KNOWLEDGE CREATION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

We live in an era where knowledge has become increasily important and is the foundation for economic growth, social development and political empowerment. Developed countries have embraced this knowledge revolution and necessitated the emergence of knowledge societies where knowledge is accorded more importance than any other resource in their economies.  According to the World Bank, the pillars of knowledge economy are education and training, Information and communication technologies, economic incentive and institutional regime and an efficient innovation system.

Knowledge Economy Index (KEI) is an aggregate index indicating a country’s, or regional’s overall preparedness to compete in the knowledge economy.  It is derived as the average of the four indices which represent the four pillars of the knowledge economy.

According to statistics released by the World bank for KEI 2012 rankings, African countries are ill-prepared for knowledge economy; among the top 100 countries, out of the 146 surveyed  there are only 8 African countries,  Kenya is in position 111 having dropped 3 ranks from previous survey in 2000.

Any steps towards creating knowledge societies in Africa must focus on improving the situation in the four pillars of knowledge economy already mentioned, in essence we must strive to develop a society whose growth and development is pegged on continual generation, dissemination and application of knowledge. How do we do this?

Africa is well endowed with natural resources but we still lack the know-how of translating this rich and diverse resources into tangible products that can drive our economies and assure a better quality of life to our citizens. For many decades we have been importers of knowledge but it is a high time that we participate in the global economy by contributing to the existing knowledge stock by generating knowledge as well as blending new knowledge with our indigenous knowledge.

First and foremost, we must change our mind sets and adopt new approaches to solve our problems. If we keep doing things the same way, we will keep getting the same results and will never progress.

To participate in global Knowledge society, Africa must therefore develop and maintain a pool of highly skilled human resource, equip them with skills and innovative capabilities to be able to translate knowledge into socioeconomic development and at the same time create new knowledge. Restructure and reform institutions and facilities, strengthen the information technology delivery framework to enable the efficient generation, dissemination and application of knowledge.  Break the silo-mentality by collaborating and encouraging interactions among the knowledge generators and en-users.

As we generate knowledge it is important to protect it by putting in place an   intellectual property rights system.

Leaders in Africa must be transformational and visionary to harness the wealth of scientific and technological knowledge and skill base and also encourage indigenous skill development and capacity building on the continent tailor- made to meet the socio-economic and environmental needs.

Developing countries like us must ride on the knowledge revolution wave and improve our competitiveness by building on our strengths, invest in human capital, develop effective institutions, adopt relevant technologies, encourage innovativeness and creativity as well as promote entrepreneurship.

Knowledge sharing amongst ourselves will help individual countries apply what has worked in another country as we face inter-related challenges.

We must create a prosperous future based on our ability to adopt new concepts and innovatively translate them into opportunities for wealth creation.

Focusing on efforts towards the creation, distribution and application of knowledge is the only way we will be able to catch up with the rest of the world and achieve sustainable development on a knowledge based development process.