SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SKILLS FOR AFRIC A’S DE VELOPMENT MARCH 2014 86063 Applying Science, Engineering and Technology for African Competitiveness and Development In pursuit of the Millennium Development Goals, most KEY MESSAGES African nations have significantly n The direct link between Applied Sciences, Engineering and increased the likelihood that Technology (ASET) and economic growth is widely accepted. children will survive childhood, n Most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have made rapid gains in child enter primary school and gain access to secondary education. survival and progress from primary to secondary school; however, just As a result of science education 8 percent of university-age youth are in university, and only 1 percent efforts at the secondary school will graduate in a science or engineering field. level, they are also more likely to n This situation is now changing, with increased attention being paid develop an interest in science to ASET by the African Union, NEPAD, UNESCO, and many others, and mathematics. Yet today, less and African research capacity is beginning to diversify in response to than 8 percent of the university- country demand. age cohort in Africa is fortunate n African countries need to devise customized ASET strategies that enough to enter university. More can support national strategies for economic growth and respond to importantly, only one out of every pressing challenges, as well as collaborate on regional initiatives and six students who enters university institutions. In doing so, they can draw on rich lessons of experience. is likely to graduate in a science or n Science, Technology and Innovation can be measured by two sets engineering field (UNDP 2013: 188- 189). That is just 1 percent of the of indicators: Output (achievements in knowledge generation) university-age cohort. and input (trends in the enabling conditions for scientific and technological production). However, attention is increasingly being paid to university education in applied sciences, engineering and technology (ASET). The direct increasing foreign direct investment based on collaboration rather link between ASET capabilities (as create a propitious environment for than competition may achieve well as higher education more investments in ASET. the most in the long run. This is generally) and long term economic particularly true with regard to growth is now widely accepted. Working towards the expansion of PhD programs, quality research and specialized Half of Africa’s population is a Common Goal ASET capabilities. expected to be urban by 2030. African countries are faced with This catalyzes the demand for A number of initiatives are a common task: to create and applied science solutions to areas underway. For example, the African sustain relevant capacities for Union (AU) approved a Science such as water and sanitation, applied science, problem-solving power generation and supply, and Technology Consolidated Plan engineering and technology of Action in 2006, which seeks to air quality and environmental that can support national expand research and development preservation, and transportation growth strategies. The limited (R&D) capacities, improve and telecommunications. As economic size of many countries policymaking and promote this shift occurs, African research capacity, which has tended to focus suggests that an approach technological innovation. An on agriculture, is now starting to diversify into public health, industrial Broadly interpreted, science, technology and innovation technologies, and business services. are now accepted as the foundation of economic change. Robust economic growth and — NEPAD, 2010 immediate response by the Nelson and technological production. The is excluded), the total number of Mandela Institution in 2007 led to discussion below is based on a PhD students in the SADC countries the establishment of the African forthcoming study of ten countries: was just 0.2 percent of the total University of Science and Technology Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, university student population. On in Abuja, Nigeria. A second concrete Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, the bright side, a little over half of outcome is the establishment of Rwanda, Senegal and Tanzania. the 143 PhD degrees awarded by the Pan-African University, (PAU) a these universities in 2007 were in post-graduate training and research OUTPUT INDICATORS science, engineering and technology network of university hubs in five (Kotecha 2008:87). PhDs. A 2012 assessment of PhD regions, with a strong emphasis education in Africa identified a host Scientific publications. The output on science and technology. Both of challenges: funding shortages for of African scientific publications has NEPAD and UNESCO are working students and institutions; limited increased over the past 15 years, on improving and standardizing institutional capacities; duplication tripling across 26 African countries national monitoring capacity for of programs; poor quality student from 10,082 in 1996 to 33,825 in 2010 science and technology. supervision; poor information (Arencibia 2012) with Algeria, Egypt, sharing; constraints on academic Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa How Far has Africa freedom; weak links to industry; contributing 86 percent of the total Advanced in Science, and inadequate responsiveness to (NEPAD 2010). Between 2004 and Technology and national economic and social needs 2008, Botswana, the Gambia, Kenya, Innovation? Malawi, Mozambique, and Uganda (MacGregor 2013). achieved higher than world-average Measuring national performance At present, about 7 percent of the citation rates (Nordling, 2009). Scien- in science, technology and region’s higher education students tific papers for eight of the ten study innovation (STI) is a comparatively are pursuing postgraduate degrees. countries over the 2005-2009 period new undertaking. STI performance But the share of students engaged revealed that agricultural, medical can be measured in terms of in PhD studies is far less. In Ethiopia, and natural sciences plus engineering outputs and inputs. Output only one percent of the country’s accounted for 74 to 93 percent of all indicators track achievements in more than half a million university publications (Table 1). The dominant knowledge generation, whereas students are pursuing PhD studies category was medical and health input indicators reveal trends in the (Ministry of Education 2013:241). In sciences, reflecting the high research enabling conditions for scientific southern Africa (when South Africa priority given to infectious diseases. Table 1. Distribution of scientific papers by disciplinary area (percent), 2005-2009 Burkina Disciplinary Area Ethiopia Ghana Kenya Malawi Mozambique Senegal Tanzania Faso Natural sciences 3% 18% 12% 12% 7% 8% 35% 11% Engineering, energy 2% 2% 4% 2% 2% 2% 5% 3% and technology Medical and health 68% 28% 38% 34% 63% 49% 47% 47% sciences Agricultural, biological, veterinary, and 10% 42% 30% 36% 18% 15% 6% 30% environmental sciences Sub-total 83% 90% 84% 84% 90% 74% 93% 91% Social sciences, 6% 9% 14% 8% 9% 7% 6% 8% law, business Education 0% 0% 1% 0% 0.5% 0% 0.5% 0% Humanities and arts 0% 0.3% 0.7% 0.5% 0.1% 0% 0.3% 0.3% Other 1% 0.7% 1% 2% 0.5% 0.2% 0.5% 1% TOTAL PUBLICATIONS 751 2,408 2,022 4,971 1,047 462 1,333 2,570 Source: NEPAD, African Innovation Outlook 2010, Table 5B.2. 2 SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SKILLS FOR AFRICA’S DEVELOPMENT Patents. An indicator of a country’s Table 2. Percent of tertiary education students enrolled in Science, ability to innovate is the number of Engineering and Technology disciplines, 1986–2012 new patents awarded to its citizens 1986-89 2003-2004 2010-2012 over a given time period. The region was awarded 843 patents Burkina Faso 32 32 24 during 2008-2012, which was a Cote d'Ivoire 28 26 25 33 percent increase over the 633 Ethiopia 40 31 30 patents it obtained from 2000 Ghana 42 35 25 to 2004. This is an encouraging trend, reflecting a number of Kenya 32 47 29 factors including productivity of Malawi 17 59 54 researchers. Mozambique 61 37 22 Rwanda 26 20 33 INPUT INDICATORS Senegal 39 26 -- The most common input indicators Tanzania 9 34 14 are higher education enrollments, postgraduate programs, academic Source: World Bank 2000: Table F; World Bank 2009:49; UNESCO Institute of Statistics. staff qualifications, research UNESCO data from 1999. funding, research infrastructure, and information and communication Research funding. In 2006, the AU nations in 2006 (ADB 2008). This technologies (ICT) development. endorsed a target of one percent will change as awareness of how The level of women’s participation of GDP for R&D investment in its applied research can fuel economic in research and postgraduate member countries. While there has growth becomes widespread. studies should also be monitored. been some progress, only Malawi, Enrollments. Enrollments in science, South Africa and Uganda invest What Makes a Good engineering and technology more than one percent of their GDP ASET Strategy? disciplines have declined over the in R&D (NEPAD 2010). Nigeria, with its oil resources and large university A contemporary national ASET past ten years in all study countries strategy should have the following except Rwanda (Table 2). The system dedicates just 0.2 percent of its GDP to R&D. features: percentage of university students n Aligned national, sector and pursuing doctoral degrees in Africa ICT development. The quality and is rarely more than one percent of relevance of research activities in sub-sector strategies, including the total, and often much less. The any nation depends significantly shared overall goals for innovation number of postgraduate students as on its ability to retrieve information and science and technology a portion of total tertiary enrollment worldwide at non-prohibitive costs. development varies from 0.3 to 7 percent among African countries vary considerably n Pertinent PhD programs the ten study countries; the share of with regard to internet access, n Effective staff development and Master’s degree students enrolled computer ownership, and cellular retention policies in sciences and engineering is phone ownership. At best (Kenya, 42 percent in Malawi, 65 percent n Higher education curricula geared Ghana, Senegal), roughly one out in Mozambique, and 15 percent of ten families owns a computer. towards relevance in Tanzania. Only 25 percent of More commonly, it is one out of n Applied research legitimized by postgraduate students are women every 25 families or less. In seven competitive funding (UIS/UNESCO, 2014). of the ten study countries, half n Synergistic public, private and Staff qualifications. Training, or more of the population has a international partnerships recruiting and retaining PhD- cellular phone. In Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire cellular phone ownership is n A pipeline of science- and holders has been a constant challenge, given the reality of the essentially universal. math-literate secondary school brain drain. Half of African doctoral Institutional infrastructure for graduates students who study abroad are research. In terms of capacities In addition, ASET programs (like unlikely to return to their home for applied research only 35 R&D other vocational, tertiary education, institutions (IAU 2010). centers existed within 53 African and research programs) flourish APPLYING SCIENCE, ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY FOR AFRICAN COMPETITIVENESS AND DEVELOPMENT 3 when there is an appropriate n Effective monitoring and n A competitive research governance and financing evaluation. grants program framework covering the following: Forming a national STI team helps n A PhD scholarship program n Governance mechanisms at the countries create a network of n Research libraries/internet system level and at the institution resources and expertise that boosts (access to information) level (including institutional their capacity for ASET. Commonly, n Industry-University linkage governance and financial the main players on an STI team are: management mechanisms), which mechanisms n University postgraduate programs promote high quality and results. n A Parliamentary committee n A research university on Science &Technology n Funding mechanisms that promote efficiency and quality. n A national research council Box 1. Lessons of Experience in Devising ASET Strategies Countries that decide to further develop their national capabilities for applied sciences, engineering and technology can draw upon suggestions and experiences generated by earlier such efforts. Strategies should concentrate on developing a few good quality scientific institutions that can serve as models for others. Additional considerations include: • Scientific institutions should comprise more than just R&D centers or university institutes. They should also involve postgraduate programs, especially PhD programs. • Institutional development should begin by focusing on niche areas of research crucial to the national interest where some critical mass of researchers and research output already exists. • These selected scientific institutions should be provided with enough independent research funding so that they will not have to rely on contracted research for their survival. • Scientific institutions should be autonomous enough to allow (i) scientific vision and values to coalesce into a true culture of research, and (ii) efficient, flexible management of human and financial resources. • Investment in ICTs must be continuous. • Training and technical guidance should be provided in the management of research and postgraduate programs. • Modern and applied research works best when scientists and engineers from different scientific fields collaborate in multi-disciplinary research. Government ministries should not hold separate responsibilities for basic and applied research, and teaching and research should not be divorced from one another (World Bank 2007). • Good channels of communication and linkages for cooperation should be pro-actively developed between scientific institutions and business enterprises. MORE ON THE TOPIC • Adams, Jonathan, Christopher King and Daniel Hook. 2010. Global Research Report: Africa. April. Leeds, UK: Evidence by Thomson Reuters. • African Development Bank. 2008. Strategy for Higher Education, Science and Technology. Tunis: ADB. ties. Studies in Higher Education, 38, April. • Arencibia-Jorge, Ricardo. 2012. Scientific Development in African Countries: a scientometric approach 1996–2009. International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications. • Bloom, David, David Canning and Kevin Chan. 2006. Higher Education and Economic Development. Africa Human Development Series No. 102. Washington, DC: World Bank • Makoni, Munya, Alex Abutu and Otulah Owuor. 2011. Different strokes for science education in Africa. Africa Science, Technology and Innovation News. September 5. • Mohamedbhai, Goolam. 2012. Research, Networking, and Capacity Building in Africa, International Higher Education No. 68, Summer, pp. 21- 23. • UNESCO. 2006. Revitalizing Science and Technology Training Institutions in Africa: The Way Forward. Action Plan produced by participants at the First African Conference of Vice-Chancellors, Provosts and Deans of Science, Engineering and Technology. Held in Accra, Ghana on November 15-17, 2005. Nairobi: UNESCO Regional Bureau for Science. • Urama, Kevin Chika, Nicholas Ozor, Ousmane Kane and Mohamed Hassan. 2010. Sub-Saharan Africa. UNESCO Science Report 2010: The Current Status of Science around the World. Paris: UNESCO. • World Bank. 2009. Accelerating Catch-up: Tertiary Education for Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa. Directions in Development Series. Washington, DC: World Bank.