MADE IN AFRICA
“Reinventing Africa’s Global Standing.”
Africa is a continent with a people that were considered uncivilized and not learned according to the standard set by the outside world. I believe in our own way, according to our own standard and above all at our own pace, we definitely were a civilized and learned people, nevertheless we succumbed to the white man’s type of education and way of education. According to the white man we were a people that were not educated but some of us were taken over seas and obtained the white man’s education and today we still have Africans who travel to these places to acquire an education.
A couple of decades down the line we are a continent with a large number of learned people according to the standard of the outside world. Africa has got a high number of people with Degrees, Masters Degrees, PhD’s, Doctorates and so many other qualifications. We have Universities in their numbers producing people every year and conferring them with these qualifications. We have engineers in their numbers, Doctors, Lawyers, Professors to mention but a few. Even after gaining our independence and getting so educated my question to you is, what has this education done for Africa? Or maybe the question should be what have we done with the education we have acquired as Africa?
We have engineers in large numbers, yet we have our buildings and roads constructed by foreign engineers. We have qualified doctors yet some of us travel outside Africa to get treated. We have Africans that have degrees in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, automotive engineering and yet we fail to make our own African vehicles instead we enjoy importing vehicles from outside Africa. We have Africans that have studied all sorts of information technology (I.T) and computer studies and yet we have failed to make and design a simple mobile phone or a computer made in Africa. The list is endless.
We have Professors, Doctors and lab technicians yet when a disease or virus befalls the African continent we sit and wait for the outside world to research and find a cure for us. We claim to have Universities that produce Professors and we also have research center’s and institutions in Africa that instead of finding cures and vaccines to these emerging diseases one wouldn’t be wrong to say that they are only used to collect data about the effects and statistics such as; rate of infection and mortality rate of these diseases. When the outside world finds vaccines and cures to diseases that not only affect the African but the Africans crop, the Africans livestock and the Africans surrounding, they now put themselves in a position of power. Power to dictate what they want from you and what they want you to do or not to do, anyway, that’s a topic for another day lest I digress.
It is not only in the health sector but in other sectors as well like agriculture, the motor vehicle industry, mobile phone or should I say information technology industry. When we as Africa make our money we then begin to buy modified seed from foreign companies thereby sending our money out, we begin to buy foreign cars, we begin to buy phones, television sets, laptops and other electronic devices made from America, China, South Korea and other parts of the world, we begin to seek aid in terms of vaccines, cures and other basic medicines from countries outside Africa.
The Ebola vaccine was discovered in Europe. The cholera vaccine was discovered by a Spanish physician. It is believed that the first Malaria vaccine was discovered in China. These and many other vaccines and cures have been discovered outside Africa and not within Africa, why? I am forced to ask… This is because Africa does not invest in research and development as they ought to invest. If you compared the percentage of GDP that developed countries commit and spend towards research and development as compared to the percentage of GDP that African countries commit and spend towards research and development you will find that the difference is astonishingly surprising and this will make you realize why Africa is at the far end of the food chain in terms of discoveries, new inventions, improvements on already discovered and invented medicines, seeds, cars, phones, computers and innovations.
In light of GDP, the top 10 countries that are ahead in terms of research and development allocate the following percentages of their GDP to research and development. South Korea ranks first with 4.3%, second is Israel with 4.2% of its GDP channeled towards research and development, at third position is Japan with 3.4%, fourth is Switzerland with 3.2%, fifth is Finland with 3.2%, sixth is Austria with 3.1%, seventh is Sweden with 3.1%, eighth is Denmark with 2.9%, ninth is Germany with 2.9% and tenth is America allocating 2.7% of its GDP towards research and development. When it comes to Africa, according to the UNESCO Institute of Statistics, we see that the country that commits the highest percentage of its GDP towards research and development is South Africa with a value of 0.82% and the country that commits the lowest percentage of its GDP towards research and development is Madagascar with a value of 0.01%.
According to data from the UNESCO Institute for statistics adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP) we see that annually, from a dollar perspective, the U.S.A remains the biggest spender, still dwarfing Research & Development spending elsewhere. The United States spends $476.5 BILLION which is 26.4% of the global share contribution. China spends $370.6 BILLION which is 20.6% of the global share contribution. Japan spends $170.5 BILLION which is 9.5% of the global share contribution. Germany spends $109.8 BILLION which is 6.1% of the global share contribution towards research and development. Put together the numbers for the U.S. ($476.5 billion) and China ($370.6 billion), and it amounts to 47.0% of the total global R&D expenditures. Add in Japan and Germany, and the total goes to 62.5%. At same time, the countries left off the above list don’t even combine for 15% of the world’s total R&D expenditures.
According to Springer Nature Limited a research publishing company, the United States is the most prolific publisher of high quality science in the world, but China is closing the gap with astonishing rapidity. Output from the U.S was down in 2018 compared with 2017, but it continues to be bolstered by its top performing institutes: Harvard University, Stanford University, MIT and the National Institute of Health. The life sciences accounts for 50% of the nation’s output in the natural sciences, followed by chemistry, physical sciences, and Earth and environmental sciences, respectively. China’s rise in the research rankings is a well told story, but that doesn’t make it any less remarkable. Its increase in FC in 2018 has been meteoric, and its top 5 performing institutes are the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Peking University, Nanjing University, Tsinghua University and the University of Science and Technology of China. With an impressive standing among the world’s best research publishers, Japan is working hard to return its position. Its top performing institutes are the University of Tokyo, also ranked highly in the top 100 global institutions categories. Kyoto University, Osaka University and Riken University round out the country’s top four. Germany is a force in high quality research publishing. In recent years the country has become known as a desired destination for researchers, boasting of a relatively low cost of living, stable growth and high research and development spending. Its top institutions include; the Max Planck Society and Helmholtz Association of German Research Centre’s are among the top 10 in the physical sciences, chemistry, life sciences, Earth and environmental sciences, and global research institutes categories for 2018. It also counts more than 270 collaborative research center’s that are funded by the German Research foundation for up to 12-year periods, which allows researchers to commit to complex, long-term, multidisciplinary projects across universities and institutes.
What is research and development? And why is it important for a country to invest in research and development?
Research and development is the process by which a company or country works to obtain new knowledge that it might use to create new technology, products, services, or systems that it will either use or sell. Research and development refers to a wide range of business, governmental and academic activities designed to gather new knowledge. The purpose of research and development is to expand the frontiers of human understanding and improve our society as a whole. In other words, to supply the innovations that took us from the wall phone to the iPhone 6. Innovation drives economic growth. But what fuels innovation? At the heart of it, research and development (R&D) activities allow scientists and researchers to develop new knowledge, techniques, and technologies. As technology changes, people can produce more with either the same amount or fewer resources, thereby increasing productivity. As productivity grows, so does the economy.
How exactly does the economy grow in relation to investment in research and development?
A recent study by Begun Erdil Sahin adds to the already wide breadth of economic literature that affirms this notion — investing in R&D increases economic growth. From a sample of 15 Organizations for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, including the United States, she estimates that a 1 percent increase in R&D spending could grow the economy by 0.61 percent. This means that as countries invest more in R&D, their economy will grow faster.
When it comes to calculating the actual return on investment of R&D spending, there is a shortage of available evidence, however the reports that have been done present a highly positive picture. For instance, a report for Science/Business in 2017 estimated that the average return on public investment in R&D had been about 20% over the preceding decade — far higher than that on stock, bond, or other asset classes. The payback from such investments can also be widely shared across the economy. Take the US Human Genome Project — which mapped the human genome — in the 1990s. According to the report, for every dollar invested, $141 was paid back in new medicines, products, services and employment. Likewise, the European Union’s investment over 30 years in mobile technologies — funding more than 380 research projects, and in the 1980s and 1990s lobbying for cross-border technology standards — catalyzed the growth of mobile phone markets around the world.
Historically, R&D and innovation have thrived when business, academia, and the government work closely together to turn new ideas into profitable enterprises. Take the Californian hub Silicon Valley, where an influx of federal government funds in the 1990s to universities such as Stanford and UC Berkeley helped to create a burgeoning ecosystem that later gave birth to the likes of Google and Facebook.
With all the statistics given, Africa needs to make drastic changes and improvements pertaining to Research and Development first in individual countries in Africa and eventually as Africa. According to an article by QUARTZ AFRICA, Young African scientists and researchers alike face a lot of barriers which cause them to leave their own countries. This means the continents work force loses highly trained people who are crucial to scientific and technological advancements and for economic development. It is estimated that 20,000 highly trained and educated professionals leave the continent annually, with up to 30% of Africa’s scientists and researchers among them.
Factors that lead to this brain drain of Africa include war, political instability and chief among them is the desire for higher pay, better opportunities and a search for a conducive research environment. Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 13.5% of the global population but less than 1% of global research output. In 2008, Africa produced 27,000 published papers — the same number as the Netherlands. A 2014 World Bank study showed that the quantity and quality of Sub-Saharan Africa’s research had increased substantially in the previous 20years. It more than doubled its annual research output from 2003 to 2012. And it increased its share of global research during the same period. But Africa’s overall research record remains poor. Part of the problem is that the continent contributes less than 1% of the global expenditure on research and development. The bottom line is that African governments do not spend a significant percentage of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on research and development as we have already seen in the statistics given above.
In view of the corona virus (COVID-19) that has recently attacked and shaken the whole world, it is imperative for Africa to note that it is of utmost importance that African countries and governments take this as a wakeup call to making Research and Development a priority, increase the percentage share of GDP and consequently increase funding towards Research and Development. It is clear that Africans want to make a positive and impactful contribution to research and development in Africa and the world at large but what they are lacking is adequate support from their governments, collaborations and increased funding towards this cause.
It is of paramount importance that African governments also begin to collaborate or should I say engage local African herbalists in their quest to improve and up their game in the research and development circles. Now do not get me wrong, there are herbalists and witch doctors but I am referring to herbalists. Witchcraft is the practice of witches; magic, sorcery or the use of supernatural powers to influence or predict events. A herbalist by definition is a person who treats diseases by means of medicinal herbs. Today in most African countries the Seventh day Adventist Church is at the forefront championing and promoting the use of herbs as opposed to conventional drugs. Before you think I am trying to promote witchcraft ask yourself this question, before the white man came to Africa how exactly where our forefathers treating and healing themselves when faced with diseases. The answer is simple, through the use of the natural herbs we see around us. We need to embrace and not neglect our ancestral knowledge and history. Let us not forget that what is happening today has happened before. The Bible says there is nothing new under the sun. It is time we worked together as Africans for the development of Africa.
Africa needs to realize the importance of research and development, if not; Africa will continue losing highly trained professionals to countries outside Africa that are already ahead of us in terms of economic development. This will not be the last pandemic to visit us therefore we need to be prepared as a continent, a people and begin to provide our own solutions to our own problems instead of waiting for other countries to look for solutions and cures for our own problems and diseases respectively.
