BARRIERS TO THE SUSTAINABLE PROCUREMENT OF BUILT UNIVERSITY ASSETS IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

Abstract

The commitment of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to Sustainable Development (SD) seems to be yielding limited positive results. This is evident in the procurement of infrastructure within HEIs situated in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Besides being part of a wider study into Sustainable Procurement (SP) of infrastructure in SSA HEIs, this study reports on facilities directors’ perceptions of sustainable procurement in HEIs within SSA. A phenomenological research design was utilised. Forty-Three HEIs across two different countries in SSA- Nigeria and South Africa were selected based on purposive and convenience sampling. Facilities directors in these HEIs were interviewed through face-to-face and telephone interview sessions. Documents concerning the procurement of infrastructure were also reviewed. Emergent data from these sources were thematically analysed. Preliminary findings indicate that Business As Usual (BAU) mode of procurement has remained the norm in most of the HEIs in spite of their profess commitment to SD. Some barriers identified include: the seeming obsession of HEIs, acting as clients, with low front-end cost of project delivery; poor awareness of what SP entails; absence of skills required to champion the cause of SP within such HEIs, and non-specification of SD based requirements in the contracts documents. It is expected that this study would contribute to deepening existing knowledge concerning implementation of SD in HEIs in SSA.