Universities as ‘Global Citizens’:
Reflections and Learning from a Project
on Female Leadership for Sustainable
Development of Fishing Communities
in Colombia
Valeria Ruiz Vargas, Alicia Prowse, and Lina Maria Barrios
1 Introduction
Research funding for projects in countries that are on the list of Official Development
Assistance (ODA)—a measure of flows of international aid—has increased in the
United Kingdom in recent years (UKRI 2020; Centre for Global Development 2019).
Universities have been working on projects through these funding streams that are
increasingly focused on sustainable development and the sustainable development
goals (SDGs). The SDGs have been developed by a consultative process spanning
nations across the globe (UN 2015). Sustainable development is a model with policy
relevance at international level (Estes 2010; Baker et al. 2005). However, sustainable
development has been criticised for representing the views of some communities
over the views of others (Andreotti 2016, 2014; Rajan and Thornhill 2019). For
instance, indigenous people’s worldviews or that of feminist political ecologists may
not fit into the economic growth agenda that is part of the SDGs: for example SDG
8, Decent work and economic growth.
With the range of perspectives that different human communities may value,
universities working on sustainable development projects in ODA countries, may
face ethical dilemmas (Stein et al. 2019) that are not necessarily taken into account by
V. R. Vargas (B) · L. M. Barrios
Department of Natural Sciences, Manchester Metropolitan University, Chester Street, Manchester
M1 5GD, UK
e-mail: V.vargas@mmu.ac.uk
L. M. Barrios
e-mail: Lina.Barrios@mmu.ac.uk
A. Prowse
University Teaching Academy, Manchester Metropolitan University, Oxford Road, Manchester
M15 6BG, UK
e-mail: a.prowse@mmu.ac.uk
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
W. Leal Filho et al. (eds.), Universities, Sustainability and Society: Supporting
the Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, World Sustainability Series,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63399-8_7
91
Reflections and Learning from a Project
on Female Leadership for Sustainable
Development of Fishing Communities
in Colombia
Valeria Ruiz Vargas, Alicia Prowse, and Lina Maria Barrios
1 Introduction
Research funding for projects in countries that are on the list of Official Development
Assistance (ODA)—a measure of flows of international aid—has increased in the
United Kingdom in recent years (UKRI 2020; Centre for Global Development 2019).
Universities have been working on projects through these funding streams that are
increasingly focused on sustainable development and the sustainable development
goals (SDGs). The SDGs have been developed by a consultative process spanning
nations across the globe (UN 2015). Sustainable development is a model with policy
relevance at international level (Estes 2010; Baker et al. 2005). However, sustainable
development has been criticised for representing the views of some communities
over the views of others (Andreotti 2016, 2014; Rajan and Thornhill 2019). For
instance, indigenous people’s worldviews or that of feminist political ecologists may
not fit into the economic growth agenda that is part of the SDGs: for example SDG
8, Decent work and economic growth.
With the range of perspectives that different human communities may value,
universities working on sustainable development projects in ODA countries, may
face ethical dilemmas (Stein et al. 2019) that are not necessarily taken into account by
V. R. Vargas (B) · L. M. Barrios
Department of Natural Sciences, Manchester Metropolitan University, Chester Street, Manchester
M1 5GD, UK
e-mail: V.vargas@mmu.ac.uk
L. M. Barrios
e-mail: Lina.Barrios@mmu.ac.uk
A. Prowse
University Teaching Academy, Manchester Metropolitan University, Oxford Road, Manchester
M15 6BG, UK
e-mail: a.prowse@mmu.ac.uk
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
W. Leal Filho et al. (eds.), Universities, Sustainability and Society: Supporting
the Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, World Sustainability Series,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63399-8_7
91