Climate change and sustainable development curricula for Southern Africa

The Southern African Regional Universities Association (SARUA) Climate Change Steering Group recently endorsed the finalised version of a climate change and sustainable development curriculum and digital ecosystem, with the support of the EU Global Climate Change Alliance Plus (GCCA+).



The curriculum was finalised by a high-level climate change curriculum development group of climate change experts across the Southern African Development Community (SADC), who had been working with SARUA during the curriculum revision and updating processes.



According to SARUA’s climate change development programme manager, Professor René Pellissier, the two main priorities of the masters level curriculum are to build knowledge and understanding of climate change and development from academic and applied perspectives for application in specific domains critical to the region’s development.



Additionally, it would help develop competencies, skills and values practitioners need to generate and apply relevant knowledge. This includes engaging with non-academic communities from different sectors relating to climate change and sustainable development, interpreting climate change information and data, generating solutions for climate-related challenges, and operating effectively in multidisciplinary environments.



“The overarching objective call of the project is to develop a network of climate practitioners at university level across the SADC. The digital ecosystem for the curriculum will be hosted on the SARUA as well as the SADC websites. In the process, building a network of practitioners in this space is already taking place,” she said.



A growing number of higher education institutions also contributed to the curriculum development and peer-review processes, including the universities of Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe; and, in South Africa, North-West University, Stellenbosch University, the University of the Free State and the University of Limpopo. The International University of Management in Namibia and the Harare Institute of Technology in Zimbabwe also contributed.



SARUA is expected to provide training to capacitate academics to offer the courses and host some critical conversations, webinars and capacity-building workshops on specific topics identified throughout the processes between December 2022 and April 2023.

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