards research,” she said.
SARUA’s SIR (societally impactful research) project’s survey of 326 participants reveals a roadmap for overcoming these barriers. Participants from across SADC higher education highlighted the need for capacity and knowledge-building, particularly in writing for publication, and accessing dissemination platforms. The survey was part of ‘The Barriers and Enablers for Societally Impactful Research’ project.
Conducting action research, policy guidelines and incentives such as robust funding mechanisms and management systems and cross-institutional and cross-country networks including staff and student mobility programmes to foster learning and collaboration were also crucial in enabling societally impactful work.
Schreiber, who is also SARUA’s strategic lead for leadership and professional development, noted that the SADC region needs to be intentional in crafting policies that focus on advancing research that are relevant to regional needs, and central to this transformation were the universities, which the SIR Project frames as actors for social justice, common good, renewal, relevance, and shifting hierarchy and asserting knowledge.
