Awareness and knowledge of the sustainable development goals in a University Community in Southwestern Nigeria

Abstract

Background: The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is a globally  accepted developmental agenda, and it is expected that everyone everywhere in the world would be aware, knowledgeable and be willing to contribute to its  attainment. This study aims to assess the level of awareness, knowledge of, and attitudes towards the SDGs among members of a university community.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted on 450 students and staff of Osun State University, Southwestern Nigeria, selected from three of its six  multi-campuses via multi-stage sampling. Data were collected by means of  semi-structured questionnaire. Data were analysed using SPSS version 20.0.

Results: The mean age for the respondents was 26(10.2) years. Only 43% of the respondents were aware of the SDGs and only 4.2% had good knowledge of the SDGs. However, 56.3% had positive attitude towards it. More respondents with good knowledge of the SDGs were either acadenic staff or those have been  enlightened via personal study of the SDGs or through other means. Similarly having a positive attitude was associated with being an academic staff/ high level of education as well as belonging to the middle age group. (p<0.05).

Conclusion: The awareness of and attitudes towards the SDGs was just fair. However, the level of knowledge was abysmally low, and this has serious  negative implications for SDGs attainment. Pertinent individual and  population-level methods of enlightening people about the SDGs must be put in place in educational settings; curricular changes are imperative.

Keywords: Attitudes, Awareness, Knowledge, MDGs, SDGs, University