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Education for Sustainable Development and COVID-19 in Southern Africa: Intersecting perspectives on why water, food and livelihoods matter in transforming education for sustainable futures

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The #OpenupYourThinking: SADC Researchers Challenge took place in May and June 2020 and involved a wide range of universities located in SADC countries. The main purpose of the Challenge was to contribute to the generation of evidence on how education and training systems in SADC were affected by and could respond to COVID-19. The Challenge covered six themes and • Provided researchers with an opportunity to contribute meaningfully to shaping solutions to pressures being placed on education systems using an evidence-based approach • Allowed for real-time inputs to be made into other national education processes led by organisations in SADC and • Ensured that a wider group of younger researchers (below 35 years) was collectively engaged during the lockdown period, while giving them an opportunity to grow as they worked under the guidance of experienced researchers This is a report from Theme 1: Education for sustainable development: COVID-19 education response intersections with the food, water and economic (livelihoods) crisis.
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Education for Sustainable Development
and COVID-19 in Southern Africa
Intersecting perspectives on why water, food and livelihoods
matter in transforming education for sustainable futures
Support for this project was provided by theOpenSociety Foundations. For more information
aboutOpenSociety please go to:www.opensocietyfoundations.org
Support for this theme was provided by the Global Challenges Research Fund Transforming Education for
Sustainable Futures project. For more information on the TESF project please go to: https://tesf.network
Lead Author and Team Lead: Heila Lotz-Sisitka (South Africa)
Researchers: Injairu Kulundu (South Africa), Rachel Neville (South Africa), Anna James (South Africa), Ayanda
Buhlebenkosi Moyo (Zimbabwe), Esthery Kunkwenzu (Malawi), Domingos Carlos Mirione (Mozambique),
Gibson Mphepo (Malawi), Kgosietsile Velempini (Botswana), Lwanda Maqwelane (South Africa), Phila Dyantyi
(South Africa), Rutendo Mushishi (Zimbawe), Selemani Abdul Makwita (Tanzania), Yeukai Musariri (Zimbabwe/
South Africa), Zenani Mhlanga (Eswatini) A full prole of researchers is contained in Appendix A.
Peer Reviewers: Alexander Leicht (UNESCO, Paris), Rafael Mitchell (University of Bristol, UK), Experencia
Jalasi (Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Malawi), Cecilia Njenja (UNEP), Robin
Sannasee (SADC)
Suggested Reference: Lotz-Sisitka HB, Kulundu I, Neville R, James A, Moyo AB, Kunkwenzu E, Morione
D, Mphepo G, Velempini K, Maqwelane L, Dyantyi P, Mushishi R, Makwita SA, Musariri Y, Mhlanga Z
(2021) Education for sustainable development and COVID-19 in southern Africa: Intersecting perspectives on
why water, food and livelihoods matter in transforming education for sustainable futures. Research report
in the JET Education Services/UNESCO Regional Oce for Southern Africa (ROSA)/Global Challenge
Research Fund’s Transforming Education for Sustainable Futures Project (South African node)/Open
Society Foundations (OSF) #OpenupYourThinking: SADC Researchers Challenge. JET Education Services/
Transforming Education for Sustainable Futures, Rhodes University. South Africa.
Education for Sustainable Development
and COVID-19 in Southern Africa
Intersecting perspectives on why water, food and livelihoods
matter in transforming education for sustainable futures
The #OpenupYourThinking: SADC Researchers Challenge took place in May and
June 2020 and involved a wide range of universities located in SADC countries.
The main purpose of the Challenge was to contribute to the generation of
evidence on how education and training systems in SADC were aected by and
could respond to COVID-19.
The Challenge covered six themes and
Provided researchers with an opportunity to contribute meaningfully to
shaping solutions to pressures being placed on education systems using an
evidence-based approach
Allowed for real-time inputs to be made into other national education
processes led by organisations in SADC and
Ensured that a wider group of younger researchers (below 35 years) was
collectively engaged during the lockdown period, while giving them an
opportunity to grow as they worked under the guidance of experienced
researchers
This is a report from Theme 1: Education for sustainable development:
COVID-19 education response intersections with the food, water and economic
(livelihoods) crisis.
Contents
List of gures ..............................................................................................................................................................iv
Acronyms and abbreviations ....................................................................................................................................iv
SECTION ONE:
Transforming education for sustainable futures (TESF) ...................................................................1
1.1 Introduction................................................................................................................................................. 2
1.2 Education for sustainable futures in southern Africa ............................................................................ 5
SECTION TWO:
Methodology and research questions .................................................................................................9
2.1 Overall approach ..................................................................................................................................... 10
2.2 Research questions .................................................................................................................................. 12
2.3 Research methods ................................................................................................................................... 13
2.4 Dynamics inuencing what could and could not be done ................................................................. 15
SECTION THREE:
COVID-19 and intersecting concerns: water, food, livelihoods and education ............................19
3.1 Intersecting issues in the context ........................................................................................................... 17
3.2 How SADC communities were experiencing the impacts of COVID-19 from
March 2020 to July 2020 ................................................................................................................................ 18
3.3 Issues that were experienced by SADC communities and educators ................................................ 21
3.4 Historicity and impacts ...........................................................................................................................26
SECTION FOUR:
Macro- and chrono-level perspectives and recommendations for TESF .......................................29
4.1 Macro- and chrono-level perspectives .................................................................................................. 30
4.2 Recommendations for TESF work from the seven sub-themes for macro- and meso-level
support and intervention (i.e. transformative systems building) ........................................................... 34
4.3 Recommendations for TESF within a “just recovery” and “building forward better” policy and
practice framework ........................................................................................................................................ 41
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................52
References ................................................................................................................................................................. 53
Appendix A ................................................................................................................................................................ 54
iv / Education for Sustainable Development and COVID-19 in Southern Africa
Acronyms and abbreviations
EEASA Environmental Education Association of Southern Africa
ESD Education for Sustainable Development
ICT Information and Communications Technology
NGO Non-governmental organisation
OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
SADC Southern African Development Community
SADC REEP SADC Regional and Environmental Education Programme
SDG Sustainable Development Goal
TESF Transforming education for sustainable futures
UN United Nations
UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientic and Cultural Organization
UNICEF United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund
List of gures
Figure 1: Relationally connected levels of a laminated system ..................................................................................10
Figure 2: Overall temporally framed research design that accommodates systemic analysis of the current
situation, historicity and a futures orientation focussing on “just recovery” and ESD policy and
practice in SADC ............................................................................................................................................... 11
Figure 3: Sustainable development goals .....................................................................................................................19
Figure 4: COVID-19 patterns of impact in relation to the sustainable development goals ....................................20
Figure 5: A drawing showing the shift required from past to future .........................................................................42
Figure 6: An overview of the ndings of the study from a past, present and future perspective .........................43
Figure 7: TESF Transformative Praxis Pathway 1: Contribute to rethinking and reimagining economic
models that are more inclusive and sustainable .........................................................................................44
Figure 8: TESF Transformative Praxis Pathway 2: Contribute to the emergence of more sustainable food
systems for all...................................................................................................................................................45
Figure 9: TESF Transformative Praxis Pathway 3: Strengthen interagency and multisectoral partnerships
for sustainable development action and service delivery ..........................................................................46
Figure 10: TESF Transformative Praxis Pathway 4: Strengthen quality education in the public education
sector and facilitate access to ICTs and stronger parental participation ..................................................47
Figure 11: TESF Transformative Praxis Pathway 5: Strengthen interventions that support the inclusion
and safety of women and girl children and youth agency for change ......................................................48
Figure 12: Multi-level recommendations for policy-making and interventions at dierent levels
of the system ....................................................................................................................................................49
SECTION ONE
Transforming education for
sustainable futures (TESF)
2 / Education for Sustainable Development and COVID-19 in Southern Africa
1.1 Introduction
1 United Nations: https://www.un.org/en/observances/earth-day/message
2 United Nations: https://www.un.org/en/coronavirus/covid-19-photo-essay-we’re-all-together
3 Meaning of transgressive: acting against the taken-for-granted, unsustainable norms that hold inequality, environmental degradation and
social injustice in place (cf. www.transgressivelearning.org). Transgressive learning means to learn to act against unsustainable norms in
society.
4 “Build back better” is a disaster risk reduction concept. In this research report, we adapt it to be more future oriented and use the concept of
“build forward better” to signal commitment to doing things in fundamentally dierent ways (cf. https://www.recoveryplatform.org/
5 A“just recovery” is a concept that signals the need to imagine a dierent future that is built on environmental, social, gender and economic
justice as a way of comprehensively addressing the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis. Here recovery does not mean going “back to normal”,
rather it means the need to prioritise the sustainability of life, peoples’rights, and the protection of livelihoods and the planet. (cf.
https://350africa.org/just-recovery-report/)
Preventing COVID-19 requires regular handwashing.
However, most communities do not have access to
running water. Because of the shutdown the food
security and nutrition of families was compromised
as most people could not go out to work for their
families. The school terms closed early and not yet
reopened. Children have gone for months without
school. (Questionnaire respondent, 2019)
Like elsewhere around the world, the COVID-19
pandemic struck southern Africa with almost no
warning. In the period of doing this research (April–
September 2020), the COVID-19 virus spread into
our societies – from travel spread to ever-widening
community spread with daily infection rates
growing exponentially. African governments were
praised for their rapid response to the COVID-19
pandemic, which came in the form of heavy
lockdowns for some countries (e.g. South Africa,
Botswana, Namibia). This saved many lives and
helped governments to ready their medical facilities
and infrastructure. While this has been a positive
outcome so far, the COVID-19 pandemic has, sadly,
starkly revealed and exacerbated many of the
deep-seated historical and structural challenges in
our societies across the southern African region.
These are most evident in people’s experience of
issues such as the rapid loss of economic security
and livelihood access, deepening poverty and
vulnerability, lack of access to clean water, hunger,
food insecurity and nutrition challenges, increased
educational inequalities exacerbated by the digital
divide, increases in gender-based violence and
challenges for the girl child, especially. All of these
have implications for transforming education
systems for sustainable futures as we reveal in this
#OpenUpYourThinking Research Challenge report.
We consider these intersecting concerns in their
contemporary forms as revealed qualitatively in
our study. Through this, we seek to learn from –
and inform – an important contemporary area of
educational development termed “Education for
Sustainable Development” (ESD; cf. Box 2) that
has lessons to share for southern African social
and education development (Southern African
Development Community Regional Environmental
Education Programme [SADC REEP], 2012), and which
can also be enriched by insights gained from the
contemporary challenges in the COVID-19 pandemic
period. Our interest is to surface what can be learnt
from the COVID-19 pandemic for transforming
education systems for sustainable futures (TESF) in
a southern African context.
As has been said by many, the COVID-19 pandemic
requires us to think in radically new ways about
existing systems and how they have been operating.
It requires us to “build forward better”, giving
attention to social justice and sustainability in
recovering from the pandemic, and it requires us
to act more collectively, systemically and inter-
and multisectorally in response to the heightened
sustainable development challenges revealed by
the pandemic. As said by Secretary-General António
Guterres of the United Nations (UN) in his International
Mother Earth Day message on 22 April 2020 in which
he referred to the intersecting lessons to be learnt from
COVID-19 for climate change responses internationally:
“The current crisis is an unprecedented wake-up call.
We need to turn the recovery into a real opportunity
to do things right for the future.”1
The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the
interconnected nature of people around the
world, illuminating starkly that “no one is safe
until everyone is safe”2. This amplies the need for
values that emphasise relationality and solidarity,
as it will only be through acting in solidarity and
in interconnected, multi- and transdisciplinary,
and more radical and transgressive3 ways that
communities and governments will be able to save
lives and overcome what is now recognised as a
globally devastating socioeconomic impact on all
societies. This has implications for how we “build
back better”4 or “build forward better”, and
how we consider educational transformation for
more sustainable futures. The concept of just
recovery”5 is also useful to think through ways of
considering the immediate lessons from COVID-19
SECTION ONE / 3
for transforming education systems for more
sustainable futures. Insights from transformative,
transgressive learning research in southern Africa
have also shaped how we consider the possibilities
emerging from this research (Lotz-Sisitka, Wals,
Kronlid & McGarry, 2015). We have worked
analytically with these concepts in this study to
point to the movement that is possible between the
historical, the contemporary, and potential futures
that are possible if we take adequate account of
how to “build forward better” from the COVID-19
pandemic in our local contexts, education and other
institutions, districts, provinces and countries across
southern Africa (and more widely) in socially just and
more sustainable ways (cf. Box 1).
“Building back better” is a concept from disaster
risk reduction discourse and essentially focusses
on the empowerment processes needed to support
communities to reduce vulnerability to future
disaster and risk (Hallegatte, Rentschler & Walsh,
2018). It tends to focus on community resilience and
can be usefully complemented by “just recovery”
and “transgressive learning” discourse that also
puts emphasis on structural and systemic change
as well as collective agency at a wider level in
short and longer-term frames. Hence, we prefer
to work with the idea of “build forward better” to
signal progressive forms of action and agency for
transformation, rather than just reconstructing or
xing the existing status quo. Within the COVID-19
period, the “build back better” discourse is being
reinterpreted and includes a focus not only on the
reconstruction of economic livelihoods in more
6 350: https://350.org/
sustainable ways but also on planetary conditions
that will support the future wellbeing of people
and the planet. For example, the Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
indicates in its policy brief on COVID-19 and “build
back better”:
The economic pressures driving biodiversity loss
and the destruction of ocean health can have
cascading impacts on societies, and may increase
the risk of future zoonotic viruses (those which jump
from animals to humans) due to the expansion
of human activities leading to deforestation,
combined with the recent demand for and
tracking of wildlife(Jones etal., 2013). Declines
in local environmental quality, including air and
water pollution, can inuence the vulnerability of
societies both to disease and to the eects of a less
stable climate, with impacts likely to aect poorer
communities more(OECD, 2020b).
In addressing the focus on sustainability in the
process of “building forward better” from the
COVID-19 pandemic, we agree with the statement
by the organisation, 3506 on its website, that
as decision makers take steps to ensure immediate
relief and long-term recovery, it is imperative that
they consider the interrelated crises of wealth
inequality, racism, and ecological decline – notably
the climate crisis, which were in place long before
COVID-19, and now risk being intensied … This
is a time to be decisive in saving lives, and bold in
charting a path to a genuinely healthier and more
equitable future through a Just Recovery.
As has been said by many, the COVID-19 pandemic requires us to
think in radically new ways about existing systems and how they have
been operating. It requires us to “build forward better”, giving attention
to social justice and sustainability in recovering from the pandemic,
and it requires us to act more collectively, systemically and inter- and
multisectorally in response to the heightened sustainable development
challenges revealed by the pandemic.
4 / Education for Sustainable Development and COVID-19 in Southern Africa
BOX 1
“Just recovery”, “build forward better” and transformative,
transgressive learning for a regenerative response
7 https://350africa.org/just-recovery-report/
The organisation, 3507, outlines some principles for a just recovery, and the OECD (2020a)
oers some guidelines for “building back better” within a sustainability-oriented framework. We
have considered these, adapted and elaborated on them drawing on decolonial transformative
learning research within our commitment to “building forward better” and giving emphasis to the
southern African context and people’s experience and voices to guide a framing of regenerative
education system responses. This includes giving attention, inter alia, to the importance of the role
of education in:
1putting children’s learning, health and wellbeing rst
2providing informal learning, skills and training programmes for economic relief
and directing resources directly to previously marginalised people, addressing
short-term needs and longer-term conditions for transformation
3
creating educational approaches that help to build resilience and preparedness
in the face of future crises through supporting decent jobs that can help power a
“just recovery” and that catalyse just transitions to a low carbon future and ensure
inclusive sustainable futures
4building new relationships and partnerships for education and social learning
based on advancing solidarity and community participation across borders and
institutions in just and democratic ways
5
developing education strategies, systems and transformative, transgressive
learning approaches that strengthen people’s response-ability, agency and
capabilities for addressing immediate challenges as well taking up longer-term
opportunities for change and transformation of society
6adopting an intersectional, historically informed, decolonising and futures
seeking approach to proposals for “building forward better”, “just recovery” and
regenerative responses
We draw – and reect critically on these initial guiding principles throughout this report.
Importantly, these principles have helped to guide aspects of interpretation of the ndings in this
OpenUpYourThinking Research Challenge study. This has helped us to infuse our recommendations
for learning from COVID-19 for TESF with a contextually informed critical reading of guiding principles
for a more sustainable, just and regenerative recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
SECTION ONE / 5
1.2 Education for Sustainable Futures in southern Africa
8 SADC: https://www.sadc.int/documents-publications/show/Declaration__Treaty_of_SADC.pdf
9 SADC: https://www.sadc.int/les/5713/5292/8372/Regional_Indicative_Strategic_Development_Plan.pdf
10 This is not to deny the existence of a somewhat conservative conservation education movement under colonial and apartheid rule (Irwin,
1990), but rather to indicate that the liberation movement trajectory for environment and sustainability education was oriented towards
these principles (Lotz-Sisitka, 2004).
ESD has a long history in southern Africa. In 1984
southern African civil society and government
partners established the Environmental
Education Association of Southern Africa
(EEASA). This association, working across all
14 southern African countries, is one of the
longest standing regional associations concerned
with ESD in the world. Building on the work of
the EEASA, and with the opening up of the SADC
following the end of colonial and apartheid
governance, the SADC Environment and Land
Management Secretariat established the SADC
REEP (Regional Environmental Education
Programme) 1997 to implement its policy objective
on environmental education, training and public
participation. The SADC REEP, a 16-year programme
of the SADC Environment and Land Management
Secretariat, worked closely with the SADC Education
Secretariat throughout this period to foreground
the importance of environment and sustainable
development concerns to education. In 2008 the
SADC Executive Secretary, Tomaz Augusto Salomo,
said:
Today we have come to realise that the environment
not only supports our economy, but determines
our destiny as a people and as a region. Therefore,
environmental issues, both in the region and the
wider world, should be addressed at all levels by all
stakeholders. (SADC REEP, 2012: 6)
This builds on the vision of the 1992 SADC Treaty8
that
expressed a vision to liberate the people of Southern
Africa from the impact of the long histories of
oppression and marginalisaon, and to assist them to
create a new future through equity led growth, quality
educaon for all, eradicaon of poverty and health
risk, improved land use management and sustainable
environmental management. (SADC REEP, 2012: 10)
The SADC REEP, aligning with the vision of the
SADC Treaty and the SADC Regional Indicative
Strategic Development Plan9 that was adopted
in 2003, participated in the World Summit on
Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in
2002. The SADC REEP became one of the world’s
leading programmes in ESD, participating in all
major policy activities, actively contributing to the
international foregrounding of ESD in education
systems in southern Africa and also internationally.
Its constant message was that education systems
need to transform to enable sustainable futures
for southern African citizens, and its mandate was
to produce actions that modelled how this could be
done (see SADC REEP, 2012 for a full overview of this
work). The principles that were supported by the
SADC REEP include, amongst others: 1) participation,
collective action and structural change 2) social and
environmental justice (including cognitive justice) 3)
a recognition that economic practices are intimately
intertwined with social life, the history and politics
of inclusion and exclusion under colonial rule, and
environmental justice. These principles are what
guide our view on how we dene and consider ESD in
this report and have guided the work of the region’s
environmental and sustainability educators, with
much of their work emerging out of and in tandem
with liberation movements in southern Africa10.
At the World Summit on Sustainable Development
in 2002, a UN Decade of Education for Sustainable
Development was endorsed by all attending world
leaders, including southern African governments. The
UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development
started in 2005 and continued through to 2014, with
the SADC REEP and the SADC Education Secretariat
championing the importance of integrating
environment and sustainable development
concerns into education and training programmes
across the SADC region based on the principles
above. Some progress was made in supporting ESD
policy development, capacity building, networking,
learning materials development and research (SADC
REEP, 2012), and today most education systems in
SADC countries have a focus on issues related to
environment and sustainability within a social and
economic justice framework (although this is at
times quite contradictory, especially in the wider
context of the inuence of neo-liberal proclivities).
Given the complex and contradictory contexts in
which transformative policies are shaped, there is
still much to be done to strengthen implementation
and wider political support, as can also be seen
across this report.
In 2008 the SADC REEP formed a partnership with
the United Nations Educational, Scientic and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO) regional oce for
southern Africa and undertook regional research
on the relationship between educational quality and
6 / Education for Sustainable Development and COVID-19 in Southern Africa
ESD, helping to frame the signicant relationship
that exists between ESD and educational quality
within the region. Their work here emphasised the
principle of “learning as connection”, arguing for a
stronger sociocultural orientation to education that
is inclusive of local cultures, community experience
and indigenous knowledge as foundation for
expansive learning and transformative change
(Lotz-Sisitka et al., 2017). Following the UN Decade
of Education for Sustainable Development, the
SADC REEP and its partners in the region continued
to participate in activities of the UNESCO regional
oce for southern Africa and the UNESCO Global
Action Programme for ESD, leading an international
agship programme called “Sustainability Starts
with Teachers”, which continues to this day11. In
this programme the emphasis is on collective social
learning and institutional transformation. It builds
on the years of research and work undertaken in
the EEASA and the SADC REEP, and continues to
argue for a stronger situated, sociocultural approach
to education in which social and transformative
learning are foregrounded, along with the need for
wider structural and systemic change.
At the centre of this work is deepening understanding
of the relationships that exists between ESD,
educational quality and relevance, and building
transformative, transgressive learning approaches
for building capability and collective agency for
sustainable futures in southern Africa. Decades of
work in southern Africa have shown that there is an
ongoing need to foreground transforming education
systems to enable sustainable futures for southern
Africa and her people. This is a complex relationship
with many dynamics, which are at the same time
historical, social, political, cultural, and material
(i.e. economic and biophysical), as the COVID-19
pandemic is once again highlighting. In 2006, the
SADC REEP noted:
Policy development processes for ESD will need to
be mul-sectoral and mul-disciplinary, and be
inclusive of the range of stakeholders that are acvely
contribung to ESD in southern Africa. Mul-sectoral
policy development processes require co-operave
governance and special eorts to ensure policy
synergy. Key sectors that need to be involved in ESD
policy-making are: Educaon and Training, Public
Awareness and Communicaon, Natural Resources
and Environment, Social Welfare and Culture, Health
and Economic Aairs, and the Energy sector (at the
very least). Ideally the Educaon and Training sectors
should act as “lead agents”. (6)
This report sheds light on the complex systemic
relationships that exist when we seek to transform
11 Sustainability starts with teachers: https://sustainabilityteachers.org/
12 United Nations: https://sdgs.un.org/goals
education systems for sustainable futures. It also
considers these relationships from a multisectoral
policy perspective, shedding further light on the
previously mentioned statement from the 2006
SADC REEP policy report in the context of ESD, and
what can be learnt for TESF in the current COVID-19
pandemic context (cf. also SADC REEP, 2012).
While this report draws heavily on the voices
and qualitative perspectives of southern African
students, teachers, young people, government
ocials and other citizens aected by the COVID-19
pandemic during early lockdown circumstances
in seven southern African countries (generated
mainly between April and July 2020), it also draws
on literature oering depth perspective on the
concerns and builds on 35 years and more of coming
to understand the relationship between education
and sustainable futures in southern Africa. It makes
the point that current conditions and challenges are
not ahistorical – they have long histories that shape
the present.
In opening up these complex dynamics in more
detail and with the voices of southern African
citizen experiences at this time, it supports further
understanding of what is meant by the need to
strengthen multi- and transdisciplinary responses
and intersectoral co-operation as outlined by SADC
REEP in 2006. In doing this, it points to ways forward
of establishing and fast tracking the intersectoral co-
operation required for education to contribute to all
sustainable development goals (SDGs) and indicates
further the implications of the following statement in
the UN’s SDGs, Goal 4, specically, Target 4.7, which
requires all governments by 2030 to:
… ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge
and skills needed to promote sustainable
development, including, among others, through
education for sustainable development and
sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality,
promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence,
global citizenship and appreciation of cultural
diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable
development. 12
In interpreting this statement, we heed the calls
by environment and sustainability educators that
current iterations of ESD may be at odds with the
principles of transformational learning with the
caution being put forward that there is a need to
ensure that “outcomes from radical approaches to
education do not get ‘bent back’ toward the status
quo” (Kwauk, 2020: 12).
SECTION ONE / 7
BOX 2
What is Education for Sustainable Development?
13 Sustainability starts with teachers: https://sustainabilityteachers.org/
ESD empowers learners to take informed decisions and responsible actions for environmental
integrity, economic viability and a just society for present and future generations and is generative
of decolonial futures where marginalised cultures are valued. It is about lifelong learning and is an
integral part of what quality education must be. ESD is holistic and transformational education that
addresses learning experiences, content and outcomes, pedagogy and the learning environment.
It achieves its purpose by contributing to transformation in self, community and society. ESD gives
attention to:
Learning cultures, contexts and learners’ experiences
considering the cultural histories and experiences of learners by valuing marginalised cultural
experiences and histories while also critically assessing these for principles and practices of
social and environmental justice and their power and potential to create futures that will benet
current and future generations; giving attention to the contexts of learners and their existing
and historical experiences of learning and education
Learning content
integrating critical issues such as climate change, biodiversity, disaster risk reduction, sustainable
livelihoods, sustainable and socially just consumption and production practices and patterns
as well as political and economic transformation, cultural change and decolonial thinking and
praxis into the curriculum and learning processes
Pedagogy and social learning environments
designing teaching and learning processes in an interactive, learner-centred, creative and
transgressive way that enables exploratory, action-oriented and transformative learning and
that contributes to learning environments that are inclusive and enable learners to act for
sustainability with others in their communities and society
Societal transformation
empowering learners of any age, in any education setting, to transform themselves and the
society they live in to enable greener, more socially just economies and societies, develop skills
for green jobs, adopt sustainable lifestyles and become caring, responsive citizens with response-
ability and agency to contribute to a more just, peaceful, tolerant, kind and sustainable world
Learning outcomes
stimulating learning and promoting core knowledge, values, competencies and capabilities such
as historical, futures and systemic thinking, criticality, collaborative decision-making, an ethic of
caring for self, others and the environment, social solidarity (ubuntu) and taking responsibility for
present and future generations; learning outcomes are also collective social learning outcomes
at community and societal level
(adapted from: Sustainability Starts with Teachers)13
8 / Education for Sustainable Development and COVID-19 in Southern Africa
Environment and sustainability educators have
argued, therefore, that there is a need to heed
the work of critical scholars like Paulo Freire, Bell
Hooks and David Orr, among others, “whose work
set in motion counter movements against modern
education systems designed to mass-produce
workers who perpetuate an unjust, inequitable, and
unsustainable global economy” (Kwauk, 2020: 12).
Kwauk goes on to argue that
contribuons by indigenous, feminist, and human
rights scholars and acvists have also pushed to
ensure the transformaonal vision of ESD is not only
aimed at sparking a deep shi in consciousness about
humanity’s relaonship with the more-than-human
world, but also at dismantling the harmful gender
roles, norms, and relaons of power fuelling the
exisng inequies of our current human-to-human and
human-to-more-than-human systems of relaonships.
As such, a gender-transformave ESD would have the
potenal to cut at the root causes of climate change,
unsustainable growth, and gender inequality (2020:
12),
an issue we also take up in this report.
Our contention, as presented across this report, is
that the SDGs, SDG 4 and Target 4.7 particularly,
are not devoid of engagement with the oftentimes
complex array of intersecting contextual realities that
shape and inuence education and training systems,
encompassing teachers’, learners’, parents’, young
people’s and education system actors’ experiences
of the system as located in place, time and space
relations. Our study argues that taking good account
of these oers a platform for identifying meaningful
and immediately available “leverage points” for
transformation of the education and training system
for more sustainable futures. In particular, we
consider the point made by the Brookings Institution
(Kwauk, 2020) in their analysis of ESD and Climate
Change Education that the global education
community lacks a radical vision for education.
Kwauk states it thus:
Missing, however, is the radical reimagining of the
vision of education that could help reorient schools
(especially primary and secondary) away from
serving a social reproduction function through
standardization and assessment toward catalysing
social, economic, political, and ecological change
through transformative learning. (2020: 12)
We contend that this radical vision should extend
to include out-of-school youth as well as all sectors
and dimensions of the education and training
system, and for this reason we have not focussed
only on formal education systems in this study, but
have also included informal learning of youth and
communities as these may or may not intersect with
formal learning systems. Now more than ever, we
are aware that it is dicult to contain all educational
thinking within the walls of traditionally structured
education categories, and there is a need to develop
a broader view of what education for sustainable
futures might look like after COVID-19. Hence,
learning from this period becomes important.
At the centre of this work is deepening understanding of the
relationships that exists between ESD, educational quality and
relevance, and building transformative, transgressive learning
approaches for building capability and collective agency for
sustainable futures in southern Africa.
SECTION TWO
Methodology and
research questions
10 / Education for Sustainable Development and COVID-19 in Southern Africa
2.1 Overall approach
In this report, we approach our understanding of
education for sustainable futures from a critical
realist systems approach. A systems approach
requires us to think relationally about dierent
dimensions of a system. In this research project
we drew initial inspiration from the work of
Urie Bronfenbrenner (1979) who developed a
social-ecological systems model that has been
widely used in educational research to explain
the interconnecting inuences on the education
and learning of children. This model explains
the dierence between a microsystem (children,
their peers, classroom and family experiences), a
mesosystem (relationships that exist with service
providers and institutions such as schools and
community institutions), an exosystem (referring
to wider support institutions such as healthcare,
governance institutions and more that would
inuence the learner’s experience and education),
and a macrosystem (that refers to wider legislation,
political and cultural systems). We drew on this
model to develop rich insights into the sub-themes
and research questions we were exploring based
on the data that we generated and the literature we
were reviewing. We then further enriched the use of
this model with critical analysis and reframed it as
a critical realist laminated system, which gives more
attention to the structural dynamics and processes of
emergence than Bronfenbrenner’s social-ecological
systems model does. This allowed us to add a focus
on critical interpretation, identication of absences,
and an analysis of leverage points and dimensions of
potential transformations.
We further enriched this model with the decolonial
analytical tools of Bhaskar (1993; 2016) and De Sousa
Santos (2014) involving a dialectic of absence (that
which is not there yet) and emergence (that which
can come into being). A critical realist approach
requires us to consider how events, institutions and
experiences emerge in open systems in dierent
time-space congurations. It also requires us to
consider the world geo-historically, politically,
socially and critically as it has an explicit interest in
emancipation or transformative change.
• All these levels are interconnected and shape each other through relations of emergence
• Generative histories, structures and mechanisms shape experiences and events at all these levels
• Absences and ills of “leverage points” for changes exist on all these levels
• Transformative learning and praxis is possible at all of these levels of the system
Relationally connected levels
of a laminated system
COVID-19 influenced the
intersection of water, food,
livelihood and educational
challenges, and possibilities for
change and transformation exist
at all these levels; they influence
each other
Micro-level of individual and community
experience – small-scale interactions
Meso-level of institutional forms,
organisation and cultures, functional
roles and practices
Macro-level larger institutions and
structures (e.g. national poicies and
economies, schooling systems etc.)
Mega-level influences such as global
capitalism, neo-liberal economic hegemony
and global pandemics such as COVID-19
Figure 1: Relationally connected levels of a laminated system (adapted from Bhaskar, 2016)
Note: The purple jagged icons indicate absences, viewed as leverage points, and potential points of emergence or
transformative praxis within and reaching across the levels
SECTION TWO / 11
Importantly, the critical realist researcher who
examines the multi-layered systemic concerns
would look for real, viable “leverage points” for
transformation and change. A good way to do
this is to consider what is absent or what is not
yet present in the multi-layered system that could
potentially be there, and that would address these
problems.
In her work on systems transformation, Donella
Meadows made the important point many years ago
that leverage points can be found at many levels of
the system where changes can be eected. A leverage
point, as she explains, “is a place in a complex system
where a small shift in one thing can produce big
changes in everything … Leverage points are points
of power”14. Bhaskar suggests that “absences” in a
system could be leverage points because absences
are a good indicator of what needs transforming. He
calls absences “the great loosener” (Bhaskar, 1993).
Both Bhaskar and decolonial sociologist, De Sousa
Santos (2014), argue that to transform society, we
need to critically analyse absences and then put
processes of emergence in place via strengthening
people’s agency and collective learning as this is a
transformative pathway to changing structures and
systems. We, therefore, also need to look out for what
can be done by whom, and what learning processes
can help to facilitate such transformations.
14 The Donella Meadows Project: http://donellameadows.org/archives/leverage-points-places-to-intervene-in-a-system
While it is important to work at all levels of a system
on turning such “leverage points” into transformation
processes, a process that Roy Bhaskar (1993) calls
“transformative praxis”, it is ultimately critically
important to focus our transformation eorts at
the level of the dominant paradigm that is holding
unsustainability and inequality in place (i.e. the
macro and mega levels), while at the same time we
eect transformative changes at micro and meso
levels, that is, the level of paradigm shifts where
real, deep-seated transformation in our society is
most needed to build equitable, just and sustainable
futures. Because we are interested in transformative
praxis, we also adopted a lens focussing on
regenerative possibility, framed within a past,
present and future perspective, which helped us to
make recommendations.
Figure 2 shows the analytical framework for the
research, which covers past, current and future
perspectives. The intention was to recognise that
the impacts currently being experienced by children,
parents, teachers, young people and communities
have a history, and that the COVID-19 pandemic
created unusual circumstances in which many
historically underlying challenges in society and
education were exacerbated and, therefore, became
more visible for critical scrutiny. These impacts
also produced a crisis situation in which new
possibilities for collaboration and rethinking society
and education have started emerging, showing new
possibilities for “just recovery”, and TESF (cf. Boxes 1
and 2 in the previous section).
Education and
Sustainable
Development
Concerns in SADC
Historical contextual
perspectives and policy
review
ESD in SADC countries
Historical perspectives form
across the study contexts
A systemic view: micro,
macro, meso and
chrono levels
Crystallising our perspective
across seven themes:
Literature reviews
Voices and “stories/vignettes”
from SADC countries
Understanding “rich pictures”
in the current context
A systemic view: micro,
macro, meso and chrono
levels
Insights from our
sub-themes
Insights across our
sub-themes
#Just Recovery and ESD
policy and practice in SADC
Education and
Sustainable
Developmental Concerns
in the COVID-19 period
Transforming
Education for
Sustainable Futures
PAST
PRESENT
FUTURE
Figure 2: Overall temporally framed research design that accommodates systemic analysis of the current
situation, historicity and a futures orientation focussing on “just recovery” and ESD policy and practice in SADC
12 / Education for Sustainable Development and COVID-19 in Southern Africa
2.2 Research questions
Aligned with this critical realist systemic perspective we framed a number of critical research questions at dierent
levels to enable us to frame our research and recommendations.
Mega-level question
1. Learning from the COVID-19 pandemic for transforming education for sustainable futures:
What can we learn from the intersection of water, food, livelihoods and education in the
COVID-19 pandemic that can inform TESF in southern Africa? This is the broad, overall and
question guiding our study.
Macro- and meso- level questions involving government
3. School-community-government partnerships: How can school-community-government
partnerships help to reduce risks and challenges related to water, food, livelihoods and
education such as those being faced now under the COVID-19 crisis?
4. Intergovernmental collaboration on water, sanitation, nutrition: How are dierent
government departments working together to address water and sanitation and/or nutrition
in schools and educational sites during the COVID-19 pandemic? What can we learn from this
for what governments can do better?
Micro- and meso-level questions
3. Acceleration of sustainable solutions at community level: How can communities accelerate
sustainable solutions at local levels in response to the intersecting water, food, livelihoods
and educational challenges experienced as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic?
4. Roles of parents, teachers and community members: What can educators and learners do
in response to the intersecting water, food, livelihoods and educational challenges being
experienced as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic? What are communities and parents
doing?
5. Role of youth, informal learning and response-ability: What role can youth play in responding
to the intersecting water, food, livelihoods and educational challenges being experienced as
a result of the COVID-19 pandemic? And how can informal education support and grow their
response-ability in these times?
6. Role of gender (including safety of girl children): How does gender play a role in the intersecting
concerns of water, food, livelihoods and educational challenges being experienced as a result
of the COVID-19 pandemic? What do we need to be attentive to in this regard? How is the
situation aecting the safety of young girls?
7. Implications for livelihoods (including small-to-medium-enterprise start-ups; new economic
opportunities surfacing etc.) What is the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on young
African start-ups and entrepreneurs in relation to lockdown and curfew? What economic
opportunities are surfacing and how? What economic opportunities in the eld of education
have surfaced in the community due to the need for distance learning, if any?
These questions are addressed in detail in our more extended report. In this short version of the report we
summarise the main ndings and concentrate on praxis pathways that were identied and recommendations.
SECTION TWO / 13
2.3 Research methods
We used four research tools that we designed specically for this research:
Tool 1: CONTEXTUAL PROFILING TABLE
We started the research by reecting on our own experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic,
and also drew on available regional and national literatures, seeking out insights on how they
were inuencing our contexts, education systems and countries. We mapped these initial
experiences and perspectives into a contextual proling table that reected mainly on past
and current matters of concern. We used this to rene the research questions and to develop
the sub-themes. This also gave us a multi-country perspective and helped us to establish
which areas we wanted to focus on in more depth as a research team. This took place in week
1 of the Research Challenge: 20–27 May 2020.
Tool 2: DEVELOPING A SYSTEMIC PERSPECTIVE (critical and regenerative)
To develop a systems understanding of the situation, we then articulated early insights into
the research questions and themes using the systems lens described above. Each thematic
group undertook literature review work to generate insight into the thematic area in focus.
This started in week 2: 27 May–3 June 2020 and was concluded in the nal week of the
Research Challenge. It was further rened during the writing up period that continued after
the initial period of working together.
Tool 3: INTERVIEWING WITH A SYSTEMS LENS (critical and regenerative)
To extend and enhance insight into the thematic areas, each group undertook between four
and 10 key informant interviews. Interviewees included a balanced and representative mix
of local community members, teachers, parents, learners, young people and government
ocials. Interview questions were developed and reviewed by the team. Individual research
teams undertook interviews and analysed the data based on the thematic research questions.
This was started in week 3: 3–10 June 2020 and continued till close to the end of the research
period. Ethics clearance was obtained for the interviews from Rhodes University, and ethics
tools were shared and used by all who undertook the interviews. A total of 81 key informant
interviews were conducted with respondents from eight countries.
CONTEXTUAL
PROFILING TABLE
DEVELOPING A SYSTEMIC
PERSPECTIVE
(critical and regenerative)
INTERVIEWING WITH A
SYSTEMS LENS
(critical and regenerative)
QUESTIONNAIRE TO
EXTEND INSIGHTS
TOOL
TOOL TOOL
TOOL
14 / Education for Sustainable Development and COVID-19 in Southern Africa
Tool 4: QUESTIONNAIRE TO EXTEND INSIGHTS
To extend insights gained from the researchers’ observations, the literature reviews and
interviews, we also sent out a questionnaire to the SADC ESD network. The questionnaire
reached about 400 people, and we had 55 respondents (13.7% response rate). Respondents
put a lot of eort into answering the questionnaire, oering rich data and an extended SADC-
based picture of the existing situation – how people are being aected by issues to do with
water, food, livelihoods and education, and how these issues intersect. Importantly, this
group of respondents also oered valuable suggestions on what needs to be done to move
into the future and what can be learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic. Ethics clearance was
obtained for the questionnaire research as an extension of the rst ethics application at
Rhodes University. Questionnaire respondents were from nine SADC countries; most were
experienced educators from universities, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), other
education institutions and government organisations. As the questionnaire was targeted at
an ESD database, we also assume that most of the respondents have expertise in ESD. This,
therefore, strengthens the regional SADC ESD input into the research project.
With the above tools and approaches we were able to generate rich qualitative data in a very short period.
ANALYSIS AND PEER REVIEW
Due to the demands of the Research Challenge, the data generation process was extended
by one week. This meant that researchers could only begin analysis in the last week of the
Research Challenge. Initially we focussed on analysing data in relation to the literature and
interview data relevant to each theme with each team of researchers undertaking this rst
level of analysis.
The rst level then fed into a second level of analysis that took place during the nalisation of
the report in which the lead author of the report considered all of the ndings and sifted them
for overlaps and critical leverage points within the wider systemic perspective. This oered
a summative perspective on the ndings of the sub-thematic study areas and synthesised
ndings of the study. An initial summary of these was shared back with the research team,
and a nal analytical meeting was held to consolidate the most important ndings of the
study. This took place from week 4 onwards: 15 June–5 July 2020. The nal report was then
constructed.
We also received feedback during the process – valuable critical comments and inputs from
our reference group members, which guided the construction of the study, its analysis and
reporting. For example, Alexander Leicht from the UNESCO Paris oce joined the team
towards the end of our engagement and provided insight into the UNESCO initiatives around
ESD and their work on ESD and COVID-19. This global vantage point helped us to interpret
and locate the ndings of the study better. The study was also presented at a SADC-level
inter-ministerial meeting, where the point about changing the UN disaster risk reduction
discourse from “build back better” to “build forward better” was made by a senior policy
ocial. We have also been engaging with the unfolding of the ESD Agenda 2030 of UNESCO15
in order to focus our ndings for relevance to this unfolding agenda in the SADC region.
15 UNESCO: https://www.unesco.de/sites/default/les/2018-08/unesco_education_for_sustainable_development_goals.pdf
SECTION TWO / 15
2.4 Dynamics inuencing what could and could not be done
There were seven main dynamics that aected the
research. Some may see these as limitations, but
from our perspective we view them as dynamics
of the type of research we were undertaking, that
is, a rapid study on a complex issue in just more
than one month across borders and via virtual
communication in a context where knowledge of
a phenomenon is emerging rapidly in a variety of
forms during the research investigation. The seven
dynamics were: 1) limited time for the research
2) the research team were all new to one another
and came from dierent countries, disciplinary
backgrounds and research experience 3) time was
needed for aligning interests and expertise of the
researchers to the focus on ESD 4) all of the research
interactions were conducted online because of
the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown regulations, with
some internet connectivity challenges experienced
during the period 5) the research was being
conducted during a rapidly emerging pandemic
that was changing 6) very little was known about
the pandemic at the time of the research 7) the
lockdown regulation procedures as the COVID-19
pandemic was unfolding were changing almost daily
in a diversity of ways as we were doing the research.
Some countries were experiencing hard lockdowns
with very strict regulations, while others were
experiencing lighter lockdowns with less stringent
measures in place. In all countries, however, the
reality of balancing lives and livelihoods was a
strong feature of experiences, policy discourses and
practices, with signicant inuence on education
and learning systems.
One of the consequences of such a rapidly shifting
context and researching a rapidly emergent
phenomenon is that very little substantive research
existed on the object of study at the time of this
research. While this is the case, there were a range
of reports and analyses emerging rapidly in social
media, newspapers and blog formats. This forced
us to make use of news items for our research and
to give careful attention to those news channels
most recognised for their quality of reporting.
We also viewed some contemporary webinars by
recognised researchers, giving us access to some
of the more up-to-date analyses of the situation as
it was unfolding. This epistemic context creates a
challenge for researchers to dierentiate between
high quality sources and poorer quality sources,
even between the truth and fake news or erroneous
news or between various ideological perspectives.
Science and culture are also yet to align successfully
in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. To deal with
this, we discussed what constitutes high quality
sources and worked through a process of double-
checking the quality of the sources we worked with.
We also relied on peer reviewing to help assess the
quality of included material.
While these dynamics can be seen to be limitations
to traditional forms of research, when viewed
from the perspective of the OpenUpYourThinking
Research Challenge programme and its construction
and intentions, these are all realities of undertaking
research across traditional borders and boundaries
in a rapidly changing pandemic, across country
borders and online within a short time frame. Seen
from this perspective it is also possible to see the
massive amount of creativity and responsiveness
that is possible from researchers in times such as
these.
In all countries, however, the reality of balancing lives
and livelihoods was a strong feature of experiences, policy
discourses and practices, with signicant inuence on
education and learning systems.
16 / Education for Sustainable Development and COVID-19 in Southern Africa
SECTION THREE
COVID-19 and intersecting
concerns: water, food,
livelihoods and education
SECTION THREE / 17
3.1 Intersecting issues in the context
In this study, we chose to focus on COVID-19 and a
particular set of intersecting concerns: water, food
and livelihoods, and their relationship to and
implications for – TESF. The rationale for this focus
is because these were three of the most visible
issues impacting on the experience of marginalised
communities in southern Africa as the COVID-19
pandemic lockdown measures were put into place,
other than the digital divide that is dealt with
in another study of the #OpenUpYourThinking
Research Challenge. Interestingly, though, it was
the digital divide that attracted most attention in
educational responses and commentary, with other
situational concerns being less emphasised.
While all of these issues were prominent in southern
African society before COVID-19, we noticed during
the initial scoping phase for this study that the
various intersecting dynamics between these
sustainability issues and education became more
pronounced as the pandemic measures unfolded.
It was this increased prominence that led us to
explore these issues in more depth, especially their
relation to education and TESF. The quotation below
from a respondent in Zambia highlights not only
the historicity of the issues, but also their increased
prominence in relation to COVID-19.
Most compounds in Zambia go for weeks and even
months without water. Now, with the advent of
COVID-19 this situaon has worsened. To access water
regularly in order to wash our hands and to maintain
hygiene is a far-fetched concept. Even where I stay
in Chilenje Township, as a family we buy water every
week from Lusaka Water and Sewerage Company. We
are connected to the above-menoned company, but
we seldom receive this commodity. (2020)
We reasoned that an in-depth, qualitatively rich,
and systemically oriented exploration of these
intersecting concerns in the moment of COVID-19
could surface potentially useful recommendations
for “building forward better”, “just recovery” and
TESF (cf. Box 1). In this way, we sought to situate this
study on education and the COVID-19 pandemic in
the context and realities of everyday life.
We undertook the research from May to July 2020,
soon after the onset of the pandemic, and as we
write this report, health, food, water, economies,
livelihoods and education systems have been heavily
impacted upon by the rapid lockdown strategies
implemented by governments to curtail the spread
of the pandemic and by the actual impact of the
pandemic itself. Importantly for this study and for
the transformative intent of ESD, these issues have
highlighted how COVID-19 exacerbates the fault
lines of inequality that already existed before the
pandemic. Issues regarding adequate access to
health, sustainable livelihoods, access to water, and
a robust informal sector came to the fore during the
early days of the pandemic in ways that cannot be
ignored; they continue to be a major concern even
as this report is being nalised.
The COVID-19 pandemic, therefore, gives us an
opportunity to face untenable aspects of our
society and asks us to strengthen the work that
can supersede limited visions of the future. It also
challenges us to look into – and beyond – policy
statements and goals; it challenges us to look into
the hearts of our societies and educational settings
where transformation can emerge.
In 2010 the UN ocially recognised access to safe
drinking water as a basic human right. Access to
water and sanitation is one of the SDGs (SDG 6).
The COVID-19 crisis has raised issues of access to
clean water at household level in southern Africa,
especially in the context of needing to wash hands
regularly as one of the measures to avoid spreading
the virus. Yet this is not possible in households and
learning institutions where water supplies are cut o
or barely available. This issue also aects education.
For example, in South Africa it was not possible
to open schools until such time that schools had
access to adequate water and sanitation facilities to
deal with the COVID-19 risks. There were massive
backlogs in the provision of water and sanitation
facilities, impacting on the health and safety of
children in many countries. Furthermore, water
scarcity is exacerbated by climate change in the
southern African region (SDG 13).
The COVID-19 pandemic, therefore, gives us an opportunity to
face untenable aspects of our society and asks us to strengthen the
work that can supersede limited visions of the future.
18 / Education for Sustainable Development and COVID-19 in Southern Africa
The COVID-19 crisis is also revealing a signicant crisis
in access to food for many people. SDG 2 promotes
the resolution of hunger, but the COVID-19 pandemic
is, however, revealing cracks in this objective. Many
people who are aected by poverty generally
have precarious livelihood options. Constraints
on movement and activity during the COVID-19
lockdowns shut down these livelihood options and
are creating an impending humanitarian crisis that
is leaving many more families hungry and without
safety nets, and thus in more precarious situations
than before the pandemic. A study undertaken in
the early days of the pandemic by Ranchhod and
Daniels (2020) pointed out that the rst lockdown
period in South Africa saw an “unprecedented
decrease in employment” in which “1 out of every
3 people that were employed in February in their
sample lost their job because of the lockdown, or
did not work and received no wages during April
with extremely large implications for poverty and
welfare”. Signicantly, these job losses followed
inequality patterns, aecting women, Black Africans,
youth and less educated groups, all of whom have
been “disproportionately aected” (Ranchhod and
Daniels, 2020). This issue has not been limited to
South Africa alone the global economy has been
badly hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, aecting the
most vulnerable disproportionately.
In the education sector in some southern African
countries, school feeding schemes that were
16 United Nations: https://www.un.org/en/desa
supplying daily nutrition to learners were cut o, and
families at the time of the research were struggling
to provide adequate food and nutrition for children
at home, who were also having to learn with parental
support, a situation that put enormous pressure on
parents, grandmothers and other caregivers. During
the research period, some were arguing for opening
schools so that children could receive food support
and learning support. Yet opening schools would
present signicant health risks due to the virulent
transmission of COVID-19, a situation that would
be exacerbated by inadequate water and sanitation
facilities in schools and other learning centres.
At the time, arguments were also raging in the
media as to whether it was safer to send older or
younger learners to school, and whether it was
more important to focus on young children or
school leavers rst. Single mothers, in particular,
were struggling to maintain the capacity to earn
a living while also having to teach their children.
Some young children did not even have a chance
to learn at home because their parents do not have
an education. Many support programmes were
put online, but these assumed access to Internet
resources, printing resources and other technologies
that may not be present in many southern African
households. The digital divide quickly became visible
as an impediment to successful learning and thus
deepened the inequality divide in schools, vocational
education and training settings and in universities.
3.2 How SADC communities were experiencing the impacts of
COVID-19 from March 2020 to July 2020
One of the key ndings of this project is that there
is a seriousness to these intersecting issues as
experienced by communities in the SADC region.
They are not just academic or policy concerns; they
aect the lives and experiences of people across the
SADC region. There is a body of work emerging that
is beginning to analyse the intersecting concerns
arising from the COVID-19 pandemic such as that
illustrated in Figure 4 below by the UN Department
of Economic and Social Aairs,16 which considers the
implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on the SDGs
(Figure 3).
Our data also shows similar patterns of impact
from COVID-19 in relation to the SDGs (Figure
3) to those illustrated by the UN Department of
Economic and Social Aairs in Figure 4. For example,
we have found clear evidence of loss of income
and increased poverty (SDG 1); disruptions in food
production and distribution (SDG 2); increasingly
devastating impacts on health outcomes and
health systems and their abilities to cope with the
emerging COVID-19 pandemic (SDG 3); disruptions
in schooling for millions of children across the
SADC region; disruptions in the school system
itself that has struggled to ready itself for learners’
return; disrupted youth training programmes
and opportunities and more aecting learning
opportunities for young people across the region
(SDG 4). We found a strong link between children’s
abilities to learn during COVID-19 and inequality
those with resources are more able to access online
systems and learning opportunities, while those
without have lost many months of learning time
(SDG 10).
SECTION THREE / 19
We found that water supplies (SDG 6) were
disrupted and many communities and schools were
without access to clean water – yet the requisite
handwashing, as indicated by the UN Department
of Economic and Social Aairs, is one of the most
important preventative measures for COVID-19. We
found disruptions in energy supply aecting online
learning opportunities (SDG 7), and we found that
many people’s livelihoods were aected by the
COVID-19 pandemic (SDG 8) because economic
activities were suspended in early lockdown periods.
As trade patterns are aected by border closures,
many are without work, and unemployment is rising
with economic systems generally in heavy decline
(SDG 8). We also found that people living in high-
density areas, in informal settlements and those
unable to implement social distancing measures
because of overcrowding and inadequate housing
and transport facilities are more vulnerable to
COVID-19 infection, hunger and other related
concerns.
Climate change (SDG 13) emphasis has waned in
national and regional discourse, even though there
are eorts being made to link the COVID-19 crisis
to the immanent crisis conditions being caused by
climate change. We found some respondents linking
the climate change crisis to the water crisis and to
the broader challenges of sustainable development,
sustainable living practices and sustainable systems.
In terms of partnerships (SDG 17), we found that
many respondents referred to the importance of
partnerships and to the lack of adequate intersectoral
co-operation necessary to combat the worst impacts
of the COVID-19 crisis. Thus, even though our focus
has been on water, food, livelihoods and education
in this study, data points to the full scope of the
SDGs and their intersectionality, and the need for
multidisciplinary, multisectoral and transdisciplinary
engagement and co-operation.
We therefore draw on the SDGS not only in
making sense of our data but also in making
recommendations in this report. In our
recommendations we point towards actions relevant
to these SDGs but more importantly, we point to
actions for TESF that are necessary across all SDGs and
where relevant, we also point to responses beyond what
is stated and framed in the SDGs. In doing this, we are
not only wanting to understand the aforementioned
intersecting concerns and how they are impacted
on in terms of their relationship to the SDGs, but
we are also wanting to develop a deeper level of
analysis that looks towards structural and systemic
transformation of education that would benet work
across all of the SDGs and beyond.
Figure 3: Sustainable development goals (United Nations: www.un.org)
20 / Education for Sustainable Development and COVID-19 in Southern Africa
17 https://devpolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Figure-1_COVID-19-impacts-and-the-SDGs_Source-UNDESA.png
Figure 4: COVID-19 patterns of impact in relation to the sustainable development goals (Source:
UNDESA17)
SECTION THREE / 21
3.3 Issues that were experienced by SADC communities
and educators
We sought to understand more fully the
manifestation and nature of the actual experiences
of people in SADC communities, including educators,
parents, young people, educators, education
sector ocials, and students as the COVID-19
pandemic was unfolding. Of the 136 research
respondents (including all the interviewees and the
55 questionnaire respondents), one of the most
striking ndings was the extent of the experienced
realism of these issues as they aect people’s lives.
This will be apparent across our report. Here we
share just a few of the perspectives from research
respondents to illuminate the multidimensional
nature of the intersecting and deeply systemic
crisis that has shown up in the COVID-19 period.
The quotations below from the questionnaire
data show the intersecting nature of the issues as
experienced. They also show that dierent people
are experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic dierently.
Livelihoods
Tanzania: The paral lockdown resulted into hardships on the livelihoods of many small-scale informal
sectors. (Quesonnaire respondent, 2020)
South Africa: Livelihoods have been disrupted due to this pandemic. Most SMEs have died due to closure of
their businesses, such as small restaurants, saloons, barbershops etc. (Quesonnaire respondent, 2020)
Eswani: The tourism industry has been hard hit by the virus as establishments have completely closed.
Even if we can open up the economy, they will remain hardest hit because they rely on overseas tourists.
The manufacturing industry has also been aected resulng to thousand thousands losing their jobs. Small-
medium enterprise have also been hit hard and connue to be hit hard as the requisite for government
relief is for registered enes which are also tax compliant. The 70% capacity in public transport is also
aecng the transport industry coupled with the fact that the cross-border transport is not working at all.
(Quesonnaire respondent, 2020)
Namibia: The tourism industry in Namibia is collapsing. As one of the major sources of income, especially
for rural communies, this is having a signicant impact on the wellbeing of families. Evidence is high level
of unemployment and former tourism employees aempng to enter dierent markets. (Quesonnaire
respondent, 2020)
Family budgets have been overstretched. Food and other essenals in my town are between 50 and 100%
higher. (Quesonnaire respondent, 2020)
Of the 136 research respondents (including all the
interviewees and the 55 questionnaire respondents), one of
the most striking ndings was the extent of the experienced
realism of these issues as they aect people’s lives.
22 / Education for Sustainable Development and COVID-19 in Southern Africa
Food insecurity
Eswani: Some families now have one meal a day, and others sleep on an empty stomach. Eswani, being a
country with a poverty rate of 39.7%, has a large number of families experiencing food insecurity even before
COVID-19. With more people laid o from work and others not being able to do piece jobs has resulted to
high shortages of food, notwithstanding that the food prices have also increased. With the closure of schools,
learners depending on the school feeding system do not have access to food. The status of the school food is
also quesonable. Aer such a long me there might be a need to buy new stock. (Quesonnaire respondent,
2020)
South Africa: Food insecurity is by far the worst impact on people in our rural communies whose siblings
or parents worked somewhere and now do not have an income due to some being laid o, others being on
unpaid leave. People have had to scrape through for food. In our own community iniave, idencaon
of households in need of support revealed that there were way too many people who needed assistance in
terms of food parcels, and our running club has only scratched the surface with its food drive. (Quesonnaire
respondent, 2020)
Lesotho: Esmates are that as result of COVID, nearly 900 000 people (about half of the populaon of
Lesotho) will be experiencing a serious food shortage. (Quesonnaire respondent, 2020)
Water
Namibia: However, I realised that while my water bill is N$980.00 on average, I now pay close to N$1400.00
because of the wash your hands iniave to stop the spread of the virus. In remote areas both in the city
and at villages, the issue of washing hands with clean running water is impossible or somemes very dicult
because of the scarcity of water and the long distance that people have to walk in order to collect water.
Somemes the water collected is not even clean but already contaminated. (Quesonnaire respondent, 2020)
Eswani: There are areas which tradionally do not have access to water supply and with the current
situaon, the problem has been exacerbated the water shortages problem. Government has tried to distribute
5000l water tanks to such areas, but sll the elderly and the sick have a challenge. (Quesonnaire respondent,
2020)
South Africa: In the light of handwashing and hygiene concerns to curb the spread of diseases, many
communies struggle with access to clean water. (Quesonnaire respondent, 2020)
Zimbabwe: The already hard areas are in dire need of intervenon during this crisis. Areas such as Glenview
in Harare and Mkoba 19 in Gweru sll go for weeks without tap water. Residents then defy the call to stay
indoors as they go to fetch water from boreholes, negang all the physical distance awareness eorts.
(Quesonnaire respondent, 2020)
Education
Zimbabwe: When we talk about educaon, this is the worst hit during this pandemic. Schools were closed
abruptly and we didn’t complete the term’s work. This situaon has inconvenienced the educaon system. The
educaon system is made up of private and public schools. However, I have observed that the private schools
have been hit hard in the collecon of fees. Parents did not complete paying the fees. Also, when we are trying
to teach online, we encounter a lot of problems such as lack of electricity, bundles, network unavailability,
and somemes even the gadgets we are using are not responding to the tasks being given. Thus, parents are
unable to pay the reduced fees. Private schools are unable to pay teachers and consequently decide to close
schools. All the above menoned are interrelated because without the other it is dicult to operate. This
takes us to the naked reality of climate change. Scarcity of water and food. The SMEs are just surviving in an
environment that has no water and no nutrious food and no purchasing power to migate the COVID-19
pandemic impacts. (Quesonnaire respondent, 2020)
Namibia: The government, through the Ministry of Educaon, has instructed schools to resume face-to-
face classes, but the measures of controlling COVID-19 have to be observed. This means: 1.5 metre distance
between learners; thermometers and sanisers supplied to schools to monitor children temperature; and
promote regular handwash; and children are encouraged to have at least two face masks. This is being done
SECTION THREE / 23
in phases. Phase 1: Grade 11 and 12 start school. Phase 2: Grade 1–3 start school. Phase 3: Grade 4–5 and
8–10 start or something like that. The problem is that will the young ones be able to keep the distance as
required? Can they take care of their masks and not lose them and use them properly? In order to keep the
1.5 metre distance will mean that a room that used to host 45 learners will now have to host 30, for example.
What will you do with the rest of the learners? This means more classrooms must be made available. The
moment you have addional classrooms, you will need addional teachers and addional resources, including
personnel salaries. The same is inevitable at the hostels. These are unexpected but necessary expenses that
were not budgeted for. Where is the money amidst the economic hardship? This is bad. (Quesonnaire
respondent, 2020)
South Africa: Although some teachers tried hard to reach every learner during lockdown, this was impossible
as some of the learners did not have gadget such as cell phone and laptops to use. Some learners did not have
Internet access. Some teachers were eager to send work to learners could not also do so as they were not
trained to use the plaorms such as Zoom and Google classroom. Most learners and parents too struggled
to use the same plaorms. So even if their parents wanted to help their children, it became very dicult.
Although there was a lot of teachings through various media such as radio and television on the awareness
of the disease, for me it seemed teachers were the best for children to understand the disease and its impact.
This impacted badly on our children. Some are sll in denial as they don’t see their parents role modelling.
Most informal selements do not have running water in their houses, so the whole community depend on
few outside taps. Distancing and washing of hands is not fully pracsed in these areas because of that. In
most cases children are at risk. Most school are structured and learners are taken care of. (Quesonnaire
respondent, 2020)
Malawi: Some of my students lost their opportunity of part-me job or their parents lose the job. So their
income is decreasing, and they are struggling with geng fund to connue their learning in my university.
(Quesonnaire respondent, 2020)
Intersecting nature of the issues
South Africa: Shortage of water for domesc use, income-generang acvies blocked, educaon facilies
inaccessible due to COVID 19 lockdown. All contribute to deteriorang life standards. (Quesonnaire
respondent, 2020)
South Africa: Since the outbreak of COVID-19, many businesses such as running of schools, bars and
restaurants, sports acvies like football were/are closed down. People are encouraged to stay home where
they do not make money in any way, which has contributed to increased poverty levels in various families. This
poverty at family level has aected food security, educaon, access to clean water and many other needs of
human beings. (Quesonnaire respondent, 2020)
Zimbabwe: Currently I am working in a community involved in market gardening for livelihood but
experiences water shortage even for domesc consumpon. Since the water required for handwashing is
supposed to be moving, larger amounts of water are therefore required for WASH acvies and while the
constant water is not available. The borehole supplying water to distant community garden is not yielding the
required amount of water and the people usually augment this supply with hiring vehicles to source water
from the nearest town. However, the town is now reserving all available water for the local residents as part
of the town’s strategy to combat COVID-19. At the end this community has lost its crop due to lack of water
for irrigaon while at the same me there is shortage of water to allow appropriate washing of hands. All
of this is happening while children are out of school, pung pressure on the lile food and water supply
available to the households. (Quesonnaire respondent, 2020)
Namibia: Many of these issues are interrelated. One, for example, is the tourism industry on educaon.
Many schools and NGOs providing educaon or nutrion for schoolchildren receive donaons from tourism
companies and/or tourists. This has now stopped. (Quesonnaire respondent, 2020)
South Africa: Some learners who come from disadvantaged families depended on daily meals from the
school. During most part of the lockdown period they couldn’t access this. This led to them going to malls
begging for food, and they did not have protecve clothes such as face masks as well. Many children fell
behind in terms of educaon. (Quesonnaire respondent, 2020)
24 / Education for Sustainable Development and COVID-19 in Southern Africa
Zambia: The economic livelihoods of the people has been generally negavely aected. This has led to a
chain reacon causing educaon instuons to as well be aected. For example, returning students have all
not been able to report back to school in the semester following the COVID-19 pandemic. This, in turn, has
also aected the remuneraons for the faculty and sta in educaon instuons. Further to that, Zambia, for
example, being a landlocked country, has not been able to access some of the essenal commodies that are
mainly imported from other countries, hence aecng food deliveries, and naturally this has caused food to
be expensive. (Quesonnaire respondent, 2020)
Water shedding has aected the hygiene standards of the communies, especially the issue of washing hands
and washing of masks. Most of the people are self-employed and now cannot access basic commodies since
they no longer have income. The unavailability of basic commodies in their locality has resulted in people
leaving their places of residence and to go and crowd in central business district supermarkets, and this has
caused crowding, which compromises social distancing. This threatens the spread of COVID-19 among people.
The whole educaon sector has been negavely aected. The aempt to embark on online teaching in all
levels of educaon has created a gap between those who have and those learners who do not have. Access
to Internet connecvity, laptops and smart phones has become a challenge to both students and educators.
Geng aordable data bundles from service providers for online teaching and learning has become a
challenge for students and lecturers. This has compromised achieving inclusive and equitable educaon
among learners. (Quesonnaire respondent, 2020)
South Africa: The closure of schools has meant that millions of pupils could not access the naonal school
nutrion programme. A signicant gap in government intervenons was not to use the NSNP [naonal school
nutrion programme] logiscal and supply chain system to feed their children or to provide groceries to their
families. A big concern is corrupon during this COVID period. There is concern about large sums of money
being paid for certain items, such as masks, when these could be purchased at a lower cost. Who benets
from government procurement of masks, sanisers etc., and how procurement has actually happened needs
to be invesgated. (Quesonnaire respondent, 2020)
The abrupt closure of academic instuons has aected the morale of learners, which, in turn, will take
longer to be recovered. Some learners have gone into early marriages with hope that this will create a lasng
soluon to their problems. (Quesonnaire respondent, 2020)
South Africa: Many families are experiencing hunger because parents were not paid salaries during lockdown,
and some lost their jobs completely. The schools were closed, and the youths and the children suered
because of lost school me. Only a few families were able to aord Internet connecon for their children to
study online. Violence in families escalated due to lockdown as reported in the daily police press conferences
in the country. (Quesonnaire respondent, 2020)
Changes in life as we know it
Namibia: The good of COVID-19 is that during lockdown and abolish of unnecessary movement and alcohol
sales, zero crimes were reported during the enre me. Road accidents were minimal, which is a good thing
for a small country as Namibia that had a high record of crime rates and high road accidents report. Despite
all the worry about the future of our educaon, we could not have known about e-learning had it not been for
COVID-19. Something good came of it. Social lives have also been improved as families got to spend a lot of
me together and played or socialised together and ulmately strengthened family bonds. Others capitalised
on the restricted movement me to nd new hobbies, plan new projects, nish projects, take up new
courses or nish already started courses (I nished an online course during this me). We, too, became more
religious, comparing the stay indoors situaon to that narrated in the Bible for Chrisans. But there is sll the
uncertainty of what will come aer COVID-19 pandemic. Will it be the end of the world as we know it? Will
goods get so expensive that life will be really dicult? Will countries have to rebuild economies from scratch,
or will there be something remaining to build on? Will e-learning remain the only mode of instrucon? Will we
sll aend classes? (Quesonnaire respondent, 2020)
SECTION THREE / 25
Deepening inequality and impacts on the most marginalised
Botswana: Because of higher cost of living in terms of water bills and foodstu, the economic livelihood had
been negavely impacted because I had to spend part of my savings on food and daily sustenance of my
family. (Quesonnaire respondent, 2020)
South Africa: Due to economic contracon and job insecurity as well as a lack of polical power or voice
when people lose their jobs, they can’t access products and services provided by the market. Without money
people are completely excluded. (Quesonnaire respondent, 2020)
Zambia: Most individuals’ livelihoods have been aected greatly as businesses have closed due to the
COVID-19. In Zambia a huge number of people are in the informal sector who depend on small daily basis
businesses to sustain themselves and their families. However, with the coming of the COVID most of the
people with the buying power who support these businesses are either staying home in isolaon, and their
incomes have been reduced such that they have also cut on certain expenditures, thereby having a ripple
eect to those selling in markets and on the streets. Food security is severely aected, especially to the people
who depend on hand-to-mouth businesses – they cannot aord to put decent food on the table even before
the COVID-19 came. Therefore, the COVID has exacerbated the people’s ability to provide for their families,
especially in the peri-urban areas – mostly shanty compounds. Due to COVID-19 schools were also closed
among many other businesses such as gyms, restaurants, saloons, barbershops. Due to school closures, it
means that children have to stay home every day all day, thereby pung pressure on their already struggling
parents to provide food for them as well as entertainment at home. In addion, some parents need to provide
a safe environment for the children in this COVID era. (Quesonnaire respondent, 2020)
Interregional dependency and impacts
Lesotho: There is a lot of dependency on neighbouring states for food, which led to shortage of most supplies
during the lockdown. There was also a clear indicaon that most people are only consumers and not taking
part in producon, which was evident when lockdown measures were enforced, leading to some families
going without food before the government food basket could be supplied to them. (Quesonnaire respondent,
2020)
18 Note: The full detail of the thematic analysis is contained in the longer version of this report, which provides many more in-depth
perspectives on people’s experiences and the educational situation as inuenced by the intersectional concerns highlighted above.
In many ways, the quotations above reect the
interconnected nature of the issues aecting people
in the SADC region when it comes to COVID-19.
They all point to the need for deeper understanding
of these experiences in order to conceptualise
meaningful and substantive responses. We begin
by probing the historicity and anticipated impacts
of the COVID-19 pandemic a little more, drawing
on questionnaire data. This presents a more
general backdrop to the rest of the study, where
we “dig deeper” and seek to uncover more insights
into experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic at the
interface of water, food, livelihoods and education in
order to consider implications for TESF18.
In many ways, the quotations above reect the
interconnected nature of the issues aecting people
in the SADC region when it comes to COVID-19.
26 / Education for Sustainable Development and COVID-19 in Southern Africa
3.4 Historicity and impacts
As has been noted by many respondents to the
questionnaires, and as can be seen from the
quotations above, many of the issues reported on are
not new. What is clear, however, is that the COVID-19
pandemic is exacerbating these issues in the social
context: putting the vulnerable, especially, at higher
risk of falling deeper into poverty; children dropping
out of school or not being able to catch up; families
struggling to feed children; and schools struggling to
respond to the sudden challenges of e-learning and/
or adapting to new circumstances that require space
for social distancing and measures for ensuring
health and safety, such as water for washing hands.
This vignette from the Ndumo Community Project in
northern Maputaland illustrates the long histories of
some of the challenges being experienced, as well
as the contemporary situation in which diculties
experienced earlier due to poverty and lack of
adequate support systems and resources are now
exacerbated, putting the poor and marginalised
more at risk:
As the Manager of the Ndumo Community Project
(northern Maputaland, South Africa), I have observed
the following constraints this rural community is
currently facing. The teachers, school learners and their
parents are facing huge socioeconomic constraints,
and this is aecng the natural environment. These
constraints have only got worse since the outbreak of
the COVID-19 epidemic. The government keeps telling
people to wash their hands regularly with soap and
water. This is NOT happening at Ndumo, as most of
the community have no or limited running water. The
community is reliant on the local rivers and/or the
community’s JoJos [tanks] for water. The community
is in dire straits as the municipality is not delivering
the water regularly, and this leaves the community to
become reliant on the local rivers for their daily water
supply. Some try to harvest rainwater as a means to an
end. In some cases, many live far from rivers. COVID-19
measures state that one must regularly wash hands
with soap and water. Soap is another constraint as
the community is living far below the poverty line
and therefore cannot aord the luxury of soap. Many
have also lost their jobs due to COVID-19. Ndumo has
become reliant on the social grant system to survive.
The schools, like Mpolimpolini Primary School, has
sanisers but limited water supply. They are one of
the lucky schools who has a borehole. They are also
harvesng rainwater. Most schools have a huge
water issue. This leads to the queson: How can the
learners wash their hands with soap and water if
there is a water supply issue? The learners also have
a far distance to walk to and from school. They walk
in groups, and this has aected the issue of “social
distancing”. … These children are also reliant on the
schools’ daily feeding scheme. During level four and
ve, these learners did not receive any nutrional
support. Currently only the Grade 7s are being fed.
This is a major issue as there are many orphans and
vulnerable children who are reliant on the school
feeding scheme for survival. Then the issue of “online”
learning: How does a teacher (no maer how
dedicated the teacher is) teach a learner who has no
access to technology? These children have no access
to even cell phones. Maybe a few high school learners
and their parents only have access. The teachers state
they are so far behind now as there was no way to try
to educate the learners at Ndumo. “We could teach
under the trees, but then aerwards the learners
gathered in groups to walk home.
Educaon is a right, but how does one teach without
the necessary tools? Many teachers do not own or
have access to a computer, so the issue of teaching
the Ndumo children is just not viable. Then there is
the toilet issue – lack of sanitaon. As a lecturer I have
also experienced many other educaonal issues. Many
students do not own laptops, and this is hampering
their studies and their futures. Many live in rural areas
(like Ndumo) and have limited or no signal. Quite a few
live below the breadline and support themselves. The
university has now succeeded in geng free data to
all students, but they sll need the necessary tools to
access this data. Normally we lecture students face to
face, and we are not one hundred per cent equipped
to teach online. This is a huge learning curve as we as
lecturers need to learn new online technological skills.
(Quesonnaire respondent, 2020))
In terms of impacts of the issues experienced,
questionnaire respondents were particularly
concerned by the loss of learning time for children
who were staying at home, and who were not able
to access electronic teaching and learning tools and
support. They were also concerned about the general
impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on educational
access and continuity, as well as quality, because
of the switch to online learning when few were well
prepared for this. Other “emergency” education
measures put in place are also being questioned
about their quality and relevance to the context, as
outlined by this respondent from Lesotho:
The dominant use of TV and radio programmes to
teach primary and secondary students has encountered
challenges of quality and accessibility: the quality and
content taught on TV has, for instance, been brought
to queson, and not all students have access to TVs
and radio. HEIs [higher educaon instuons] have
responded by advancing online learning; however,
SECTION THREE / 27
there have been reports of many HE students from
deprived backgrounds experiencing dicules
obtaining and making [use] of required facilies, for
example, laptops. (Quesonnaire respondent, 2020)
There was concern about: the lack of stimulation
and social interaction for children; the fact that
many parents struggle to put together stimulating
educational activities for their children due to the
pressure of having to work during this time; the
parents’ own lack of education. Many young children
are left in front of the television set for long periods
or roam the streets. There was also concern about
early childhood care, as early childhood development
centres have closed due to loss of income because
parents have not been able to pay school fees due to
salary cuts and loss of personal income. Families are
facing signicant additional nancial and childcare
pressures.
Additionally, because of economic concerns and
families losing income-generating power due to
job losses and economic activity shutdowns, youth
at secondary and tertiary levels are not able to pay
fees because their parents have been dismissed
from their employment. This is because employers
do not have the resources to pay the workforce and
is one of the important relations that exist between
livelihoods and education, that is, parents’ abilities
to aord supporting children in their learning
needs (e.g. fees or technical resources), which have
been aected by the COVID-19 pandemic in SADC
countries.
The above concern relates also to concern about
the increase in poverty levels as production of – and
access to – economic activities has been restricted.
This leaves people without adequate income for
basic commodities, aecting food security which, in
turn, also aects the health of children and families.
One of the respondents stated the impact of the
current situation as follows:
As a result of poverty, many families are having less
meals of poor diet than usual. Many youths are into
sexual acvies among themselves and with older
people to earn something to sustain themselves,
Children are mentally thinking that whatever they
are seeing now is how life will be forever, and they
are lacking educaon because many parents do not
teach their children outside the box. Educaon is stuck
despite the provision of electronic learning; not every
person in educaon sector has access to the Internet.
(Quesonnaire respondent, 2020)
Here there was specic concern for the youth, and
a recognition that they tend to end up being most
marginalised in the current economic climate:
The youth have been the worst hit. Most of the
companies have been laying o workers, most of
whom are the young people. Loss of employment has
been great challenge among the young people in a
region where unemployment rates are already very
high. So the job losses add on the unemployed youths
on the streets searching for jobs. (Quesonnaire
respondent, 2020)
Additionally, there was concern about the inadequate
access to clean water and the associated problems
for managing the COVID-19 pandemic in schools
and communities. The lack of water in schools is
particularly aecting the ability of schools to reopen,
as stated by one respondent: “Schools are not able
to open as they do not have the PPEs [personal
protective equipment], and many schools have not
been able to open because they do not have water
or sanitation provisioning due to historical backlogs.
(2020)” The infrastructure supply crisis leading to
inadequate water services and supply to schools
remains an issue, and there was concern that even
the short-term measures of, for example, supplying
tanks to schools was an inadequate response.
Even when tanks get donated, the issue of lling them
up with water remains a challenge because it costs
money to ll up the tank. Also, due to climate change
rural areas are not geng enough rainfall. Rainfall
paerns have shied signicantly towards coastal
regions. (Quesonnaire respondent, 2020)
This statement indicates that more sustainable
solutions to the water crisis in schools are needed,
and that these should take both economic dynamics
and climate change patterns into account.
There was also concern about the psychological
impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people’s health
and wellbeing as articulated by one respondent:
The main issues are both physical stress and social
stresses on individuals and communies as a whole …
economic livelihoods and educaon challenges cause
mental and social stresses. The hopes, aspiraons and
short-term plans for earning money are negavely
aected due to the lockdown. (Quesonnaire
respondent, 2020)
And the longer-term hopes for successfully
becoming educated are negatively aected by the
disruptions. Respondents commented specically
on the stress being experienced by parents as
schools open and the levels of anxiety in families
as the indenite closure of schools aects learners’
chances of success: Stress. Fear. Schools have reopened.
My children will soon have to go back to school. I managed
to keep them safe so far, but how do I know that the other
children are safe and corona free. Apparently, as children go
back to school, parents should sign indemnity form to say
28 / Education for Sustainable Development and COVID-19 in Southern Africa
that should the children fall sick with the coronavirus while
at school, the parent will take full responsibility and not
the government or school. I am afraid of my children falling
sick with the virus because I don’t know whether they will
recover or not. (Quesonnaire respondent, 2020)
There is a high level of anxiety among families, which
may lead to stress-related illnesses. Educaon could
not be oered since instuon had to be closed for an
indenite period of me. We are in June, and there is
no hope of instuon resuming educaon programme
yet. Even when instuon eventually opens, the
students’ performance is likely to be sub-standard due
to their anxiety and the teacher educators’ anxiety as
well. (Quesonnaire respondent, 2020)
There is also a sense of despair and anxiety among
the youth. Small children are becoming irritable
and demonstrang signs of anxiety. (Quesonnaire
respondent, 2020)
Another respondent stated:
Although people are showing enormous courage and
stoicism, mes are tough and demoralising for many.
… There is also a rise in domesc violence because of
the tension in the household. The youth are exposed
to bad habits like smoking, drinking alcohol. The
academic future also remains in limbo. (Quesonnaire
respondent, 2020)
There was concern about the impact that the
pandemic is having on families:
I think there is a lot of extra pressure on families –
nancially and as the schooling system is shut down.
Very few people are knowledge workers who can earn
a livelihood working online and from home. Also, poor
families can struggle to connect digitally due to a lack
of resources. (Quesonnaire respondent, 2020)
An additional concern was for the extra home-based
work burden that was being placed on women. As
one respondent put it:
I have noced that the burden of cleaning and chores
and house management has really had to be carried by
women who work but live with more tradional roles.
Those who are conscious, clean fasdiously, constantly
reduce the family’s exposure by making everything
from scratch. With everyone home, the cleaning
increases, (Quesonnaire respondent, 2020)
The quotation above indicates that the COVID-19
pandemic has gendered impacts, an issue that
we elaborate on further below. Added to this was
concern for the wellbeing of families’ mental and
social health because of the increased time that
people were forced to stay at home, with one
respondent indicating that this led to an increase in
domestic violence, child abuse and so on. And there
was concern for the longer-term economic impact
on families as consumption at household level
increased during the lockdown period, and families
were drawing on savings to cushion this rapid shift in
household consumption.
Sadly, there was also concern about stigmatisation
and the psychological and physical impacts of
stigmatisation emerging in response to the COVID-19
pandemic. One respondent reected:
I think more serious problem is the discriminaon and/
or bashing against the people who are conrmed to
have the COVID-19 infecon. Some people has been
forced to commit suicide or move to outside of their
community. (Quesonnaire respondent, 2020)
There was also concern about the quality of public
education and the approach taken to education and
communication during the COVID-19 pandemic,
which has been linked to people experiencing stress
and physical and emotional suering. A respondent
stated this concern in this way:
Worse sll is the nature of lockdowns which came
with regulaons that have not been explained. People
of all ages are disillusioned. The regulaons were
implemented using uniformed forces but lacked the
educaon component. The educaon which was
evident is the use of social and public media. These are
messages which were well delivered but lacked deeper
educaonal and learning engagement processes.
(Quesonnaire respondent, 2020)
This quotation points to the importance of how
public education is managed during crises such as
the COVID-19 pandemic.
While the quotations above provide a good overview
of the experiences of people in SADC countries in
the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, we approached
these issues from a wider range of perspectives to
deepen our understanding of what was taking place
“on the ground” in the SADC countries at micro levels,
and we sought to consider macro- and meso-level
responses. We, therefore, deepened our investigation
into the issues emerging via a set of research sub-
themes that are reported on in more depth in the
longer version of this report. In this shorter version
of the report, we share mainly a summary of these
ndings, and make recommendations.
SECTION FOUR / 29
SECTION FOUR
Macro- and chrono-level perspectives
and recommendations for TESF
30 / Education for Sustainable Development and COVID-19 in Southern Africa
4.1 Macro-and chrono-level perspectives
COVID-19 is changing the social and economic
landscape of local communities around the world,
including communities in the southern Africa
region. While industries are aiming at building
sustainable resilience to the impact of COVID-19,
governments are also mobilising resources to
safeguard communities (SADC Secretariat, 2020),
and communities themselves are mobilising in new
ways to form partnerships, develop their agency
for change, form new coalitions and develop new
practices. As shown briey here, but also in the longer
version of this report, the COVID-19 pandemic is not
just a health problem. It is also exposing issues of
inadequate water supply, shortage of food, unstable
livelihoods and poor education, amongst others, as
well as the need for more substantive and sustainable
relationships and partnerships between dierent
government departments, civil society organisations,
communities and international organisations, local
and national business organisations and other
mediating institutions such as the media.
Most starkly, the COVID-19 pandemic has increased
the threat of hunger, with which some SADC
countries have been struggling since before the
pandemic. The rising number of food-insecure and
undernourished people has been known, for a
long time, to be a serious challenge in most African
communities. For example, in the 2019 Global
Hunger Index, Eswatini ranked seventy-fourth of 117
countries with a food and nutrition situation that was
classied as “serious” (Global Hunger Index, 2019).
There are ongoing reports of food insecurity across
the region, which is reaching serious proportions in
some countries. This shows that some people have
always been hungry, a situation exacerbated by the
current pandemic, especially amongst those who
are in precarious forms of work, unemployed, or not
in school, training or work. During the pandemic,
many have been pushed to hunger because they lost
jobs (e.g. from the travel and tourism industry) and
are no longer making an income, while others in the
informal economy have suered greatly from loss
of income streams, shutdowns and lack of border
movement and regional trade options. For example,
across southern Africa, tourism facilities that were
aected include hotels, lodges, camps, guesthouses,
bed and breakfast facilities, mobile safaris, transfers,
traditional boat cruises, motor boating, travel agents
and tour operators. In most SADC countries this
important sector that provides millions of jobs was
brought to its knees.
There have also been reports of increased food
prices, exacerbating an already emerging challenge
aecting SADC citizens at all levels, especially the
poor, as can also be seen in the micro- and meso-level
data reported on in previous sections of this report.
An example of this is a report on the cost of hunger
in Malawi by the World Food Programme (2015),
which observed that the increase in global food
prices, followed by the economic and nancial crisis,
had pushed more people into poverty and hunger.
Even though the number of undernourished people
had reduced globally from one billion to 868 million
in the last 20 years, Africa had fallen back, reporting
an increase in the number of undernourished
people from 175 million to 239 million. According
to the report, Africa’s share in the world’s
undernourished population had also increased from
18% to 28%, calling for stronger eorts to improve
food security and nutrition on the continent (World
Food Programme, 2015). Sectors of food, health,
water and general social and economic issues are
interconnected. Women are signicant actors in
and key drivers of these sectors, especially
in securing household food security through
household food production and engagement in local
and informal trade sectors. Therefore, any further
hardships associated with this sector will also
potentially impact negatively on the lives of girls and
women, as has also been shown by the micro- and
meso-level data previously in this report. With the
emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, any mission
of ensuring that food supply is safe, nutritious, and
sustainable should be amplied and extended into
all aspects of ESD if TESF work is to be meaningful
in the region.
The global COVID-19 pandemic within the context
of the SADC undoubtedly continues with adverse
impacts on the sociopolitical and economic spheres,
threatening to erode the region’s already fragile
“shock absorbers” that enable resilience and
adaptability measures. It is therefore imperative
that COVID-19 responses be contextually grounded
and t for purpose in responding to the needs of
the most vulnerable communities across all sectors,
including the education sector.
SADC member states have committed to a collective
education vision through a process of policy
harmonisation. This vision, according to the SADC
Policy Framework document on Care and Support
for Teaching and Learning (SADC, 2015), aims “at
ensuring comparability and standardisation of
SECTION FOUR / 31
responses to common regional objectives and
barriers to realisation thereof, as well as compliance
with regional standards and principals” (1). However,
it is important to note that despite the region’s acute
attempts to respond to the vulnerability of children
by strengthening core elements of the education
system, the SADC Policy Framework document on
Care and Support for Teaching and Learning (SADC,
2015) states that “much of this support has been
project-based, short-lived, fragmented and largely
unsustainable” (11).
On the positive side, in the last 50 years SADC
has experienced exponential increases in basic
education enrolment levels. The SADC Education
and Skills Development sector, in their Status
of Education reporting, highlight that within the
period of 1960 to 2010 “enrolment rates in primary
education increased at an average annual rate of
1.5%”19. The SADC Education Sector also reports that
approximately 20% of children enrolled in primary
schools across the SADC region do not complete
their education (SADC, 2015) – showing this to be
a vulnerability facing many children and families,
which has been exacerbated by the COVID-19
pandemic and the inequalities of access to digital
solutions during the pandemic. SADC countries
also experience signicant drop in net enrolment
rates between primary (85%) and secondary (40%)
education, highlighting more than 45% of dropout
rate between primary and secondary education
within the region (SADC, 2015). Furthermore,
UNESCO (2011, cited in SADC, 2015) reports that
the region collectively accounts for approximately
20 million adolescents of lower secondary school
age who are out of school. As indicated in our
study, youth are one of the groups that have been
adversely aected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The
implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for young
people’s well-being, opportunities for development,
and continued capability to participate in education
and learning opportunities is therefore a critical
issue to be dealt with in any eorts at “just recovery”
or “building back better” in TESF work going forward.
The SADC Secretariat (2020) reported that SADC
member states closed schools and other centres of
teaching and learning in response to the pandemic.
As shown across this report, while this issue has
historical roots, it is likely to impact on future human
resource capacity. Micro- and meso- level data in this
study shows this to be a critical concern experienced
by parents, communities, education sector actors
and learners themselves. On the positive side, some
SADC countries have made substantive eorts to
introduce and support alternatives of learning. For
example, in Eswatini, the Ministry of Education and
19 SADC: https://www.sadc.int/themes/social-human-development/education-skills-development/
Training introduced home learning programmes on
broadcast media (television and radio), the Internet
(YouTube) and national newspapers (Times of
Eswatini and Eswatini Observer). However, most of
these eorts have been focussed on examination
knowledge, which has reduced educational
experiences signicantly (UNICEF, 2020).
Our research also pointed out that there is a major
problem with the “digital divide” (at all levels of the
education system), which is currently exacerbating
already deep-seated inequalities. Communities in
the rural areas, in particular, do not have privileges
of frequent access to television, radio and other
technology because there is no electricity for access
to Internet and data services, laptop computers and
Internet modems. The cost of data is also high. And
in some cases, buying newspapers is a mammoth
task because there are no shops nearby (Times of
Eswatini, 2020). The normal school calendar has
been negatively aected by the lockdown in all SADC
countries. There were also educational challenges
because of the unequal way in which the digital
divide impacts on communities. Many parents also
experienced stress because they lost the capacity
to pay school fees and also had to struggle with the
high cost of data for online learning. As indicated
by the SADC Secretariat (SADC, 2020), COVID-19
has aected all levels of the education system
from preschool to tertiary education. An estimate
by UNESCO (2020) shows that close to 900 million
learners across the world have been aected by the
closure of educational institutions. COVID-19 has
impacted negatively on mobility, resulting in schools
no longer being able to provide free school meals for
children from low-income families. It has also had a
signicant impact on childcare costs for families with
young children and has put working mothers under
pressure to provide home schooling while also
providing for the family. Child-headed households
have been left stranded with little support, and
families with inadequate access to literacy have
not easily been able to assist children with home
schooling. Thus all of these multidimensional aspects
of the impact on the education system will require
careful and strategic analysis and responses in “just
recovery” and “building forward better” within TESF
going forward.
The pandemic has exposed an issue that has always
existed in the SADC region: water shortage in
rural and local communities. Therefore, to uphold
handwashing hygiene practices, SADC member
states have prioritised water supply and accessibility
in all communities and schools. For example, the
government of South Africa made eorts to install
water tankers at schools as well as deliver potable
32 / Education for Sustainable Development and COVID-19 in Southern Africa
water to schools where there was a shortage of
water (SADC, 2020). But as pointed out across our
report (see longer version of the report), these
eorts at times appear to be “too little too late” and
lack longer-term systemic and strategic response
potential if not carried forward with serious ongoing
eorts to resolve the historical backlogs and
inequalities on this front.
Our research ndings repeatedly point to the
intersectional nature of concerns in the SADC
region. Shortages of food and water pose serious
implications for the education system. Many people
lost their jobs during the pandemic, leading to
a lack of food in their households. Moreover, in
some rural areas there are places with no water.
In such situations where there is reduced food at
home and possible lack of water, students may be
unable to concentrate or focus in school. Students
need basic needs to be fullled if they are to be
fully co-operative in class. Furthermore, as also
highlighted in our research, extra attention and care
needs to be given to the role of the girl child, who
may be more seriously aected by the impact and
fallout of the pandemic in relation to educational
continuity opportunities and options. The research
has also pointed to the urgent need to give more
and vigorous attention to the unemployed youth in
the region and to support their eorts at organising
and mobilising in their communities – they have
potential to play an important contributing role in
solution mobilisation. But this should not be done
without giving attention to their needs for learning
new skills for economic opportunity creation and
advancement, raising the issue of giving attention to
a wider range of viable livelihood opportunities and
for supporting both informal and more formal forms
of work and learning.
Overall, our ndings conrm the impact of the
COVID-19 pandemic on the SDGs in southern Africa,
as visualised and captured by the UN Department
of Economic and Social Aairs20, in Figure 4
above, showing also the interrelated nature and
intersectional dynamics of the impact of COVID-19
on the many dimensions of life and livelihoods.
Governments across the SADC region have
responded to the COVID-19 pandemic in various
ways that address the intersecting issues outlined in
this report. For example:
20 UN Department of Economic and Social Aairs: https://www.un.org/en/desa
The Malawian government took some measures
to control the pandemic – the appointment of a
Special Cabinet Committee and later the Special
Presidential Committee to look at all top-level
matters concerning the COVID-19 pandemic
and provide policy guidance; the country was
declared a state of disaster; banning of street
vending, public gatherings including religious
gatherings, wedding ceremonies, open pubs;
closure of all schools and colleges in both public
and private sectors; closing land borders and
restricting air ights with special announcements
to suspend all international ghts; awareness
campaigns about prevention and control
measures such as wearing masks, washing
hands with soap and water, use of sanitisers and
reporting to the nearest hospitals if experiencing
unusual symptoms; self-quarantine measures
for all visitors who arrive from high-risk areas.
Malawi also benets from international bodies
to control COVID-19. These bodies include the
World Health Organization (WHO), the United
Kingdom’s Department for International
Development, UNICEF, and the governments of
Norway and Germany. These bodies provide a
wide range of support, including provision of
guidelines, local surveillance, and crafting radio
and television programmes.
The government of Zimbabwe declared the
pandemic a national disaster. While Malawi
simply introduced some restrictions, the
government of Zimbabwe implemented a
lockdown for 21 days, starting on 30 March
2020. Only essential movement, related to
seeking health services, to the purchase and
procurement of food and medicines and to
other essential supplies and critical services,
was exempted. The Zimbabwean government
banned all non-essential travel (excluding
returning residents) and trac both inbound
and outbound (except for movement of cargo).
There was a ban on entertainment, sports
and recreational activities. All nightclubs, bars,
movie houses, swimming pools, gymnasiums
and sporting facilities were closed. In addition,
public gatherings could not exceed 50 people
in the following: religious fellowship, weddings,
conferences, workshops and funerals. Hospital
visits were reduced to one visit per day involving
one relative per person.
SECTION FOUR / 33
The South African government implemented
hard lockdown measures early on, which had
massive impacts on, the educational system.
The consequential impact of COVID-19 on
education, children’s well-being, and teaching
and learning has raised the urgent need for
transdisciplinary and intersectoral responses
where dierent government departments
were forced to collaborate with municipalities
and local communities to address child hunger
and to provide water services in schools
(amongst other measures). These responses,
premised on bilateral and multilateral forms
of engagement that engage the micro, meso
and macro structures simultaneously, showed
that it is possible to establish systems and
structural mechanisms to enable co-operation
and support. This is critical in delivering high
quality primary and secondary education in
future, given the many challenges facing the
education sector. This type of co-operation was
most visible in the rapid distribution of over
7000 water tanks to schools, although this did
not go as smoothly as anticipated.
The outbreak of COVID-19 caused the Eswatini
Kingdom to distribute 40 tanks to dierent
communities with water shortages so that
they could have continuous access to water
(Government of Eswatini, 2020). In Botswana,
with the little water supplied by Water Utilities
Corporation through bowsers, priority was
given to the clinics and schools, sadly, leaving
some communities stranded. In Botswana 88
emergency water bowsers and water in large
tankers were distributed in water scarce areas
early on in the pandemic; and water tanks were
installed into some schools.
These responses, together with some of the
agency-based responses shown by communities,
parents, learners, and state and civil society
organisations reported on in the more detailed
micro- and meso-level data in the more extensive
version of this report, point to taking time to
fully assess the agency-centred approaches that
are emerging as possibilities for regenerative
approaches to “just recovery” and “building forward
better” and to consider these within a longer-term
window as a signicant sustainable development
opportunity across the region. There is diversity in the
range of opportunities and responses: supporting
the organising capability of young people as it
is being generated on their own terms; recognising
the power and potential of combining indigenous
knowledge and experience of farmers and
communities in responding to the many challenges
facing society; infrastructure provisioning (e.g. water
systems); dealing with corruption; creating support
platforms for women and girl children, advancing
access to e-learning technologies and tools for all;
strengthening intergovernmental partnerships
and partnerships between government and civil
society; and valuing community activism in the
wider system of transformative change towards
more sustainable futures. These opportunities and
responses, together with TESF work, are amongst
some of the agency-building possibilities that were
shown to be emergent in our study data.
The global COVID-19 pandemic within the context
of the SADC undoubtedly continues with adverse
impacts on the sociopolitical and economic
spheres, threatening to erode the region’s already
fragile “shock absorbers” that enable resilience and
adaptability measures.
34 / Education for Sustainable Development and COVID-19 in Southern Africa
4.2 Recommendations for TESF work from the seven sub-themes
for macro- and meso- level support and intervention (i.e.
transformative systems building)
As indicated in the more detailed version of this
report, we developed in-depth interviewing and
other tools for specic contexts and thematic areas
within and across countries. Case study methods also
yielded in-depth understanding. The many emerging
implications for TESF work moving forward within a
“build forward better” and “just recovery” orientation
are synthesised below for ease of use accoridng to
the thematic areas of our research questions.
Sustainable solutions at local level
This thematic area focussed on the need for – and emergence of sustainable solutions at
a local level, as observed at micro- and meso- levels in communities in SADC countries. The
recommendations below respond to the ndings in the study that pointed out the challenges
found at grassroots level with inherent food insecurities, the precarious nature of income
for food, and the acute food shortages – food shortages that were there before but became
heightened and critical as the COVID-19 pandemic broke, and as lockdown measures rapidly
cut o sources of precarious income for many.
Food systems education, training and social learning: There is a need for education
that gives more attention to sustainable food systems, and more support is needed
for food gardens and smallholder farming systems to ensure stronger local level food
system development. Food system education should focus on inherent and historically
inherited food insecurities and the precarious nature of income for food, food production,
food system marketing and communication, food relief distribution systems ecacy and
fairness, and accountability at the point of food sales. There is also the need to give attention
to dealing with ambivalence and mixed messages in poor communications around food
security. Additionally, food system education should focus on ways of dealing with shocks
and aggravations in the food system, and lastly, but also importantly, corruption needs
to be dealt with in the food system. The issue of land and access to land also has to be
focussed on in order to ensure longer-term food system security and food sovereignty and
resilience in the food system. Food security, food sovereignty, and social justice in food
systems are key concepts that need to be developed. From a skills and practice point of
view, strategies for sustainable local food production need to be strengthened across the
region and from a values and ethics point of view, stronger commitments to social justice,
accountability, avoidance of food waste and anti-corruption are needed. There is also the
need to give attention to the ecological dimensions of the food system, as southern Africa
is a dryland region with many challenges associated with climate change, droughts and
ooding that are disrupting food production.
Water education, training and social learning: Systems and structures to ensure
continuous water supplies to households and schools are needed in all communities;
education is needed for local governments to ensure sucient and sustainable water
supply to all communities. Strategies for rainwater harvesting and conservation are also
needed to support local solutions and food production in schools and communities.
Health education, training and social learning: Adherence to – and deeper knowledge
of – health regulations is needed across communities and in school and other educational
settings. There is a need to roll out education, training and social learning programmes to
address stigma, trauma and fear and to strengthen adherence to regulations such as social
(physical) distancing, mask wearing and handwashing. There is also a need for psychosocial
SECTION FOUR / 35
programmes to support health workers who are under extreme stress and programmes in
communities to appreciate the work, role and contributions of health workers in society.
Consideration should also be given to provide for on-site healthcare workers at schools to
support teachers who now also have to take on a signicant healthcare role.
E-learning in school and formal and informal learning settings: There is an urgent
need for more equitable and accessible supply of – and investment in – innovation and
technology and information and communication technology (ICT) for learners in schools,
teachers and community members (e.g. farmers).
Indigenous knowledge systems: There is also the need to recognise and draw more
on indigenous knowledge systems for building resilience and for local adaptation and
development of sustainable solutions.
Strengthen emergent agency of communities, health workers, educators and
farmers: The study showed that despite the massive shock of the COVID-19 pandemic,
communities, health workers and educators mobilised their agency to respond to the crisis
at local levels. TESF work should focus on strengthening and expanding transformative
agency at local level amongst all members of the community, local governments, and
formal and informal education and health institutions.
Role of parents, teachers and children in health and safety
This thematic area focussed on the changing role of parents, teachers and children.
Recommendations focus on how TESF work can strengthen and support the important role
that parents, teachers and children play in ensuring and supporting health and safety as
identied by respondents in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study showed
that the role of parents and teachers were changing rapidly in the face of the crisis. Parents
were being forced to nd alternative means of survival and were also forced to become much
more involved in their children’s education. Teachers’ roles were changing as they had to take
on much greater responsibility for the health and safety of learners, and teachers also rapidly
had to adapt to use online learning approaches where these were possible. A signicant nding
of the study was that new relationalities were emerging between teachers, parents, children
and young people in eorts to collaborate on responses to the pandemic.
Everyone has a role to play in education and learning together about new challenges and
ways of responding to them: parents, teachers, children and young people.
Young people can play a proactive and creative role in contributing new ideas and
suggestions towards communities where co-learning is necessary as they can easily move
into communities and into homes and educational institutions.
Teachers and parents need to become more e-literate in order to support more exible
modes of education and learning.
Parents and teachers can work more closely together to be prepared for seamless
interaction between homes and schools to reduce the “disjuncture” that exists between
home and school life for children.
Support the new relationalities that are emerging between parents, teachers, and
young people and strengthen these relationalities into the future to enable a seamless
relationship between school and community and between young people and their parents
and teachers.
36 / Education for Sustainable Development and COVID-19 in Southern Africa
School-community-government partnerships
This thematic area of our study probed the nature of – and changes emerging in – school-
community-government partnerships. The ndings show that these relationships are not linear,
but are dynamic, and they manifest in dierent ways in dierent settings. This part of the study
drew attention to the historical nature of many disjunctures that aect the school-community-
government relation. A key nding was that it is important to strengthen and develop this
relationship, especially in relation to the intersectional focus areas of TESF articulated in this
report – food, livelihoods, water and education. A critical issue surfacing in this part of the study
is the importance of trust in the school-community-government relation, and where trust is
missing or destroyed, the study found that it is often schools that end up being “in the middle”
of the destroyed relationship, aecting the education and wellbeing of children. Examples of
failure in providing adequate infrastructure to schools for water and sanitation and the abrupt
loss of the school feeding scheme support to children in poverty under the lockdown are two
examples of severe breakdowns in this relationship. There was also some emerging evidence of
new partnerships being formed between schools, communities and government as the severity
of the pandemic became visible, especially its impact on the schooling of children.
Strengthen emergent intergovernmental co-operation and partnerships between
government departments and community organisations in dealing with infrastructure
backlogs in schools and communities (especially water, sanitation and food systems).
More formalised channels for these forms of co-operation are needed.
More proactive approaches to including parents in the school community are needed,
and active eorts should be made to include parents in diverse ways in the life of the
school and its activities. Strengthen school-community-parent communication systems
and the role of school governing bodies. The study found that there is a need for parental
education and skills and capacity development for school governing bodies to work with a
whole systems approach to TESF.
Identify and strengthen innovative ways to support and enable community involvement
in food provision to learners in school feeding schemes. Relying on a top-down
structure to provide food to schools is unsustainable, as was shown by the loss of the
school feeding scheme under lockdown measures. If more localised systems were in
operation, this would not have happened, and there could have been more continuity in
the food provisioning of children. This calls for more decentralisation and partnerships
between government, parents and community structures in the system of providing for
school feeding schemes.
Avoid focussing on technical responses (e.g. water tanks) only. There is also the need to
think about social wellbeing, development of capabilities and psychosocial support
for helping teachers, communities, learners and also government ocials to deal with the
stress that has been induced by the pandemic and its impact.
Develop a wider understanding of “education” in society. As shown so clearly by this study,
education is not just about the curriculum; it is equally about the support functions and the
whole system that supports learning for children, parents and teachers. Therefore, there
is the need to strengthen a whole systems approach to conceptualising education.
Strengthen, and value the role of civil society, activist groups, teacher unions
and teachers who take an activist stance to mobilise support for attending to the
wellbeing of children. This study showed the importance of activist movements in
holding government accountable and for putting pressure on government to reinstate
the school feeding schemes, for example, and teacher unions in activating for adequate
water supplies in schools. These relationships should be appreciated in terms of their
contributions to building a democratic society and for holding government accountable.
However, these relationships should also be proactively oriented towards nding ways of
supporting government action to address issues where possible.
SECTION FOUR / 37
Youth, informal learning and response-ability
This thematic area of the study focussed on youth experiences of the COVID-19
pandemic and their informal learning and response-ability. It highlighted some of the dynamics
that are aecting young people at this time and drew attention to their oftentimes hidden, yet
important, roles in times of crisis, their capabilities and agency for organising, and their agility
and creativity. This section is contextualised within the prospect of Africa having the youngest
population in the world, with the population of under-30 growing to an estimated 65% of its
entire population by 203021. This thematic area points to how the COVID-19 pandemic has shown
up contemporary – but often invisible – potential of young people to contribute meaningfully
towards curbing the eects of the pandemic in their communities. It acknowledges and
celebrates the potential of young people who are at the forefront of asking how we imagine a
dierent future. It challenges perceptions that young people are “junior partners” and instead,
puts forward a strong argument for appreciating and strengthening youth agency for organising
and contributing to change on their own terms. It calls for a reconstitution of the dominant
perceptions of young people and a “freeing” of their potential from the strictures of outdated
and conservative views. Recommendations emerging from this part of the report include:
Recognise and appreciate that dierent contexts have dierent challenges and
possibilities for young people.
Recognise, support and enable the signicant role that young people play in self-
organisation and sustainable futures creation; they have signicant response-ability
that is currently undervalued in society. They also have border-crossing capabilities as
they are able to move in between generational divides, link younger children’s lives to a
range of community members and structures, and challenge stasis in older generations’
views and experiences of the world.
Address the often limited “normalising gaze” that young people are co-opted into and
allow them space for self-activity and voice and developing ways of organising in society,
that is, arm their place in political participation in real and meaningful ways.
Young people can nd and take up intermediary spaces and institutional roles that
can build their power from below and enable them to “step into their power”; arm
this transformative agency praxis and create spaces for such ourishing and response-
ability to take root in communities and institutions.
Recognise the power of multi-dynamic forms of technology and forms of representation
and action from WhatsApp to grati – all have a powerful role to play in TESF work.
Learn from pedagogies of permaculture, community action, and response-ability – and
reimagine the meaning(s) of pedagogy in ways that follow the tendencies of rising
cultures as being generated by youth in their organisations and decolonial transgressive
praxis spaces and platforms. This requires moving around across the traditional boundaries
of formal and informal learning settings and spaces.
Get better at dreaming, as the future is called up in dreams. This points to being more
open-minded about alternative futures and leaving open the space to learn what is not
yet there in new ways that are generative, creative, open-ended, multidimensional and
unpredictable.
21 https://mo.ibrahim.foundation/news/2019/africas-rst-challenge-youth-bulge-stuck-waithood
38 / Education for Sustainable Development and COVID-19 in Southern Africa
Gender concerns and safety of young girls
This thematic area focussed on gender concerns and the safety of young girls with an emphasis
on water, food, livelihoods and education. It recognises the impact of COVID-19 on women,
given their signicant role in the healthcare and education sectors (the majority of nurses and
community care workers are women). Women also faced increased pressure as they became
rapidly exposed to amplied pressure in the areas of unpaid care and domestic work, and
are at higher risk of contracting COVID-19 because of their roles in society. The high number
of women in the informal economy in southern Africa aggravates the risk and vulnerability of
women to the pandemic and its impact.
From the perspective of girl children, many were subjected to increased household duties,
provisioning of water, food and other care functions, aecting their ability to continue with
their schooling, and in many cases young women were also faced with increased gender-based
violence, pregnancy and with few options but to enter early marriages. Thus, it is projected
that the educational and gender-based consequences of COVID-19 will last beyond the period
of school closures, aecting marginalised girls most severely. The productive life of women
has also been more severely aected as women earn less, save less, hold less secure jobs and
are mostly employed in the informal sector. Extreme poverty has also put women in more
precarious positions than before. Recommendations emerging from this section of the report
for TESF work going forward include:
Institute more exible models for education that support women and girls, and make
proper provision for wider forms of online learning, data access, and technology support
resources.
Support services and “care groups” for girl children, especially those that look out for
their safety and opportunities to participate in education, despite early pregnancies and
other forces that might impact on their ability to continue with their education.
Implement sector-wide awareness of systemic injustices and higher levels of risk
faced by girls and women (including those related to water and food systems) due to their
traditionally held care roles in society.
Raise the level of response to gender-based violence in society, and help young women
to nd alternatives to early marriages as the only means of “making it through” crisis
situations.
Give adequate attention to continuities in women’s sexual and reproductive health
provisioning amongst shifts to health provisioning for the COVID-19 pandemic and its
impact.
Seek out options for innovation and change by focussing on the intersectional nature
of the issues aecting women: there is the need to fully comprehend the intersectional
nature of the issues, for example, if livelihoods are aected, so are women’s aspirations,
morale and chances of education.
SECTION FOUR / 39
Livelihoods, start-ups and economic opportunities
This thematic area focussed on the theme of livelihoods, start-ups and economic opportunity.
It is no secret that the COVID-19 pandemic had a devastating impact on the livelihoods of many
people in the SADC region. A record 45 million people in the SADC region were estimated
to be food insecure before the COVID-19 pandemic as a result of climate shocks such as
drought and ooding, and structural, macro-economic and social shocks. Thus it is very clear
that the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated this already existing situation. It has deepened
vulnerabilities at household level and has worsened individuals’ food and nutrition insecurities.
This section of the study also pointed out that there are far-reaching consequences of the
COVID-19 pandemic on economies and livelihoods, and COVID-19 is actually exacerbating
already vulnerable and struggling economies in southern Africa. Some of the consequences
include private sector companies being forced to downsize, localise and digitalise, with job
losses emanating from this. The COVID-19 pandemic is also reversing the trend towards
formalisation of employment, making employment more precarious on many fronts. It has
aected the nancial sector and, overall, is narrowing the already limited scal space of sub-
Saharan governments in the world economic space as reductions in economic growth are an
immediate reality. Cross-border trade has also been aected, with a particularly harsh impact
on the 70% of women cross-border traders engaged in informal trade. Additionally, there are
an estimated 80 million young people in vulnerable employment and 110 million who are not
contributing to the economy in SADC countries. Recommendations from this section point to:
Prioritise women and young people in TESF programmes oriented towards livelihoods
and economic agency, and make livelihoods a key priority in TESF work within a sustainable
development, social justice paradigm.
Face the need to nd ways of growing employment and enterprises for young people
in collective ways that build capacity along the way.
Foreground creativity, innovation and opportunities for learning to change, and
contribute to sustainable development wherever possible, particularly in local economies
where direct benets can be mobilised for marginalised communities on the ground, but
also focus transformative learning eorts on other levels of the system.
Consider the latent possibilities in green and circular economies (and associated skills
development) that are still under-developed. Also consider the importance of access to
land as a key resource for the production of sustainable livelihoods.
Strengthen research in – and develop – stronger approaches to support self-suciency
and locally sustainable economies, and develop new economic models for this that
are based on principles of social justice, equity, and sustainability.
Support start-up systems in ways that are more sustainable (e.g. loans/grants).
Government support should be sustainably planned, and strengthen government and
business partnerships in innovation development.
Formal education opportunities should interface with real world work opportunities
and informal and workplace learning.
Give renewed attention to more sustainable social security systems and emergency
relief measures, and eliminate corruption in these systems in order to ensure better
responses to risk and crisis shocks as experienced by droughts, oods and now the
COVID-19 pandemic in the SADC region.
40 / Education for Sustainable Development and COVID-19 in Southern Africa
Intergovernmental collaboration on water, food, nutrition and education
This thematic area focussed on the water crisis as experienced mainly by rural communities
with an interest in how this inuenced education. This was because it was becoming increasingly
apparent that schools with poor water infrastructure and unreliable water were being forced to
remain closed due to the higher levels of risk of COVID-19 infection in the absence of access to an
adequate and reliable source of water. Schools in rural areas and informal settlements that are
not serviced are disproportionately aected by poor service delivery of water, a challenge that
not only aects sanitation services in the schools, but also amplies other impacts on learners.
This is because schools in these communities often provide more than education to children –
they also provide a nutritious meal for learners daily and a safe place for learners to be during
the day. With schools closed, children are exposed to increased food insecurity because they
do not have access to the school nutrition programme. In addition, many poor families have
experienced loss of income as a result of the lockdown. This theme was particularly interested
in exploring if there was evidence of improved intergovernmental collaboration to address
these critical issues. Recommendations from this theme are:
Water supply is not merely a municipal obligation; water access and management should
be based on a participatory approach involving all stakeholders, involving users,
planners and policy-makers at all levels. Deliberations on water policy and supply should
include community views and needs and aspirations in conceptualising service delivery
solutions. This type of relationship building should be promoted in TESF work. TESF work
can support intergovernmental, intra-governmental and civil society and business sector
partnership formation around addressing critical issues such as water access and supply.
Support civil society activism and coalitions that can contribute to campaigning and
advocacy for action, as well as solution building in terms of policy implementation
around water supply, co-operative governance, and responsible water usage.
Promote positive partnership formation, and strengthen and support any eorts
for co-operative governance in the provisioning of sustainable water supplies to schools
and communities. It was noted that such co-operative approaches are possible, as these
were, in some places, mobilised in response to the water crisis in the early stages of the
COVID-19 pandemic.
The water supply chain must be in full focus in all water education and water-oriented
social learning processes. A deeper understanding needs to be developed of water supply
and the inter-linkages of the water supply chain across all organs of state – all departments
from local government; all departments at provincial and national level.
Stakeholders should collaboratively explore ways of ensuring sustainable supply and
access to clean, consistent and adequate water in schools and communities.
Educators, scholars and researchers may also become rich sources of insights on
how communities may work together to improve access to water and conservation and
responsible consumption of the resource; they should be consulted and involved in
solutions modelling and infrastructural planning.
Explore indigenous systems of accessing, purifying and conserving water as a means
of ensuring adequate supply and cutting of costs as a sustainable initiative to complement
more formal systems of water supply. More can be done to maximise rainwater harvesting
and usage and management of harvested rainwater. Although this may not be a fully
adequate solution for a regular supply of water, it can complement existing eorts and do
more with less.
Water harvesting techniques and solar-powered boreholes should be part of education
and school infrastructure and should be a key feature of the training of engineers, planners
and those who are responsible for school and household infrastructure development.
SECTION FOUR / 41
With these more specic recommendations in mind
we conclude the research report in the next section
with recommendations for policy and practice and
for advancing TESF work in the SADC region across
all countries. Even though issues reported on in
this study are country and context specic to a
large extent, they are also widely shared across the
SADC region. Stronger responses may be possible
at country and individual context levels through
collaboration and regional solidarity.
4.3 Recommendations for TESF within a “just recovery” and
“building forward better” policy and practice framework
In this section we point to policy and practice along
transformative praxis pathways that are oriented
towards “just recovery” and “building forward
better” in the SADC region, learning lessons from the
COVID-19 pandemic and the intersectional focus of
our research.
The past inuences the present. Here we add to
– and carry forward – this line of thinking as one
rationale for transforming policy and practice shifts
towards more sustainable futures for all. The present
– with its impact from COVID-19 – will be the future’s
past, and so this present will inuence our future.
The future emerges from what currently exists, and
so it is helpful to look at the past-present-future
relation in order to consider possible pathways
forward that could emerge via our eorts to support
transformative education and societal change.
What is clear from the data across the study is that
the “normal” or the past had its own challenges. The
data shows very clearly that the COVID-19 pandemic
has starkly surfaced those cracks in our societies that
make those most vulnerable even more vulnerable.
The data also shows, however, that there is
agency amongst young people, teachers, parents,
communities and some government ocials, and
that there is a clear vision amongst them for what
needs to change in society. It is the latter that is
signicant for considerations of TESF.
Such considerations for building on existing and
emerging forms of agency for change should not
be ahistorical, or naively constituted, and hence we
frame our recommendations for “transformative
praxis pathways” as critical pathways that need
to be created in and via praxes from histories of
the past and from the present. This needs to be
done within a multidimensional and multisectoral
environment at policy and practice levels, that is,
across the multilevelled system that we have been
investigating and, as clearly shown by most of our
recommendations above, through a new solidarity
relation between government, communities,
schools, and economic sector partners. This relation
needs to be built, or rebuilt, as the large number of
people left vulnerable indicates a clear breakdown
in government and civil society relations in southern
Africa. As also noted above, new roles for youth in
this partnership building need to be armed in
order to include them more proactively in mobilising
their creativity and agency for change and their
capabilities for imagining new futures. Inertia needs
to be overcome, and trust relations need to be rebuilt.
The voices of all should be respected and included in
working out solutions for a more sustainable future.
TESF work has a central role to play in this process.
Those involved in the ESD 2030 Agenda for Africa, the
SADC Secretariat and national governments should
take these recommendations seriously as new
partnership models are sought for implementing
ESD across schools and communities in the SADC
region.
In the section below (with reference to Figures
5 and 6) we summarise the main features of the
“normal”/past as captured across this study and the
main features of how these were shifted under the
COVID-19 pandemic. From this we point to a way
forward that embraces a “just recovery” and “build
forward together” perspective.
What is clear from the data across the study is that the “normal” or
the past had its own challenges. The data shows very clearly that the
COVID-19 pandemic has starkly surfaced those cracks in our societies
that make those most vulnerable even more vulnerable.
42 / Education for Sustainable Development and COVID-19 in Southern Africa
MEGA MALL COVID TESTING CENTER LOCAL FOOD CO-OP
“NORMAL” COVID-19 A WAY FORWARD
I can’t wait for
this to all be over
and we can go
back to normal!
What if we
went forward
instead?
Figure 5: A drawing showing the shift required from past to future (adapted from a drawing by Brenna
Quinlan)
SECTION FOUR / 43
WHAT THERE WAS
BEFORE COVID-19
History of inequalities in
SADC region
Poverty and precarious
livelihoods for many
children dependent on
school feeding schemes
High unemployment,
especially amongst youth
Corruption in some
countries; lack of
intersectoral partnerships
Water resources not
reaching all people,
especially in rural areas and
informal urban settlements
Southern Africa is a dryland
region and experiences
periodic drought and
flooding with climate
change also affecting food
production
Divide between private and
public schooling
Unequal access to ICTs;
digital divide
Gender inqequalities and
patriarchal culture affecting
girl children
Inequalities more starkly
revealed
Precariousness of livelihood
highly visible – leading to
food insecurity and job
losses
Youth affected further by
unemployment and
economic impacts of
COVID-19 but also reveal
their agency for organising
School feeding schemes
closed under lockdown,
leaving children hungry;
government and
community-based food
parcel responses (short term)
with some social grant
support in some countries
Some communities without
water, even for handwashing
requirements; governments
working with partners to
supply emergency water
infrastructure
Private schools threatened
due to lack of ability of
parents to pay in some cases
Digital divide much more
obvious; data becomes a big
cost for families
Girl children lose safe spaces
of school – more vulnerable
Need economic and policy
tools to combat inequality
Youth organisation and
employment programmes
More sustainable food
systems are needed
School and community food
gardens; better support for
farmers and land
sovereignty
More sustainable water
supplies to schools and
communties
Social grant systems to be
more stabilised as
substantive safety nets for
families at risk
Strengthen emerging
interagency and
multisectoral partnerships
for sustainable development
action
Improve quality in public
schools to avoid the
public-private school divide
Free Internet services and
better access to supply and
use of ICT for education
Create platforms for girl
children's safety and
wellbeing in times of risk
and vulnerability
COVID-19 PERIOD BUILDING FORWARD
BETTER
PAST
PRESENT
FUTURE
Figure 6: An overview of the ndings of the study from a past, present and future perspective
Viewing the ndings on past, present and future in
Figure 6 above, it is possible to see that that which is
needed in future is also an absence in the present. It
is something that is not there yet and needs to come
into being within a “just recovery” or “build forward
better” trajectory. This is necessary if we want to
avoid sinking back into those aspects of the past that
were not working well for people in southern Africa,
if we want to strengthen our agency for change and
if we want to mobilise TESF work in ways that can
help communities, teachers, government ocials,
business partners, and all societal actors to work
tightly together to consider – and put in place –
alternative ways for contemporary ills as revealed by
the COVID-19 pandemic.
As indicated in the study, agency for change
(individual and collective) was present in all research
sites, even in spite of the dicult histories and, at
times, dire conditions. Interestingly, one of the
features of this agency for change during the
pandemic was the formation of new partnerships,
relationships and coalitions at both community
and intergovernmental levels. “Building forward
better” together, based on this important nding, can
help to chart a pathway forward for transformative
praxis that is grounded in the realities of people
in the here and now and that can be taken up at
multiple levels of the system as per the conceptual
framework guiding this study.
In the series of diagrams below, we illuminate each
of the transformative praxis pathways that have
been revealed through the study and share some
key insights gained from the dierent sections of
the study relevant to these transformative praxis
pathways.
44 / Education for Sustainable Development and COVID-19 in Southern Africa
TESF Transformative Praxis Pathway 1:
Contribute to rethinking and reimagining economic models that are more inclusive and
sustainable
Move away from old,
unsustainable economic models
and paradigms (re)producing and
exacerbating inequality and
exclusion
High levels of inequality and unemployment
Women and youth left out and marginalised
Resources not equitably shared
Neo-liberal paradigms driving economies
Develop stronger community-
based economic models
Mobilise potential of green, circular and
regenerative economies
Implement policies that strengthen equity and
distribution of resources, including land
Strengthen and consolidate social security systems
to provide substantive safety nets in times
of crisis
Undertake TESF work towards
more inclusive, sustainable
economic models leaving
no-one behind
Figure 7: TESF Transformative Praxis Pathway 1: Contribute to rethinking and reimagining economic
models that are more inclusive and sustainable
The rst TESF transformative praxis pathway (Figure
7) relates to moving out of and away from the
economic decline and fallout of historical economic
models and practices that are not serving the
majority of people well, that exclude and marginalise
women, and that continue to exacerbate inequalities.
Within a TESF framework, there is a need to invest
in education, training and social learning that
is oriented towards more inclusive, sustainable
economic models that leave no-one behind.
Such economic models should be more strongly
community based and strengthen local economies,
as well as mobilise the potential of green, circular
and regenerative economies. A global movement
that conceptualises such economic alternatives and
the implications of these for education is emerging.
SADC communities and societies, and educators
involved in economics education and all other forms
of education should investigate and contribute to
the development of these models of economy to
help to break the deadlock of existing neo-colonial
and neo-liberal economic models that are producing
and exacerbating inequalities and marginalisation,
as shown by the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Social grant systems or a more egalitarian and
democratic instrument such as a basic income grant
needs to be instituted and/or more stabilised to
ensure more substantive security and/or safety nets
for families at risk in times of crisis, and these should
be managed in ways that make them safe from
corruption.
The rst TESF transformative praxis pathway relates to moving out of and
away from the economic decline and fallout of historical economic models
and practices that are not serving the majority of people well, that exclude
and marginalise women, and that continue to exacerbate inequalities.
SECTION FOUR / 45
TESF Transformative Praxis Pathway 2:
Contribute to the emergence of more sustainable food systems for all
Move away from food systems
that are disconnected to
community life and are
unsustainable, unequal, and
inaccessible to many
High levels of hunger in southern African
society
Failure of crops and food distribution systems
Economic disenfrachisement creating food
insecurity
Children not well nourished
Develop stronger community-based and more
sustainable food systems taking the full food value
chain into account
Support allocation of land to farmers and the
co-learning of farmers from each other and from
ICTs and other means
Education, training and social learning to develop
accountability across the food value chain
Undertake TESF work towards
more sustainable food systems
that are nourishing and
available to all
Figure 8: TESF Transformative Praxis Pathway 2: Contribute to the emergence of more sustainable food
systems for all
The second TESF transformative praxis pathway
(Figure 8) focusses on TESF work to support the
emergence of more sustainable food systems that
are accessible and available to all. As indicated in
the recommendations above, this should involve a
new model and approach to food system education
in education, training and social learning systems. It
should develop knowledge of the entire food system
and the food value chain and help to develop active
production praxis of farmers, including education
to address land access and access to the resources
and knowledge for improving farming and food
production at household and community levels.
Additionally, there is a need for education along
the food value chain – in marketing, distribution
and supply systems to strengthen ethics and
accountability across the food value chain. A whole
systems approach oriented towards sustainability,
inclusivity, fairness, human dignity and access
to adequate food is needed. Agro-ecological
approaches and food sovereignty principles
need to be part of this approach to food system
development, as do anti-corruption approaches and
values. Food system education should include more
focus on the impacts of – and adaptation strategies
for addressing climate change and uncertainties
arising from climate change in relation to food
systems in southern Africa. It should also include an
understanding of the ecological dynamics of food
systems and more sustainable alternatives that can
assist with enabling and ensuring diversity to avoid
risks associated with mono-cultural praxis in the
food system. Such education and learning about
the food system should include a stronger focus on
indigenous – and multiple forms of – knowledge.
The second TESF transformative praxis pathway focusses on TESF
work to support the emergence of more sustainable food systems
that are accessible and available to all.
46 / Education for Sustainable Development and COVID-19 in Southern Africa
TESF Transformative Praxis Pathway 3:
Strengthen interagency and multisectoral partnerships for sustainable development action and
service delivery
Move away from poor quality
service delivery and neglect of
rural and poor communities in
sustainable development action
Histories of poor service delivery and
fragmentation amongst government services
tasked with service delivery
Breakdown in community-government-school
partnerships and relationships
Silo mentality affecting partnerships and
reducing co-operative capabilities
Develop stronger partnership approaches between
communities, schools, and government institutions
around critical areas of service delivery (especially
water)
Support co-construction of solutions amongst multiple
stakeholders, including civil society, government (at all
levels), the economic sector and communities
Education, training and social learning to develop
systems approaches and intersectoral and multifaceted
forms of co-operation and relationship building in
service of sustainability and social justice
Undertake TESF work towards
building of partnerships,
improved relationality and
intersectoral and multisectoral
co-operation
Figure 9: TESF Transformative Praxis Pathway 3: Strengthen interagency and multisectoral partnerships
for sustainable development action and service delivery
The third TESF transformative praxis pathway
(Figure 9) focusses on strengthening interagency
and multisectoral partnerships for sustainable
development action and service delivery especially
related to water. As shown across this report, the
lack of a sustainable supply of clean water impacted
heavily on communities’ and schools’ abilities to
respond adequately to the COVID-19 pandemic.
There were many impacts across the system,
including longer than necessary closures of schools,
which, in turn, impacted on school nutrition schemes
and exacerbated food insecurity. This same problem
also aects health workers, teachers and families
who are challenged by inadequate access to a
clean, sustainable supply of water. New, innovative
strategies that build on community knowledge and
indigenous practices should be introduced into
interagency and multisectoral partnerships, such
as use of solar pumps and rainwater harvesting
practices. Communities should be consulted when
planning interventions meant to facilitate sustainable
development action and service delivery and should
be included in co-creating these solutions.
The third TESF transformative praxis pathway focusses on strengthening
interagency and multisectoral partnerships for sustainable development
action and service delivery especially related to water.
SECTION FOUR / 47
TESF Transformative Praxis Pathway 4:
Strengthen quality education in the public education sector and facilitate access to ICT and
stronger parental participation
Move away from poor quality
education in the public education
sector and address the digital
divide between private and public
sector education
Histories of poor quality education in the
public sector, leading to a divide between
public and private sector education systems,
including a digital divide
Inadequate support for parents to become
more involved in their children's education
Develop stronger partnership approaches in
communities to support parental education and
children's use of ICT for education and learning
Support parental and teacher education programmes
that enhance educational quality and participation in
chidren's education
Education of teachers and parents should include a
focus on sustainability and response-ability to risk and
crisis
Undertake TESF work towards
strengthening the quality of
education and support access to –
and use of – ICT in education,
including teacher and parent
education for use of ICT and blended
learning
Figure 10: TESF Transformative Praxis Pathway 4: Strengthen quality education in the public education
sector and facilitate access to ICTs and stronger parental participation
The fourth TESF transformative praxis pathway
(Figure 10) focusses on the need to strengthen
quality education in the public sector to address
the current divide between public and private
education. As reported across this report, one of the
most obvious divides between public and private
education is equitable access to and use of ICT
in education. This particularly aected children
from poorer households and in rural areas where
access to – and use of – ICT for online learning was
limited. Addressing the current divide will require
setting systems in place for providing free Internet
services and better supply of – and access to – ICT
devices and tools. It also involves providing support
for teachers to design and develop online learning
approaches. The study also showed that multiple
approaches to online learning are required as not
all children can easily access Internet services or
support. The high cost of data also aected many
families. Improving education quality also requires
investing more in parental education and support
and their involvement in the education of their
children. The COVID-19 pandemic forced many
parents to become more involved in the education
of their children, but this was not possible for all
parents, many of whom themselves have not had
access to education. Therefore community-based
approaches to supporting children’s education in
times of crisis are also needed.
The fourth TESF transformative praxis pathway focusses on the need to
strengthen quality education in the public sector to address the current
divide between public and private education.
48 / Education for Sustainable Development and COVID-19 in Southern Africa
TESF Transformative Praxis Pathway 5:
Strengthen interventions that support the inclusion and safety of women and girl children, and
youth agency for change
Move away from neglect and
marginalisation of women, girl
children and youth in societal
programmes and systems
Histories of higher levels of impact and
vulnerability amongst women, girl children and
young people in society
Inadequate support for women and youth in an
inclusive and viable livelihoods and economic and
sustainable devleopment activities
Inadequate support platforms for youth agency
for change, and girl children faced with crisis and
risk conditions
Develop social learning programmes that strengthen
women's roles and participation in the economy and in
implementing risk reduction measures in the informal
economy and heathcare sectors
Support platforms and programmes for girl child
support and safety and diversify education and learning
opportunities to enable sustained inclusion
Develop and support programmes and platforms for
young people to mobilise their agency for change in
supportive environments that fully recognise their
capabilities and contributions
Undertake TESF work towards
strengthening opportunities for
participation in the economy and
programmes that support agency
for change and social justice for
women and girl children
Figure 11: TESF Transformative Praxis Pathway 5: Strengthen interventions that support the inclusion
and safety of women and girl children and youth agency for change
The fth TESF transformative praxis pathway (Figure
11) focusses on the strengthening of interventions
that support the inclusion and safety of women
and girl children in education and learning for
sustainable futures and that validate and create
spaces for youth agency for organisation and
change. As pointed out across this report, women
and girl children emerged as being some of the most
vulnerable in society and were also most at risk of
losing economic security. They were most impacted
upon due to their traditional roles as caregivers in
society and in the healthcare sector. Many women
are also engaged in the informal economy and
were most heavily impacted on by the economic
crisis that was precipitated and exacerbated by the
COVID-19 pandemic. There is, therefore, the need
for TESF programmes to strengthen women’s roles
and opportunities and their safety and wellbeing
in the informal economy and in the healthcare
and care profession sectors. Additionally, women
were also most impacted on by the additional care
responsibilities as children were not able to attend
school, and girl children were drawn into additional
household responsibilities lessening their ability
to attend to their education. Risk of increased
pregnancies and early marriages also aected
young women, posing a threat to their longer-term
participation in education.
The study also pointed to the often “invisible”
role of young people, in that their participation
potential in building forward together is not fully
recognised or “seen”. The study showed that they
have capacity for imagining alternative futures
and agency for organising, crossing boundaries in
their communities and contributing to multileveled
and multifaceted forms of awareness-raising and
public education. The study also showed that many
young people are facing the spectre of permanent
unemployment, and there is therefore a need to
give attention to programmes and spaces for young
people to access resources and platforms that can
better support their agency for change. There is
a need to give attention to the boundary zones
between formal and informal education and new
modalities of learning that can be made available to
young people, particularly through coalition building
and use of ICT.
The fth TESF transformative praxis pathway focusses on the strengthening
of interventions that support the inclusion and safety of women and girl
children in education and learning for sustainable futures.
SECTION FOUR / 49
TESF Transformative Praxis Pathway 6:
Strengthen multisectoral and multidisciplinary policy interventions to strengthen sustainable
development of society at all levels
Chrono system influences:
Globalisation and COVID-19 spread
... shaping SADC responses and
policies
Macro-level influences:
National and regional level
policies, issues and practices
(e.g. lockdown measures)
Meso influences:
Regional and/provincial
level policies, issues and
responses
Micro-level
perspectives
Stories/experiences
at a local level
International
organisations: e.g.
UNESCO, United Nations
Environment Programme
(UNEP), SADC and others:
What to do with the
recommendations already
made? Investigate why
they are so hard to
implement
There is need for deeper
analysis of the politics of
change and exclusion and
a need to think wider than
resilience; social justice
should be in strong focus
along with sustainable
futures
National, provincial and
local governments
Emphasise accountability
and social justice
approaches in
multisectoral policy
partnerships
Political will is needed, not
only policy and
partnerships for
sustainable development
action that matters to
people
Institutions associated
with TESF
Emphasise collaboration
and working together;
inter-disciplinarity and
systematic approaches and
agency for change
People associated with
TESF
Proactively develop
collective agency
response-ability
Give attention to ethics
and psychosocial
dynamics of education,
training and learning,
cognitive aspects and
skills development
Embrace the potential of
transformative,
transgressive capabilities
and seek out support of
these
Figure 12: Multilevel recommendations for policy-making and interventions at dierent levels
of the system
(The purple jagged icons indicate leverage points that represent opportunities for transformative change.)
Policy development processes for ESD, and thus also
TESF work going forward, need to be multisectoral
and multidisciplinary (SADC REEP, 2006), as has
also been strongly revealed across this report. Such
policy development processes require that the
range of stakeholders include – but not be limited to
– education sector actors, water, food and livelihood
development actors, gender activists and other actors
concerned with human wellbeing, social justice and
wider concerns such as sustainable development
in the SADC region. Co-operative governance and
special eorts are needed to ensure policy synergy.
As we found across this study, policy disjuncture
between water and food systems, or water and
education systems, or education and social welfare
systems can have extreme adverse eects in times
of crisis, and “building forward better”, enabling “just
recovery” and moving TESF forward should adopt
50 / Education for Sustainable Development and COVID-19 in Southern Africa
multisectoral and joint approaches to policy within
a wider social justice and sustainable development
framework that is oriented towards addressing
historical marginalisation and ensuring equity of
opportunity for all.
Our study has shown that issues in education are
intersectional, and in order to address the region’s
education development agenda that seeks to
achieve a harmonised education sector in ensuring
“sustainability, integration, resource allocation and
eective realisation of the objectives of improved
access, retention and educational outcomes” (SADC,
2015: 12), there is a need to adopt a multisectoral
approach to education and sustainable development.
SADC (2015) also indicates that it aims to help
integrate, enhance and promote principles of ethics
and care in “teaching and learning, increasing access
to quality education and training, and supporting
regional integration across the region” (15). As
shown across this report, this is a complex process
with relationships of many dynamics (i.e. it is not
just about policy-making within the education
sector, but rather policy-making in synergy with the
education and other sectors) that is at the same time
historical, social, political, cultural and material (i.e.
economic and biophysical). The COVID-19 pandemic
has highlighted this need for better intersectoral
and joint multilevel policymaking starkly, as has
the data shared across this study. For this TESF
transformative praxis pathway, we oer the following
recommendations for the multileveled system:
The diagram above indicates some of the leverage
points that were identied for transformative change
at the dierent levels of the system.
At international and regional levels, it was
noted that there are already many documents
and agreements with recommendations to
governments. However, it was also noted
that it appears very dicult to have these
recommendations implemented. This points
to the need to investigate why they are so
hard to implement despite the good intentions
and the many deliberations and forums that
are associated with developing and signing
up for the recommendations. TESF work, at
this level, could focus on developing a deeper
understanding of the politics of change and
exclusion, and how it is enabling/constraining
advances towards transforming education for
sustainable futures at transboundary levels. It
was also noted that the international tendency
in disaster risk reduction discourse (e.g. climate
change discourse) is to rely on the concept of
22 https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000370215
resilience as a core concept to shape responses.
Researchers in this study felt, however, that
stronger concepts such as social justice and
sustainable futures building should be used to
avoid a conservative response associated with
resilience discourse. Additionally, as indicated at
the start of this report, a “build forward better”
discourse is needed in place of “build back
better” discourse. This needs to be combined
with “just recovery” discourse and discourses
that embrace transformation and regenerative
agency for change. These recommendations
are necessary to ensure that transnational
policy-making takes full account of the histories
of marginalisation and exclusion and the
deep structural dynamics of these, as is also
recommended in the UNESCO ESD 2030 Agenda
intergovernmental agreement (UNESCO,
2019)22.
At national, provincial and local government
levels of the system, there is a greater need
to take seriously and to strongly orient policy
initiatives and interventions towards true
social justice commitments that emphasise
accountability and eliminate corruption. For
this to happen, political will oriented towards
sustainability and social justice is needed at all
levels of the system, and it was recognised that
this needs to be developed in society. TESF work
could include a focus on education for policy
actors, politicians and policy-makers with this in
mind. Putting people rst, especially those most
marginalised, lies at the heart of sustainable
democracies. This means including the voices
of all concerned in decision-making at all levels
of the system. More eort needs to go into
building a deep understanding of participatory
democracy and its implications for sustainable
action and sustainable development of society,
and TESF work could adopt a focus on these
aspects of education, training and social
learning.
At the level of institutions and organisations
associated with TESF work (e.g. NGOs,
education institutions, civil society groups, social
movements and those working on development
of e-learning programmes), there is the need
to develop approaches that can strengthen
relationship building across multiple actors in
society. These approaches should be oriented
towards facilitating co-learning, partnership
building, inclusion of people’s voices, and
agency for change at all levels of the system.
Institutions and organisations associated with
TESF work are potentially important mediators
SECTION FOUR / 51
of change in and across a diversity of settings.
Interagency co-operation, multisectoral co-
operation and new partnerships between civil
society, economic partners, the environmental,
water and food sectors, the education sector,
and the governance sector can be facilitated
in and through TESF work, based on principles
of social justice, sustainability and solidarity
with the most marginalised and excluded
members of society and with current and future
generations. As indicated in the report, young
people’s movements have potential to be strong
actors in this work, given the space for showing
up and stepping into their power to take up
strong roles in this work.
At the level of individual people or community
groups associated with TESF, there is the need
for all to “step into their power” to take up agency
for change and their response-ability. The
potential for this was shown across the report
when parents, teachers, healthcare workers,
farmers, young people, government ocials
“stepped up” to the challenges of the COVID-19
pandemic crisis situation and exercised their
agency for change, helping children, sick
members of society and others to cope with
the situation, and being part of reimagining
a dierent future for all. As indicated in this
report, our