Universities, Communities, and Service-Learning for Urban Development: Rethinking the Work of Kaya Clínica in Maputo, Mozambique

Abstract

Urban areas in low-income countries are confronted with major challenges, including poverty, urban deterioration, unemployment, and informality. With the low capacity of local governments to respond to the increasing demands of a growing urban population, anchor institutions are called upon to leverage their permanent strategic positions to contribute to social and economic development in their areas of influence. Universities are distinctive anchor institutions with a strategic position to use their expertise and resources to drive change in the communities in which they operate, mainly for the underserved. However, academic-local community relationships are historically rooted in extractive practices, with little or no contribution to improving local people’s lives. This thesis explores alternatives for building strong and mutually beneficial collaborations between universities and their surrounding neighbors that can effectively create long-lasting community welfare through service-learning. Through service-learning, university students gain valuable experience for their careers, faculty learn to improve their curriculum to match emerging needs and advance their scholarship, and local communities get the support they need to address an issue they lack the expertise or resources to act on independently.

In this thesis, I specifically examine the work of Universidade Eduardo Mondlane (UEM) in the Mozambican capital of Maputo and its relationship with the informal communities of the George Dimitrov neighborhood through a service-learning organization called Kaya Clínica. Kaya Clínica aims to address housing and urbanization challenges in underserved communities to help identify strategies the university can implement to improve its contribution to generating long-lasting welfare for the communities they work with. Through semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with different people in the neighborhood, university students, and professors, I find that an effective academic-community partnership in this context requires a new paradigm of trust and respect between the university and the communities being studied in order to promote fairness and equality in deliberation, mutual support featuring co-production, dissemination, and to advance the use of knowledge to address real-life needs. More time and dedicated effort are needed to build strong, lasting connections and collaborations between UEM and local communities. This involves active listening, demands effective participation, entails continuing negotiation, and calls for solid win-win strategies to be defined and co-designed from the start.