International Development CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by Planet Earth Institute

1. Introduction

1.1 This formal response is submitted on behalf of the Planet Earth Institute (PEI) in relation to the International Development inquiry into the Post-2015 Development Goals. The PEI would be happy to provide further clarification on any aspects of this response and/or to give oral evidence to the Committee throughout the course of the inquiry.

1.2 The PEI is an international non-governmental organisation, headquartered in London, committed to building advanced scientific expertise in the Global South. In partnership with international institutions, governments, academic bodies, NGOs and the private sector, PEI projects provide higher education and advanced academic training in emerging nations in subjects that can guide their sustainable development. Our mission is to guide Africa to scientific independence within one generation.

1.3 The PEI is guided by an eminent group of scientists from across the world, our Global Scientific Committee, Chaired by Prof. Paul Younger FREng, former Director of the Newcastle Institute for Research on Sustainability and current Rankine Chair of Engineering at the University of Glasgow.

1.4 This submission draws on the PEI’s experience of designing and delivering projects in the Global South as well as the expertise and knowledge of the Global Scientific Committee Members.

1.5 This submission outlines the difficulties of defining sustainable development before aiming to address two specific questions of inquiry. Section 4 relates to considerations for any future list of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and section 5 is designed to represent what we regard as the missing voices in the current process.

2. Key Recommendations

2.1 “Sustainable development” needs to be more clearly and succinctly defined if we are to set more measurable goals and frameworks.

2.2 Higher education and science must be included in any future Sustainable Development Goals.

2.3 The Global South must become part of the solution to global sustainable development through greater South-South collaboration.

3. “Enough, for all, Forever”

3.1 Currently the sustainable development literature is replete with over 200 definitions of “sustainability”, too many of which are incoherent and cumbersome. When defining the Sustainable Development Goals the United Nations High Level Panel should consider a simple, straightforward and customisable definition.

3.2 Three years ago, the Newcastle Institute for Research on Sustainability coined the phrase “Enough, for all, forever” and would be happy for the Committee and other bodies making recommendations to the panel to include this.

3.3 The definition can be unpacked as follows: “Enough” means we must strive to ensure at least decent living standards for everyone, while also tackling damaging excess—which harms those with too much (eg through obesity) as well as depriving those with too little; “For all” refers not only to human society but also to non-human inhabitants of the ecosystems we share (a point largely lost in the Brundtland definition of “sustainable development”); and “Forever” meaning we must plan ahead for future scarcity of finite resources and be committed to the pursuit of intergenerational justice.

3.4 The Global Scientific Committee of the Planet Earth Institute has found this definition of sustainability to be very helpful in practice, in focusing attention on the key issues. It is also memorable and easy for people to understand. We commend to the Committee the simplification of an unnecessarily complicated debate which adoption of this definition affords.

4. Sustainable Development Goals: The need to include Higher Education and Scientific Expertise

4.1 Many of the most pressing sustainability challenges which our Planet now faces have their roots in a combination of social inequity and the misapplication of science and technology. From water and sanitation to natural resource use and food and agricultural practices, science and technology must be at the heart of long-term, sustainable development. In turn, the scientific basis of development rests on the advanced skills and education of a country’s people, alongside the ability for programmes to be fostered within a humanistic and ecologically sensitive framework of indigenous values and priorities.

4.2 However, the importance of science and technology, and its propagation through higher education and postgraduate research, remains largely neglected in most discussions on any future international development goals.

4.3 Taking Africa, the focus of the PEI’s work, the continent suffers greatly from two, highly interconnected problems:

4.3.1Lack of tertiary education: only around 5% of people are educated to a tertiary level, compared to a world average of 25%; and

4.3.2Brain drain: with over 20,000 educated professionals leaving the continent each year, the cost of which is estimated £2.2 billion a year to Africa’s economy, according to the African Higher Education Department at Harvard University.

4.4 With the underdevelopment of Africa’s tertiary education system and the continued exportation of many of those qualified, the continent’s path to sustainable development is severely blocked by this lack of indigenous skills.

4.5 Any future sustainable goals must take better account of this need and seek to benchmark levels of higher educational enrolment and attainment in developing nations, alongside metrics around activity, growth and quality of academic institutions, whether new facilities or educational partnerships with other countries. Much more needs to be done to highlight the state of higher education and scientific training in Africa, including spotlighting those places that are making progress (including Ghana and South Africa) and those that are not (much of supra-Saharan Africa). The international community and the post-2015 Development Framework should then seek to more effectively platform and replicate successful programmes.

4.6 For the Post-2015 Development Goals, the PEI would recommend the following considerations and metrics as a means to drive higher educational activity and standards in developing nations:

4.6.1Yearly publishing of higher-educational activity in all African countries: the huge variance in levels of higher-education in Africa skews much of the related data, the Committee should consider recommending a new yearly statistical benchmark;

4.6.2An all-Africa goal of 20% enrolment in tertiary education by 2030: to supplement point 4.6.1, the Committee should consider recommending a headline figure for the higher educational enrolment to ensure it remains a focus of the international development community and continues to drive investment and partnerships from international partners. Drawing on experiences of other developing nations, principally Chile, Thailand and Malaysia, economic growth projections in Africa and demographic trends (including the additional 500m young people coming to tertiary education age by 2030), the 20% figure is ambitious but achievable;

4.6.3Increase post-graduation employment partnerships: to provide mature, in-country career progression for those undertaking postgraduate programmes in sciences (natural, physical and social) and engineering for sustainability, supported by international organisations and major companies;

4.6.4Platform best practice: including increased opportunity and presence at international conferences for academic partnerships, training and exchange programmes in sciences and engineering for sustainability to showcase successful innovation and implementation; and

4.6.5Develop clearer Quality Assurance (AS) standards for higher educational institutions: currently only 16 countries have functioning national QA agencies. As the amount of institutions and student enrolment rises, a new focus on standards and quality assessment should be brought in with the, at a national or regional level.

5. Missing Voices: The Global South and how to make them Part of the Solution

5.1 Regarding “missing voices” from this debate, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) focused, rightly, on women and gender equality. For any discussion about sustainable development goals that has to remain, yet, the concerns and experiences of those in the Global South must be better presented and understood.

5.2 For all the considerations in point 4 above to be effective, sustainable development programmes must seek to work with, not just in, developing nations, making the most of the enormous amount ingenuity and intelligence available. Training courses and academic research projects should be locally sensitive and responsive to local need, ensuring impact is felt and return on investment can be benchmarked adequately.

5.3 For example, the PEI is currently developing a major new PhD facility in Luanda, Angola, the Centre of Excellence in Sciences for Sustainability in Africa (CESSAF) alongside a variety of local partners. The Centre will train 100 local PhD students in the next 10 years in six sustainable development focused courses: Management of Water Pollution from Mining and Metals; Sanitary Engineering; Geochemistry and Microbiology of Hydrocarbons; Water Resources; Geomatics; Sociology and Environmental Policy; Urban Planning.

5.4 In line with the recommendations made above, the CESSAF project is developed with a number of local partners, including Agostinho Neto University, the Angolan Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology and the Banco Espirito Santo Angola. Working closely with Newcastle University and the United Nations institutions, the CESSAF project is bringing leading scientific knowledge to Africa while also, by designing and delivering the project with local stakeholders, building the frameworks to keep it there. Moreover, drawing on the Global Scientific Committee, the CESSAF project is founded upon strong academic institutional ties across the Global South, in Brazil and India, countries that have made significant, largely independent scientific and technological transformations over the past decades.

5.5 Other projects the Committee should be made aware of are the World Bank higher education projects in Ethiopia, Mauritania, Uganda, Mozambique, the South African Education and Environment Project and the SUBA Environmental Education Project in Kenya.

5.6 The PEI recommend the Committee consider the following:

5.6.1Greater linkages between academic and scientific institutions in the Global South: to enable far greater transfer of knowledge on a South-South basis (the newly created United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) provides an opportunity but this should be closely monitored);

5.6.2Research and framework development of a model to manage IP and facilitate knowledge transfer: IP needs to be protected, but in many cases antiquated IP legislation hinders technological development. Brazil has advanced significantly in this area, being the place where “Creative Commons” was established. Inventors are not allowed to sit on patents without using them or they risk loosing it. Many low-tech inventions that will be developed and are applicable for Africa must be affordable, replicable and transferable. Barriers to access need to be relaxed and models of progressive legislation to facilitate a technological transition need to be employed.

5.6.3New models of knowledge dissemination need to be established to facilitate development: The current model, monopolised by a few publishing houses, hinders access to knowledge that is often publicly funded. Expenditure on access to published research developed by academic institutions is a financial drain on even wealthier institutions. This stifles competition by locking-out access to research from less affluent organisations. Cooperative agreements across the south that facilitate access to research will promote competition and facilitate a technological transition across the continent. Paid access to Global South research will be under-utilised in the North and largely inaccessible in the South.

About PEI

5.7 The PEI is headquartered in London with offices in Geneva, Luanda, Rio de Janiero and New Delhi. The executive team is headed by CEO Mauricio Fernandes and Board of Trustees is Alvaro Sobrinho (Chairman), Prof. Paul Younger, Rt Hon Lord Paul Boateng and Sir Christopher Edwards.

5.8 The Global Scientific Membership is made up of: Prof. Paul Younger (Chair), UK; Prof. Dr Jose Octavio Van-Dunem, Angola; Prof. Dr Jaime Amezaga, UK; Elizabeth Gardiner, Canada; Prof. Mariela Garcia Vargas, Columbia; Prof. Mukesh Khare, India; Prof. Peter White, UK; Prof. Peter Rose, South Africa; Prof Jerry Kuma, Ghana; Dr. Janusz Brzeszczynski, UK; Professor Carlos Chernicharo, Brazil.

5.9 The PhD facility in Luanda, the Centre of Excellence in Sciences for Sustainability in Africa (CESSAF), will open to students in 2013 and take ten students a year (five from Angola and five from across Africa). The PEI team is actively looking to replicate this model in other African countries, including Mozambique.

October 2012