development of africa Archives

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.

The Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary 6^th Edition defines the word global as a phenomenon that includes many parts. Moving a step further from this definition, globalization could be described as a concept or phenomenon that includes all parts of the world and also operates around the world; hence the whole world is looked upon as a single community that is connected by electronic communication systems to form a global village.

Globalization goes a step further from these concepts; it also implies and provides the building blocks for the emergence of a homogenous world culture. It is often referred to as the new world order.

It must, however, be argued that globalization as a concept originated from the more developed western countries, as they argued that the economic backwardness of the world in general and the developing countries in particular was a product of the isolation of the developing countries from the world economy. This ” backwardness” it was argued could easily be remedied by greater global economic and cultural integration.

The motives for global integration [globalization] includes

The enhanced efficiency in production made possible by increased specialization in accordance with the law of comparative advantage.
Increased production levels due to better exploitation of economies of scale made possible by the increased size of the market.
An improved international bargaining position made possible by the larger size, leading to better terms of trade
Enforced changes in economic efficiency brought about by enhanced competition.
Changes affecting both the amount and quality of the factors of production due to technological advances.

Whatever its political connotations, globalization, fundamentally, is an economic phenomenon. Desire becomes demand only with the addition of purchasing power; this is true of countries as well as individuals. These economic realities enable countries to pursue their political policies of self interest with varying degrees of success.

Hence, in this discourse, I shall consider the economic and political dimensions of globalization with all other considerations indirect or subordinate to these dimensions.

Globalization and the development of Africa:

The inequality of nations challenges the theory of globalization as a world system; it is common knowledge that African countries fall within the category of countries regarded as underdeveloped. If we examine the structure of an underdeveloped economy, typically such an economy is an importer of capital and technology as well as consumer goods from the developed world. These imported capital and technology play a crucial role in its development.

Domestic substitution for foreign capital and foreign technical know-how is a very costly affair often indeed impossible. This is true whether we think of replication or genuine substitution allowing for the different needs of a poorer country. For most African countries, the export sector is the leading sector which sets the pace for development and shapes the rest of the economy, both the pattern and pace of growth. Typically, size by size, the poorer a country, the more dependent it is on foreign markets, and foreign sources of supply. If the export sector stagnates, so that the inflow of resources from abroad is constrained, the pace of growth and rate of structural change respond accordingly. These factors are highly sensitive to such decline in the availability of foreign resources.

The terms on which the developing countries can obtain foreign exchange, capital and technology reflect the relationship between the rich and poor countries in the world economy.

In the face of the existing distribution of economic power, it is the rich countries who determine the terms, because in the short run, the developing countries in Africa need the products and services of the developed countries much more than the latter needs the output of the former.

Recent statistics obtained have in fact confirmed that Africa’s share in the total world trade is just about 1%. This can be appreciated if we take a look at the international commodity and markets factors, African countries are mainly price takers until very recent trade negotiations and trade policy formulations .This dependence of African countries on developed countries/western countries has far reaching consequences for the development prospects of the former. The existence of such great disparities and one-sided dependence has placed a moral question on the concept of globalization.

Poverty in African countries also reflects essentially the technological gap between them and the rich countries. Even the oil-rich countries are no exceptions in this regard. This results in the developing countries inability to produce by themselves goods which require modern technical know-how and even less to develop an alternative technology substitute.

The trade patterns of African countries show that they usually export crude or processed agriculture or mineral based products. These countries have not succeeded in adapting or replicating for their own countries the technological development that have occurred in the rich countries. This is another fact that we are confronted with that has tended to negate the principle of globalization vis a vis the development of Africa. Although ,the division of the world into developed and underdeveloped countries is an oversimplification ,vast differences in natural endowment ,economic conditions, cultural heritage, social organizations and political traditions are factors that have also tended to broaden the inequalities that exist between the developed countries and Africa in particular ,hence globalization has exacerbated “global poverty” particularly in these African countries

The difference in the material conditions of people living in various parts of the world is reflected graphically in two socio-economic indicators the rate of national literacy and the per capita energy consumption rate. Together these two indices provide a telling measure of sophistication of the production structure of a nation, and they are much significant than indicators based on the sectoral origin of gross domestic product [GDP}.

Literacy in African countries is considerably lower than that in developed/western societies as is per capita energy consumption. This structural characteristic of the economy reflects the inability of African countries to exploit their economic potential and also to enjoy the so called “benefits of globalization”

In fact, about 40 African countries fall within the purview of the poorest countries in the world. The global economic turmoil of recent years has affected developing countries with particular severity. In Africa, the free working of market forces in no way enables countries to counterview the constraints of globalization and multinational capital. The proponents of globalization must recognize that only global redistribution can ensure the development of Africa and that the developing world’s primary needs are far more social rather than private capital accumulation, which globalization entails.

Another dimension to the issue of globalization vis a vis the development of Africa is the activities[s] of multinational companies [MNCs]. These MNCs are agents of developed nations who are advocating a greater role for the free play of market forces without due regard to social factors within these African nations. As a result of these factors, Africa stands the risk of distorted development.

The calamities which this “new world order” is visiting on billions of people around the globe, particularly African nations cannot be quantified. As a matter of fact, globalization has led to a situation whereby the top 20% of humanity now controls 84% of the world’s wealth, while the bottom 20% makes do with a shade of over 1% of the world’s wealth.

The danger in which “wholesale” globalization portends for African countries and their development has been elucidated by Susan George, a Harvard trained economist, in the Lugarno Report [2003]. By the way, Lugano is a town located in Switzerland and sometime in 2003, a group of intellectuals [drawn from all continents in the world] gathered in the resort town to brainstorm about the world’s problems. They came out with what is now referred to as the Lugano report in which they documented the “evils” of globalization vis a vis the developing nations and particularly Africa in which they summarized that the main beneficiaries of globalization are its proponents and the more developed capitalist /Western nations, and that in order to sustain it through the next century and beyond, a sustained strategy needs to be vigorously pursued and implemented.

These has already started: it includes the reduction of population in African countries through the Population Reduction Strategy[PRS], which includes the promotion of genocidal conflicts, and wars, the curtailment of humanitarian assistance to victims of hunger, famine, epidemics and other natural and unnatural tragedies. The purging of the UN of notions like human rights, and equality of nations, the systematic degradation of the quality of foods and medicine sent to 3rd world countries, etc.

In conclusion, it is imperative to remind those who control and direct the free market globalization, that what Africa really needs for development is GLOBAL REDISTRIBUTION, and not this presently skewed globalization. It is this global redistribution that can bring about greater global peace and security. To African nations, I recommend to them a renaissance or better still African Renaissance as the development of Africa does not lie in the hands of anybody but Africans themselves

Tag: development of africa

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

Globalization And The Development of Africa