Higher education plays a crucial role in capacity building for livelihood improvements, development, innovation and progress. Without a strong higher education system and institutions that can provide quality education, post-conflict countries will struggle to move from destruction to recovery and socio-economic development and from insecurity and violence to stability and peace. Despite the importance of higher education for recovery, development and progress, rebuilding and reforming higher education systems and institutions is not a priority for local and international actors involved in recovery efforts around the world. Ultimately, this undermines future prospects for post-conflict countries and sets them to fail in the long-run.
The talk will touch on post-conflict settings and different approaches and actors involved in recovery processes and operations. It will highlight challenges, priorities and explore how external actors can help countries rebuild their higher education systems and institutions in the aftermath of violent conflict. The specific focus will be on what University of Minnesota could do to help in Somalia.
Dr. Savo Heleta works as a manager of internationalization and researcher at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University’s Office for International Education (OIE), and as a researcher at OIE’s Research Unit for Higher Education Internationalization in the Developing World. He holds a DPhil in Development Studies from NMMU. His DPhil research focused on post-war reconstruction, development, peace-building and state-building in Bosnia, South Sudan and Somaliland. Dr. Heleta’s research focuses on higher education internationalization, higher education in post-war settings, as well as conflict analysis and post-war reconstruction and development in general.
For more information on this event contact CEHD Global Initiatives at cehdintl@umn.edu.