Performing sustainability as a concept that „cuts across all spheres of life“ is what connects everyone involved in the DAAD-funded SDG Graduate School programme. During the 12th bi-annual workshop in March 2023 at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana, participants present the topics they’re researching and reflect on current events, challenges and wishes.
What does it mean to engage in sustainable development? In what way do the respective institutions of the international cooperation between the University of Cape Coast (Ghana), the University of Maiduguri (Nigeria) and the University of Hildesheim (Germany) contribute to the research in the interdisciplinary field of cultural sustainability?
PhD-candidates, Workshop Facilitators and Directors of the SDG Graduate School illustrate what they’re experiencing not only during the workshop itself, but regarding the entire program.
📷 Produced by Carina Nickel and Arne Dreske with financial support from the DAAD using funds from the BMZ (Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development).
I have never felt this free in class to voice out my thoughts I am most grateful for this opportunity uh it’s great being here I would be happy for every day of my life what do I think about this project in one word Synergy I say amazing this Workshop is really amazing
Educated excited so Ed about the whole program it beats my imagination and expectation life Changing It is uh unlike Other M us that always focus on bilateral interest between two universities here we have a situation where three universities from two continents are brought together to offer very unique academic perspective It involves three major universities and for us in the University of cap Coast world I would want to say that it comprise University of cap Coast Ghana University of medige in Nigeria and the University of hste in Germany this is unique because most of the collaborations have been in South sou
But to move Beyond just UC it’s something very extraordinary we have something very special here I have seen very few programs like this in the in the University with such an impact um indeed is we are here the seventh year now so we feel almost as home as well so cap
Coast has become a little bit our University it is like feeling home and that is special our main ambition is really to see all the young people who are right in front of us to see them through in the coming three years really to finish the PHD my name is
Clara I’m with Department of English University of K coost and I am part of the SD school too I am honored to be part of this wonderful program my name is Jil Mari Isa uh I’m a PhD candidate and I’m working on a project titled traditional institutions peace education and the
Radicalization insights into the reintegration of EX Boku Haram insurgents the decision of choosing that particular topic is influenced by my background I have experienced peace and I’ve experienced the conflict so my name is Gand josephin Doan I come from Benway State Nigeria I am currently researching on the topic cultural tourism and sustainable
Development I’m hoping to get my work to be very much enriched and the different intellectual takes from the Germans from the ghanians and from the Nigerians is actually uh going to put my topic uh on the next level I think what makes our our graduate school so so quite unique
Is the the spirit we have and it is the spirit between of course the colleagues from hildesheim or the the international experts we invite and the students here but from from my end even more important is the South South Corporation because usually a student from Cape Coast would
Never ever have a chance to meet a student from my degree yeah and they have a lot to say to each other because they come from quite diverse academic backgrounds quite diverse social backgrounds but what we experience in all the in all the workshops is really a very good cooperation a high intense
Level of communication coexistence mine has to be the hospitality and [Laughter] also transparency MH unity in diversity M containment artistic creation understanding communal Spirit Unity okay warmth unity and [Applause] diversity for this two weeks um that we’re having this Workshop um basically I want to tease out ideas I want to
Sharpen my intuition so I also want to learn from other candidates what they also doing and how they are shaping the whole idea of sustainability my name is Jason U and I’m working on the topic K passing layers of meaning among male cause dresses in Kitty dance groups in Cape Coast The first thing I want to talk about is dance as an art form that allows performance to assume identity why I chose my my my topic there are lot of social inequalities social um um um problems that we don’t want to tackle because they are difficult conversations
To have but in the academic space uh I feel that that shouldn’t be the case so in Academia everything should be up for discussion every single time we have the workshops we we feel that that is really growing and people are becoming more tolerant and understanding and thinking
Of things from the others perspective which is really uh something that is missing if you were to do a PhD in just one institution or the other I am when the AC Mia My Wish for this particular Workshop that we having Within These two weeks is to learn more to give me more
Broaden my ideas about how we can H do things sustainably that is learn more about the sdg agenda and then know more and see how best I can use it to broaden my Horizon we also brought in the issue of adherence to some sustainable cultural beliefs and activities examples are Taboos and communities that’s that’s me can choose to mix it with and say it is so I may not know what I e within that cont I don’t know the mixture but I know at the end of the day bound I don’t know what I’m if culture puts men up
There and women are second class citizens it means women are not being empowered due to culture so if that culture is changed it means women will be empowered and by implication is going to reduce the poverty in the society then culture is also responsible in promoting health and wellbe
It’s also the idea of Performing sustainability I think that this concept cut across all spheres of lives if you look at the 17 sdg goals I think that it covers all aspects so in all of the S um Su the sustainable development goals which is the international language now
Um this concept sweeps through all and we get to see a number of Scholars coming from different discipline fit into this concept because of how um spreadable it is and how um wide the whole perspective is my research is very much aligned with uh as we all know the
Sdg3 which is on climate change action it has to do with uh steps or what it outlines actions that countries are required or expected to take in order to mitigate and reduce the negative uh impact of climate change action I am Usman Ibrahim babagana a PhD candidate and a dad scholarship holder
From the University of medu uh my research project is on cultural Dimension to climate change adaptation in the northeastern region of Nigeria the Northeast is one of the six regions we have in Nigeria now the Northeast has uh a different uh climate or a different kind of um weather or setup culture this
This picture is is is is taken from the community in one of the nor Northeastern regions case it’s a tree a dead tree um if I can take my experience as a student um it gave me the opportunity to learn not only the issues from here and to
Learn about other cultures but that of cultures in Nigeria and the cultures in Germany so it’s really versatile the idea to even give you the exposure to meet new people to network it’s it’s really brilant Brant for me here so I’m GI up here um a PhD student with a music
And dance Department we have people from diverse areas coming together and we share ideas yes so it helps it helps you learn from a lot of people and it’s it’s encouraged teamwork is here referring to him one two three four five [Laughter] six the personal part of it is also very
Important so all the different personalities in The Graduate School it also feels like a kind of a family so that’s very special this is what we’re going to do touch Club touch Club I think human resource capacity building uh has been um one of the things that
This project has really um been known for so the most cheerful thing for me in this Gathering is the different people that we’ve put together that Synergy that we are building as different people from different places and the whole academic environment that is saturated with so much positivity that’s what
That’s what that’s what’s interesting for me yes this right left right left right left right left right left right Left if you can go to your topic please yeah the top please towards sustainer preneurship sustainable entrepreneurship fantastic why are you not using that because throughout your work is sustainable entrepreneurship and then we have this coined out word that totally absent right I applied for the PHD program in cultural sustainability
Because I see it as having the potential to enable me achieve my research objective which is to contribute to the attainment of sustainable development goal especially within my own Community within my own environment I applied for the graduate school because um it’s I I feel it would expose me to a new
Community of researchers and I believe believe is an opportunity that would help me learn more about these objects I’m so much interested in today we have three student presenting we have Wendy who is already seated up here she’s a sacrificial love number one so she’s she’s going to set this
Stage for us so today is an opportunity for them to tell us more about what it is that they really intend to do we have seen Fabrics being used here and there but how many times have usingen the use of plastic the use of uh rescued objects from the environment for making
Accessories of making clothes and our students um get rewarded in a lot of ways because they come up I would say um very well grounded you know because they still do their indiv their individual course Works in their respective universities and then through the know the two workshops they also get
To interact with International Scholars from all over which is very rare they wouldn’t have had that opportunity in their respective universities um over the years that you know there is more Synergy between the people and the sharing of ideas some of the challenges is getting used to the different systems within the different
Universities that we are collaborating with so the three different universities have three different structures that’s a huge challenge the first common would be when you talk about recycling I wonder whether you could this in form of suggestion you could analytically divide between a down cycling and up cycling
And be more specific on that recycling theme from a theoretical perspective and then when it comes to environment I would also be more specific on what kind of environment you refer to I didn’t hear you speak about the waste problem as such you know where’s the waste coming from
Um is is is avoiding waste not rather maybe the solution to the problem of too much waste what in your present state of thinking uh do you think this study will make in terms of a difference to that s goal that you have selected what kind of impact are you
Measuring all what we have done over the last years would not have been possible without German fun without German funding definitely and it is the the German Ministry for economic cooperation uh in cooperation with the German academic exchange service who provide the funding but not just providing the
Funding I think even more important who give us a structure who are a sounding board to our work who who monitor our work very well I believe that through these Partnerships students like myself will get the opportunity to learn new things and to give us that um support to
Bring out our ideas that we’ve been nursing over the years to help our communities to help our country as a whole and it also helped to even help the international world as well for us in my degree it has been a very uh important development because it
Is key to staff development yeah the development of staff that will not only be grounded in research but with broad academic perspective having been exposed to Scholars like SAA said from different backgrounds during the program well this program is very important to my institution because to
The best of my knowledge is the most successful International collaboration that the institution has and it’s helping to improve the profile of the institution and it’s contributing to my research and my research can also be claimed by my institution so it’s a win-win partnership because if the p is gone
Then the remain are all gone and the second part is the positive where it succeeds due to the inclusion of traditional institutions okay thank you very much Mar for your presentation questions comments to that yeah um thanks very much this was for very um thoughtful and well thought through your
Presentation I think you’re very far ahead already with your research project so I believe some of the students that we have right now are also lecturers with in the University system and that would also um have a huge impact in their own careers I have been a part of
The first and second cohorts not as a um a student but just helping to facilitate the whole program and so it has had um latent effects on me um because I’ve benefited from their writing I’ve benefited from conversations and all that and I felt that especially with my
Topic and how sensitive it is I need to be in a space that allows me to freely work okay so I applied for the graduate school because um I I always wanted to further yeah you know to gain more knowledge first of all and then I couldn’t do that because I couldn’t
Afford the fees you know at this level it’s much way way much higher than you know the other levels so I have I have been applying for scholarships so when this came along I said okay I should give it a try as well and luckily I am
Here so it’s been great what is um very present in our minds right now I think is to think about how we could continue because the funding phase so we receive this funding from the D and then also the bmz but this will finish with 2025
So a major challenge for us all now is to think about how this cooperation and especially the self self Corporation could continue beyond uh 2025 thank you so Much and so the the project has come at a right time where we have intellectual engagement that can help to move through towards uh problem solving you know not just in abstract academic terms but in concrete terms of offering Solutions how we can deal with those issues from a
Cultural perspective in order to achieve the SGS the time in Ghana has been fascinating and what I really like the most about it is how well coordinated the activities are I will I like to thank D I’d like to thank um for the opportunity I think the future is bright
When all these deeper thoughts are made I’m feeling some sad about it because the program has come to an end because I’ve really enjoyed the program so this this this space is for me it’s well negotiated it’s well balanced it it prioritizes everyone the Synergy between you know between teachers and students and
Between students and students you know that together it’s like we are building something together excellent It’s been excellent I really enjoyed that the most I am looking forward to a time when um kep course and my degree can continue to each other you know years down the road
So that the South South dimension of the program will be strengthened I’m sure even the D will be glad to see that so for me that’s it yes thank You [Applause] St