Third
International Conference of the Third World Science, Technology and Development Forum:
'Capacity
Building and Utilization in Science and Technology in Africa'
K.Y. Amoako,
Executive Secretary, ECA
13 September 1996
Addis Ababa
Keynote Address by
K.Y. Amoako, to the International Conference on Science and Technology in Reconstruction
and Development
23-26 September 1996
University of Natal, South Africa
Mr. Chairman,
Your Excellencies,
Distinguished Experts,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Permit me to greet you from afar.
Had not commitments to chair meetings concerning critical African problems prevented my
being with you, I would have been only too happy to join you for discussion dear to my
heart.
It is a joy to know that you are
gathering for the third major conference of the Third World Science, Technology and
Development Forum. It is fitting that this first, of what I hope will be many such
meetings on this continent, be in South Africa and at this distinguished campus. Here you
will see both the fact that there is advanced science and technology on this continent and
the challenge of involving the bulk of this continent's vibrant population in science-led
development. I salute the hard working organizers of this conference, the University of
Natal, the five distinguished sponsoring institutions, the City of Pietermaritzburg and
the Government and people of South Africa for their making this conference possible. At
the UN Economic Commission for Africa we host a large number of conference and we know
what a complex endeavour it is to produce a major event such as this one.
My assignment is to address the
theme of Capacity Building and Utilization of Science and Technology in Africa. I welcome
this assignment.
Towards Changes
Here in South Africa you can sense
something happening on this continent which is of fundamental importance. It is that
despite the all too tragic travails of this continent, despite problems of learning to
live with each other and of learning to live with our challenging environment, there is a
fundamental optimism growing on this continent. For a while, in the 1980 and the early
part of this decade, we wondered if you could say progress and Africa in the same
sentence. The situation was so bleak that most parents wondered if their children could
have a life even as good as their own childhoods, let alone a better life.
Now long periods of adjustment to
economic realities and the assertion of governmental discipline in a great number of
countries on the continent have begun to pay off. Faith in democracy and pluralism is also
paying off. You can tell the difference in the performance of countries on the continent.
You can sense the determination of peoples to develop for a better future. And nowhere is
this change more important than in South Africa where development here is having a lot to
do with the future development of the entire geographic neighbourhood of nations.
With some years of progress and
growth beginning to become firmly rooted in a number of countries, there is a turning now
to the fundamental social issues which had languished in the 1980s and early 1990s. On
this continent, as elsewhere, the highest possible economic return is in investing in the
basic education of girls. Close behind are investments in the basic education of boys,
provision of health services (particularly maternal and child health), family planning
services, nutrition security and water security.
If you are interested in progress in
Africa, the fundamentals must be reinforced by good governance, democratic and pluralistic
systems, the right macro policy setting, and strong attention to social development. I see
major progress ahead on these fronts in the years ahead not because we are all so
visionary and hopeful, but because this generation of leaders is so realistic and
pragmatic.
But there is more. A progressing
Africa, an Africa striving for its rightful place in the family of peoples in the next
century, must become more science based and to become more science based we must become
not merely passengers but drivers on the information highway.
It is with these thoughts in mind
that I approach my topic.
It is right to group the topics of
capacity building and utilization together. Africa has the twin challenges of building
more capacity in science and technology from simple applied lessons taught to children
right through to post graduate research and it also has the challenge of utilizing far
better the talent and the technologies it has at its disposal.
Good training and good use of
capacities call for some fundamentals.
Income generation through Science
and Technology
As you are all aware, Africa depends
mostly on the export of its raw materials, the income from which has been gradually
eroding over the past years, not only because of the advent of competing new materials and
processes, but also because our commodities are still in the raw form. We need to add
value to our commodities, transform them, and for this we need to apply science and
technology. It is here that we see the urgent need for building and utilising capacities
in science and technology if we want to have enough income to support our economies. How
can we achieve this, follows in the issues I will now raise.
Fostering Communication
Systems for Science and Technology
First and foremost, we have common
cause in opening up our societies for the free flow of information. There are many
constraints to this now. Poverty is perhaps the greatest constraint. If it is too
expensive to learn to read, to buy books, to have access to a computer, and to pay for
college, then we have little hope for spreading the capacities needed for more
science-based development. We have a major challenge in lowering the cost of learning and
communicating, Innovations are needed along the lines of the hand-cranked, self-powered
radio now being produced in South Africa. I encourage you to dream about and to create the
parallels, such as a hand-cranked, self-powered computer, more efficient and lower cost
solar power, and economical cellular phone systems for the rural areas. In the meantime,
we need to start experimenting with new ways of grouping technology to make it accessible
to the poor. For example, community informatics centres, such as we're now seeing in Peru
and other countries, are intriguing, combining the concept of a community library with a
commercial enterprise offering a public service, in this case access to computers on an
hourly basis.
National policies promoting open
information societies are also vital. States fearful about open E-Mail and Fax facilities
must get over their fears. Inadvertently such states are putting a tourniquet on their
development. Not only should there be free access to information flows, there must be low
priced access. If the cost of E-mail internationally is prohibitive, there is yet another
tourniquet on development. It is all well and good to look at maps in developing areas of
the world and colour in the connected countries, but take another look to see if
connectivity is merely an exercise of the few elite or if it encompasses the wider
community. If we believe in pluralistic societies, then the schools systems, the NGOs,
businesses, media and governments are all going to need to become computer literate and to
be able to be plugged in. Internationally, we all have stakes in seeing that connectivity
links Africa and other developing regions. Our experience is that Asian and Latin American
business, government and academia are faster in bringing appropriate technologies and
investment to this continent than are the larger and higher tech centres. We need to
foster South-south linkages in a great many areas and none are more important than in
fostering linkages between our scientific and technological communities.
It is for this reason that the UN
Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) is placing major emphasis on its work in informatics
and in fostering South-South linkages. In the informatics area we are charged by all 53
African states to be the secretariat for the recently approved African Information Society
Initiative. Under this Initiative each country on the continent will develop national
information and communications infrastructure plans. ECA will help stimulate this process
at the national level and will aid coordination at the regional level. On the South-South
front we hope to foster networks of relationships between this continent and other
developing areas. Some of those networks certainly should centre on science and
technology.
Establishing appropriate
national policies for capacity building in S&T
Focusing more intensively on
capacity building of science and technology again brings us to national policies. This is
natural since the nation state is such a preponderant actor in so many African countries.
While some countries have taken
quite seriously the need to foster science and technology based development, in candor, a
number of countries have not put this high on their agenda. That is why ECA plans to
intensify its work with a number of countries to help them foster appropriate S&T
policies.
I look forward to the discussions of
this conference to help identify some of the ways the state can be most helpful to your
community of interests. In our experience there are a number of issues most of which
involve policies rather than programmes, where the state can be particularly helpful.
These include:
- integration of good
science-based knowledge in macro and sectoral policies;
- assuring trade and
monetary policies are favourable for the import of scientific equipment and replacement
parts;
- briefings of officials on
scientific and technology developments and their ramifications for the country;
- promotion of private
sector research and development through incentives for R&D investments so that more
R&D takes place on this continent;
- training of lawyers so
that they can negotiate favourable arrangements for technology sharing;
- and, as I will amplify
later, attention to education.
he list just presented did not
include a lot of capital costs and let me explain why. In past years a good deal of
governmental money was spent on government-sponsored applied technology research. Some of
this paid off, but I would have to say that at best the jury is still out as to whether
this was a wise use of funds. Now it is clearer that market-driven technology development
investments are coming in to their own and can be relied upon increasingly. The case for
government-funded scientific research is also altered. There can now be contemplated more
possibilities of public-private partnerships of various sorts.
Competitiveness through
science and technology
We are aware that through the recent
Uruguay Round/Gatt agreements and globalization of trade and technology, our goods and
services will have to compete with those produced elsewhere. No more shall we benefit from
the protection in tariffs we enjoyed earlier. In this world of stiff competition, our
survival depends on our marshalling science and technology to produce goods and services
that meet the requirements of ISO 9000, and that can be competitive in the world market.
Hence both government and the private sector have to join hands to find ways and means to
promote the development and application of relevant science and technology.
In some areas, of course, there will
continue to be major requirements for research support, uppermost is the case of
agricultural research and the system of international and national research institutions.
But even for these, we must search for leadership and surrounding support which enables
publicly-sponsored research institutions to be far more productive than has been the case
in the past. South-South lessons come into play as there are important lessons for African
research institutions striving to achieve higher productivity in comparable settings.
These considerations also apply to
ECA. In the past we have fostered some 30 regional institutions including the African
Regional Centre for Engineering Design and Manufacturing; the Regional Centre for Services
in Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing; the African Regional Organizations for
Standardization; the African Regional Centre for Technology, and the Regional Centre for
Training in Aerospace Surveys. We are aware that reality changes over time and that there
may be a case for rationalization of some of our sponsored centres and for new
relationships to make the continuing centre more financially viable.
The most important area of capacity
building clearly is through education. A while ago I mentioned that by any measure basic
education pays the highest development dividends, Each of us knows this in our own
experience. The United Nations System-wide Special Initiative on Africa begun earlier this
year, is the first time in history when all UN organizations and the Bretton Woods
institutions have cooperated on a set of concrete actions. At its core is a commitment to
help bring universal basic education to Africa within a decade. While the World Bank has
agreed to mobilize the necessary resources, the hard work will be at the national level,
building on significant expansions already taking place in a number of countries. As
co-chairman of the special Initiative, I appreciate that there is both a quantitative and
a qualitative challenge before us; quantitatively we must bring all children into formal
education with the special need to assure that girls have an equal opportunity to be
educated. There are also serious qualitative challenges to assure that curricula are
appropriate, particularly that we incorporate basic scientific concepts as early as
possible, and develop a science and technology culture.
We recognize that with a major
expansion of basic education there will be an increased demand to expand secondary and
higher education, and that is all to the good. The tasks at these higher levels are
similar to provide for as much inclusiveness as possible and to assure that curricula aim
students for the future.
I can only encourage the African
scientific community and its friends to participate as fully as possible in the
educational reforms coming on this continent. I hope your national societies and
committees partner with education ministries to assure that the coming generation is
prepared to enter in to science-based lives. And I hope your own hiring practices are
equitable so that women can fully and fairly participate in Africa's development future.
Again turning to informatics, I hope that there is pressure and support for augmentation
of the sadly depleted library resources, particularly at institutions of higher education,
here in Africa. CD-ROMs clearly have a growing future and use of campus partnering on an
international scale for highly technical subjects also has a major future. As some of your
know, the World Bank is fostering a virtual university for Africa, but I think that more
important will be various ways of augmenting in-country resources for particular courses
through the use of satellites, CD-ROMs and visiting lectureships. Again, we should target
science and technology subject matters as early users of these techniques.
Ensuring food security and
sustainable development
While doing all these, one issue
that still remains a major challenge to us is the need to ensure food security and
sustainable development. Climate variations coupled with ethnic and other forms of
conflict have recently forced millions into starvation and death. Rural to urban
migrations have reduced the productive capacity of our agricultural community. The
ruthless exploitation of our forests and lands have made the soil less productive. All
these have led to reduced food production and increasing reliance on importation of food,
and consequent drain on our hard-earned foreign currency. Why can't we ensure food
security and sustainable development through the appropriate use of science and
technology? We need to reflect over this.
African diaspora scientists
and Partnership
As we look at our human assets we
also need to remember the African science community living outside of Africa. Africa's
Diaspora of talent is large. I think that for a number of countries the climate for return
is getting better. The dilemma is often posed as to whether it is cheaper to bring back a
Ph.D or to create a new one. I do not see the trade-off in quite this way; I believe we
can encourage the return of many in the Diaspora community while continuing to train new
graduates.
One reason I believe so much in
informatics development is so that we can better link with the Diaspora community and with
other friends of Africa so that new partnerships can be developed. When poor countries are
just taking off, it is often the personal commitment and sacrifice of individuals which
makes partnership possible. The Diaspora and Friends of Africa communities must not be
lost in Africa's development and so I urge that personal involvement which is so necessary
and so irreplaceable.
As we think of new partnerships and
relationships, it is more than a little symbolic that this conference has been put
together by a coalition of NGOs, government-funded autonomous organizations and official
organizations. The implementation of much of what we discuss in this conference will
depend upon coalition efforts of this kind. If we want to foster science and technology,
we must want to foster pluralism, the free flow of ideas and the free association of
peoples. The professional linkages of conferences like this one are vital ones.
As we think about Africa's brighter
future, ECA will be playing its part. We are now in the midst of a major reform and
renewal, improving our programmes, systems and technology.
The hallmarks of our renewal will be
much more emphasis on informatics; on analysis of trends in the economic and social
fields, on the nexus of food security, population and environmental sustainability; on
promoting regional cooperation; on strengthening development management to promote better
public and private sector development, and on fostering science and technology.
At the very heart of our renewal is
the commitment to draw upon and to foster in our work the expertise found ever more
abundantly on this continent. We will do that through linking with existing professional
and policy networks and by forming new networks, as needed, so that we can efficiently
draw upon experts in our policy advisory services, our policy analysis and in joint policy
research. By utilizing the talents in Africa (and also drawing upon talent in the
Diaspora) we expect to operate more efficiently and effectively while helping to showcase
Africa's increasingly significant abilities.
Thus when we meet with groups like
this one, we do so with full encouragement for the process of professional linkages, for
the growth pluralism, for the potential of future partnerships and for the joy of seeing
an important gathering which can help this continent move more surely into the next
century.
Mr. Chairman,
Your Excellencies,
Distinguished Delegates and Experts
Friends,
Thank you for the opportunity of
presenting these remarks. Thank you for your encouraging initiative to hold this
conference here and on subjects dear to our future. And thank you for your willingness to
commit your professionalism and time to the betterment of the lives of the peoples of
Africa. It is in this spirit of confidence in the value of your deliberations that I wish
you great success in this conference. |