The Sustainable Development Goals as mechanisms of educational governance in Africa

Abstract

This study interrogates how one of the least-studied regional intergovernmental organisations, the African Union (AU), operationalises or recontextualises the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the process of developing its post-2015 education and development strategies. Employing critical discourse analysis and drawing on multidisciplinary theories, the author examines the emergence of the SDGs in Africa and the strategies used to make them hegemonic. The analysis indicates that the AU positions itself as an emerging education policy “node” negotiating between global development discourses and African needs and challenges. The strategies that the AU uses highlight potential issues in global governance. On the one hand, the AU positions itself as a victim of the unfair power relationships in global governance, by which international organisations and powerful economies maintain their institutional, structural and productive dominance. This seems to keep the AU “at bay” when it comes to decision-making at the global level. The AU consequently vows to become more critical and assertive, and to forge inclusive and fair relationships with its global partners. On the other hand, post-2015 African development strategies seem to benefit from global norms and make repeated references to scientific knowledge, expert ideas and best practices from the Western world. Overall, then, in order to carry out its role as a continental policy node vis-à-vis global expectations, the AU employs two apparently conflicting strategies: adoption and adaptation. These interpretations of the SDGs add more salience to both consensus and conflict-driven theories of global governance.