Global partnerships between higher education institutions and the information and communication technologies (ICTs) industry could reduce the distance between collaborators and help tap experts in the diaspora, a UNESCO official told the Innovation Africa summit held from 5-7 October in Cape Town.
The tradition of higher education institutions contributing to scientific knowledge production should be used as the basis for devising ICTs that boost knowledge uptake, said Professor Luc Rukingama, director of the UNESCO office in Harare, at the conference hosted by AfricanBrains.
“Strategies should be formulated and implemented to build strong higher education institutions capable of responding successfully to the many missions and expectations that each society, each development agenda places upon them,” said Rukingama.
Technologies could help bridge the divide in higher education between developing countries and developed ones through pooling and remote access to rare or expensive resources including data, computers and scientific instruments.
Rukingama argued that a growing proportion of scientific research was focusing on data and could be conducted anywhere, enabling distant cooperation and justifying entrenching ICTs in higher education.
He said many skilled expatriates, wherever they might be located, had the potential and the willingness to contribute to the development of their home countries, and technology provided new ways to enable their assistance from a distance.
“Digitally literate students, researchers and faculty can learn from and enter into collaboration with leading innovators, independently of their physical location, lessening a motive for migration,” he said.
According to a joint study by the International Organization for Migration and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, at least 20,000 highly qualified people – skilled professionals, scientists, academics and researchers – leave Africa every year.
Rukingama said partnerships between ICT providers and universities could be useful in harnessing their expertise from any corner of the world.
He cited as an example the 2009 brain gain initiative partnership between UNESCO and computer manufacturer Hewlett Packard, aimed at establishing sustainable university e-infrastructure for Africa and the Arab States and promoting international research collaboration.
UNESCO and HP acknowledged their shared interest in higher education and their synergies, and joined forces with universities and research centres to develop several projects using innovative technology to create a ‘brain gain’ for regions that were particularly hit by the exodus of academics and scientists.
Although the use of advanced computing and communications technologies represents a significant trend, shaping the future of higher education and research and pushing progress towards building knowledge-based societies, there are problems.
Rukingama said many higher education institutions still face considerable challenges such as infrastructural weaknesses, lack of competent ICT staff and low research activity. But ICT development aspirations have been buoyed by rapidly growing internet connectivity enabled by undersea cables.
“The time is now ripe for an African e-infrastructure that would help provide African solutions to African problems for the overall development of the continent,” said Rukingama.
For John Glassey, managing director of summit host AfricanBrains, partnerships were a hallmark long before the conference was held.
“The overall aspiration of AfricanBrains [is] to fulfil the need and opportunity for greater public partnerships in education, science and research in Sub-Saharan Africa,” he said.
Glassey added that the idea of the summit was to bring together decision-makers from higher education, government and industry to build relationships and strengthen public-private partnerships.
Professor Brian O’Connell, vice-chancellor of the summit co-host, the University of the Western Cape, said the clamour to say "Africa is for Africans" had been overtaken comprehensively by globalisation and the development of modern communications technologies.
“It is now clear that no nation has the knowledge, skills and natural resources that it needs to survive now or in the future,” said O’Connell.
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