My first Magazine EDUCARE MAGAZINE SPECIAL NOVEMBER EDITION 2019 | Page 6

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any meaningful transformation of the
sector. Indeed, purposeful funding for
science is either meagre or absent in
many African countries, while some
non-African countries dedicate as much
as 4% of their GDP to scientific
research (the average of top 40 national
annual budgetary allocations to STEM
R&D is $40 billion). The effect is a
widening gap between Africa's STEM
progress and that of more advanced
countries, thus exacerbating prevailing
disparities in income and development,
amidst Africa's positive economic
"performance."
Heavy reliance on international
expertise and funds results in STEM
development in Africa being shaped
mostly by international donor and
bilateral and multilateral partnerships
(e.g. US-based Foundations, the
European Union-Africa Joint Strategy,
the India-Africa Science and
Technology Initiatives and the China-
Africa Science and Technolog y
Partnership). While these instruments
bring much-needed goodwill, expertise
and finances in support of African
development, and with over half of all
STEM funding coming from
international partners, most current
implementation mechanisms are not
str uctured to promote African
ow n e r s h i p, a c c o u n t a b i l i t y a n d
sustainability.
The heavy influence of international
agencies on STEM activity in Africa also
tends to fragmentize inter-African
research communities, with each of the
sub-regions collaborating more with
international partners and less with one
another, as measured through their
publications output. Inter-African
collaborations (collaborations without
any South-African or international
collaborator) comprise just 2%, 0.9%
and 2.9% of all East African, West &
Central African and Southern African
total research output, respectively.
In contrast, 40% to 80% of African
Regional STI publications are with
external partners, with the majority in
fields of most interest to international
donors, such as health and agriculture.
While these areas are of primary
Educare November 2019
importance to Africa, heavy donor
influence in these areas has also meant
research and education activity in other
complementary areas necessary to
enable Africa develop a vibrant
fundamental STEM space - such as
frontier physics, mathematics and
computer science - are neglected, or
practically nonexistent. With its vast
extractive resources and activity, there is
hardly any activity in complementary
engineering disciplines, effectively
depriving Africa of engaging in STEM
research and knowledge systems that
could derive from strategic advantages
in associated extractive industries.
If Africa is to realize its aspirations
contained in the African Union's
continental agenda 2063 and Science,
Technology, Innovation Strategy for
Africa (STISA), its governments have to
forcefully revitalize their higher
education systems towards STEM
Education, as the next - even pivotal -
frontier in the continent's historical
evolution. It is the calibre of its
university graduates in STEM fields that
will produce and manage the knowledge
that will give relevance to its other
institutions - governance, trade,
defense, agriculture, health, finance,
energy and diplomacy. It is through a
vitalized STEM Education that Africa
may turn its increasing demographics
into a dividend to enhance its
democracies.
African nations and regional
economic communities can start by
establishing STEM Education and
Research Strategies. This will entail
prescient and deliberate policies to
identify and invest in select universities
as national and continental assets -
perhaps their most potent assets, and as
the most important ingredients in
continental development objectives.
The Korean Advanced Institute of
Science and Technology (KAIST) and
its symbiotic relationship with the
modern South Korean economy is
exemplary. The strategy may include
investments to transform select
Technical and Vocational Institutions
into elite selective STEM-focused
secondary schools that will train highly
47
Youth employability,
development of a STEM
workforce and industrial
transformation together
present common
challenges, with
implications for STEM
education that can neither
be fully defined nor
addressed by the public
policy sector, the university
systems or the business
sectors alone in isolation.
motivated and able students, and focus
on preparing them for ambitious
postsecondary study and STEM careers.
Youth employability, development of
a STEM workforce and industrial
transfor mation together present
common challenges, with implications
for STEM education that can neither be
fully defined nor addressed by the public
policy sector, the university systems or
the business sectors alone in isolation.
These challenges are best addressed by
the creation of appropriate and highly
effective interfaces between
government bodies that make policies,
the university community that trains the
workforce, and the business community
that absorbs university graduates and
translates research products into
improvements of the economic and
social sectors.
Policymakers are best positioned to
institute such an interface as an ongoing
convening of leadership from all three
sectors - government, university, and
industry - to partake in candid dialogue,
co-define common problems and craft
overarching solutions, and to commit
these three communities to co-forge
and co-champion execution of
solutions to these common problems.
Such a convening will serve to catalyze
support and action across government,
university and industry to meet Africa's
critical science and technology needs for
the much-desired science-led economic
transfor mation and graduates
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