UNESCO Representatives

Conference Organisers

University Professors

Educators from Africa and the World

Ladies and Gentlemen

The 1998 UNESCO pronouncement that the second half of the 20^th century would go down in the history of higher education as the period which saw the widening gap, with respect to access and resources to higher learning and research, between developed and developing countries, was prompted by the scepticism of some western scholars, who questioned the commitment of African Governments and their universities’ ability to develop and advance new knowledge. In response, the World Bank (1998) immediately issued advice to the developing countries to institute developmental policies to narrow this gap.

The United Nations announcement of the Millennium Development Goals to member states is the first giant step towards the implementation of plans to narrow the gap between developing and developed countries, and engineering education is expected to play a major role in this plan.

In 1996, the Development Assistance Committee of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) adopted the Shaping of the 21^st Century Strategy: The Contribution of Development Cooperation. This initiative included the definition of International Development, and a number of developmental targets that could lead to the fulfilment of international development goals emerged from several United Nations’ summits held during the 1990s.

These International Development Targets correlate closely with the Millennium Development Goals proclaimed in September 2000 at the United Nations Millennium Summit. In 2001 the United Nations Secretariat, together with the International Monetary Fund, OECD and the World Bank, agreed on eight main development goals, 18 sub-targets and 48 corresponding indicators to measure the results of development cooperation.

The eight main development goals became the Millennium Development Goals and they are:

To eradicate extreme poverty and hunger;

To achieve universal primary education;

To promote gender equality and empower women;

To reduce child mortality;

To improve maternal health;

To combat HIV and Aids, malaria and other diseases;

To ensure environmental sustainability; and

To develop a global partnership for development.

The principal goal of the United Nations Millennium Declaration is the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger. This led to the definition of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers, elaborated by donor agencies together with partner countries.

Medium-Term Expenditure Plans were developed to support partner countries’ budgets on a regular basis, if adopted initiatives by the partner Governments were linked to development priorities by the respective donors.

Part of the concept of the Poverty Reduction Strategies was their cross-sectoral and bottom-up character. Implementation was to take place as decentralised as possible. An emphasis on these cross-cutting priorities was intended to strengthen the efforts to reach the Millennium Development Goals and Targets.

Science, engineering and technology are the products of education, and hence prime stimulators of national and human development. Under-investment in these areas was identified as the cause for declining or stagnating scientific and technological growth. It is only through the advancement of science, engineering and technology that any country can develop.

In developed countries, which constitute only 21% of the world population, 3 out of every 1000 people are researchers and new knowledge generators. They claim 84% of research articles published and 97% research patents registered. By contrast, in developing countries, which constitute 79% of the world population, only 3 out of every 10 000 people are researchers, account for only 16% of research articles published, and 3% research patents registered. Developed or industrialised nations generate 60 - 70% of their economic growth through scientific, engineering and technological knowledge discoveries, while the developing countries generate only 10%.

On a per capita basis, developed countries have ten times more research and development scientists and technicians than developing countries. On average, developing countries devote about 0.9% of their gross domestic product to research and development, whilst developed countries devote about 2.4%. Therefore, in terms of global population size, developing countries contribute very little to world development. The situation is worse in Africa as Brazil, China and India claim the largest portions of the developing countries’ research outputs.

The research output of developing countries is unlikely to increase as our potential research outputs and knowledge discoveries are stolen from us at infancy stages through various schemes used by developed countries. Researchers from the developed countries are scattered in their thousands all over developing countries collecting data required for their research projects. This is in contrast with the policies of the leading world research institutes that have vowed never to collaborate with any African institution, South Africa included, until Africa elevates herself to a knowledge generation society. Africa needs to elevate herself into a knowledge generation society as nobody, including developed nations, will do so on her behalf.

Since 1987, South Africa’s research output has been declining by 25% every 5 years, from 2.5% of the world’s research output down to the present 0.49%, and there has been no improvement. The number of full time researchers has declined over the past ten years while young, Black and female potential researchers are not attracted to the field because of the lack of Black mentors. Out of 1 612 rated researchers at South African public universities, Blacks are a tiny minority.

Engineering education is of prime importance to the economic advancement of all countries, but especially so in Africa, with our low number of engineers per head of population. Government is committed to supporting the development of scarce skills and maintaining the numbers of skilled professionals such as artisans, information technology technicians and engineers at optimal levels.

By definition, engineering is the process of converting science or knowledge into finished products or systems. If we all associate ourselves with this definition, we should be asking ourselves whether a product or system required for a specific function in a specific country, can be exported to another country in order to generate profits to sustain continued production of the same product while developing the economy.

We should particularly ask ourselves whether our African engineering products are exported to developed countries for the purpose of enabling our people to earn the hard currency, or whether existing technologies are still relevant for Africa. I strongly urge delegates to discuss these questions in depth with honesty.

As the department tasked with the responsibility to promote world class technologies and infrastructure, we wish to acknowledge the sterling work undertaken by a number of South Africans and institutions to sustain this country on the developmental path of industrialised nations. A number of South African universities, research institutes and professional bodies and public and private companies have made us proud in the engineering education world stage. Engineering education institutions of the African region must ensure that Africa brings together a unified engineering education curriculum of the world through UNESCO.

We have reached a stage where the separate and inferior engineering education curriculum for the developing world must be done away with! In these times of internationalisation and mobility, we need to ensure the international competitiveness of the African engineering education. Our curriculum must ensure that the type of an engineer Africa produces is the same as that produced by developed and industrialised nations. The curriculum should provide conditions for the student engineer to:

“acquire knowledge and skills in the design of products, processes and working environments, taking into account the abilities and needs of human beings as well as society’s objectives as regards social conditions, economy of resources, environment and economy”.

Engineers identify the need for and plan, develop, produce, put into operation, utilise and maintain new products, systems or services, as well as close down, recycle or destroy them when they are no longer of use. Through research, our engineers should be able to solve complex problems independently, innovatively and with discernment. We also expect them to continuously follow, utilise and contribute to development in their chosen fields of engineering.

The engineering curriculum must ensure the acquisition of the following attributes by the student engineer:

Knowledge in mathematics and natural sciences necessary for the chosen field;

Good knowledge in the selected engineering field and some specialised knowledge in some part of the field;

The ability to analyse and critically assess various technical solutions from a holistic perspective;

Insight into economic, social and environmental conditions and into the needs of co-workers, customers and society;

The ability to model, simulate, predict and assess events, mathematically, with computer assistance or experimentally;

After a few years of work experience, the ability to realise products, systems, processes, goods or services throughout their entire life cycle;

The ability to lead and cooperate in projects with different constellations of people;

The ability to communicate with other people, with the assistance of different media and languages;

The ability to utilise the knowledge in other countries and cultures;

Preparedness for life-long learning to be able to adapt to changing conditions of work; and

The ability to take responsibility for the impact that engineering activities may have on the environment and on the health and safety of people.

The recently published Report No 2006: 31 R released by the Swedish Government on Evaluation of Engineering Education Programs at Swedish Universities and Institutions of Higher Education, confirmed the impact made by the new conceive-design-implement-operate theory on engineering education programmes at Chalmers University, Linkoping University and The Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. Other institutions of higher engineering education have been advised by the government of Sweden to implement the new theory. The conceive-design-implement-operate (CDIO) theory was approved as a common engineering education vision for Africa at a UNESCO engineering education seminar for Africa held in Algeria in 2003. This led to the endorsement by the South African government of the CDIO Institute for Africa that is now chairing the UNESCO Science Commission of South Africa.

African engineering education delegates at this conference should ensure that a UNESCO regional body is established that will lead towards the establishment of an African Engineering Education Institute for the creation of an engineer for Africa who can compete equally with the rest of the world.

Thank you for your attention.