University community partnerships for climate change adaptation in Malawi: a human development perspective
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Date
2023
Authors
Phiri, Chimwemwe
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of the Free State
Abstract
Although higher education can play a catalytic role in the attainment of Sustainable Development Goal 13 (climate action), there is less attention given to the role of universities in achieving climate adaptation through partnerships with local communities. In the Malawian context, universities have been credited for partnering with local communities as a pathway towards designing context-specific climate adaptation strategies. For instance, five of the six universities in Malawi are recognised by the government as actively engaged in climate change mitigation and adaptation initiatives. However, despite these partnerships, there is a lack of evidence on what they look like in practice, what they can achieve, and whether they create an enabling environment for advancing strategies that are driven by local communities and that advance community well-being. Community well-being is conceptualised from the human development approach as the ultimate goal of development, where communities can be or do what they value in order to flourish. Drawing from the human development paradigm, this study investigates how universities contribute to improving vulnerable communities' adaptation to climate change in Malawi through university-community partnerships. Data from this qualitatively-designed case study of Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources in Malawi was collected through semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions. University lecturers (10), support staff (2), third-year students (10), community members (18), policymakers (4) and climate change experts (2) participated in this study.
The findings show that university-community partnerships in Malawi, and in Africa more broadly, have the potential to positively influence how global development challenges such as climate change are defined, understood, and addressed in ways that are contextually sensitive. The findings also offer contrasting and critical views, suggesting that while partnerships can enhance sustainable community well-being, they seldom achieve this. This is because partnerships can stimulate innovative ideas for adaptation strategies and capacitate university and community members to broaden opportunities for generating income and to widen their skill set for addressing climate change, but they do not offer adequate space for bottom-up initiatives or allow for inclusive decision-making. These partnerships also tend to advance university interests at the expense of creating more equitable outcomes for local communities. Thus, the study considers what university-community partnerships might look like if they were to be more inclusive and equitable. It identifies four key dimensions of a human development-centred framework: 1) equitable relationships; 2) inclusive decision-making; 3) streamlining resource efficiency; and 4) sustainable community well-being. The study further makes a case for harnessing the role of bounded agency across the four dimensions, as structural and institutional arrangements can affect the interplay of individual motivations for undertaking interventions. Drawing from this framework, implications for the initiation and implementation of future university-community partnerships in sub-Saharan Africa are considered.
Description
Thesis (Ph.D.(Development Studies))--University of the Free State, 2023
Keywords
Climate change adaptation, university-community partnerships, human development, Malawi, Africa