Africa urged to take advantage of technology for development

FOR sub-Saharan Africa, building a knowledge economy “is no longer an option, it is a necessity”, World Bank Institute economic adviser Shahid Yusuf said last week at a University of the Witwatersrand symposium on research and training for sustainable development in Africa.

The region could no longer rely on its resources alone to promote economic growth. It had to find ways of taking advantage of the opportunities inherent in technological change because economic growth was increasingly dependent on technology and knowledge, he said.

Skills development deserved priority because better skills improved economic management and innovation, Yusuf said.

Quality was also vitally important because it was the quality of skills development that had the strongest bearing on growth, he said.

The improvement of educational and training quality needed to cover primary and secondary schooling, and tertiary and vocational education and training, he said. Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor , speaking at the same event, said Africa needed large numbers of high-quality undergraduate institutions producing people with professional and vocational skills that met its economic needs.

SA had to improve its research capacity because countries with an internal capacity to research local issues were better positioned to participate in global networks, Pandor said.

This meant that SA's higher education system needed to be differentiated, with some institutions focusing on research and others on teaching, she said, adding her voice to that of Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande.

He has also called recently for differentiation in the higher education system.

The idea of differentiation has been hotly debated in SA's academic circles for a long time.

African Union (AU) Commission human resources, science and technology commissioner Prof Jean Pierre Ezin said science was “the powerhouse of development”, and only two African countries — SA being one — had met the AU goal of spending 1% of gross domestic product on research and development.

Because of this, the AU had decided to develop a Pan-African University that would be developed in “institutes” hosted in existing universities across the continent and led by a rector or vice-chancellor.

The university would research the basic sciences, innovation and technology, water and climate issues, the development of indigenous knowledge, space science and governance and human studies .Business day.