Learning to make change : developing innovation competence for recreating the African university of the 21st century

There is concern that the present education designed for the 19 th century andan industrialmachinery no longer suits the complex problems of the post-industrial 21 st century. Complexity arises out of the fused multi-dimensional characteristics of social and development problems, yet universities continue to address these as if they were well configured to be addressed by existing academic disciplines. Universities, expected to be champions of educational reforms to suit development needs are themselves challenged concerning their relevance. The challenge is even more crucial for African universities especially those in the sub-Saharan region confronted with persistent and unbearable levels of poverty and food insecurity. Can African universities contribute to the reversal of the situation? Through innovations competence development for university staff, this thesis addresses the question of relevance of the African university in the sub-Saharan region to contemporary development challenges. Farming being an important element in the livelihood of the majority of people in the region, the research focuses on agriculture usingMakerereUniversityinUgandaas a specific case.Experiences of the sub-SaharanAfricasuggest that a narrow technological focus, as the driver of development is unlikely to eliminate the pervasive poverty and food insecurity. The problem is more than technological, it is has social and political dimensions and therefore calls for innovative and integrated approaches. In addition to providing education and training, the African university is also expected to influence development change in society through research and outreach. To combine its traditional academic role with a developmental role, staff in the African university must be innovative and actively engage in problem solving in community. This represents fundamental reforms in the university - dealing with the basic elements of changing mindsets, and building a new vision and new skills for training and research amongst the academic staff. Without such radical moves, universities inAfricarisk becoming - rightly - obsolete in the face of huge challenges posed by poverty and international commitments such as the Millennium Development Goals.This thesis describes and evaluates an experiment of innovation competence development for transforming learning, research and consultancy inMakerereUniversitywith the hope of making it more innovative and able to influence wider processes of change in society. Transformation is examined specifically from the perspective of learning, innovation and change in agriculture. Making change in society requires innovation competences over and above disciplinary expertise and these competences have to be learnt. The learning starts with the university lecturers, hence the title of the thesis "Learning to make change" . Competence has been treated as the capability to learn and influence learning. Innovation has been viewed as an adaptation and translation of learning into options for solving real-life problems in a complex and dynamic environment, while change has been seen as the desirable outcome of learning to improvement of life (or better development).Objectives and research designThe overall objective of the study was to establish how the innovation competence development programme for university lecturers could be set-up and implemented to increase relevance ofMakerereUniversityto national development. Specifically the study aimed at: 1) identifying the main functions of agricultural professionals in enhancing farmer innovations, 2) identifying the key competence challenges for agricultural professionals to engage in an innovation system, 3) describe how an innovation competence development programme for university lecturers could be designed and implemented to respond to challenges of agricultural development, and 4) determine the contribution of the innovation competence development programme to making universities relevant to development. These objectives were pursued with three case studies: The first case study explores farmer learning and innovation among smallholder vanilla farmers inUganda. From this, functions of university graduates (i.e. researchers and extensionists) in enhancing farmer learning and innovation are proposed. The second case study explores challenges faced by research and extension in demand-driven service delivery systems. These are used to identify competences relevant to functions graduates are expected to perform in innovation systems. These two case studies provide a context for the third case study on the innovation competence development at the university. The third case study focuses on an experiment of how these required competences are first developed in the university staff so as to be passed on to the graduates. The experiment based on personal mastery and systemic "soft skills" as foundation for building broader change skills comprising of six thematic areas namely: personal development, team development, facilitation methods and techniques, organisational development, communication and alternative ways of conducting training, research and consultancy. It involved 26 lecturers from three faculties of Agriculture, Veterinary Medicine and Forestry and Nature Conservation over a period of 1½ years. The research sought to understand phenomena underlying social structural mechanisms influencing action and practice among vanilla farmers, researchers and extensionists and university lecturers. In this view, the research embraced a combination of constructivism and realism as methodology to take the stance that social reality does not exist independent of the social actors, but at the same time seek the possibility of casual explanations of how that reality is shaped by actors. Data were generated for each case study by a triangulation of methods which included: interviewing, workshops, documentary reviews, participant observation and self-assessment. Key findings of the research are highlighted below.FindingsWith market incentives, farmers learn and innovate through their social networks and interactions. Interpersonal relationship is the mechanism that allows free exchange of knowledge and innovations in an informal way. This learning can however be enhanced by research and extension if they engage to learn with farmers to integrate local and scientific knowledge. To the contrary, researchers and extensionists 'shy' away from social learning processes in preference of linear top-down approaches. By their training, researchers and extensionists are modelled to be 'experts' to provide solutions, while social learning takes place in non-hierarchical interaction with farmers. To facilitate social learning as a way of enabling smallholder farmers gain adaptive capacity, agricultural professionals require new skills and attitudes. They should have competences and mindsets to perform functions which include: knowledge and information brokerage, organisational development, facilitating joint learning and multi-stakeholder dialogues, and developing entrepreneurial skills and attitudes.In an agricultural innovation system context where services are directed by demand and necessity, both the supply (research and extension) and demand (farmers) sides need innovation competences to enable them function harmoniously. The supply side requires competences to facilitate action learning and experimentation; broker information and knowledge between farmer and other stakeholders; develop and empower local organisations; think systemically, develop teams and work in teams; develop and manage partnerships; and facilitate enterprise development. The demand side also should have capacity to self organise, lobby, advocate and negotiate for services, elect visionary and accountable leadership, act with entrepreneurial attitude, and learn by experimenting. Competences of the demand and supply sides appear to be mutually dependent and this thesis recognises that the supply side has the responsibility to facilitate the emergence of requisite competences on the demand side, while the demand side provides all-important feedback. The implication is that such skills have to be integrated in the professional training of all those likely to work with farmers.For the African university to integrate those competences in its educational system, the academicstaff haveto reorient their mindsets towards systemic thinking and integration of disciplines, and learn new skills for facilitating interactive learning processes and linking research and consultancy to development. The innovation competence development experiment atMakerereUniversityprovides one possible way of doing that through an integrated learning programme for the academic staff. The experiment presents evidence of enhanced staff capabilities in: self-awareness to fully utilise their potentials; influencing change in organisations through feedback; working in teams and promoting peer learning; facilitating interactive learning and collective action processes; overcoming fear to try out new things as reflective practitioners; communication in problem solving situations; and thinking 'out of the box' to influence development impact through action research and process consultancy.There is a relationship between innovation competences at the farmer, agricultural professionals and university levels, but those at the university have to be at a meta-level to ensure that agricultural professionals and farmers can be linked. To bring the African university into the mainstream of development, it is argued in thisthesis that the university focuses on a) building relationships across the different levels with regard to learning and change as individual and collect

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