Engineering Africa's growth

Africa's economic growth depends on investment in infrastructure development and the associated higher education.
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The international community continues to debate how to strengthen Africa's participation in the global economy. While joining global markets is important, more efforts should be placed on enlarging domestic and regional markets. This, in turn demands increased investment in infrastructure to strengthen the foundations for local production and marketing.

African leaders and their development partners, especially the UK Department for International Development are starting to focus on this subject, The growing interest in investing in Africa's infrastructure and improving the associated governance provide an opportunity for the continent to strengthen its engineering capabilities.

Poor infrastructure and inadequate infrastructure services are among the major factors that hinder Africa's development. Transportation costs in Africa are the highest of any region in the world. With landlocked countries having to figure in transport costs of up to 75% of the value of their exports, the continent faces extreme challenges to compete in global markets.

In Uganda, for example, transport costs add the equivalent of an 80% tax on clothing exports. Freight charges for imports are 70% higher in West and East Africa than in Asia. Africa's landlocked countries pay more than double the rate of Asian countries for comparable transport services.

Most of Africa is isolated from major air and maritime routes, which allows access only to high-cost, peripheral routes. More than 20% of African exports reach the United States by air. It is estimated that air transport costs account for up to 50% of the value of exports to the United States. Internally, air transport costs across Africa are up to four times the cost of getting the same goods over the Atlantic.

Without adequate infrastructure, Africa will not be able to harness the power of science and innovation to meet development objectives and be competitive in international markets. Much of the continent will continue to languish in the backwaters of development. The isolation will fuel hopelessness and contribute to local conflicts over natural resources, giving rise to warlordism.

Infrastructure is key to agricultural trade and helps integrate economies into world markets. It is also essential for human development, including the delivery of health and education services. Infrastructure investments further represent untapped potential for the creation of productive employment.

One of the key challenges facing Africa lies in finding ways to strengthen engineering education, which is critical in the construction and maintenance of infrastructure investments. This involves creating and strengthening training activities, as well as creating new engineering schools.

Current efforts to revamp higher education in Africa provide important opportunities for creating long-term research and training partnerships through mechanisms such as twinning universities. Universities such as MIT are expanding their international outreach through flagship projects such as Open Courseware, thus increasing the chances for international cooperation in engineering education.

Africa is in the early stages of developing its scientific academies and seeking to bring their expertise to bear on sustainable development policy.

The continent has 12 national science academies (in Cameroon, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe) and one continental entity, the African Academy of Sciences. Only South Africa has an engineering academy.

There may be a role for bodies such as the Royal Academy of Engineering and the US National Academy of Engineering to help African countries strengthen the engineering components of existing academies or to help strengthen separate engineering academies, when created.

Engineering academies can also recognise and honour young engineers and practitioners who have played important roles in providing innovative solutions to sustainable development challenges. There are a growing number of initiatives such as Engineers without Borders that provide opportunities for young people to participate in international development, which could be strengthened by the support of engineering academies worldwide.

The road to prosperity is paved by good engineering solutions and investing in infrastructure projects and managing them is the first starting point. This is where Africa should focus its governance concerns: improving the performance of infrastructure projects through enhanced engineering education at all levels.

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