SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SKILLS FOR AFRIC A’S DE VELOPMENT APRIL 2014 85806 Africa Centers of Excellence: Transforming Science & Technology Education Africa’s Higher Education Challenges KEY MESSAGES n Africa has experienced strong economic growth despite recent global A strong focus on basic education has strengthened the foundation downturns. There has been a resurgence of traditional sectors such as of Africa’s education system. agriculture and the extractive industries, and promising new sectors have emerged such as Information and Communications Technology (ICT). However, tertiary education in n African economies urgently need highly skilled technicians, engineers, Sub-Saharan Africa is under- developed, and with the medical workers, agricultural scientists and researchers to fuel these exception of a few in South Africa, booming sectors. universities in Africa do not figure n Higher education, particularly in science and technology, holds the in the top 500 in the world. African potential to be absolutely transformative for Africa, because it can universities have also not kept equip young people with critical knowledge and skills that are in short pace with Africa’s labor market supply on the continent. needs. Given that sectors such n Regional “centers of excellence” offer an optimal way to build and as the extractive industries, ICT sustain excellence in higher education in Africa because they foster and agriculture are booming, regional specialization, concentrate limited top-level faculty, and Africa needs local graduates with generate knowledge spillovers. up-to-date skills and knowledge n The Africa Centers of Excellence (ACE) is an initiative of the World in these productive areas. At Bank and participating African governments in collaboration with the present, such graduates are in Association of African Universities. This innovative regional initiative short supply, and countries must will help make higher education in West & Central Africa more relevant act quickly to reverse this trend to development through 19 competitively selected centers in Burkina and produce more graduates who Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, and Togo. can both contribute to as well as benefit from new opportunities as economies grow and diversify. costs of higher education. Public lack of research funding and Funding the expansion of higher funding should target low-income equipment and limited autonomy education and raising the quality students and strategic areas of are disincentives for faculty to of tertiary programs cannot be higher education. remain in African universities. This the sole responsibility of country Tertiary institutions in Africa face is particularly challenging in fragile governments, because public severe constraints in attaining and post-conflict countries. funding is limited. In fact, in 33 a critical mass of quality faculty. Dynamic and empowered low-income African countries, The average share of staff institutional leadership is critical there has been a decline in with PhDs in public tertiary for institutional excellence. Legal per-student expenditure from education institutions in Africa frameworks for tertiary governance US$ 6,800 in 1980 to US$ 981 is estimated to be less than 20 and leadership in many African in 2010. For higher education percent (estimate based on countries are helpful because they to be sustainable, households data from 10 African countries). require merit-based selection of and companies must also invest Most departments do not have chief executive officers (rectors/ in the system. The majority of more than one or two senior vice-chancellors), governing higher education students come professors, which prevents them bodies, academic autonomy, and from households capable of from establishing vibrant research reasonable financial autonomy. substantially contributing to the environments. Low salaries, However, in countries where legal frameworks and governance private non-university institutions The project is focusing on practices are not conducive to have emerged in Africa, and private strengthening 19 centers of good governance, policy changes institutions now cater to one in excellence in West and Central should aim to create greater four students. Public funding could Africa. About US$ 8 million financial autonomy, and enhance be oriented towards supporting is proposed as investment in the accountability of the institution equitable access to higher education, each center. Centers have been and the governing body. This will and investing in areas of low return competitively selected using help institutions function without for private institutions but high internationally benchmarked periodic disruption and delay. social return, such as expensive life- criteria. Participating countries The gap between labor market sciences programs. include Benin, Burkina Faso, demand and programs offered Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal by tertiary education institutions Africa Centers of and Togo and The Gambia. has led to a situation where jobs Excellence The Association of African are available but there are not To meet Africa’s growing skills enough suitable graduates to fill Universities (AAU) is the key needs and higher education regional partner in this initiative, them. Priority actions to address challenges, the World Bank in this gap should include expanding in collaboration with regional collaboration with West and Central science and technology capacity bodies including the African Union, African countries has launched the at the university level, bringing the Economic Community of Africa Centers of Excellence project, in employer recommendations West African States, West African which aims to: regarding curricula, tying up with Monetary Union (UEMOA), East n promote regional specialization industry to set up internships for African Community (EAC) and the students, and developing general among participating universities African and Malagasy Council of skills that increase employability in areas that address specific Higher Education (CAMES) and such as learning-to-learn, problem- common regional development through development partnerships solving, project and team-work, and challenges. with the African Development communication skills. n strengthen the capacities of these Bank, USAID, AusAID, French Fast-tracking the growth of private universities to deliver high-quality Development Agency (AFD), the sector involvement in higher training and applied research. Carnegie Foundation, and several education will offer more educational n meet the demand for skills higher education and research possibilities for youth. Over 1,000 required for Africa’s development. networks. Table 1. Percentage of higher education graduates by field of study Benin Burkina Faso Cameroon Ghana Brazil (2009) (2011) (2010) (2011) (2010) Agriculture 0.8 1.5 - 7.4 1.8 Education - 7.6 10.3 25.6 22.8 Engineering, manufacturing and construction 5.6 2.8 4.0 3.9 5.8 Health and welfare 2.8 0.6 2.3 3.4 13.9 Humanities and arts 14.5 11.4 6.4 - 2.2 Social sciences, business and law 52.5 55.6 59.2 43.2 40.2 Science 3.5 15.0 17.0 15.5 5.5 Services 7.5 5.5 - - 2.9 Unspecified programs 12.6 - - 1.1 5.0 Total number of graduates 14,638 14,782 40,327 28,005 1,024,743 Source: UNESCO UIS, http://stats.uis.unesco.org retrieved March 25, 2013. 2 SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SKILLS FOR AFRICA’S DEVELOPMENT n Provide learning resources and HOW CENTERS HAVE evaluation and, finally, fiduciary BEEN SELECTED capacity evaluation. laboratories, and rehabilitate existing facilities. The Africa centers of excellence At the end of this thorough and n Establish linkages with compa- were selected through a process of transparent evaluation exercise, 19 rigorous independent evaluation proposals were selected (Table 2). nies, government agencies, and facilitated by the AAU. An research centers for workplace The idea is that the qualifying learning, input into curricula, independent team of evaluation universities will: consultancies, and joint research. professionals, consisting of members n Strengthen post-graduate from the African educational and n Collaborate with partner programs for a regional student institutions to share the benefits scientific community, the African body. of the investments, for example, diaspora and global technical n Offer specialized courses for through training of faculty, experts, reviewed 52 proposals. These proposals were subjected industry professionals in the region. sharing of curricula, and sharing to several stages of evaluation n Establish a regional faculty body of learning resources. including desk reviews, an external and attract additional highly The project will support knowledge evaluation, site and leadership qualified faculty. partnerships with universities and Table 2. Competitively selected Africa Centers of Excellence Africa Center of Excellence Lead Institution & Country Discipline ACE for Agricultural Development and Federal University of Agriculture, Nigeria Agriculture Sustainable Environment ACE for Training Plant Breeders, Seed Scientists University of Ghana, Ghana Agriculture and Technologists ACE for the Poultry Sciences Université de Lomé, Togo Agriculture ACE for Dryland Agriculture Bayero University, Nigeria Agriculture ACE for Food Technology and Research Benue State University, Nigeria Agriculture ACE for Genomics of Infectious Diseases Redeemers University, Nigeria Health ACE for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens University of Ghana, Ghana Health ACE for Neglected Tropical Diseases and Forensic Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria Health Biotechnology ACE for Phytomedicine Research and Development University of Jos, Nigeria Health ACE for Reproductive Health and Innovation University of Benin, Nigeria Health ACE for Maternal and Infant Health Université Cheikh Anta Diop, Senegal Health ACE for Materials African University of Science and Technology, Nigeria STEM ACE for Applied Mathematics Université d'Abomey – Calavi, Bénin STEM ACE for Information and Communication Technologies Université de Yaoundé I, Cameroon STEM ACE for Water, Energy, and Environment Sciences Institut International d'Ingénierie de l'Eau et de STEM / and Technologies l'Environnement (2iE) Agriculture ACE for Oil Field Chemicals University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria STEM ACE for Water and Environmental Sanitation Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana STEM ACE for Science, Technology and Knowledge Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria STEM ACE for Mathematics, Informatics, and ICT University of Gaston Berger, St. Louis, Senegal STEM AFRICA CENTERS OF EXCELLENCE: TRANSFORMING SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION 3 international research networks, A WIN-WIN SITUATION non-governmental organizations allow universities to forge that partner with the centers will The Africa centers of excellence will knowledge partnerships with the gain interns and graduates with benefit individuals, institutions and private sector to strengthen curricula highly relevant training; and faculty and research, support institutions industries. Students at the centers and staff in the centers will benefit to meet international standards will benefit from quality research- from improved teaching and and generate income through based education in high-demand research conditions. consultancies. areas; companies, government or Box 1. How the Africa Centers of Excellence will contribute to Africa’s development West Africa Center for Crop Improvement (WACCI), University of Legon, Ghana This center will contribute towards significantly improving the quality of training in plant breeding at the PhD and the MPhil levels and ensure that the plant breeders and seed technologists have the capacity to develop superior varieties of staple crops to spark a green revolution in West and Central Africa. The center will focus on developing superior climate-smart and resilient varieties of staple crops such as. cassava, sweet potato, maize, sorghum, pearl millet, rice, groundnuts and cowpea to increase productivity using genomic and conventional tools. It will address both abiotic stresses (e.g. drought, heat, salinity) and biotic ones (pests and diseases) by identifying useful genes for plant breeding. To do this efficiently and effectively, the Biotechnology Center will collaborate with other partners on cutting-edge research necessary for quick progress in plant breeding. The center has already developed over 1,200 maize hybrids which have been under evaluation at the WACCI farm site, and these will now be evaluated at multiple locations in the sub-region. A genotyping platform will be accessed to genotype the advanced lines for detailed analysis of both phenotypic and genotypic data and mine genes of economic importance for use in breeding programs. Center of Excellence for Neglected Tropical Diseases and Forensic Biotechnology (CNFB), University of Benin, Nigeria Biotechnology tools and techniques are now widely applied to address environmental, food, health, security and socio- economic issues as well as to provide answers to research questions. However, this technology is still underutilized in Nigeria due to lack of adequate capacity. Executing these activities will create a learning environment that can train students at the postgraduate level. The objective is to produce students who are capable of generating ideas that will inspire critical thinking, and communicating and interpreting these ideas. Many will obtain postgraduate qualifications and fill existing human capital gaps in the control of neglected tropical diseases and forensic biology. MORE ON THE TOPIC • Africa Centers of Excellence - Project documents. http://www.worldbank.org/projects/P126974/strengthening-tertiary-education-africa- through-africa-centers-excellence?lang=en • Watkins A and Ehst M, eds. (2008). Science, Technology and Innovation: Capacity - Building for Sustainable Growth and Poverty Reduction. World Bank. Washington, D.C. World Bank (2007). • World Bank (2011). The Road to Academic Excellence: The Challenge of Establishing World Class Universities • World Bank (2010). Accelerating Catch-Up - Tertiary Education for Growth in Africa. World Bank (2011): Stocktaking of Regional Networks in Africa. • World Bank (2007): Cultivating Knowledge and Skills to Grow African Agriculture. • Fagerberg J and Srholec M (2008). Technology and development: Unpacking the relationship(s). Paper presented at the sixth Globelics Conference. 22–24 September. Mexico City. www.globelics.org • Juma C and Serageldin I (lead authors) (2007). Freedom to Innovate: Biotechnology in Africa’s Development. A report of the High - Level African Panel on Modern Biotechnology. AU and NEPAD. Addis Ababa and Pretoria. www.nepadst.org • New Partnership for Africa’s Development (2003). Developing a science and technology strategic framework: A synthesis report of the first workshop. April. www.nepadst.org • New Partnership for Africa’s Development (n.d.). Governing science, technology and innovation in Africa: Building national and regional capacities to develop and implement strategies and policies. www.nepadst.org