AFRICAN AGENDA CAN ONLY BE ARTICULATED BY AFRICANS

The African agenda is about charting a new strategic path in order to affect a turn-around in the continent’s economy, politics, governance and development orientation. One thing that we must consider is the role that the Africa’s new vision to position itself so that it becomes the critical player in shaping the development agenda of the entire continent.

Africa’s potential is significant and if harnessed will drastically transform the destiny of its people. The African agenda is critical to ensuring the benefits of transformation are mutually shared across the different countries on the continent.

The land mass of Africa  is larger than the US, China, India, UK, Eastern Europe, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Japan combined. It accounts for 60% of the world’s uncultivated land.

According to the McKinsey “Lions on the Move” report, Africa’s GDP is expected to reach $2.6tr in 2020 which is equivalent to the current size of the UK; consumer spending is expected to increase to $1.4tr in 2020 from $860m in 2008 and the average life expectancy in Africa is projected to reach 64 years, compared to 57 years in 2010.

The African agenda should stress on good neighbourliness and good governance relations with fellow African states. It should also stress on the progressive articulation of modes of economic relations and the exchange of knowledge to offset the economic disintegration of the continent, but shuns the articulation of economic dominance based on exploitation and manipulation.

Through the African agenda Kenya has positioned itself as a special middle ranked power state and exemplar in Africa and the rest of the developing world. The manner in which Kenya’s democracy was born, the trajectory of its economic development and governance, as well as its commitment to peaceful co-existence with neighbours, has given distinguished clout and status to the country.

Mutual Benefit

A key aspect of Kenya’s foreign policy over the past years has been to assume the role of peacemaker and mediator in Africa, and a supporter of Africa’s interests abroad. Under the banner of the African agenda, the country will be a progressive agent for change in Africa.

Indeed, the values to which the country aspires at home are the same values it hopes for in the rest of the continent.

The Government’s foreign policy should openly state that Kenya will use its relative strength for mutual benefit of all and not attempt to run roughshod over neighbouring states. A specific element is that the country should seek strategic partnerships with African states in order to promote peace, stability and development of its economy.

We must make a contribution to the challenge of peace, democracy, development and stability in the rest of our continent for it is all about building a stable democratic system.

We must develop youth employment, support innovation by youth for the youth market and promote ideas in the female gender, reinvent distribution networks (internet, mobile, urban networking, and rural outlets) and develop/acquire infrastructure technology in the continent.

There is need to strengthen local SMEs to compete in all infrastructures markets (housing, education, health, transportation, energy, water, etc.), including by patronage of bigger African companies and promote Private Public Partnerships (PPP) and implement transparent procurement processes in the continent.

We should improve the quality of health care received by Africans in order to ensure a healthy and productive workforce thus resulting in an increase in the standard of living for all Africans.

Africa should maximize intra continental trade by encouraging private sector enterprise, as a way of creating sustainable growth on the continent.

Africa must commit to inclusive, transformative development that reduces income poverty, creates decent jobs, enhances access to social services, reduces inequality and promotes resilience to climate-related hazards in the continent.

 UNIVERSITY MUST EVOLVE WITH TIME OR FADE AWAY

Knowledge, its acquisition, dissemination and application is evolving at supersonic speed. Universities as among key institutions that support knowledge structures and pass on knowledge to future generations must keep stride with the knowledge revolution and the changing times.

Traditionally Universities were charged with the sole responsibility of teaching and research; we now live in an era where they have taken up new roles including their increased involvement with the society and in contributing to national economies all over the world. World class universities have embraced these global trends however Universities in our region are yet to fully adopt these new approaches and there is need for catch-up.

Universities today have embraced a learner-centred mode of learning by adopting curricular and pedagogies that prepares their graduates for tomorrow, concentrates on problem-solving and hands-on skills and emphasize on how to achieve sustainable development. Already, we have witnessed changes in terms of education delivery where Universities have used ICT to break the classroom confinement and deal with constraints of time and space as well as cater for foreign students. Virtual classrooms are now a reality and education is offered anytime and anywhere.

The evolving knowledge and research sphere now point towards transdiciplinary and multi disciplinary approaches. New fields are emerging from existing disciplines for instance bioinformatics and biochemistry.  It is important to ground students in particular disciplines but also explore interactions as societal needs are complex and multifaceted requiring different and multi dimensions to effectively solve them. Universities today have broken away from the silo mentality and from non-productive ideologies into collaborative initiatives which maximize on resources, reduce duplication, build synergy and enrich knowledge sharing.

Labour markets demand new skills with each dawning day and continuous lifelong learning must become a necessity rather than what we know as an education system where we have defined years of schooling and then graduate to start a profession. In the same breadth, Universities must upgrade the skills of the labor force as well as churn out graduates equipped with the necessary skills demanded by these markets. Towards this end, Universities must now integrate different programmes and improve the employability of their graduates by making them relevant to market needs and make them globally competitive.

Universities today contribute to the economy through wealth creation by commercializing research products. University-Industry-Government linkages are important in this endeavor and can take the form of joint research funding, establishing incubation centres, exchange of scientists and researchers.

Universities are also key players in a country’s innovation system and must carry out their role by tapping into the growing stock of global knowledge, assimilate it to local needs and create new knowledge.  

The 21^st Century University is in touch with the society more than ever. Universities today go the extra mile to understand what the society needs and respond to these needs by designing appropriate programmes. Gone are the days when faculty developed curriculum all by themselves and Universities now draw their agenda from the society.

Our Universities must therefore become flexible and change with the times or be left behind by the globalization wave. We live in societies whose thirst for knowledge is insatiable and who also demand that we focus on their needs. Only adaptive Universities will transform themselves and respond to these needs and remain relevant and competitive.

TO SELL SCIENCE, JARGON MUST BE SIMPLIFIED

TO SELL SCIENCE, JARGON MUST BE SIMPLIFIED

Information is the indispensable fuel for the development engine; the raw material that can be transformed into knowledge to empower African communities in their efforts to take charge their socio-economic needs. Information, education and communication are vital elements of creating a knowledge-based economy as envisaged in the Kenya Vision 2030. Adequate information infrastructure is vital to facilitates the effective communication, dissemination, and processing of information as well as for assembling, managing and sharing of knowledge and for applying knowledge in production processes, policymaking and the development process.

In the sector of Science, Technology and Innovation (ST&I) Media and communication are important tools to communicate and disseminate information on research, promotion and awareness creation.

Communication is essential for stimulating public awareness and participation and for improving their knowledge and capabilities equally for policy making towards Social and economic development.

There are a number of challenges facing effective knowledge dissemination such as less priority given to science communication as compared to political news and crime; science reporters lack basic training on how to communicate science and technology; pseudo scientists, misinforming public; Africa lags behind in harnessing information infrastructure for knowledge dissemination. 

To promote effective dissemination of Science knowledge we need to work closely with journalists and interpret scientific data, decipher technical language, and distinguish scientifically credible claims from unsubstantiated ones.

We must pay enough attention to knowledge and allocate enough resources to the development, accumulation and dissemination of knowledge if we are to achieve our vision of being a knowledge based economy.

Exchange ideas

Strengthen capacity to harness and apply as well as protect indigenous knowledge and technologies in view to solve specific problems and improve our economy.

For any country to move forward to a sustainable economic development, it should be ready to “Sell Science” by removing the “jargon”.

Communication activities can help people, even those from different social groups within a community, to share information and exchange ideas in a positive and productive fashion. This dialogue can be enriched by understanding how development issues affect them, discovering what others think in other communities, and seeing what other communities have achieved. 

The government, in cooperation with the scientific community, should establish ways of employing modern communication technologies for effective public outreach. National and local educational authorities and relevant agencies should expand, as appropriate, the use of audio-visual methods, especially in rural areas in mobile units, by producing television and radio programmes for rural areas, involving local participation, employing interactive multimedia methods and integrating advanced methods with folk media.

Changes in the media landscape, in particular the rise of information and communication technologies, also require changes to the way in which media development is conceptualized.

Effective Science communication will establish a transparent and open form of communication in both directions that contributes to defining the role of science in society and to enabling society to make the best use of scientific knowledge.