Interview
Dr. Thomas Chataghalala Munthali, director, Knowledge and Learning, African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF), is passionate about Africa developing the necessary capacity to propel sustainable development. In this exclusive interview with Maureen Chigbo, editor, Realnews, in Accra, Ghana, venue of the 26th Annual Meeting of the ACBF board of governors, Munthali speaks on the theme of Africa Capacity Report 2017 which will be made public on Monday, September 4. He stresses the need for transformative leadership and why African governments and ministers of finance and planning must invest more on science, technology and innovation to grow the economy of the region and providing incentives to end brain drain. Excerpts
Realnews: The Africa Capacity Report 2017 focuses on Building Capacity in Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) for Africa’s Transformation. What informed the theme of STI?
Munthali: In the past 10 years or so Africa has been growing very fast. But suddenly we have been met with a decline in the growth, more in most countries relying on commodities, agriculture and so on. One way to move out and make sure that the growth is sustained is for us to be in a position to industrialize and diversify out of the natural resources and raw commodities. But for us to do that effectively there is need to embrace science, technology and innovation. So this particular report is trying to show case the kind of capacities that are lacking. What type of case studies do we have in the continent and beyond in terms of how other countries have managed to do it using science, technology and innovation to do build that. And this is a response to the youth and unemployment challenge that we face in the continent. We are saying we are not going to go forward with the type of level of the economic growth that we are facing now. We need to sustain that growth rate. And for us to do that, we need to focus on science, technology and innovation. As a matter of fact, the Africa heads of state and government came up with what we call science, technology and innovation strategy for Africa in 2014. One of the key issues is that we have got the strategy but what capacity do we need for us to implement this strategy. Basically, we have come to address those dimensions that we have to put on the table.
Realnews: What are your major findings in the African Capacity Report 2017?
Munthali: One of the things coming out is that there is a lot of political will in Africa to embrace science and technology. This is shown in the science, technology and innovation policies that have been designed. In fact, from the surveys we did, 45 African countries have policies on science, technology and innovation. But almost all of them have not implemented those policies. Meaning there is a paper there but that is not being implemented. The question was why? We discovered that the implementation capacity on ground was low and that brings us to the second finding which is that the surveyed countries have indicated huge lack of technical skills in STI. Meaning the training we are having is focusing more on social sciences, education and humanities. But the critical technical skills like science, information and technology, mining engineers, electrical engineers and agricultural scientists and stuff like that that can add value is not being produced enough. So there is that gap. And linked to that is the finding that there are lots of innovation coming up but they are not being patented. In other words, other corporations are just picking on innovations that Africa is producing and put it in their name in their own countries and then they come back to sell to us. And it’s them that benefit. So those are now some of the issues in the report and part of the recommendation we are making as part of the report on science, technology and innovation that ACBF is putting it together to help countries to build those kinds of skills that can help propel African growth and transformation.
Realnews: Do you think Africans are backward in science, technology and innovation that is why they are not producing enough scientist, technologist in ICT and innovators given what you just said that more people are being trained in humanities and arts?
Munthali: Absolutely. I wouldn’t call it backward in that sense. We are under investing in terms of STI. Our institutions in science and technology and this is one of our findings is that investment in infrastructure on STI is largely low in Africa. You have institutions that are training people in science and technologies but they don’t have laboratories. Their laboratories are purely under equipped and that is what we will be highlighting tomorrow (September 4). It is like basically you are training somebody on how to cut hair and he does not know how to use a clipper when graduating because he has never used it. So you are teaching people theory. But the practice itself, they have no idea how it works. If you are looking at, are we backward? We are lagging behind. As a matter of fact, if you are looking at the rankings in terms of universities in the world, only five of the 5000 universities ranked are in Africa. Basically, the short of it, is that there is a huge under investment in science and technology in Africa. This is why we are putting this in the agenda of the ministers of Finance to say, listen, your country is not going to move forward unless you put enough resources to finance science, technology and innovation so it can mobilize more resources to fund your own budget.
Realnews: How can African countries achieve this? What is this report telling us on how we can move forward on science, technology and innovation?
Munthali: African countries themselves had made a resolution not long ago that they will be putting aside 1percent of the GDP towards science, technology and innovation. None of the countries has achieved that. So all we are saying to ministers of finance, listen, African governments have committed, Your presidents have committed. You are the one who hold the purse. You need to put that into practice because if you don’t it is simple if we are saying it here but we are talking of jobs that have been lost because you are not putting money into science technology and innovation. There is huge unemployment level in Africa. People are moving on migration, dying crossing the Mediterranean sea because they are trying to cross and run away from the challenges they face here. You can mitigate some of these things very easily by growing your economy using science, technology and innovation to make sure that they grow faster than they are currently. So the issue is, investing a lot more on infrastructure, giving innovators enough resources so they are able to research innovative ways of propelling their economies. So they have to have an agenda of financing STI in their countries.
Realnews: It appears the problem is not just that of financing. Education curriculum in various schools is skewed in favour of the humanities and Arts than science and innovation. Do you think that it is the way science is thought in countries in Africa that is making students to shy away from science, technology in schools?
Munthali: I like the way you are putting it. It is a combination of all aspects you have said. The truth of the matter as you rightly pointed out is that our curriculum has for a long time been skewed towards the humanities. It is more colonial in nature. Our colonialist came to use us to extract natural resources, minerals so they can add value in their countries. So it was just let’s teach them social sciences, administration to see them do a few things. But it’s high time for us to reflect, rethink and see the need now for balancing of. Not that the humanities are not important. Yes, they are. But we have to make sure that critical technical skills that will help us to add value to what we are producing, beneficiation will require us to act and invest a lot more on this issue and add that to transformational leadership; having a leader is important but one that will take the little resources you have and invest it in something that will yield better result is something else. Now that you mentioned it, we will shortly be supporting a tripartite discussion where we are going to bring the private sector, the academia and the government to look at the theme of how to make sure that our curriculum produces the kind of skills that is required in the market that will benefit the private sector and also government long term interest. So I total agree with you that it is a combination of a total of different things.
Realnews: It appears that some people who studied science, mathematics and technology end up teaching in schools and not being well remunerated unlike their counterparts in the humanities. Could this be part of the problem why people are not encouraged to go into science, technology and innovation?
Munthali: Actually, you are very right. One of the key things we have observed over the years is that those with the critical skills trained in the continent are going out. It is brain drain. And the question we will ask ourselves is have we looked at the strategy for retaining this capacity? So part of our focus in the 2017/18 strategy is to look at how to retain capacity on the continent. What we are doing is to help African countries to develop retention strategies which includes incentives because if you don’t have incentives structure that can hold people back in their own countries, then they are likely to still be migrating out to be looking for greener pasture. And countries have realized now; you can tell in most of the countries with the meeting we have with the board of governors that countries want us to help with retention strategies. But countries have to develop one themselves by putting in place proper remuneration packages, retention incentives and making sure that the people that have been trained after the training have the relevant equipment to work with and stuff like that. But what is important is to put on the table what is working in other countries so that they can say if we put A, B,C together we can actually retain these skills.
Realnews: What has worked in other countries that we are looking at imbibing in Africa?
Munthali: It is retention strategies like I mentioned, ensuring that the working environment is good. Example of other countries like Rwanda, their hospitals are equipped with the relevant equipment. Because it is very frustrating if you train a doctor and he goes back to see that the microscopes, stethoscopes are not working; there is not even a syringe, very small things like that can easily demotivate doctors. Putting in places those mechanisms plus making sure what we called protected fields where you have to make sure that the incentive structure is protected. You have countries where if you have particular sectors where whatever happens those sectors have to be prioritized. For example, if there is an agreement that there should be 10 percent increase in remuneration and government doesn’t have enough resources those sectors have to have those remunerations to motivate them to remain in the system. Currently, we are doing a knowledge product that we are trying to learn in a number of countries to see what they have done to retain their skills. There are different skills. If it’s an engineering field and most engineers are staying in those countries and we want to see why most engineers are staying. What happened? What skills are being protected in various African countries?
Realnews: Do you think Africa will ever catch up with the developed countries in the area of science, technology and innovation?
Munthali: I think there is hope because when you begin to see African countries have policies on STI, that is a good starting point and it tells you that the political will to have something kick started is there. The next step is to help countries build their implementation capacity. And we have been seeing countries moving in that direction. The fact that African Union also adopted a science, technology and innovation strategy is also an indication that political will is there. But what is required now is to put the resources where the mouth is. It’s about time that we get transformative leadership in the continent that will realize that we cannot grow sustainably if we don’t do STI. Then at that point we will begin I am sure to catch up. The catching up might be slow but surely we will catch up.
Realnews: Do you think Africa has recorded success in terms of STI?
Munthali: Oh yes a lot. For example the fibre optic which has circled the whole of Africa in terms of internet connectivity. And if you are looking at the Kenya example where there is Mpesa. Mpesa is like mobile money transfer. Every village has this component. And in Nigeria where you also have penetration of people using mobile money even in rural areas. This is part of STI penetration and so it brings financial inclusion. There is internet connectivity happening almost everywhere, Wi-Fi and stuff like that. If you are looking at new hybrids, drought resistant seeds that are producing more, you can see that over time we are really progressing as a continent. Is the pace fast enough? Perhaps not. But we need more transformative leadership to push it further so we can catch up more faster.
Realnews: Is there any other information you will like to give about this African Capacity 2017 Report?
Munthali: I just want to re-emphasise the point that STI is what is going to be very critical for us as a continent going forward. And this really depends on the African leaders themselves to be able to recognize that we are going to move fast if we are focusing on natural resources, agricultural commodities and other kinds of commerce. We have got to begin to add value; do beneficiation and we need the capacities. So institution like ACBF becomes very important in terms of coordinating that. Whether we like it or not, there is a need to coordinate capacity in African continent with regard to building not just science, technology and innovation but in building human capacity that is required. So it is important for African governments to support the ACBF to realise the beneficiation to make sure that this becomes a reality.
Sept 4, 2017 @ 15:20 GMT
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