Johannesburg - The establishment of a multi-campus pan-African university, mentorship programmes between graduates and former heads of state and the collection of research and data that will inform policy-making and governance are some of the plans envisaged by a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Unisa and the AU.
Dr Somadoda Fikeni, the head of special projects at the office of the vice-chancellor, said if everything went according to plan the MoU, which was signed in October, would be a game changer for the continent.
Fikeni said Unisa’s size and reach - it’s the biggest university in the southern hemisphere with an alumni of 600 000 all over the continent - placed it in good stead to partner with the AU and the university’s strategy speaks to the AU’s Africa Agenda 2063.
This is a global strategy aimed at enabling the continent to attain socio-economic transformation within 50 years.
“Unisa has the greatest concentration of Africa-focused institutes,” Fikeni said.
“We already have our footprint across Africa and had the strategic intent to make an imprint on the continent. Because we assisted in the establishment of South Sudan as a state and trained the would-be civil servants and because we already have a democratic election management programme that trains people from the rest of the continent, we felt it would give us great legitimacy to have partnership with the AU,” he said.
The agreement between the two organisations will cover capacity building and research in the areas of governance, agriculture, land and environment, women and children, communication, education and training, economic development, astrophysics, genocide studies, investment in human resources and institutional development.
Fikeni said one of the key points of interest that surfaced during a three-day workshop after the MoU was signed, where a road map and an implementation plan of the agreement was developed, was the establishment of a pan-African university.
He said this was still at the conceptual stage but the intention was to establish a multi-campus entity that would be spread across the continent.
Fikeni said because Unisa had experience in this, it would play a key role in the establishment of this university.
Fikeni outlined three other main projects that would be developed under the MoU and said, if done right, they would have a worldwide effect and “ensure that the Africa rising narrative is sustained”.
“The first one is the development of a comprehensive data bank of experts in different areas, which will then be given to the AU Commission so when you say conflict resolution or Ebola, you know a range of people who have done research in that area, even if they are in the diaspora.
“Once we have that, we will then have an Afro barometer, which will track social, economic and political indicators with an annual announcement of the results,” Fikeni said.
“If you’re an investor, you’ll have a one-source document - an annual report. Right now, this is done by different entities - the World Bank and others - but this time, Africans will be doing it for themselves.
“Let’s say you want to invest in the area of minerals, aluminium. When you take that document, you’ll have a sense of who, what, where deals with your area of interest,” he said.
Fikeni said the barometer would track economic growth, mortality rates, health care and education provision and give indepth analyses on what was influencing the indicators.
“Some countries don’t even have a population census and they do policy-making based on estimations. This tool will compensate for that so countries that do not have any reliable data on how they are doing and where they are and so forth, will have a point of reference for their own policy-making,” he said.
Fikeni said the barometer would also help with continental integration as countries would learn best practice drawn from among themselves.
The second project is the world development summit on Africa where people across various sectors will be periodically brought in to discuss Africa-focused development.
The third project will be the establishment of a summer or winter school where former leaders - heads of state, prime ministers and chief executives - will share their knowledge and expertise with students.
“The leaders, whether they’ve retired or left their positions, will converge at that school and be assisted in writing books, for example, about their lives, so they can share their experiences and, at the same time, share their knowledge in their areas of specialisation,” Fikeni said.
“Some leaders have been masters in conflict resolution. We can bring in agencies dealing with that to the school, so they learn from the masters,” he said.
“We’ll also help these leaders to establish things they love, whether it’s their own foundations or pet projects, so retirement and succession becomes something they can look forward to,” he said.
Fikeni said the leaders would mentor students in their areas of interest and students would be able to interview them and glean information from them instead of just reading about their leaders
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The Star