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African Technology Development

Guest post by: Henk Boshoff

Article Overview: Economic Development of Africa is an international concept, based on large amounts of donor and aid capital being used to fund development projects. The goal of this is eventually to improve the living conditions of the poor as much as possible, and to ensure that this improvement is sustainable. The correct application of this concept causes great debate, and it is continuously refined and revised both physically and academically. In light of the above, I want to give some insight from within Africa.

African Technology Development

The problem with Knowledge in Africa

In contrast to the development of technology for Africa is an interesting demographic layout, where one may find high level technology and knowledge driven societies and infrastructure in areas like Sandton in Johannesburg (South-Africa) vs areas where there are barely any technology and knowledge a few kilometers away.

Most technology development in Southern Africa occurs at these technology driven hubs, or even in developed countries like the United States. A large amount of the population in these highly developed areas simply don't know or don't care about the poverty and lack of living conditions caused by the technology void beyond the city boundaries. Thus the technology and knowledge with which these societies operates does not apply to the development of the region. The result being that the more isolated in Africa the less knowledge, often resulting in extreme poverty. The major criticism on developing technology for the poor and rural parts of Africa, is based on the quality of the market. Being poor, removed from any technology and in survival mode cause the market expectation to be much less than in comparison to developed countries. This is exaggerated by the reality that millions of people have to survive on less than $1.25 per day (South Africa 26% of its population, Namibia 49%, Mozambique 75% source: UNICEF info by country)

Hence not only do technology developers for Africa, need to re-think and debate the concept of development project planning. They also need to re-think the products being delivered on the ground.

Enabling technologies.

Alternative to high technology products, based on the biggest and fastest technologies, software, and gadgets, should be a technology developed for a specified environment. This technology is an enabling technology. An example would be a bicycle without pedals (push-bike) to reduce manufacturing costs. To a citizen in a developed country it may be seen as an ancient form of transport, but to a person in Africa it could be a very cheap alternative to walking. Another example being a leaflet describing how to create a sterilization kit from old tin cans. It might sound ridiculous to a medical doctor in the United States, but to a breastfeeding mother in rural Africa, it means she could prevent the transfer of HIV to her baby.

These technologies may require the same, if not more engineering skills than high complexity systems. But the mindset changes from using the latest and the best components, to using the best components with reduced cost for the task at hand. It is required that the assumptions based on a technology driven society be discarded, and that it gets replaced by inside knowledge of the technology environment where the product will be used.

This implies that entrepreneurial developments in Africa needs to be created from within its own communities. The African entrepreneur needs to be trained in the basic concept of engineering, or be involved with bridging engineering companies to bridge the gap between a-technology requirements and typical technology driven solutions. The effect of bridging the technology gap would prevent high-technology dumping, where technology transfer is very expensive but totally useless. For example, a company installed water based toilets in rural South-Africa, only to realize that the local population couldn't afford proper toilet paper. Hence it clogged up withing a few weeks. Another example is a large IT business that donated computers to a rural school. On delivery it was found that the school didn't have electricity. These engineering companies should understand the requirements of enabling technologies and guard against the development and supply of complex, expensive products that needs knowledge and infrastructure, as opposed to products based on enabling technologies that could create an entrepreneurial cycle and thus improve the local economies. Having primary technologies and creation of economies, could then further nurture growth and feedback for more advanced technologies, since technology may be a multiplier of capabilities.

This dynamic causes a dual advantage for both technology driven as well as rural a-technology entrepreneurs. For technology driven entrepreneurs it is important to obtain local knowledge from rural areas before developing products for these areas. For rural entrepreneurs it is important to realize that technology hubs exist, and by connecting with the entrepreneurs in these hubs, products could be developed that does improve the local economy.

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Article Tags: African development, African technology, development, engineering, entrepreneurship, rural, technology, technology dumping, technology environment



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