ABSTRACT
Sustainable development in Africa (like in other regions of the world that do not have Western “state-of-the-art” know-how levels) is only possible through a bottom-up approach which captures and utilizes the communities’ knowledge bases. This book chapter shows an example of how a new college in Northern Ghana and its community has joined forces to integrate and engrain traditional knowledge, wisdom and practices into academic achievements, to create new initiatives to support sustainable development throughout the region. The preliminary findings from the case example shows the benefits – economic, social and ecological – of using local community resources, key stakeholders and their indigenous knowledge to position and connect the new college and its constituency to the treasured knowledge and practices on nature and life in the college community.
Regentropfen College of Applied Science is a new college in Ghana’s Upper East Region. From its incubation, the mission and purpose of the college was to ensure that knowledge acquired would be useful to society, that it would create employment opportunities and ultimately better the living condition(s) in the community in which it resides. This mission and philosophy is consistent with what is being found in many universities worldwide, where they have expanded beyond their first and second mission of teaching and scholarship to a third mission of the promotion of economic development and community engagement. Some universities have moved beyond the third mission to the inclusion of a fourth mission. This fourth mission, as Gregory Trencher has said (Trencher et al., 2014a), is to move the institution toward a co-creation for sustainability, where universities collaborate with government, industry and civil society to advance sustainable development and create sustainable transformation in their university partners.
The new Regentropfen College of Applied Science in Kansoe near Bolgatanga deploys various concepts to manage the delicate balance of teaching, research and community outreach/economic development. It has also created an environment where sustainability is important, and it has established programs that will promote a sustainability mindset. Leading this effort is Regentropfen’s Center for Cross-Cultural Ethics and Sustainable Development, which together with the Business and Career Development Center of the college, provides the community with increased opportunities to improve their overall social and economic well-being. Regentropfen’s two centers are creating an outer circle of engagement through accessing government officials, local businesses, community councils, health workers, traditional leaders (tribal chiefs), religious leaders, heads of NGOs and foreign enterprises on topics which are relevant to the populace in their daily work: ethics in labor relations, conflict resolution, sustainability management, social responsibility, cultural diversity and social inclusiveness. By working closely with all these stakeholders, the new school integrates the four missions of higher education at its onset or beginning, and thus creates a mindset throughout the area that combines ethics, entrepreneurship, environmental projects, systems thinking, self-awareness and spirituality. This ultimately creates values thinking, knowledge and competencies, as well as other benefits that go to the various departments of the college whose academic work will get promoted through this community engagement. Regentropfen’s approach links with the methodology used by the United Nations Principles of Management Education Working Group on the Sustainability Mindset. This framework lends itself quite naturally to the comportment by which the college is pursuing its goal to create a community that is mindful of, and contributing toward, sustainable development in all its facets.
