The Role of Academic Institutions and Societies in Achieving the Millennium Development Goals, Dr. Allam Ahmed and Prof. David Newton
Dr. Allam Ahmed, University of Sussex, UK
Professor David Newton, Royal Agricultural College, UK
DOI: 10.47556/B.OUTLOOK2004.2.21
The papers presented at the conference had tremendous scope in both focus and source; providing great encouragement for the future of this event. More than thirty quality and scholarly papers were presented, covering a broad geographical spectrum including Africa, America, Asia, Australia, India, China, Europe and the Middle East. The papers contained within these proceedings discuss a range of issues, with a common focus, namely the role of academic institutions and societies in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and sustainable development. The MDGs are a framework of 8 goals, 18 targets, and 48 indicators covering every field of human endeavour, including the relief of poverty and hunger, improved access to education, greater gender equality, improved child
mortality and maternal health, tackling HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases, environmental sustainability and enhanced global partnerships for development. The crucial challenge is how to achieve these goals. To this end, the selected papers attempt to demonstrate clearly such challenges and outline possible solutions and recommendations. We are cognizant of the fact that universities are greatly underutilized and are potentially powerful vehicles for development anywhere, but more so in developing countries. They should be employed as vital partners in the development process. Several papers have critically examined those factors, frameworks and paradigms that would enable universities and institutions of higher education to contribute more fully in achieving the MDGs and sustainable development. The conference contained one session for keynote speakers, one roundtable discussion and seven sessions of oral presentations. This proceedings, which contain only a selection of the papers presented during the conference, is divided into seven sections namely, Education; Innovation, Science & technology; Knowledge Management & ICT; Sustainable Environment; Business Excellence & Management; International Business and finally International Development.
