To continue the series of posts looking at the environment within which technology is developed for use in Africa, the issue of research and development is one that has significant impact.

There is substantial evidence that African governments in general do not give adequate funding or consideration to either the application of research and development groups, or to the use of any of the data or conclusions put forward by these groups.

‘Unfortunately, political leaders in African countries generally only pay lip-service to research; they seem to deliberately forget that research is a vital developmental tool without which governmental, business, and other important institutions in their respective countries can only depend on mere hunches when deriving their policies, decisions and priorities. Moreover, in the majority of cases [this issue is] compounded by the non-use of findings or recommendations of any research projects undertaken.’ (Kyambalesa 2004: 39)

It is generally accepted that without sufficient emphasis being put on this area, there will not be significant innovation, without which there will not be long-term development.

‘We know too well that the affluence being enjoyed today in such countries as Canada, Japan and the United States today is the direct outcome of a relentless quest for innovation and more advanced forms of technology, by individuals and institutions in such countries.’ (Kyambalesa in his book ‘Socio-Economic Challenges: The African Context’)

‘A great deal of research and development needs to be undertaken on a continuous basis if a country is to engender a steady flow of inventions and innovations.’ (Kyambalesa)

One area of R&D is the collection of statistical data. This area is considered particularly important, as shown by this statement, made by a professional in the field of R&D in Africa:

‘My interest and involvement is mainly around governments producing and using statistics for the betterment of their peoples, particularly for poverty reduction, and for those peoples to hold their governments to account. And the lack of and poor quality of data are significant constraints on this…Statistics are poor in developing countries…The reasons are that they are collected by government departments with all of the problems that that entails: low wages, poor equipment, bad management, almost zero non-wage running costs, reliance on donor funding, etc. ‘ (dec 9, 07)

A post on White African some months ago started me thinking about this issue. The article, entitled ‘What a map on drinking age can tell us about Africa’ shows how little data there is available on Africa in general. As the author says:

‘This map… represents a real problem that we face in Africa: the lack of local content (data) available in a digital format.’

The post goes on to suggest a couple of solutions to the problem, which involve the general population providing data online for others to use. Although I can see the author’s point, that other countries with more access to the web have a surplus of information provided by its citizens, I do not necessarily agree that this process would solve the issue of lack of data.

Data is something that needs to be consistent, referenced and trustworthy. One of the problems with the world wide web is that the data provided is not verified or trusted, just look at wikipedia to see that this is true - the fact that for an academic paper you are not allowed to reference from it says it all…

Therefore, it does really come down to the governments of these countries to gather and give access to the information. While private groups, companies etc, could gather this data as they do in more westernised countries, firstly they often charge for the information (so would need to believe they could sell it), and also these companies need a motive for gathering the data in the first place. As the R&D professional I spoke to said:

‘I think company decisions [on collecting statistics] are more likely to be based on considerations other than knowledge of market statistics: eg ease of doing business, low levels of corruption, low risk in getting capital and profits out, etc. As a result, significant foreign private sector investment is concentrated on very few developing countries.’

So, whilst it is recognised that governments need to emphasise research and development to help their countries in the long-term, it is a fact that currently:

‘…Developing countries only account for 6 percent of global research and development expenditures.’ (Kembrew McLeod in his book ‘Freedom of Expression’)

This entry was posted on Monday, December 31st, 2007 at 3:07 pm and is filed under development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.