Universities are key to driving sustainable development
However, policies and practices must take into account the diversity of local realities to which these objectives apply. The results are based on the efforts and actions of communities and individuals. No single institution or social category should assume sole responsibility for supporting local populations in defining their future. All actors, from diverse backgrounds, must contribute to this immense effort, which is essential for reducing poverty and achieving sustainability.
To the extent that societies succeed in promoting development dynamics driven by the beneficiaries themselves, facilitators are needed who are capable of encouraging collective dialogue on hopes and difficulties and, above all, on the common actions that must be taken to improve living conditions. Communities do not spontaneously come together to decide their future without these catalysts. They ensure that all voices are heard, help to crystallise a common vision, resolve differences, build alliances between multiple actors and, over time, remove the social or historical barriers that prevent economic and civic engagement. University students are in a particularly strategic position to effectively promote local development processes around projects decided and implemented by the population.
Within their institution, students are encouraged to collect and analyse data, communicate the social forces that influence people's lives, accompany the development of solutions designed by the populations, and advocate at all levels for their implementation. They have the necessary flexibility and a sense of social commitment, and can now highlight these experiences in their academic CVs. In this way, they find a dual benefit: contributing to the public interest and strengthening their own skills as facilitators.
In Morocco, many university students come from rural areas. They particularly benefit from “experiential learning” programmes – learning by doing – which enable them to return to their communities of origin, such as in the province of Al-Haouz, the epicentre of the 2023 earthquake, where they are involved in reconstruction. These initiatives are being expanded through formal partnerships with public universities. However, their consolidation requires funding to strengthen institutional capacities.
Investing in these programmes to train students as facilitators of empowerment and participatory planning in villages helps communities define their own projects. By learning directly in the field and developing their skills as facilitators (or actor-researchers, i.e. academics who contribute to improving the conditions they study as part of their research), they support priority initiatives such as access to drinking water, irrigation channels or craft cooperatives.
There are several essential components for guiding universities so that they can contribute fully to shared prosperity and sustainable environmental preservation.
Designing a course on sustainable development—integrated into academic offerings and regional and national strategic plans—requires the active participation of universities and their collaboration with communities, municipalities, and relevant institutions.
Firstly
In Morocco, as elsewhere, it is essential to establish policies that enable higher education institutions to play their full role in local sustainable development. Universities can develop their potential in Morocco because the country has given them the opportunity to do so. Since 2008, the experience of the High Atlas Foundation (HAF) shows that public and private universities are actively seeking formal partnerships that promote practical experiences for students in supporting socio-economic and environmental community projects (as well as providing free legal assistance to marginalised groups). These actions require a favourable political environment.
Secondly
The methodology used to engage communities directly determines the results obtained. The best approaches combine local and international practices, are based on dialogue and visual expression, and are adapted to cultural realities. They evolve continuously as they are implemented. They are part of action research: an academic approach to data collection and analysis focused on the community. Universities offer an ideal framework for developing these tools, which students can then apply in their regions.
In this way, students can fulfil their academic obligations while playing a central role in local sustainable development, in a mutually beneficial process: change based on collective analysis of the realities of life. The context in which they evolve and the way in which society encourages them to get involved in it largely determines their success.
In Morocco, public and private universities are committed to offering their students and teachers opportunities for direct collaboration with the population. Civil society, in collaboration with the academic world, contributes to the design of participatory methodologies adapted to local contexts. In this way, students are trained through experience and communities benefit directly from their interventions.
Thirdly
Sharing dreams, difficulties, successes and lessons learned throughout the development process helps to produce the desired effects. Writing in various formats and languages, as well as intervening in various spaces, is a form of community advocacy. It helps recipients define their own actions and fosters the partnerships necessary for resource mobilisation. Student writers participate in obtaining administrative authorisations, contribute to monitoring and evaluation, and thus guide future replication and scaling-up policies.
These writings feed into strategic plans and recommendations to donors and financial institutions. They constitute a database of community objectives and social and environmental data by region, useful for reports, advocacy, project proposals, and business plans. Passionate about social justice, students are often inspired to write creatively and disseminate valuable knowledge. They can also work in teams, such as International Impact Consulting at the University of Pennsylvania, to develop technical plans that facilitate access to funding.
The High Atlas Foundation has observed that student publications attract other students and university programmes in Morocco, reinforcing the dynamic. Since early 2023, more than 40 universities, mostly American, as well as dozens of youth programmes and tourist groups, have visited the High Atlas Foundation and participated in participatory actions. All of this has been done without advertising, solely through knowledge sharing and student publications.
Courses implemented with the University of Virginia, University College London, Princeton, George Mason, and the University of Washington have consolidated this development model. The more universities convey the voice of the people, the more they raise global awareness and encourage action.
Finally
Universities would benefit from developing more experiential programmes in disciplines conducive to action research and participatory methods: anthropology, gender studies, adult education, communication, public health, urban planning, applied economics, environment, sociology. There are still very few professors trained in these approaches, which are nevertheless essential for guiding students in their research and action work.
Creating universities where these methods are fully recognised and integrated means strengthening the capacity of populations to become competent professionals, entrepreneurs and peacemakers.
In essence, universities and local communities are called upon to collaborate. A participatory university, attentive to the needs of its inhabitants, embodies the current requirement: to align educational outcomes with the priorities of sustainable development.
Dr Yossef Ben-Meir is president of the High Atlas Foundation, a non-profit organisation dedicated to sustainable development in Morocco.