<em>Promoting Peace and Conflict-Sensitive Higher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa</em>

University Infrastructures for Peace in Africa: The Transformative Potential of Higher Education in Conflict Contexts

“…Turay and English (2008) delineate a model for transformative higher education that highlights spiritual understanding, indigenous knowing, participatory learning, diversity, and globalized perspectives as key tenets of an education meant to address peace and justice. Omeje (2015) posits that “conflict-sensitive higher education” must be flexible, context-specific, participatory, and stakeholder centered when engaging in broad curriculum revision to include peace; this model asserts that peace is knowable, learnable, and teachable at the tertiary level (p. 41). However, Kester (2017) suggests that higher education for peace via curriculum, pedagogy, and instructor roles in peace education at United Nations universities is problematic; he posits a critique of the centrality of the state in such programs, the use of instruction models that silence and disadvantage certain learners, and the focus on the individual as the basis of social change.…”

Foreign aid, human capital accumulation and the potential implications for growth

“…From the Sierra Leonean data, the change in the skills composition has been a gradual shift toward development sector-oriented skills at the degree level, which has been associated with a smaller share of STEM graduates in the labor market. As a case study, Sierra Leone provides lessons that may be applicable to other small, low-income countries that are heavily aid dependent, and the employment role of the development sector is likely significantfor example, Liberia, Central African Republic, Guinea Bissau, to name a few (UNCTAD 2019, 19); and those which are a larger, but have had similar direct interventions at the tertiary levelfor example Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, and South Sudan (Omeje 2015). Liberia also belongs to the latter group.…”

Higher education peacebuilding in conflict-affected societies: beyond the good/bad binary

“…Here, group attitudes and beliefs can be fostered through education to support peacebuilding and positive social change (Johnson, 2013;Lebeau, 2008;Sahar and Kaunert, 2021). Millican et al (2021), for example, argue that a crossinstitutional approach "in which researchers, practitioners and students from all disciplines work together to address the triggers behind conflict, may be the most viable approach to managing and minimizing conflict in the longer term" (p. 572); and Omeje (2015) claims, "One of the most effective ways universities in war-affected countries can be functionally relevant to the everyday needs and challenges of their immediate environment is by promoting peacebuilding" (p. 33). Millican et al (2021) further explain, "Within current higher education curricula [in the contexts from which they write: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Colombia, Rwanda, and the UK], spaces for discussing inequality, difference, conflict and cohesion can be found in courses on civic education, citizenship, ethics and democracy, as well as in specific courses on peacebuilding" (p. 572).…”