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   Summary II - 8 - (03 - 09 April)


FOLLOWING IS A MACHINE TRANSLATION OF THE ORIGINAL IN FRENCH. IT HAS BEEN EDITED FOR MISTRANSLATION ONLY. THE ORIGINAL IN FRENCH IS AVAILABLE ON THIS WEB SITE AT: <http://www.ue-acp.org/fr/forum/syntheses/syntII8.html>

KEY WORDS: RESPONSIBILITY OF UNIVERSITIES IN DEVELOPMENT; OPENING OF UNIVERSITIES; GRASSROOTS INDICATORS; CIVIC SCIENCE; COMMUNICATION ON COOPERATION.

* * Title: Summary II - 8 - (03 - 09 April) * *

by: Anne SIMON <anne.simon@skynet.be>
<http://www.ue-acp.org/en/forum/presentations/simon.html>

°°° Abstract:

  1. The role of universities in development. The depreciation of universities of the South is linked to the absence of national policies of employment and distortions of the job market created by cooperation. So that universities of the South are development actors, it would be necessary: that they can be on the look-out of innovations; that they are recognized to intervene in cooperation, improve the quality of teaching by opening up to realities, to the other universities, to the other actors. An experience report tells in South Africa how a university opened up to needs of the farmers' world thus and changed its conception of teaching. It is necessary that higher education be recognized in its proper role by societies (and financial backers).
  2. New actors of world governance. Pursuit of the discussion on indicators and norms : Does there exist a citizens appraisal that would be exercised among others through a civic science and grassroots indicators?
  3. The availability and the autonomy of Delegations: Guy Petitpierre answers questions of Jules Nguebou and René Segbenou on the lack of communication on the part of Delegations by giving several reasons linked to constraints of budget, of training, of work load.)
°°°

1. The role of universities in development

The depreciation of universities of the South is linked to the absence of policies of employment and distortions of the job market created by cooperation

Djibril Diop criticizes the academics of the South who have not known how to get the best out of the traditional knowledge and to intervene in time in the development policies being conducted or accepted by their states (policies of structural adjustment, local development). Fatoumata Kane adds that most universities of the South have insufficient teaching capacities (never completed programs, depreciated diplomas).

This depreciation of universities of the South is also linked to the disappearance of policies of national employment, to lacks of outlets, to effects of distortion on employment created by cooperation (employment by projects, the NGOs, the academics of the South as "local", priority to the appraisal of the North to ensure the return of the aid).

To exchange and to be on the look-out of innovations and the progress of knowledge .

For Fatoumata Kane, the mimetism of universities of the South vis-a-vis of the North developed previously by Michel Ansay is not to be proscribed. They have to on the contrary in an open world to be on the look-out for new information and to reject no source of knowldge where they note progress. For this, the exchange between universities is necessary, in particular North-South in the fields science and technology, and South-North in the field of social studies.

The opening and the exchange so that universities of the South can be development actors

The education in general and higher education doesn't seem in particular to be part of priorities of the European cooperation policy for years. The training of young people should be on the contrary a priority that is the competence of states (Fatoumata Kane). Cooperation should call upon knowledge of the academics of the South.
Universities of the South must, to contribute to the development of their countries, adapt programs of training to the specific needs of the country, in phase with the reality and needs of each (Djibril Diop), to constitute a link between decision makers, populations, administrations, unions… and to know how to find resources that are lacking in the activities of services.

This opening of the university is illustrated by Thierry Lassalle in an experience report in which he tells how a university in South Africa changed to train a new generation of graduates capable to understand and to work with the small farmers. This change of approach of the teaching takes time, it relies on the opening of the university to the whole of actors implied (political decision makers, rural communities, farmers' organizations) and to their setting in relation, to exchange. The university developed the new functions and methods: support to decision makers (declaration of policy on vulgarization), knowledge of the farmers' world, professional training, awareness raising of youth to agriculture, to the benefit of technical support services.

2. New actors of world governance

Pursuit of the discussion on indicators and norms: Does there exist a citizens appraisal that would be exercised among others through a civic science and grassroots indicators?

Answering Pierre Calame, Michel Ansay comes back on the definition of indicators and norms. He asks himself on the risk of abandonment of the sovereignty to the Western appraisal and the drifts linked to the constraint of norms imposed. He gives several examples of present or potential drifts of norms, with which compliance cannot be the object of a citizens assessment on the part of countries of the South:

  • norms of scientific quality, of efficiency, of security can be intolerable for economies of the South or cannot be appreciated by experts of the South with the means that they have at their disposal;
  • the practice of the double standard or PIC (Prior Information Consent);
  • the practice of tracing;
  • the assessment of the risk.

So that norms protect us, is it not necessary to go towards a system of "grassroots" indicators defined by a "citizens" science (Tim O'Riordan, CSERGE)? Such indicators could be mastered by citizens and give them the power while feeding the democratic discussion. He mentions the case of the grassroots indicators defined by people that express their traditions, their experiences, their aspirations (as of wealth indicators).

3. The availability and the autonomy of Delegations

Guy Petitpierre answers questions of Jules Nguebou and René Segbenou on the lack of communication on the part of Delegations of the European Commission. He explains causes of it:

  • budget information of Delegations reduced and lately annulled;
  • in general no communication training for the personnel who therefore addresses the media little;
  • administrative and financial working overload (the financial amounts that are managed nearly tripled these last ten years without the human resources having the same growth)
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 RESOURCES
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Some examples of charters and codes of conduct



Anne SIMON
Forum Coordination <moderation@ue-acp.org> <http://www.ue-acp.org/fr/forum/participants.html>



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