Education

African higher education is now at a crossroads. At national levels, the democratization and liberalization processes have put higher education institutions in a more vibrant and more transparent environment. At the global level, the impact of the knowledge society is reshaping higher education.

The institutions will remain competitive to the extent that they embrace the knowledge economy and networks, and their strategies driven by innovations. Economic growth will therefore be supported by the effective acquisition and use of knowledge. The key challenge for the higher education systems resides in training Africans for the emerging new economy and in maintaining access and quality of outputs.

In the area of science and technology, disparities between Africa and developed countries in capacity are acute, and differences in economic growth due to the distribution, use, adoption, adaptation and generation of knowledge are widening. Africa is lagging behind as a complex set of institutions, agents, policies, linkages and networks are required to harness the benefits of science and technology (S&T) for development. This task is all the more difficult since scientific innovation itself is becoming increasingly multidisciplinary, which implies holistic, sophisticated, and articulated national innovation systems.

Furthermore, the role of governments in enabling science and technology-led growth has changed from that of facilitator of technology development toward that of “innovation system catalyst”, which entails a host of policy-setting, funding, and regulatory roles. Last, the actors are more diverse and inter-connected with university-industry collaboration and public-private partnerships characterizing a growing segment of the innovation landscape.

However, across the African continent, several barriers—capacity, policy, and market related– have succeeded in thwarting the potential of important S&T-related ideas, products, and processes from equally contributing to development of the countries. Nowhere in the world are these barriers to the access, adaptation, adoption, and generation of knowledge for development more glaring than in the continent.

Differing modalities, conflicting policies, and divergent priorities within the domain of support to S&T reveal a lack of coherence and complementarity between government policies and donor priorities, and within the S&T strategies of many of the bilateral and multilateral agencies. In addition, higher education systems in most countries on one hand and S&T on the other operate in parallel, without much connection to each other and with little linkages with the productive sector.

African leaders are cognizant of the above barriers, and more importantly of the capacity of S&T to boost and drive growth, create opportunities for sustainable development and reduce poverty. During the 2007 African Union Summit, Heads of State and Governments put S&T development at the center of their deliberations with firm commitments to build constituencies and champions for science, technology and innovation in their respective countries.

African Member States also committed to promote research and development (R&D) and design innovation strategies for wealth creation and economic development by allocating at least 1% of GDP by 2010 as agreed by the Khartoum Decision. Finally, the Heads of State called for further studies on the creation of a fund to support S&T development in Africa. The Bank, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the African Union Commission have been requested to collaborate in this regard.