The Role of the AU in Science and Technology Development in Africa

Here, we discuss some of the tasks the African Union (AU) can pursue in the area of Science and Technology (S&T) to bring prosperity to the African continent. The AU was formed from the Organization of African Unity in 2002, with a new vision of “An integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in the global arena.” In other words, the current African Union (AU) has the mandate to facilitate the search for solutions to the existing and emerging problems of African countries so as to quicken the pace of development. But then, what is going to be the method for development? Is it going to be by orthodox economic methods or by innovation through science and technology?

Africa’s Science and Technology Consolidated Plan of Action makes it clear that, the African Union (AU) acknowledges Science and Technology (S&T) as prerequisites for the rapid transformation of African economies, and to a level that positively impacts the standards of living of the majority of Africans. However, despite the series of meetings, which have occurred over the years to generate ideas to use S&T for Africa’s development, little has been achieved in terms of the general improvement of the standards of living of the African people. That is to say, if the AU only makes recommendations for individual countries to carry them out without taking the responsibility of accomplishing some of the tasks itself, it may be difficult for Africa to meet the millennium development goals (MDGs). Here, I suggest that that the AU also assumes an active role of promoting or establishing Research and Development (R&D) in the area of Science and Technology (S&T). In the ensuing discussion, we shall look at ways the AU can accomplish that for the benefit of the people of Africa.

Almost all countries in Africa are saddled with the common problems of underdevelopment, which we are all aware of, but the information that is not readily available is how efficient different countries in Africa are attempting to solve these problems. So, one of the tasks for the AU will be to compile statistics that identifies countries within Africa, which are able to use S&T to solve the problems of underdevelopment effectively. The R&D facilities in these countries are then assisted by the AU to do intensive and more sophisticated work to increase knowledge in that area of their expertise for the benefit of all Africans. For instance, in Africa, malaria is generally a serious problem, but the capacity to research on malaria to come up with effective solutions may not be available in all countries. This means, it will be prudent for the AU to identify African countries with the infrastructure and research expertise in malaria and assign them the task (with the appropriate resources) to do R&D in malaria for the whole of Africa. In other words Africa will be practicing division of labor with its limited resources to solve some of its key problems.

On the other hand, some of these key problems facing Africa can be solved in the shortest possible time when they are pursued by research and development (R&D) facilities set up by the AU, because these centers of excellence will have the state of the art equipment and highly skilled human resources drawn from across Africa and the developed countries. Currently, some of the key problems pertinent to the development of Africa and the well-being of Africans are in the area of Food Security, Primary Health Care and Energy. Interestingly, these problems can be tackled head-on with Science and Technology. We shall attempt to explain why it will be beneficial to the African people if the AU tackles these problems directly.

Food security means the continuous availability and accessibility of adequate, safe and nourishing food to the people of a country (adapted from WHO). From this definition, we can infer that food security may be a world-wide problem. But for the purposes of this article, we shall limit the discussion to Africa. Currently, Africa has a significant number of undernourished people simply because Africa is not producing enough to feed its people. The reasons for the low production are many, but the main one being the low usage of S&T to transform Agricultural production. We are still depending on rain-fed agriculture, planting crops and rearing animals, which have little resistance to diseases and using outmoded equipment for farming. These prevailing conditions are huge problems which may be difficult to overcome by anyone country and so the AU can step in by establishing facilities (R&D) to develop or adapt to technologies which will dramatically improve yields of food. Such technologies are then passed on/disseminated to individual countries to use. The AU must as well set up policies, which will ensure that these technologies are applied in member countries to increase food production and improve food security.

A high percentage of the health care budget of many African countries deals with preventable diseases. In other words, the Primary Health Care of African countries are more concerned with preventable diseases – mainly communicable diseases. This is not an acceptable situation, because scarce resources which should have been invested in other areas of the health care delivery (for example R&D, training and treatment of non-communicable diseases like cancer, heart disease, kidney disease, diabetes and the like) are devoted to otherwise preventable causes. If we assume that, to a large extent, the governments of Africa are doing their part in educating the public on preventable diseases, then the problem of high expenditures on preventable diseases will more likely be due to the lack of enough or quality medicines to treat the diseases. Incidentally, both of these conditions potentially result in resistance strains of the causative micro-organisms, which further compound the situation, so this is where the AU comes in. It can tackle the problem in two ways, namely, the development of generic drugs in Africa and/or the development of our local medicinal plants. The AU has already taken a bold step in pushing for the idea of development of generic drugs in Africa and a couple or so of African countries like Cameroon have started pursing the idea. The hard fact is that, even in the long-term, only a handful of African countries may be able to pursue this initiative, so what I think has to be done is for the AU to have a regional research and production centers, which will look into developing appropriate technologies for the generic drugs and local medicinal plants, for use by African countries and for export.

Many African countries have not been able to meet their energy needs and that still appears a formidable task for the individual countries to handle. Most of them depend on hydropower for their energy sources, but this source in itself has contributed to the unstable energy supply in African countries. This is because, during droughts volumes of water decrease, and as a result, the amounts of energy being generated from such sources also reduce – sometimes to about 50% or more of the maximum capacity. This means that, alternative renewable energy sources must be explored, for example wind, solar and biomass. But, because it is a heavy task for many individual African countries to pursue, the AU must play a role in it. It can set up an R&D to research into alternative ways of developing clean and renewable energy for Africa as well as for export. Currently, alternative forms of clean and renewable energy development are attractive areas of investment for many countries around the world and the AU can bring a lot of business to Africa if it takes part in that business.

As we are aware, Africa is endowed with a lot of natural resources, that include oil and minerals, which are largely untapped or exported as raw materials. Governments are aware that if they export processed natural resources they stand to gain in terms of more foreign exchange and creation of jobs for the people of the country. However, the situation of exporting unprocessed natural resources has not changed much since the 20^th century, and future prospects are not well defined. And so, what can be done to improve this situation is to have the AU set up R&D facilities and huge industries across Africa, which will seek to research and process our raw materials before exporting them. Such activities are likely to bring huge foreign exchange to the continent and create jobs for many Africans.

All these initiatives suggested here, and to be carried out by the AU, will enhance the S&T capability and capacity of Africa. Consequently, they will attract heavy foreign investment, significantly improve the quality of our exported commodities, create more jobs and improve the well-being of people in Africa. The AU will be able to better accomplish these tasks, if it is well resourced, and so the members must consider setting up and contributing to a fund, which will catalyze the projects the AU will undertake for the benefit of the people of Africa. Please look out for the next article.