A commitment for the 21st century

 Africa is one of the world's richest regions in terms of natural resources, yet has seen little of the profits from their exploitation. In 1995, 33 of the 48 least developed countries (LDCs) were in sub-Saharan Africa.
The region is blessed with vast mineral wealth, great agricultural capacity and rich diversity of plants and animals. Yet, as the market value of these commodities declines, Africa will need to stimulate the manufacture of value-added products in order to compete in an increasingly technological market place. And this will mean making a commitment to science and technology.
According to UNESCO's 1998 World Science Report, "_ Africa will be unable to rise above its current level of poverty without pursuing manufacturing more purposefully. Doing that will necessarily require greater focus on industrial R&D...".
It is against this background of complexity that UNESCO is working with Member States to strengthen existing science and technology (S&T) capacity in areas that are both appropriate and sustainable. And this includes nurturing tools for thought through training in basic and applied science, since Africa's main resource to carry it through the next millennium will be the creativity of its people.
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Facing the facts


Any blueprint for the future must define the state of affairs it is starting from. The absence of reliable statistics on science and technology education or research and development in Africa makes it hard to estimate what the current S&T picture is. Countries of Africa need urgent support to gather statistics on science. And these statistics should reveal the current position of women in S&T, whose position in African society makes them effective, but still largely untapped agents for change.

Science and technology have already had a significant impact on development in Africa
 Despite deepening poverty, a recent increase in civil conflicts across the region and an upturn in endemic diseases including malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS, several development indicators reflect the positive impact of S&T in recent decades.

Average life expectancy increased by ten years between 1960 and 1994, rising from 39.9 years to 49.9 years.
The infant mortality rate dropped by over 40 per cent in the same period, falling from 166 per thousand live births to 97 per thousand.
The percentage of the population with access to safe water has almost doubled in the past two decades, rising from 24 per cent in the period 1975-1980 to 42 per cent in the period 1990-1996.
Adult literacy rates more than doubled between 1970 and 1994, from 27 per cent to 56 per cent.
Real GNP per capita has grown from US $990 in 1960 to US $1,377 in 1994. This is above the average growth for LDCs.

However, since the "boom years" immediately after independence, the science and technology capacity of nearly all African states has steadily declined. And this will have serious consequences for the region's future, since S&T is an important engine of economic and social development.

The science and technology base in most of sub-Saharan Africa today is inadequate
 A 1992 study estimated that Africa counted only 20,000 scientists and engineers, or 0.36 per cent of the world total. According to another study, the region was responsible for only 0.8 per cent of total world scientific publications. Its world share of patents is close to zero.

In Japan, the United States and Europe, there are between two and five scientists and engineers per 1,000 population. Parts of sub-Saharan Africa have only one scientist or engineer for about every 10,000 population.

The most serious difficulties the S&T community is encountering in Africa include a steady decline in R&D investment, the brain drain, obsolescence and dilapidated infrastructure. The list should also include insufficient levels of numeracy and literacy, and too few girls and women with S&T education, at all levels.

R&D investment
 Available figures suggest that overall government support for R&D in Africa is one of the lowest in the world (about 0.2 per cent of GNP).



Only South Africa and the Seychelles spend 1 per cent or more of GNP on R&D. Many experts agree that investment needs to be above 1 per cent of GNP to have any significant impact. S&T investment in the most developed countries is closer to 3 per cent of GNP.
Yet even 1 per cent may not be a realistic target for some African countries. The Director-General of UNESCO has suggested a minimum target of 0.4 per cent of GNP for the least developed African states. Meanwhile, representatives of African Member States themselves have called on the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to earmark 3 per cent of all its African national allocations for research and development.

Brain drain
 Available figures suggest that as many as 30,000 Africans holding Ph.D. degrees are living outside the continent. Students who are able to find employment abroad leave, while some of those trained abroad do not return. Meanwhile, poor salaries and prospects in universities mean that trained scientists and engineers often move to civil service jobs or to business and commerce.

Obsolescence
 One of the most serious challenges for the S&T community in Africa is obsolescence. Training curricula and science facilities lag far behind those in other parts of the world. It is common in Africa to see science classes with students taking turns to use a handful of microscopes and other instruments, if these are even available. In some cases students have to pay for essential materials themselves.

Political instability and declining infrastructure
 At the same time, war and armed conflicts have undermined the long-term stability, peace and prosperity of much of the region. In 1996 alone, 14 of the 53 countries of Africa were afflicted by armed conflicts. Even in those states that are politically stable, with some notable exceptions, the inadequate energy, transport and communications infrastructures are a brake on development.
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UNESCO S&T initiatives in Africa


Just a handful of industrialized countries carry out 80 per cent of world R&D activities. As the United Nations agency responsible for science and education, it is UNESCO's mission to promote sharing of the world's knowledge. Furthermore Africa and the least developed countries are UNESCO's priority target groups. In the field of science and technology, knowledge is of the essence. Without knowledge, there can be no development.

In order to ask Africans to present their own priorities for sustainable development, including in the field of science and technology, UNESCO convened an international conference called Audience Africa in February 1995. This meeting brought together African Heads of State or their representatives, bilateral agencies, intergovernmental organizations, the Organization of African Unity (OAU), the African Development Bank, the Economic Commission for Africa and various NGOs, as well as specialists from civil society. The outcome of the meeting was a set of concrete recommendations for the future self-reliant development of the region.

UNESCO and its partners are currently assisting African Member States to enact many of these recommendations, including:

pooling of S&T facilities and expertise through regional and subregional networks;
establishing centres of excellence;
establishing links between scientific research and industrial production;
using modern information technologies to improve communication within the S&T community;
promoting distance teaching;
promoting S&T teaching from primary school onwards;
providing strong support to women scientists and engineers;
encouraging the development of renewable energy sources;
capacity-building in the field of statistics.

Stimulating the growth of S&T communities
 One of the obstacles to S&T growth is the absence of genuine communities of scientists and engineers. In much of sub-Saharan Africa the number of trained scientists and engineers is simply too small. A successful and inexpensive way to develop critical mass is through networks.

UNESCO established the African Network of Scientific and Technological Institutions (ANSTI) in 1980 to support co-operation between African scientific, engineering and technological institutions involved in postgraduate training and the promotion of R&D. ANSTI links over 50 scientific and engineering departments in 32 sub-Saharan African countries. Activities centre on fellowships, conferences, seminars and workshops, research promotion and publications (textbooks and journals). Professors from all over sub-Saharan Africa use desktop publishing programmes to write texts on basic engineering for undergraduates, illustrated with examples from local industry. International experts review the lessons before approving them. Recently, under the auspices of ANSTI, UNESCO convened an expert meeting on Quality Assurance and Relevance of Engineering Education in Africa (November 1997).
UNESCO funds some 20 science-oriented UNESCO Chairs in Africa. In science and technology, the Chairs work by sponsoring visiting professorships for internationally renowned scientists to act as mentors to groups of advanced students. The scheme aims to provide a rapid transfer of knowledge through international programmes related to sustainable development. The programme helps minimize brain drain by establishing long-lasting relationships between universities in developed and developing countries.
UNESCO's intergovernmental Man and the Biosphere (MAB) programme is also serving as a vehicle for major capacity-building efforts in Africa. To date, 49 of the 356 MAB biosphere reserves are in Africa. Under the auspices of MAB, UNDP and UNESCO have recently committed US $1 million and US $200,000, respectively, to establish the Regional Postgraduate School of Integrated Management of Tropical Forests at the University of Kinshasa. Its aim will be to train highly qualified postgraduates (to Masters and Ph.D. level) who are able to find solutions to regional planning and development problems.
African members of MAB launched a regional AfriMAB network in Dakar (Senegal) in October 1996 to make best use of limited human and financial resources. The network encourages synergy between research teams through the exchange of skills and data, as well as sharing common methodologies.
MAB also launched a four-year US $200,000 project in 1996 to fight desertification and improve agricultural productivity in arid and semi-arid regions of Africa. Apart from training, the project is planting multi-purpose, high yield crops that should be able to adapt to arid conditions, producing both revenue and a source of food for people living in these areas.
UNESCO's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) has two regional subsidiary bodies in Africa, one covering West Africa and the other covering the Western Indian Ocean and East Africa. IOC is working with UNESCO's International Hydrological Programme and MAB on sustainable coastal development projects for the Western Indian Ocean and East Africa, as well as on small islands. IOC also co-organized the Pan-African Conference on Sustainable Integrated Coastal Management (PACSICOM), held in Maputo, Mozambique in July 1998, during the International Year of the Ocean.
UNESCO's International Hydrological Programme (IHP) started a special, four-year project on women and water resource supply and use in sub-Saharan Africa in 1996. The project aims to improve the quality of life of women by making their access to water easier in areas where it is scarce.
With freshwater resources likely to become a potential source of conflict in the coming millennium, IHP is giving a high priority to its programme on integrated water resources management in arid and semi-arid areas.
As part of a multidisciplinary programme on coastal regions and small islands, IHP is looking at the problems of coastal cities. In Africa this work is centred in Dakar (Senegal).

The UNISPAR programme - Bringing universities and industry closer
The UNESCO UNISPAR programme encourages co-operation between universities, research centres and industry to promote and apply engineering, science and technology for development. UNISPAR is currently focusing on innovation for development, producing a series of "toolkits" to provide information, learning and teaching materials.

UNESCO's UNISPAR-Africa programme, as part of the overall UNISPAR programme, supports the endogenous development of technologies that can readily be adopted in countries across the region. Industry in Africa consists mainly of small- and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs), so university-industry co-operation initiatives need to focus at this level.
In order to finance initiatives geared towards building up R&D in Africa, UNESCO launched the International Fund for the Technological Development of Africa in Nairobi in February 1994. UNESCO contributed US $1 million as proof of its commitment.
Over the past two years UNISPAR-Africa has been using interest from the Fund to support case studies in university-industry co-operation that develop sustainable technologies relevant to Africa's economic development. The results of the case studies are turned into learning materials that are shared throughout the region.

Some recent UNISPAR-Africa projects include:
Promotion of a renewable energy technology transfer project using biogas.
UNISPAR has developed an electronic experts directory. This database, which is now available on the Internet (http://www.unesco.org/unispar/experts/), helps university scientists and industry to create partnerships, while enabling experts to build regional working groups.

Promoting centres of excellence
S&T capacity in sub-Saharan Africa varies greatly from one country and subregion to another. A relatively small extra investment in some countries, like South Africa, Côte d'Ivoire, Kenya and Zimbabwe, which already have a relatively sophisticated S&T base, spread across a wide range of disciplines, could establish world-class facilities that can help pull up the region as a whole.



The UNESCO-sponsored World Foundation for AIDS Research and Prevention has established a Research Centre for AIDS in Africa in Abidjan (C"te d'Ivoire). The centre will receive and treat patients, conduct basic research on the spread of HIV on the continent and train African scientists and practitioners.

Building capacity in sustainable technologies relevant to Africa's economy
A special project on Biotechnologies for Development in Africa has focused on providing advanced training in microbial and plant biotechnology to researchers, with particular emphasis on young scientists and women.
In 1990 UNESCO set up the Biotechnology Action Council to promote education and training in plant molecular biology, plant biotechnology and aquatic biotechnology in developing countries. Between 1995 and 1998, the Biotechnology Education and Training Centre for Africa, based in Pretoria, South Africa, gave 17 courses for 163 scientists from 22 African countries. These courses, which usually last one or two weeks, provide basic training in the techniques used in, for example, tissue culture, or the use of molecular markers.
UNESCO, in association with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) the International Cell Research Organization (ICRO) and other non-governmental organizations, has set up a worldwide network of specialized research and training institutions called MIRCENs (Microbial Resources Centres) to promote the preparation and use of cheap biological fertilizers. Use of these products can increase crop yield dramatically, while reducing the costly and environmentally damaging use of chemical fertilizers.
A University of Nairobi laboratory serves as the MIRCEN for East and West Africa. The laboratory prepares, tests and conserves 216 strains of bacterial cultures and manufactures a simple preparation to transfer nitrogen-fixing bacteria to plant seeds just before sowing.

Promoting the use of renewable energy
For millions of people in Africa, the only source of energy is traditional biomass, such as firewood. Outside the major cities, few are connected to the electricity grid. On the one hand, using firewood only worsens already serious deforestation and desertification. At the same time, the availability of electricity is a major factor in development, whether it be to power production facilities, refrigerate vaccines and medical supplies, run computers, or supply lighting.

UNESCO's African Solar Programme 1996-2005 is implementing a range of low-cost solar energy initiatives in sub-Saharan Africa. Within its special Solar Villages in Africa project, UNESCO has set up a demonstration solar village in N'Gaoundere (Cameroon) with US $143,000 from its regular budget. Apart from introducing low-cost eco-technology for power generation, the project is involving schoolchildren, women and community leaders in information and training activities.
With extrabudgetary financing, UNESCO is currently carrying out a study on the feasibility of converting Ganvi‚, in Benin, into a lakeside solar village, with public lighting, transport, tools and light manufacturing facilities all based on solar energy. UNESCO held the first World Solar Summit in Harare in September 1996 and nominated Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe, as Chairman of the World Solar Commission. The World Solar Summit signalled the start of the World Solar Programme (1996-2005) to implement an initial list of 300 priority projects in more than 60 countries. At the Summit, Zimbabwe announced a US $38 million investment in three new projects, including one to revamp curricula ranging from primary to higher education to include the use and manufacture of solar technologies.
UNESCO is producing a wide range of educational and training materials, including a Renewable Energy postgraduate learning package made up of texts, videos, software and CD-ROMs designed by leading experts.

Strengthening the access of women and girls to science education
If Africa is to redress its shortfall in human resources in the area of science and technology, it can no longer afford to leave 50 per cent of its population i.e. women out of the process. But, at present, only an estimated one in four girls of school age is actually in school. As UNESCO Director-General Federico Mayor has said, "It is vital to improve scientific and technological literacy among women and girls, whose unique educational function within the family makes them such a major determinant of the attitude of present and future generations".
In its current medium-term strategy, UNESCO has also designated women as a priority target group for action.

In this context, UNESCO has provided US $250,000 for a special project on "Scientific, technical and vocational education of girls in Africa". The six-year project aims to increase girls' access to technical education and to promote policies favouring their inclusion. The project has already carried out a survey in 21 of the 30 countries targeted in order to draw up a picture of the current access of girls and women to S&T and vocational education.
The project is now using the country reports to produce guidelines and materials for teacher training, setting up science camps for girls and designing hands-on science experiments for girls. The emphasis is very much on grass-roots activities, like booklets for children to demystify science, a comic strip for adolescents, posters and videos.
On recommendations from Audience Africa, UNESCO has funded two Chairs on Women in Science and Technology in co-operation with the Association of African Universities. One Chair is at the University of Ghana, the other at the University of Swaziland.
In 1997 UNESCO supported the creation of the Helena Rubinstein Awards for Women in Science to reward women scientists who have made their mark in medicine, physics, chemistry, biology, zoology, botany, agro-food and environmental research. The four prizes, worth $20,000 each, are to be awarded every two years by an international jury of 13 scientists, chaired by the Nobel laureate for medicine, Christian de Duve. The latest laureate for Africa was Grace Oludanni L. Taylor of the University of Ibadan in Nigeria for her work on the metabolism of lipids.
UNESCO organized a Regional Forum on Women, Science and Technology in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) in January 1999. Over 60 specialists from 42 African countries, many of them women, attended the meeting. Delegates drafted an Action Plan emphasizing the promotion of women in S&T professions and the importance of their gaining access to S&T education. The plan includes an effort to review textbooks so that they no longer present demeaning stereotypes of women. It also recommends measures scholarships, special regional funds, financial support to associations of women scientists and engineers, etc. in favour of girls opting for a science and technology education.
This Conference was part of the preparatory phase in the lead-up to the joint UNESCO/ICSU World Conference on Science for the 21st Century, to be held in Budapest, Hungary, from 26 June to 1 July 1999. The Conference will have as its mission an increased commitment to science on the part of governments and all other science stakeholders, worldwide, along with a commitment by science towards meeting the aspirations of society.
A number of meetings are being held on the African continent and the input of African ministers responsible for science will be all-important. The follow-up to the Conference will also be of vital importance, and extensive regional dialogue will ensure that African priorities are clearly identified and pursued.

Organizing pan-African meetings on policy
As part of its efforts to raise the profile of S&T in Africa, UNESCO has organized, or co-organized several high-level meetings in the region. For example, it took the initiative, in co-operation with the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to convene the first Congress of African Scientists in Brazzaville, Congo, in 1987. One concrete result was the setting-up of the Pan-African Union for Science and Technology.

In February 1994, UNESCO convened a Symposium on Science and Technology in Africa in Nairobi, Kenya. This was the first meeting of its kind, bringing together about 200 delegates from various African states, including ministers, rectors, vice-chancellors, professors, researchers, African Members of UNESCO's Executive Board and the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. UNESCO used this meeting to launch its first ever World Science Report.
At the request of the Member States concerned, UNESCO has provided advice on S&T policy and management issues to Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The Organization is continuing to support projects on the creation of technopoles in C"te d'Ivoire and Senegal.
UNESCO co-organized the first Pan-African Conference on Sustainable Integrated Coastal Management (PACSICOM) in Maputo, Mozambique, in July 1998, and will have a major role to play in ensuring appropriate follow-up. Nearly all the region's environment ministers attended the Conference. Over 84 per cent of Africa's population (777 million in 1995) live on or near the continent's 36,343 km of coast, while the economies of 38 of the 53 independent African states are closely linked to marine resources. But competing demands on the same resource between mining, tourism and fishing for example mean that sustainable, integrated coastal management is essential.

Networking for Development in Science and Technology Audience Africa has emphasized the importance of sharing resources and creating a community of scientists and researchers through regional co-operation. Here is a sampling of African science networks and their related activities:


A way forward


In his report to the Security Council on The causes of conflict and the promotion of durable peace and sustainable development in Africa UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan emphasized that "Africa is a vast and varied continent. African countries have different histories and geographical conditions, different stages of economic development, different sets of public policies and different patterns of internal and international interaction."

Yet even in the bustling business quarters of Africa's most advanced cities, the problems of poverty, illiteracy, numeracy, disease, access to freshwater and other basic human needs are often only a street away. Perhaps nowhere else are the extremes of development so close, yet so far apart. It has been said that Africa has its feet in the Stone Age and its head in the Computer Age. And this, perhaps, is where some of the keys to its future prosperity lie.

It is essential to use appropriate contemporary technology such as distance learning using CD-ROMs, the information highway, and satellite imaging for resource management to improve levels of development across the continent, without discrimination according to gender. Yet it is important also to respect national cultures in this process, while making sure that Africa's rich indigenous scientific knowledge, such as the medicinal uses of plants, is given the value it deserves.

Access to knowledge is a basic human right that has been fought for and won many times in the history of the world. Education at all levels is a prerequisite for sustainable development, especially in an era when the gap between the haves and the have-nots is increasingly defined in terms of this access to knowledge. It is an illusion to think that humanity as a whole can afford to ignore the welfare of a large proportion of its members. Globally, we can only advance at the pace of the slowest member.

National governments working at both the regional and subregional level, together with the UN system, international organizations, and NGOs, need to combine their efforts to ensure that all Africans have access to the knowledge that can lead them out of poverty, which is itself one of the main sources of conflict. This, after all, is one of the challenges laid down by the United Nations System-wide Special Initiative on Africa.

"The time has come for Africa to move on from structural adjustment to social adjustment through self-reliant development", said Federico Mayor at the UNESCO Symposium on Science and Technology in Africa, held in Nairobi in 1994. This self-reliant development calls for more inter-African and South-South co-operation, the free movement of scientists in Africa and the use of national languages in scientific popularization.

"Science is not a luxury or an add-on," says Federico Mayor. "It requires a supportive political and cultural environment, an institutional infrastructure, opportunities for education at all levels, as well as links between the public sector and industry. A prerequisite for all of these factors is freedom from war and social unrest".