tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58496337840375044052024-03-17T07:22:41.201-07:00Africa OyeIn the last years, major changes happened in the ICT landscape of Africa. Deployment of broadband Internet cables, mobile technology penetration and cloud computing create a unique opportunity for SMEs by finally providing easy and affordable access to ICT for the development of their business. While that will be a main topic for my blog, this blog will also address the cultural, social, economical and political dimensions of Africa as they are all very interlinked.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18021995038744733130noreply@blogger.comBlogger59125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849633784037504405.post-4373921298748802942017-04-29T03:35:00.000-07:002017-04-29T03:35:41.299-07:00What's wrong with Rwanda?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="background: white;">In his book “The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It” Paul Collier, Professor of Economics at Oxford University, is exploring the reasons why impoverished countries fail to progress despite international aid and support. These countries typically suffer from one or more development traps. One of those traps identified by Collier is being landlocked with bad neighbors. Poor landlocked countries with bad neighbors find it almost impossible to tap into world economic growth. Collier explains that countries with coastline trade with the world, while landlocked countries only trade with their neighbors. Landlocked countries with poor infrastructure connections to their neighbors therefore necessarily have a limited market for their goods. This problem is stressed even more when those neighbors are bad. Rwanda is a landlocked country surrounded by Eastern RDC, a region that has been at war for decades, by Burundi where there is unrest and violence since the last presidential election, and while Tanzania, and Uganda may not be as bad, they surely are not the best of neighbors. As this was not enough, the country sustained one of the worst genocide in 1994. So based on Collier’s book Rwanda is doomed and should fail to progress. Yet Rwanda is in the 13 fastest-growing economies in the world [1]. What’s wrong with Rwanda?</span></span></div>
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Conventional wisdom on poverty has been that poor remain poor because of low incomes and their certain lifestyle and behavioral traits like lack of cleanliness. Poverty is usually associated with dirt and deprivation. It is often assumed that if one is poor, they are more unlikely to portray a clean, fresh appearance. Rwanda by the IMF evaluation takes the 138th position in the GDP per capita, ranking in the bottom 20% of the world as a low income economy by World Bank ranking. Yet a report from the Chinese CCTV [2] claimed that Kigali is the cleanest and safest city and according the United Nations, Kigali, the capital of Rwanda is the most beautiful city of Africa [3]. What’s wrong with Rwanda?</div>
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Even in times of peace, the poor are worst affected by violent crime, lawlessness and state-sanctioned abuse. And in times of war, millions of poor people have been killed, injured or displaced across the developing world. Yet the Gallup Global Report- 2015 placed Rwanda the safest place to walk at night in Africa and fifth safest country in the world. What’s wrong with Rwanda?</div>
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Governments in developing countries play an important role in the growth process. This potentially beneficial role is, however, hindered by government expenditure inefficiency. In addition corrupt behavior has significant adverse consequences for efficiency and equity outcomes. Rwanda was ranked in the Global Competitiveness Report of 2015 [4] as the Africa’s most efficient government followed by Mauritius and South Africa. The same report ranked the country’s government as the 2nd most efficient globally and Rwanda is ranked in 13th position globally and in first position in Africa for ethics and corruption. Rwanda ranks first in Africa for wastefulness of government spending and 4th in the world. What’s wrong with Rwanda?</div>
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Infrastructure is a critical driver of economic growth. Researchers estimate that a significant part of economic growth has been lost in Africa because of lack of access to quality infrastructure. In developing countries, infrastructure deficits are still enormous in both quantity and quality terms. In the latest Global Competitiveness Index 2016–2017 [5] from the World Economic Forum, Rwanda’s quality of overall infrastructure ranks first in Africa and 41st in the world, while the quality of roads ranks 3rd in Africa and 31st in the world. What’s wrong with Rwanda?</div>
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The competitiveness of firms in a global economic environment is an essential element in the development strategy of a country. This is particularly relevant for developing countries where the problem of concentrated power structures and uncompetitive domestic markets is often considerably more acute than in developed countries. Rwanda is ranked third in Africa and 52nd in the world [5]. What’s wrong with Rwanda?</div>
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So is there anything wrong in Rwanda? Yes there is, but what is wrong is what people would think is normal for a poor African country. For example Rwanda ranks above 80th position in the world for travel & tourism competitiveness index, for global food security index, and above 100th position for higher education and training, health and democracy index*.</div>
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But by far in most independent world rankings, Rwanda’s position is way above what you would expect for such a small and poor African country. The question then is: how do they do it?</div>
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While there are many ways you can explain and answer that question I think that there is only one answer, and that is the quality of the leadership of the country.</div>
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While I visited over 20 countries in Africa, I can only claim experience from living in Congo-Zaire for 11 years and in Rwanda for 6 years. I grew up in Congo when it was a Belgian colony but then I returned there under the Mobutu regime for 3 years. And now I live in Rwanda for the last 6 years under Kagame’s presidency.</div>
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One day in Zaire, I got stopped by a police agent who wanted to give me a ticket for some reason and we were going to negotiate the amount. Basically we were going to decide how much he would put in his pocket. While I don’t favor this type of transaction, I said that I agreed but at one condition, that he would answer one question. I asked him: “Why are you doing this?”, basically why are you stealing money from citizens? His answer was: “le chef le fait bien, pourquoi pas moi?” « The boss does it, why not me? ». Mobutu was recently ranked as the second worst dictator in Africa (after Idi Amin Dada). By the time he was overthrown in 1997, Mobutu had stolen almost half of the $12bn in aid money that Zaire - now the Democratic Republic of Congo - received from the IMF during his 32-year reign, leaving his country saddled with a crippling debt.</div>
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A couple a years ago, at Kigali’s International Airport, a police agent found a paper bag with $42,000 in cash at a security post. He returned the bag with the cash to his superior! Tell me any country including mine where this would happen! He got a $500 bonus and was promoted. I think that the owner of the bag also provided him with some reward. I claim that that attitude percolates from the top. When the top of the hierarchy doesn’t steal money, the money is used for what it is meant for and everyone in the chain till the lowest level of responsibility gets his part of it. I can’t remember how many times Zairian professors at the national university where I was teaching didn’t get paid.</div>
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More importantly, I think that Mr Kagame is not managing his country like a typical politician but rather like a professional business manager. Like a CEO, he has a Presidential Advisory Council (PAC), a group of eminent Rwandan and International experts who offer strategic advice and guidance. The cabinet meets annually during a three day retreat to define the country’ strategy for development. That strategy is widely published and made available. It started in 2000 with the publication of the first Vision 2020 [6]. It has been instrumental in the success of Rwanda development. It took the neighboring countries more than a decade to understand the impact and they are now copying Rwanda with their own Vision documents. But as one my senior executives at IBM once told me: “A vision without execution is hallucination”, and Rwanda excels in its vision execution. </div>
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All the leaders from cabinet members to province governors, district authority and city mayors have to report annually on their execution results. Each year performance contracts are signed between the president of Rwanda and local government institutions and line ministries. These bind respective institutions to targets they set for themselves. Performance contracts are measured against an agreed set of governance, economic and social indicators known as performance indicators. These performance contracts are called “imihigo”[7]. District Mayors are held to account on their imihigo performance twice a year in public sessions (and broadcasted on national TV) in Kigali, which are chaired by the President himself. There is a Q&A session, with phone-ins from the public on the how and why of Districts’ performances. When performances are repeatedly below-par mayors can get fired.</div>
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I recently invited a government official as a guest speaker at my course “Strategic Use of Digital Information in Enterprises”. I wanted her to present how the Rwandan government is using data to manage the country. She showed us the real-time dashboard used by the cabinet to monitor over 300 KPIs linked to strategic projects and to each ministry. In 25 years of my career in the IT industry where I visited countless large enterprises, I have never seen one like that. Most of the data were real time. For example, anonymized electronic medical records allow monitoring malaria in real time. While some data was still entered manually, the government was working hard to convert all the data to real-time digital capture at the source to prevent data manipulation.</div>
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So everything is good in the best of the world in Rwanda? Certainly not. Rwanda is facing many challenges and mistakes are made on a regular basis. For example, while I think that the switch from French to English made sense in the Rwandan context, the way that decision was executed had a negative impact on education in the short term. One day, my manager asked me: “How many mistakes did you do this month?” As I proudly answered that I did no mistake he said: “That is probably because you didn’t try hard enough!” </div>
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Rwanda’s leadership is trying very hard every day and that is why they are where they are today 23 years after the genocide and I don’t know of any similar success story anywhere in the world in recent history.</div>
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Seeya later alligator….</div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><i><span style="background: white; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">*While I don’t contest the result, one may wonder about the
criteria used for the democracy index ranking. One of the reasons cited for
the low ranking of Rwanda is the recent change in the constitution reducing
presidential term limits from seven to five years renewable only once. But the
change will be preceded by one transitional presidential term of seven years
for which any presidential candidate will be eligible which in effect allows President
Kagame to run for a third term. As expected the negative reaction of the Western
media was immediate. Strangely, as authorized by the German constitution,
Angela Merckel’s running for a 4<sup>th</sup> Chancellor mandate does not seem
to be a problem for the same media despite the disastrous impact of her austerity
policy on Europe’s economy for the last decade [8]. Sometimes I wish that the
Western world would listen more to what African themselves think about their
continent. An interesting paper “Why Kagame’s bid to serve a third term makes
sense for Rwanda” was recently published by the Joburg Post [9]. <o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">[1] Elena Holodny, The 13
fastest-growing economies in the world, Business Insider, Jun. 12, 2015, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/world-bank-fast-growing-global-economies-2015-6?IR=T%20">http://www.businessinsider.com/world-bank-fast-growing-global-economies-2015-6?IR=T</a>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">[2] <u>Capital Kigali cleanest and
safest city in Rwanda</u>, CCTV.com, Jan. 12,2012, <a href="http://english.cntv.cn/program/africalive/20120112/108232.shtml">http://english.cntv.cn/program/africalive/20120112/108232.shtml</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">[3] A. Onuh, <u>This is why Kigali is
UN’s most beautiful African city</u>, AnswersAfrica.com, <a href="http://answersafrica.com/this-is-why-kigali-is-uns-most-beautiful-african-city.html">http://answersafrica.com/this-is-why-kigali-is-uns-most-beautiful-african-city.html</a>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">[4] The Global Competitiveness Report
2015-2016, World Economic Forum, 2016, <a href="http://reports.weforum.org/global-competitiveness-report-2015-2016/">http://reports.weforum.org/global-competitiveness-report-2015-2016/</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">[5] The Global Competitiveness Report
2016-2017, World Economic Forum, 2017, <a href="https://www.weforum.org/reports/the-global-competitiveness-report-2016-2017-1">https://www.weforum.org/reports/the-global-competitiveness-report-2016-2017-1</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">[6] MINISTRY OF FINANCE AND ECONOMIC
PLANNING, REPUBLIC OF RWANDA, <a href="http://www.minecofin.gov.rw/index.php?id=148">http://www.minecofin.gov.rw/index.php?id=148</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">[7] B. Versailles, <u>Rwanda:
performance contracts (imihigo)</u>, April 2012, <a href="http://www.rwandapedia.rw/explore/imihigo">http://www.rwandapedia.rw/explore/imihigo</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">[8]N. Gutteridge, <u>We’ve had ENOUGH
Merkel’ Rest of Europe gangs up on Germany over crippling EU austerity</u>,<u> </u>The
Daily Express, Aug 6, 2016, <a href="http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/697340/European-Union-Mediterranean-anti-austerity-alliance-Germany-Angela-Merkel-Brexit">http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/697340/European-Union-Mediterranean-anti-austerity-alliance-Germany-Angela-Merkel-Brexit</a>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">[9] <u>Why Kagame’s bid to serve a
third term makes sense for Rwanda</u>, Joburg Post, 21 APRIL 2017 </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="https://www.joburgpost.co.za/2017/04/21/why-kagames-bid-to-serve-a-third-term-makes-sense-for-rwanda/">https://www.joburgpost.co.za/2017/04/21/why-kagames-bid-to-serve-a-third-term-makes-sense-for-rwanda/<o:p></o:p></a></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18021995038744733130noreply@blogger.com122tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849633784037504405.post-8733612124678136132017-02-01T01:26:00.002-08:002017-02-04T03:51:02.680-08:00Is Rwanda transforming its Technopole project into a large prairie?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In the late 1990s the government of Rwanda (GoR) recognized that ICTs could
play an important role in accelerating the socio-economic development of the
country and the creation of an information and knowledge economy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #545454;">In 2000, GOR</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #545454;"> established Vision 2020</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #545454;"> a g</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">overnment development program in Rwanda</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">, launched by </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">president Paul Kagame in which it is said that the </span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #545454; font-size: xx-small;">"</span></span>government is actively trying to attract multinational corporations
through investment-friendly policies to develop a <b>Technopole</b>".</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In the National Industry Policy document published in April 2001 by the Ministry of Trade and Industry of GOR, one of the policy actions describes the need to "allocate land for industries, develop industrial parks and Special Economic Zones (SEZs)– leveraging Public-Private-Partnerships
(PPPs) for development and management of SEZ such as ...<b>Technopole</b> (park for ICT, nanotechnology, etc)".</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In january 2013, the government<span style="background-color: white;"> through Rwanda Development Board (RDB) announced plans to set up an ICT park that will host a collection of technological investments including training, industries, research and development.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">According to Patrick Nyirishema, the Head of IT at RDB at the time, the plans to set up Kigali <b>Technopole</b> are on the right track. The Technopole </span><span style="background-color: white;">will be built on the grounds of the Kigali SEZ, located 10 km east of Kigali City’s business district. The project plans reveal that the Innovation City will comprise all elements of a typical urban centre including corporate buildings, retail, leisure, sports, accommodation, health care center and other amenities with the regional ICT Center of Excellence (CoE) hosting Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) as its first anchor tenant. </span></span></div>
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In September 2013, the masterplan for the development of a Technopole in Kigali is published together with a viability and business plan. The Technopole will provide much needed infrastructural improvements, including guaranteed electricity and ICT infrastructure for companies that will be located in the park. Therefore the Technopole is Rwanda’s best bet in fast-tracking the country’s ICT transformation as it has the potential to diversify jobs beyond agriculture, provide new middle-income jobs, drive the development of SMEs, and increase product and service innovation.</div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4KYXYI7bH9s/WJGRitAMMeI/AAAAAAABW-8/1oraI_hKD3kyjnUFh26NzjaqW0N_JjEgwCLcB/s1600/Techno%2BCMU.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="330" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4KYXYI7bH9s/WJGRitAMMeI/AAAAAAABW-8/1oraI_hKD3kyjnUFh26NzjaqW0N_JjEgwCLcB/s400/Techno%2BCMU.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Technopole Master Plan</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">In May 2016, the government of Rwanda launched Kigali Innovation City (KIC replacing the name of Technopole), a flagship project to drive digital transformation through its dynamic ecosystem of technology clusters in which domestic and international companies will innovate and deliver products and services for global markets and with Carnegie Mellon University as its anchor tenant.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">"</span></span>Kigali Innovation City is the natural home where indigenous Rwandan technology companies can innovate and serve the whole market of the African continent. It is also the best home in Africa for multinational technology companies to domicile their subsidiaries, bring their technologies and skills, and conduct the innovation necessary to create optimized products and services for the African market. "</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">The concept of KIC is similar to Silicon Valley that was developed around the world class anchor Stanford University which became </span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">the epicenter of technological innovation over the past half-century. </span><span style="background-color: white;">Stanford's role as an incubator of technology is clear. In the last 50 years, university faculty, staff and graduates have launched some 1,200 companies. Today, more than 50 percent of Silicon Valley's product comes from companies of Stanford alumni.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">While comparisons with Silicon Valley are always difficult, the KIC concept presents the same dynamic of close proximity between a world class university (CMU), entrepreneurs and IT businesses.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: justify;">So far Rwanda's KIC plan </span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222;">made a lot of sense and was strategically better positioned than other projects in the region as I explained in this </span><a href="http://brel54.blogspot.com/2013/03/striving-to-become-africas-first.html" style="color: #222222;" target="_blank">post</a><span style="color: #222222;">. But while the vision was clear, besides many declarations of intention reported above and the development of its master plan, its execution has not delivered to its expectations. In the </span></span><span style="background-color: white;">National Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Strategic Plan for the period 2011 – 2015 </span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222;">the target was </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: justify;">50 ICT companies operating in the Technopole by 2015, 50 ICT intellectual property registered annually by 2015, and the ICT sector contributing to 15% of the economy by 2015. None of that happened.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;">The only real development has been the start of the construction of the ICT CoE, financed by the African Development Bank that will host Carnegie Mellon University to be completed by the end of 2017.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NN7f3KLCeBo/WJDiUtdKUWI/AAAAAAABW-U/DGN5MoBImB04JllAdhASQb7s-g1hhg5RACLcB/s1600/pict011717D%2B%25281%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NN7f3KLCeBo/WJDiUtdKUWI/AAAAAAABW-U/DGN5MoBImB04JllAdhASQb7s-g1hhg5RACLcB/s400/pict011717D%2B%25281%2529.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;"> The construction site of the Regional ICT CoE to host CMU</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">That the development of KIC did not follow the aggressive plan of the government is not surprising or unique for such an ambitious project and the vision is still strong. It is even getting stronger as I will </span>explain<span style="font-family: inherit;"> later.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222;">However, recently I was surprised by a presentation of a new plan for KIC presented by the KIC chief </span></span><span style="color: #222222;">strategist to representatives of the President's Advisory Council visiting the ICT COE construction site. But before I get to this new plan, let me first cover some important and recent developments that took place in Rwanda.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Key to the success of the Technopole is the investment of private sector in the development and also the attraction of high level skills that would be needed for the development of the industry sector in the country.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Since the government of Rwanda signed an agreement for the development of the ICT CoE with CMU in 2011, the government has been very active and successful in attracting other major tertiary education and research institutions to Rwanda.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">In 2014 Rwanda announced that it was set to host the region’s International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), a science hub that seeks to advance scientific education in the developing world. </span><span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; text-align: justify;">The Italy-based ICTP founded in 1964 by the late Nobel Laureate Abdus Salam, announced the opening of its branch campus in Rwanda, to operate as the East African regional base. </span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;">In early 2016, at the Ministry of Education a partnership agreement was signed between the Government of Rwanda and the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) – Next Einstein Initiative (NEI). AIMS</span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"> was established in 2003 in South Africa but a</span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;">t the invitation of President Paul Kagame, AIMS will join the science and innovation ecosystem that the government is building with the goal of being a continental hub in technology and will move their headquarters to Kigali.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; text-align: justify;">The African Leadership University (ALU), a private learning institution was launched in Rwanda in September 2016. Students in ALU will have similar courses with those in Cambridge of Massachusetts in United States. It will start with the school of business</span><span style="background-color: white;"> and will soon house undergraduate offerings set to launch in 2017.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In addition, Rwanda was selected to host the Smart Africa Alliance secretariat having demonstrated commitment as a leader in information and communications technology promotion. Smart Africa headquarters opened in Kigali early 2016. Dr Toure, the former secretary-general of the International Telecommunications Union, was appointed as executive director. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Rwanda can be proud of these accomplishments, creating an education and research hub with world class institutions in Kigali that should deliver the skills and expertise required for its Vision 2020 strategic plan to become a knowledge based economy. These new world class partners will at least triple the number of highly skilled students that will graduate each year in Rwanda. Adding to that the extraordinary effort by the GOR in Higher Education that has seen the number of students increased from 3,261 in 1994 to 87,013 in 2015, this is making the KIC strategy and project even stronger than it was at his inception, providing probably the best high level skills available in the region for future investors in KIC.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Let me now get back to the new plan presented by the chief strategist of KIC. The base idea of the plan is to install all the new education partners AIMS, ALU and ITCP in KIC where CMU was the first anchor tenant planned. That idea makes a lot of sense to create a critical mass of expertise and skills and to foster interaction and collaboration between those institutions in the spirit of a dynamic ecosystem that can nurture innovation and new businesses. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">So far so good, but the problem is in the execution plan.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">KIC is a 61 ha (150 acres) site. A quarter of it (25% or 15 ha) has been dedicated to CMU and the ICT CoE as shown in the master plan. The rest of it (75% or 46 ha) was dedicated for the city including business offices, government buildings, shopping center, financial district, support services, green space, etc.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In the new plan presented by the chief strategist which I reproduce here as accurately as possible since we did not get a copy of it, the city has been reduced to less than 20% of the space while CMU, AIMS, ALU and ITCP would take 80%! So 80% of the space will be dedicated for higher education institution campuses where we can imagine their buildings being built in the middle of large green landscaping typical of university campuses, like a large prairie.</span><br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-i-CCFlbX6KA/WJGnLBZsSOI/AAAAAAABW_M/CFPjKg9ZRY8ZlvDBL3MplK3IwDJGeZ3MACLcB/s1600/New%2BKIC%2Bplan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-i-CCFlbX6KA/WJGnLBZsSOI/AAAAAAABW_M/CFPjKg9ZRY8ZlvDBL3MplK3IwDJGeZ3MACLcB/s400/New%2BKIC%2Bplan.jpg" width="363" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> New KIC plan presented in December 2016</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It is difficult to understand the logic beyond that change if only to provide each institutions with similar space. The CMU academic building (shown above) covers less than 1 ha in a zone of 15 ha. The building is only representing Phase 1 of the project. Phase 2 will see the construction of a conference center, a student activity center with cafeteria and sports facilities, students lodging and visiting professor guest house. Even when Phase 2 will be completed, there will be lots of space left in the 15 ha zone. CMU presented RDB with the idea to offer that space left to the new institutions like AIMS and ALU. There is enough space for that. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">There a several advantages to that approach. First those institutions can share common facilities described in CMU Phase 2 above, i.e. activity center, students lodging, etc., thereby reducing the total cost. Second and probably more important is that this sharing will facilitate and encourage contacts and synergy between their students. It is this cohort of world class engineering, business school, mathematics and physics students that will be the new generation of innovators and leaders that will transform Africa. Third by concentrating all the universities in the space proposed for universities in the master plan, it leaves the original 75% of KIC available for the real objective of it, i.e. the development of an ICT industry and hub as originally planned.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I mentioned earlier that the KIC project did not achieve its goals yet, but I also said that there was nothing really abnormal about it. Indeed, I can imagine how difficult it has been for the RDB investment promotion services to convince businesses to come to KIC which has been a large maize field since the beginning of the project. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">But now that the anchor and flagship regional ICT CoE building is almost completed and that the base road infrastructure is being built, and that Rwanda was successful in attracting AIMS, ALU and ICTP in addition to CMU, the value proposition is much more attractive for those potential investors. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I guess that what is left is the legal framework. The business plan issued with the master plan gives an overview of some of the incentives that could be offered at KIC:<b> </b></span><br />
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<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Corporate income of 20% after tax holiday of 10 years</li>
<li>Capital Gains Tax-Exempt to the SEZ enterprise </li>
<li>Tax on Dividend- Exempt within SEZ </li>
<li>ICT-Research, Innovation & Development (Including software development)</li>
<ul>
<li>Allowable Expense– Double Tax Deduction. </li>
<li>Effective 15% subsidy of actual expense taken off SEZ enterprise tax liability </li>
</ul>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">To my knowledge, I don't think that those have been approved yet by the GOR cabinet. If so, now is the time to get it done to complete the fantastic opportunity that KIC will offer to Rwandan, African and International IT investors. They understand that Africa is the next frontier and that ICT will be a key driver for its development. Unfortunately, often Rwanda was not on their radar map as a potential investment place for IT in Africa. KIC is changing that perspective now and it becomes probably one of the best opportunity for those who want to develop the African innovation market where <span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;">new ICT solutions that are adapted to Africa's environment and needs will be developed by Africans for Africa.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 16.032px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 16.032px;">Seeya later alligator....</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 16.032px;"><br /></span></span>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18021995038744733130noreply@blogger.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849633784037504405.post-58887249987218731172016-05-01T11:53:00.000-07:002016-05-01T11:53:48.060-07:00Raising the Bar in Africa’s Higher Education: Ten Principles to Improve Higher Education in Africa<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In
a first posting “<a href="http://brel54.blogspot.com/2016/05/africas-tertiary-education-deficit-is.html" target="_blank">Africa’s Higher Education Deficit is Threatening its EconomicDevelopment</a>”, I analyzed both the quantity and quality gap between Africa’s
Higher Education and the rest of the world. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In
this second posting I would like to suggest ten simple and basic principles
that could impact the quality of higher education. These principles do not
require significant investments. That does not mean however that they will not
require significant efforts from all stakeholders to be implemented.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">First
I suggest three ideas to improve the quality of course content and teaching
methodology. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Move up from rote learning<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives [1] defines six
hierarchical cognitive levels of thinking complexity. </span><s><o:p></o:p></s></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In many African universities, education only addresses the
first two levels: remembering and understanding. Often all that is required
from students is to be able to remember the content that was taught by the
instructor and repeat it to show understanding of what it means.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Faculty need to lead their students into the next levels:
applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating. This is particularly important
for engineering studies where one expects them to come up with new inventions
and innovation leveraging their creativity. It implies to get students more
involved in creative work in their assignments, projects, and tests. Instead of
getting them to simply repeat (remember) what they learned in the course, instructors
must ask them to come up with their own ideas on how to address a problem by putting
the theory into practice, using knowledge in response to real circumstances.
For example in the “Business Strategy” course that I’m teaching, after understanding
the theory, students are required to apply it to a real business. In
collaboration with the business executive team of that enterprise, they analyze
their market collecting and organizing data from different sources. Then from
that analysis they evaluate the different strategic options and judging their
relative potential, they finally create a business strategy to be submitted to
the executive team of that enterprise. In doing so, the students acquire a much
better understanding of the theory by implementing it in a real world
situation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Another valuable exercise is to ask students to present their
ideas in front of their fellow students, engaging in interactive discussions
about the ideas presented calling upon their critical and logical thinking. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">While there is no financial cost in applying the Bloom’s
model in class, it will require significant work from the professors both by
adapting their teaching method and their evaluation process. It is more
difficult to evaluate a creative work from a student than grading answers to
questions about existing content.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The implementation of the Bloom model requires equipping the
students with the tools needed to succeed, i.e. non-technical soft skills like communication
skills including presentation and writing skills, teamwork and collaboration,
critical thinking and problem solving. This training needs to be added to the
curriculum to provide the students with the appropriate tools. To do so
professors must move away from reliance on knowledge transmission only and
accept to integrate these in their teaching.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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</span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Use MOOCs to improve course content<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">While Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have enrolled
students from developing countries pretty much from the start, there have not
yet been many attempts to systematically include MOOCs as part of targeted
education efforts in low income countries. The quality of their content could
be used by African professors to improve content of their courses and achieve a
better </span>implementation<span style="font-size: 12pt;"> of the Bloom’s cognitive levels. This is particularly
promising because teachers then pass what they learn on to their own students:
when they make use of MOOCs resources in their classrooms, they multiply the
effect.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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</span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Get students feedback on courses</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Aside from measuring students,
universities should develop mechanisms to measure the quality of the courses taught
by their faculty. Several websites exist that allow students to rate their
instructors, such as “rate my
professor”. Here we need to be cautious as it is difficult for those
websites to identify sincere from fake ratings. The last thing you want is for
a student to vindicate her/his (maybe rightfully) low grade by trashing the
grading professor on those sites. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Instead, we recommend for each university to introduce their
own private rating systems such that students registered for a course are automatically
given the opportunity to rate that course after its completion. What is
important here is that the result be used not to penalize professors but rather
to help them improve the quality of their teaching and learning through student
feedback. After several consecutive surveys, instructors can reflect on the feedback
and use it for performance and development reviews to make changes to their
course content and teaching method. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">These surveys can also be used by academic committees to
promote outstanding professors and encourage others to improve their teaching
quality, potentially inviting them to “teaching excellence” seminars.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Next
I suggest encouraging hard work and providing benefits to those students who
are willing to make the extra effort.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
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</span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Increase the passing grade level</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In most African universities,
students can get their degree with 50% of the grades. We suggest increasing
that to a minimum of 60%. At Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), you must have a 75%
average of the grades (B grade) to get your master degree. The objective here
is to change the “good enough” mentality that often permeates students.
Obviously one would hope that professors don’t change their grading schema
accordingly to allow students to pass.<b> </b>Robust
standard grading methodologies need to be implemented.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">5)<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal;">
</span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Develop a Dean’s List program for the best students<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Based on their results after the first year of their
bachelor degree, the best students are invited to join the Dean’s List program
on a voluntary basis. They are personally introduced to the Dean of the School
upon their selection. For the remaining three years of their bachelor degree
and if they continue performing at a top level, the following benefits are
offered to Dean’s List students: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Smaller classes and better
instructors.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Classes have a much lower student/instructor ratio with
smaller class size which makes discussion easier and allows for more group
work, class presentations, and other high impact pedagogical practices. Inspiring
faculty are selected for Dean’s List classes where they can develop more
innovative teaching practices in these courses which they can then bring into
their regular sections. Being in a Dean’s List class does not imply that it
will be easier for students, at the contrary. The pace is faster and more
challenging, since students are surrounded by other students of the same
caliber and, often, the same interests. Students are offered with deeper
opportunities to explore and understand the material. It is the quality of
intellectual work that those students seek out. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Paid internships.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Getting paid for internship is another benefit for Dean’s
List students. These better students are probably those that should be
recommended for paid internships, another principle discussed later (principle 9).
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">3.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Better dorms.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Dean’s List students are lodging together in usually better
dorms integrating more space where they can interact and continue the group
learning process.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">While some will criticize the Dean’s List as an elitist
approach, we see it rather as a way to encourage hard working students. It is
the student’s decision to work hard to be a Dean’s List student and to accept
being in the Dean’s List section when their performance gives them that
opportunity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In
order to address the common complaint that there is a profound mismatch between
the degrees offered and the skills required by the labor market in Africa, I
suggest three principles involving closer relationship between industries and
the university.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br clear="all" style="mso-special-character: line-break; page-break-before: always;" />
</span></b>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">6)<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal;">
</span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Establish a board of industry advisors<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">University departments usually have a curriculum review
committee who determines course offerings (the Curriculum) for any given
academic program. These review committees are comprised of professors and
department heads who usually review program and course criteria from a solely
academic perspective. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The objective of this principle is to get the private sector
involved in university curriculum overview by establishing a “board of industry
advisors” comprising business people selected by the university department and working
in industry areas related to the department’s curriculum. For example a
computer science department could invite representatives from the IT industry:
IT vendors, software vendors, telecommunication companies, internet service
providers, etc. This board meets with the department faculty once a year during
a one day meeting to discuss the curriculum content. The only cost to the
department is the organization of that meeting. Usually board members pay for
their own travel expenses, and are proud adding their board membership to their
resume. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There are several benefits to such a board:</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">1) </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">Its members (usually industry senior
executives or middle management) have a good understanding of their industry
and can advise the department about industry trends they see and the resulting
skills that will be needed by the industry. This can help the department adapting
the curriculum accordingly;</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">2) The board members are the people who
ultimately would recruit the students. Getting them to participate in the department’s
curriculum definition will give them more confidence that the department will
deliver the right skills.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It is worth noting here, however, the ongoing discussion on
whether higher education institutions (both in the developed and developing
world) is beholden to meet the needs of industry, or should remain above the
marketplace and perpetuate the quest of knowledge and pure academics for
"the greater good". We will refrain from engaging that discussion and
instead explore ways in which tertiary education in Africa may sustain
market-driven growth.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">7)<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal;">
</span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Offer visiting professor positions to industry professionals
<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A common complaint from students is that their professors do
not have practical experience about what they are teaching. The university
should make it easy for departments to provide visiting professor positions for
people from the industry with experience in the field. Industry people like
sharing their passion and experience with young people by teaching at
universities. They rarely do it for pure financial reasons, some may even teach
for free. Therefore, the cost of a visiting professor is usually lower than the
regular professor. But the experience they will bring and share with students
can be invaluable. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Another alternative to a visiting professor teaching an
entire course is to invite industry guest speakers in the course to share
practical experience with the students.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We have to ensure that these visiting lectures aren’t
supplementary to the ‘usual’ teaching but complementary and become an
established part of course delivery e.g. 1 in every 4 lectures.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">8)<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal;">
</span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Invite enterprises to submit industry problems<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Traditionally graduate programs allow students to choose
their own final thesis subject (sometimes not related with real industry
problems) or have them to choose from a list submitted by professors with little
industry experience. Instead thesis subjects could be selected from a list of industry problems submitted by local or regional enterprises. </span>Students<span style="font-size: 12pt;"> then work in teams of two-three students to solve these problems under the </span>supervision<span style="font-size: 12pt;"> of the enterprise itself. The work of the students to
solve the submitted industry problem is free for the submitting business but
results are usually not guaranteed as it is considered as an academic exercise.
Nevertheless enterprises are interested by this free labor that often provides
them with interesting outside views for solution to their problems. This may
take some time to develop as the university needs to break the distrust from
the industry for them to submit their problems. But as soon as students can
show good performance, the word will spread. At CMU-Rwanda we receive three
times more problems submitted by industry than we can actually handle. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">9)<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal;">
</span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Get paid internships from local and regional enterprises<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In Africa (and in some European countries) the tradition is
that students’ internships are not paid for. As a result, those internships are
often useless as there is no real commitment from the hosting company to mentor
and provide the student with a meaningful work experience during the
internship. That is completely different when they pay for the internship.
Again this requires the business to believe that the students will be able to perform
the job proposed. This is also a way for the private sector to contribute to
improving Higher Education by financing internships for the best students who
can be potential future employees.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Here I recommend this option for Dean’s List students only
(see principle 5). The university could grant academic credits for the students
who do well during their internship.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">When
implementing principles 7, 8, and 9 for graduate programs, it will offer
students the possibility to spend at least 30-40% of their graduate program in
direct contact with industry. This should reduce the gap identified earlier and
guarantee better employment of the graduating students.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Finally
I suggest using alumni network to monitor students’ employment. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">10)<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal;"> </span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Organize
and mobilize alumni networks</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Alumni organizations are well developed at American
universities. They serve many purposes: develop a network of alumni that can be
tapped into by graduating students for employment support, by the university
for fund raising, and for other purposes. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Alumni organizations were not possible in Africa in the past
due to the high cost of communication but free e-mail and social networks have
now reduced that cost to almost zero.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Africa cannot afford to continue investing in universities
that deliver students that are unprepared to work in the country or regional
economy. Alumni networks can be used to track the employment of students after
they graduate. Statistical data can then easily be collected showing the
percentage of students finding jobs over
the years after graduation, the level of income they earn, and the types of
jobs they are hired for. This, in turn, can be made publicly available in an
anonymous statistical form granting some monitoring of the data to prevent
fraud. That data will indicate how successful a university is measured by the
career data of their students, allowing students and their families to select
the best universities and encouraging the other universities to improve their
quality of education if they want to survive.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Student alumni should also be used as University Ambassadors
in their communities to help with student’s recruitment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Each
principle described here and applied by university departments can be monitored
for progress. For principles one and two, the department can monitor the number
of faculty applying the full Bloom model in their courses and using MOOCs
content to improve their course content. For principle 3, survey results can be
monitored over time and be used as a quality indicator of courses in the
department. Principle 4 can be implemented at the department level (and better
at the university level). The number of students engaged in the Dean’s List
program is another quality indicator that should progress over time. The number
of industry visiting professors, the number of problems submitted by industry
and the number of paid internships offered are all indicators of a better
integration with the regional industry that will surely attract more students
to the department. Careful monitoring of those indicators should be used for
setting goals for the department and encourage all stakeholders to contribute
to the general improvement of the quality of education delivered. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">These
principles are not magic bullets, but the advantage of these ideas is that they
have no or small cost associated with them. They “only” require sustained
efforts by the department faculty motivated to improve the quality of the
education they deliver. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.1pt; margin-bottom: 1.2pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.1pt; margin-bottom: 1.2pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">[1] </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Bloom" title="Benjamin Bloom"><i><span style="color: #0b0080; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.5pt;">Bloom,
B. S.</span></i></a><cite><span style="color: #252525; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.5pt;">; Engelhart, M. D.; Furst, E. J.; Hill, W. H.;</span></cite><span class="apple-converted-space"><i><span style="color: #252525; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.5pt;"> </span></i></span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Krathwohl" title="David Krathwohl"><i><span style="color: #0b0080; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.5pt;">Krathwohl,
D. R.</span></i></a><span class="apple-converted-space"><i><span style="color: #252525; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.5pt;"> </span></i></span><cite><span style="color: #252525; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.5pt;">(1956).</span></cite><span class="apple-converted-space"><i><span style="color: #252525; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.5pt;"> </span></i></span><cite><span style="color: #252525; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.5pt;">Taxonomy of educational
objectives: The classification of educational goals. Handbook I: Cognitive
domain. New York: David McKay Company.</span></cite><span style="color: #252525; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18021995038744733130noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849633784037504405.post-34232005656242650602016-05-01T06:04:00.001-07:002016-05-01T06:04:39.976-07:00Africa‘s Tertiary Education Deficit is Threatening its Economic Development <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="Quote1" style="margin-bottom: .15in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 41.85pt; margin-top: 0in;">
“<i>Education, and higher
education in particular, is the fulcrum and pivot upon which all other
developments rest and rotate around. In the words of Andrew Carnegie, 'Upon no
foundation but that of popular education can a man erect the structure of an
enduring civilization</i>'” – <span style="font-size: x-small;">Professor Olugbemiro Jegede, Sec. General, Association of African Universities, 2012</span></div>
<div class="Quote1">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Business in Africa is getting serious. The continent's
markets have grown at unprecedented rates for the past decade, a consumer class
with significant purchasing power is forming, at a time where Europe and the
United States are in a more-or-less chronic states of stagnation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Opportunities abound for foreign investors and African
entrepreneurs alike, but there is a consensus that, while they certainly form
key parts of the picture, growth in the region has to be about more than oil
and minerals, and will require more than just highways and factories. In 2010,
Howard W. French of Columbia University concluded that<i> “All things
considered, resource-based or infrastructure-driven development [...] appear
unlikely to lead to a meaningful African renaissance."</i> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">A Harvard University study published in 2005 by Bloom et al
("Higher Education and Economic Development in Africa") was among the
first to document the importance of tertiary education on economic growth and
poverty reduction. Building on that research, UNESCO in 2006 declared that: <i>"Expanding
higher education contributes to promoting faster technological catch-up,
improving a country's ability to maximize output and decrease the knowledge gap
and poverty in the region. There seems to be an increasing recognition of a
positive contribution of higher education to economic development, and there is
a strong case for expanding the base of tertiary education in the developing
world." <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">After years of explicitly steering funding away from
universities in favor of primary education, the World Bank in 2008 concluded
that, <i>"[...] maximizing productivity and achieving competitiveness will
depend upon success in augmenting human capital and raising its quality. The
key to economic success in a globalized world lies increasingly in how
effectively a country can assimilate the available knowledge and build
comparative advantage in selected areas with good growth prospects, and in how
it can enlarge the comparative advantage by pushing the frontiers of technology
through innovation." <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Everyone, it seems, at last agrees that higher education
plays a pivotal role in sustaining growth and development. It is however disappointing
that in the new sustainable development millennium goals defined by the U.N. in 2015,
education is barely addressed through <i>Goal
4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong
learning opportunities for all.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Human capital is freely available on the African continent
in the shape of a huge, young, but largely unskilled workforce. But
increasingly highly skilled labor is required as the African markets mature and
grow -- labor that is in short supply on the continent. In 2012, global HR
specialists Going Global reported that <i>"More than half of South African
CEOs report it is becoming increasingly difficult to recruit workers and the
shortage of skilled candidates is the most significant recruitment
challenge." "</i>Pioneers on the Frontier: Sub-Saharan Africa's
multinational corporations" reports that finding skilled workers is a
constant challenge for Multinational Companies (MNCs). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">A 2010 follow-up report from the World Bank examined the
financing of higher Education in Africa, and it concluded that "<i>in most
Sub-Saharan African countries, enrollment in higher education has grown faster
than financing capabilities, reaching a critical stage where the lack of
resources has led to a severe decline in the quality of instruction and in the
capacity to reorient focus and to innovate. Public funding in most countries is
already overstretched, and alone it will not be sufficient to respond to the
growing demand for access to higher education while delivering a level of
quality that provides students with the skills necessary to succeed in current
and future labor markets.</i>"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">So what is the status of higher education in Africa? How
does it compare with the rest of the world in terms of access and quality? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">We need to recognize the significant gap between higher
education in Africa, and in particular in sub-Saharan Africa<a href="file:///D:/work%20documents%20(D)/PhD/Publications/Improving%20HE%20quality%20in%20Africa%20Part%201v2.docx#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title=""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="line-height: 115%;">[1]</span><!--[endif]--></a> (SSA) and the rest of the world. The gap
is twofold: a problem of both quantity and quality. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The rate of access to higher education in Africa is only 7%
compared to the world average of 25 percent, and discouragingly low when compared
with the West’s 76%. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In a 2009 speech to the Africa-US Higher Education
Initiative Partners Conference, National University of Rwanda Rector Silas
Lwakabamba declared: "<i>We all recognize that basic education is indeed
important. However, it is also
increasingly evident to policy makers and educators that a sustained focus on
higher education is necessary to achieve a 10% graduation rate – a minimum for
any country to ensure the possibility of sustainable development.</i>" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">One of the reasons for the low rate of access to higher
education is the low number of universities relative to the population. One way
to measure access to university is by counting the number of universities
per million inhabitants.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Jw_oU-ZT110/VyX-pU4DaKI/AAAAAAABL3M/ZSF7uV4iZd4lRlMh-0BmOUAoQ5cYjdB6QCK4B/s1600/Number%2Bof%2Buniv%2Bper%2BM%2Bhab.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Jw_oU-ZT110/VyX-pU4DaKI/AAAAAAABL3M/ZSF7uV4iZd4lRlMh-0BmOUAoQ5cYjdB6QCK4B/s400/Number%2Bof%2Buniv%2Bper%2BM%2Bhab.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;">In Africa, there is only one university per million inhabitants,
which is ten times less than in North America. In addition, since 65% of
Africa's population is less than 25 years old, the demographic pressure further
exacerbates the chasm. Overpopulated classes of several hundred students are
common in many universities.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Specifically, the continent faces a dire challenge when it
comes to the future requirement in one of the most promising areas: Information
and Communication Technology (ICT). In spite of a sluggish world economy, the
demand for skilled ICT managers and developers remains high outside the
continent. Driven by cloud computing, big data, the "Internet of
things," and mobile computing, computer and information technology jobs
are projected to grow 12 percent in the U.S. over the decade that will end in
2024, and the demand for IT workers exceeds their internal capacity building. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">As a consequence Western universities and countries are heavily recruiting students
abroad and in particular in Africa, to the detriment of African start-ups and
investors looking to implement projects on the continent. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In addition there is a profound mismatch between the degrees
offered and the skills required by the labor market in Africa particularly in
sciences and technology, in part because it is cheaper and easier for
cash-strapped public African universities and profit driven private
universities to educate humanities graduates than e.g. engineers. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It could be argued that working as an ICT engineer or
entrepreneur on the African continent is significantly harder than in the
developed world where you can rely on a team of qualified colleagues and lots
of resources. Managers and entrepreneurs in Africa need to be able to think on
their feet, outside the box and be adaptable to adverse conditions. They need
to be the best of breed -- or at the very least well trained. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Only a handful of African universities currently offer a
Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering/ICT, and they are by and large underfunded
and quite unable to deliver the cutting edge education and skills required by
the rapidly developing and constantly evolving ICT market. Instead, a
substantial number of African students travel overseas to obtain ICT-related
degrees, but it is worth keeping in mind that only 30 percent of Africans
studying abroad return to the region after graduation. Moreover, the degree
they obtain overseas may not be particularly well suited to the challenges they
face in Africa. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="line-height: 18.4px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As a result, the thousands of students graduating in ICT, Computer Science and related fields every year join the vast unemployment cohorts as businesses cannot make use of their poor or inappropriate skills. This is a major challenge for a region where ICT is a critical development driver.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="line-height: 18.4px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">When we then compare the <b>quality</b> of universities in Africa,
the deficit is even more dramatic. Looking at the number of universities
appearing in the 2015/2016 QS World University Ranking of the top 800
universities, we find that while Africa’s population represents 16% of the world
population, it has only 2% (18) universities ranked in the top 800 and only 4
in the top 400. SSA only has 4 universities in the top 800 (in Uganda, Kenya,
Tanzania and Ghana) and none in the top 400.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UNByLepVtAs/VyXslutQ9TI/AAAAAAABL2s/MyBjF_9up2cQYCSlA-IJjcFoKx5_lfpawCK4B/s1600/Top%2B800%2Buniv.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UNByLepVtAs/VyXslutQ9TI/AAAAAAABL2s/MyBjF_9up2cQYCSlA-IJjcFoKx5_lfpawCK4B/s400/Top%2B800%2Buniv.png" width="400" /></span></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Some
of the reasons for the low quality of African universities are linked to the
difficult economic and demographic environment: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Rote learning: </b>Many
universities still apply the old rote learning methods sometimes inherited from
the colonial time where student are simply requested to repeat what the instructor
said in order to succeed, with no requirement for critical and creative
thinking. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Absentee instructors:</b>
Professors don't show up for class about 20-30% of the time. Nominal
remuneration incentivizes professors to seek supplemental income, preventing
them from dedicating their time to their students. As a consequence the
schedule of learning is irregular and it directly impacts students and the
quality of their learning. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Curricular mismatch: </b>The
curriculum content is often outdated and not adapted to the business needs in
the region. A computer science professor at a major university in South Africa
confessed to me that their curriculum has been unchanged in the last twenty
years and many professors never change or update their syllabus. There are very
few direct contacts between universities and industry.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="line-height: 115%;">“Green” Professors: </span></b><span style="line-height: 115%;">O</span><span style="line-height: 115%;">ne significant measure
of the capability of the professoriate to </span><span style="line-height: 115%;">provide quality research and instruction is doctoral-level
certification. In Africa, doctoral-level faculty are the minority, sometimes
with percentage as low as 20%. In addition studies have showed a disturbing
trend at several universities of a slide in the proportion of academic staff
with doctoral degrees, symptomatic of the further decline of the quality of
African universities.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Difficult
access to- and low quality of- higher education combine to create major
disadvantages for the development of sub-Saharan Africa. The development of any
nation is linked to its technical labor force. SSA only has 83 scientists and
engineers engaged in R&D for every 1 million people compared to about 1,000
to 1,500 in the developed world. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="text-align: justify;">The quantity gap is significant and</span> will require significant long term investments. Attempts
have been made to address the issues surrounding higher education in
Africa, and significant sums have been spent by foreign donors (e.g. the
"Partnership for Higher Education in Africa" initiative that invested
$440M in higher education from 2000-2010). In Senegal, the government <span style="background-color: white; text-align: left;">under the leadership of its Minister of Higher Education Mary Teuw Niama </span>with support from the UNESCO have launched a remarquable project to build new universities and science cities.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">At the contrary, the quality gap of higher education can be addressed in great deal with simple immediate reforms that do not require significant financial investments. I will suggest ten simple and basic proposals that
could impact the quality of higher education in Africa in my next blog posting.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Seeya later alligator...</span></div>
<br />
<div>
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<!--[endif]-->
<div id="ftn1">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///D:/work%20documents%20(D)/PhD/Publications/Improving%20HE%20quality%20in%20Africa%20Part%201v2.docx#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 7.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 7.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-size: 7.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Here we define sub-Saharan Africa as
all the countries South of North Africa and excluding South Africa.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18021995038744733130noreply@blogger.com119tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849633784037504405.post-29386379550404271912014-06-08T03:47:00.002-07:002014-06-14T00:25:02.873-07:00From ICT4D innovation to real solutions to Africa's problems<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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ICT4D (Information and Communication Technologies for Development) refers to the use of Information and Communication Technologies in the fields of socioeconomic development, international development and human rights (Wikipedia). The enthusiasm generated around ICT4D is real and it is clear that economic development can be accelerated and reinforced by access to information resource. However ICT4D has also generated some controversy. In this blog, I addressed some of those concerns in the following postings: <a href="http://brel54.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-unbearable-lightness-of.html" target="_blank">The Unbearable Lightness of ICT4Development</a> and <a href="http://brel54.blogspot.com/2012/04/is-ict4d-going-to-change-africa-or-is.html" target="_blank">Is ICT4D going to change Africa? or is it ICT4B</a> .<br />
<br />
In discussions about "how can ICT4D help Africa?", by far the most used example is the one of the African farmer who can now access the prices he can get for his crops on the market through ICT4D innovations using Internet. In fact the farmer could simply call friends in the city where the market is and get the prices. This simplistic approach is ignoring the major problem, and that is how can the farmer get his products to the market and get a fair and best price? Farmers loose one third of their crops between harvest and sales due to bad warehousing and transportation conditions.<br />
<br />
A new organization the <a href="http://www.ea-africaexchange.com/" target="_blank">East Africa Exchange</a> (EAX) established here in Rwanda is addressing that problem. (The following description is mostly taken from EAX's website and press releases.)<br />
<br />
EAX is a subsidiary of Africa Exchange Holdings, Ltd. (AFEX). AFEX’s vision is to create lasting institutions that will capitalize on Africa’s agricultural potential, support African farmers, achieve food security, provide energy security and improve Africa’s overall global trade and capital market competitiveness. AFEX’s goals are to transform agriculture by creating more bargaining power for smallholders, including access to information, storage, and finance; increase Africa’s global trade competitiveness by building economies of scale; and deepen Africa’s capital markets by creating greater liquidity.<br />
<br />
EAX offers the following services: Warehouse Operations, Trading, Warehouse Receipt Financing, Clearing and Settlement, and Risk Management and Compliance. <br />
<br />
EAX is providing professional warehouse storage and inventory management, including moisture testing, drying, cleaning and weighing of stock prior to storage to reduce storage losses. It’s expected that good storage management will translate into better revenues for farmers. <br />
<br />
EAX recently signed a cooperative agreement and memorandum of understanding with the Rwanda Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources (MINAGRI) to work together to provide grain storage and warehouse management services in support of farmer cooperative groups across Rwanda. Part of the agreement includes the Exchange managing thirteen (13) warehouses which have been set up by the Government of Rwanda around strategic production areas under land consolidation. <br />
<br />
EAX and the MINAGRI will participate in the development of agricultural value chains, particularly farmers, ensuring that farmers have access to more diversified markets beyond just the ‘’farm gate‘’ to improve their chances of securing a better income and reward for their toils. The partners also seek to transform small holder farmers from rural agriculture to commercialization. <br />
<br />
The Exchange will provide electronic warehouse receipts, so that farmers could trade their grains through EAX world class trading platform with the help of EAX brokers. EAX operates a fully automated trading platform where participants can buy and sell products from the convenience of their location of choice, or trade from trading terminals provided by the Exchange. The trading platform is powered by NASDAQ OMX and can facilitate auctions, reverse auctions, spot trading, forwards trading, and futures trading. <br />
<br />
The farmers could also use their electronic warehouse receipts for loans from the Exchange’s partner banks.<br />
<br />
An ICT4D internet portal providing access to market prices in the city for farmers is nice. But it only scratches the surface of the problem and may look "unbearably light". The EAX approach is much more comprehensive and involves more complex problems to solve, including the building of quality warehouses, the use of the NASDAQ trading platform, the delivery of electronic warehouse receipts to farmers than are accepted by banks as collateral for loans, etc. But that is the price to pay if we want to really solve the problem instead of creating false hope. <br />
<br />
In addition to real solutions another requirement for success is leadership. Paul Kukubo, the CEO of EAX has a history of success as the the founding Chief Executive Officer of the Kenya Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Board. Paul has led the team that developed the Kenya National ICT Masterplan 2017, and was a leading member of the Konza Technology City Master-planning team. His leadership is another guarantee for the success of EAX.<br />
<br />
Seeya later alligator... </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18021995038744733130noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849633784037504405.post-74578586630628233292014-05-01T12:50:00.000-07:002014-05-01T12:50:53.320-07:00Is the Western development model appropriate for Africa?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
The measure of development</h3>
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<br />In the Western conception, underdevelopment is seen as an objective condition, identifiable by a set of criteria or indicators such as red spots on the face allow the physician to diagnose measles. These indicators show a poor performance compared to the situation of countries described as developed. Some indicators used to quantify underdevelopment are per capita income, literacy rates, life expectancy, birth rate, distribution of the labor force between agriculture, industry and services, etc.<br /><br />The indicator most commonly used because it summarizes all of them is the per capita income, that is to say the relationship between national income measured by the gross domestic product (GDP) and total population. For the record, the GDP is the market value of all officially recognized final goods and services produced within a country in a year. The GDP per capita then is a measure of the wealth produced and available in average per capita. To facilitate international comparisons, it is expressed in a common currency: the U.S. dollar.<br /><br />Countries whose GDP per capita income is less than $ 1,500 are considered underdeveloped. Until the 1960s, a large gap separated the developed countries from the underdeveloped countries. Today, there is an intermediate category, the “newly industrialized countries ", with a per capita income of 1,500 to $ 5,000 sometimes called the emerging markets. Included in this category are "dragons" in the Far East and the major Latin American countries. Despite their relatively high income per capita, these countries still have characteristics of underdevelopment, especially in social and income distribution.</div>
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Underdevelopment perceived as a "lag" </h3>
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<br />The development of the “Western world" has often been identified, including by economists, as technical progress, increasing the production of goods, to raising the standard of living. And there is no doubt that the implementation of the great discoveries and modern technology has allowed, in two centuries, to multiply by more than twenty the per capita product, which is unheard of in the history of the planet.<br /><br />"Modernization" of the West is carried out according to an economic and social "model" proposed as an example, namely liberal capitalism, which is characterized by:<br />- Entrepreneurship<br />- Rational economic calculation<br />- A profit-oriented mentality<br />- The spirit of competition between elites<br />- The critical importance of private enterprises as an engine of growth<br />- The role of the State or the close cooperation of the latter with private enterprise.<br /><br />From there, underdevelopment was naturally conceived as a “lag to catch up “, which is a Western-centric vision because it idealizes the Western model. Development would therefore be for the developing world to "modernize, that is to say, first implement the factors that made the success of the West, including its techniques and management methods; secondly, remove obstacles that oppose it like traditional religions, archaic social structures, etc. ; you can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs!<br /><br />Such a model "justifies" the language of developed countries, and the forms of aid they offer: “helping” underdeveloped countries to "catch” the developed countries.<br /><br /></div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Taking apart the Western development model and measure</h3>
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<br />In the GDP/Capita fraction, the numerator and denominator do not count the same amount of people. The income is earned only by those who work while the denominator represents the total population, including children, the elderly, and the unemployed. But the relationship between "active” and" inactive” population is very different in developed and developing countries. For example, the population between the ages 15 to 64 which represents the number of people who could potentially be economically active is 67 percent in the USA versus 54 percent here in Rwanda. In sub -Saharan Africa, 43 percent of the population is below age 15 compared to only 16 percent in Europe. In addition unemployment is higher in developing countries, particularly in Africa, than in developed countries as indicted on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_talk:World_map_of_countries_by_rate_of_unemployment.svg" target="_blank">rate of unemployment maps</a>. Therefore there is a big difference in the denominator between developed and underdeveloped countries to the detriment of the latter ones.<br /><br />As for the numerator, some elements are not counted in the GDP.<br />This is particularly true of certain personal services. In the West, the entry of women into the labor market has generated a range of services that are counted in the GDP. The more a country is "developed", the more personal services are marketed: hair salon, laundry, catering, entertainment, etc. In underdeveloped countries, these services are executed by housewives and are not counted in the GDP. For international comparison, it would not matter if the percentage of goods and services ignored by the national accounts was everywhere of the same order of magnitude. But far from it, and unfortunately the GDP of underdeveloped countries is systematically undervalued.<br /><br />On the other hand, some elements are not subtracted from the GDP.<br />The development is ambivalent: it has its downside. GDP should be estimated using the accounting rules, i.e. having assets and liabilities, and only the balance should be taken into account. Unfortunately, macro economists do not know the sign “-“, they always add.<br />But in the so-called developed countries, huge amounts are spent to repair the damage of the “Western Development”:<br />- Car accidents;<br />- An unbalanced and too rich diet (too much sugar, fat, alcohol, tobacco) which generates medical costs due to tooth decay, cancers, cardiovascular diseases, etc.;<br />- Adverse effects of television that have an impact on crime, school performance, sociability;<br />- Pollution in all its forms;<br />- The absence of both working parents in the family cell that creates social problems among youth who engage in drugs consumption.<br />All these give rise to nuisance activities that are recognized positively in the GDP. Again, from the point of view of international comparison, it would not matter if the same phenomenon appeared with equal intensity in all countries. But it is not so: those problems increase with the GDP, perhaps at an accelerated pace. To the point that the Club of Rome sounded the alarm in a report with the provocative title “The Limits to Growth“ by Donella Meadows. One should in any case make a clear distinction between GNP (gross national product) and NNP (net national product), and for a number of countries, this may call into question the growth, at least in its current forms.<br /><br />How is it that countries add those nuisance activities to the positive side of the GDP? Such an attitude can be explained – I didn’t say justified - for several reasons:<br />- The increase of GDP is used by governments to measure their performance; politically they will not give it up easily;<br />- A clear perception of nuisances should logically lead to policy development, heartbreaking changes: for example, favoring public transportation to the detriment of the automotive industry, but 2.5 million citizens living in the US, - voters and their families- are working in that industry;<br />- Logically, the cost of the removal of pollution should lie with polluters, compromising their profits; but this is a politically powerful group.</div>
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
The wrong assimilation of happiness with wealth</h3>
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<br />Being a " Chrysometer" (“chryso” means wealth in Greek) or measure of wealth, the GDP/capita indicator implicitly assumes that happiness depends on wealth, understood as the accumulation of material goods. This concept expresses the materialistic aspirations of a major part of the Western world in its evolution over the last century. If this chrysometer is used to measure the level of development, the Western world easily appears as “higher” civilizations than developing countries. Does it justify imposing it on developing countries? For a more developed answer see my posting on <a href="http://brel54.blogspot.com/2010/08/can-we-impose-our-values-to-other.html" target="_blank">Can we impose our values to other cultures?</a> It also calls into question these benchmarks. From the perspective of anthropology, each civilization "traditional" is considered original, capable of performing its own performance against which the West is sometimes well back. How can we not appreciate the “sociability “of the Negro-African world, compared to the western neurosis generating hyper-individualism?</div>
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
The Western development model</h3>
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<br />The historical development of the development process in the Western industrial economies "should" happen again, with just a time lag in the developing world economies. This belief assumes the universality of needs (liberal theory).<br />Whatever the circumstances of time and place, at every level of income in a market, there should be a corresponding typical demand structure, and in businesses, there should be a typical combination of production factors. This design is unacceptable.<br />Beyond the basic needs (food, protection from the cold, etc. . ), to which different civilizations provide a variety of responses, it appears that it is the socio-economic system, namely the state of productive forces and social relations , which determines the needs within a given society. The Western development therefore mostly addresses the needs entirely fabricated by a system in which goods are estimated, not by their usage value, but by their exchange value, that is by the benefits they provide to the production system. Today one can doubt that the production structure corresponds to "real" needs of the greatest number. A <a href="http://www.policymic.com/articles/87719/princeton-concludes-what-kind-of-government-america-really-has-and-it-s-not-a-democracy?utm_source=policymicFB&utm_medium=main&utm_campaign=social" target="_blank">recent paper</a> published by Princeton researcher Martin Gilens shows that in the USA the government followed the directives set forth by a small number of individuals (the rich, well connected and the politically powerful, as well as particularly well placed individuals in institutions like banking and finance) much more often than the preferences of the average American. This might explain why mandatory background checks on gun sales supported by 83% to 91% of Americans aren't in place, or why Congress has taken no action on greenhouse gas emissions even when such legislation is supported by the vast majority of citizens.<br /><br />People in the Western world have become aware of the terrible ambiguity of the liberal economic progress guided by profit maximization. While there is no denying of its contribution to social progress, what about its failures, its physical and psychological damage? It is now feared that its cost exceeds its usefulness.<br />Exacerbated needs: we always want more, always better and in less time. Great choices are deflected by the holders of economic power: for example, in favor of the automobile at the expense of public transport.<br /><br />After having tried to lecture them, should now be the time that we get inspired by developing countries civilizations to bring back home important values we have lost: sociability, needs moderation and, finally, a way of living that leaves us less helpless before death?</div>
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
The impact of the Western model on developing countries</h3>
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<br />Development policy applied almost everywhere in developing countries is inspired by the Western model. It led to a “bad development” because it neglects or disadvantages the vast majority of people.<br />In agriculture, cash crops are grown at the expense of food crops: <br />a) excessive areas are devoted to cash crops; <br />b) they have privileged access to modern inputs (fertilizers, improved seeds) and supporting efforts.<br />Why? Because they provide the necessary foreign exchange money needed for imports of luxury goods for the bourgeoisie in power.<br />As consequences :<br />a) domestically : food production is in deficit and it is necessary to make food imports, which results in people - especially urban – getting used to eating foreign food that local agriculture will never produce : wheat bread replaces millet patties or cassava preparations; imports of food negatively impacts the balance of payments .<br />b) at the international level : the favor granted to third world cash crops products leads to overproduction that lower prices on world markets; therefore, what is gained on quantities, is lost on prices.<br /><br />In industry, Western style development of is twice disadvantageous to developing world:<br />a) In terms of the production structure:<br />Development policy gives preference to "import proxy " industries, under the pretext of improving the balance of payments. However imports are largely composed of luxury goods for the benefit of a minority of wealthy citizens. The local industry therefore produces cars and household appliances instead of small agricultural machinery for example.<br />b) In terms of the production functions: developing countries buy "turnkey " plants, following the Western model, i.e. not adapted to local specificity;<br />i ) Production factors are capital intensive and require skilled labor, which does not correspond to the factors available in country;<br />ii) As a consequence, companies have a high break even threshold and often function only at a small percentage of their capacity; as a result, their costs are excessive and they can’t be competitive, they must be overprotected; their products are more expensive and less satisfactory than imported products; <br />iii) The domestic industry depends of inputs from abroad (raw materials, semi-finished products, spare parts) generally overpriced and payable in foreign currencies.<br /><br />So is the developing world right to be inspired by the western development model? In many ways, it is an anti-model.</div>
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PS: This posting is mainly inspired by a course on "Economic Analysis of Developing Countries" taught by Fernand B<span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">é</span>zy in 1990.</div>
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Seeya later alligator...</div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18021995038744733130noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849633784037504405.post-74957683060931990682014-04-03T12:50:00.002-07:002014-04-03T13:03:38.380-07:00Why IBM's Watson Cognitive System Could Be More Successful in Africa than in America<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
Last month, <a href="http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/43106.wss">IBM launched</a>
"Project Lucy", a 10-year initiative to bring Watson and other
cognitive systems to Africa in a bid to fuel development and spur business
opportunities across the world’s fastest growing continent.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.research.ibm.com/cognitive-computing/index.shtml#fbid=1Vnr7eksxcW">Cognitive
computing systems learn and interact naturally with people to extend what
either humans or machine could do on their own. They help human experts make
better decisions by penetrating the complexity of Big Data</a>.<br />
<br />
Watson is a cognitive system that became famous <span class="st">with its 2011
win in a contest against two of </span><i>Jeopardy's</i><span class="st">
greatest champions.</span> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jeopardy is
an American television game show that features a quiz competition in which
contestants are presented with general knowledge clues in the form of answers,
and must phrase their responses in question form (Wikipedia). For example when
proposed with the following clue: “It’s the only American state lying south of
the Tropic of Cancer”, the answer should be the question leading to that clue:
“what is Hawaii?”.<br />
<br />
The Watson win is sometimes compared to another IBM technology victory
between IBM’s Deep Blue system and world chess champion Kasparov in a televised
chess game, yet the Watson win was quite different. Deep Blue was a "brute
force" system programmed to anticipate every possible answer or action
needed and that could examine 200 million chess positions every second. Watson instead
was trained using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning
algorithms to sense, predict, infer and, in some ways, think using a
large volume of data. Watson had access to 200 million pages of structured and
unstructured content consuming four terabytes of disk storage. The sources of
information for Watson included encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri, newswire
articles, and literary works. Simply put, Deep Blue was the <a href="http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-12/fyi-which-computer-smarter-watson-or-deep-blue">math
whiz while Watson is an English major</a>.<br />
<br />
While the Watson – Jeopardy contest was showcased as human intelligence against
machine intelligence for publicity reasons, the purpose of cognitive systems
like Watson is really to have machine intelligence assist humans in taking on
challenges together and achieving more than either could do on its own. For
example Watson enables more natural interaction between physicians, data and
electronic medical records through its highly sophisticated question-and-answer
technology, and it helps physicians make more informed and accurate decisions
faster and to cull new insights from electronic medical records (EMR). It does
so by accessing and analyzing massive amount of data (Big Data) of medical
information that one human being could not possibly memorize and analyze, even
more so when one considers that 10 million new pages of medical information are
published each year.<br />
<br />
After Watson’s win in the Jeopardy game, IBM has been struggling turning the
technology into big business and it <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/09/technology/ibm-is-betting-that-watson-can-earn-its-keep.html?_r=0">has
not delivered significant revenue for IBM</a> yet. So, could Watson be more
successful, and valuable in Africa?<br />
<br />
I see several reasons why it could be.<br />
<br />
The lack of data, and particularly reliable data, in Africa is hampering its
development. Shanta Devarajan, the World Bank’s chief economist for Africa,
struck a dramatic tone in his address to a conference organized by Statistics
South Africa, calling the state of data collection on the continent “<a href="http://blogs.worldbank.org/africacan/africa-s-statistical-tragedy" target="_blank">Africa’s statistical tragedy</a>.” The lack of reliable <a href="http://allafrica.com/stories/201003011296.html">data on Ghana's
performance </a>on the MDGs was identified as one of the major challenges
facing the country’s development projects. In <a href="http://www.nation.co.ke/business/Kenya-lack-of-data-hampers-planning/-/996/2057858/-/bcu1ts/-/index.html">Kenya</a>,
lack of data hampers national economic and developmental planning. <a href="http://allafrica.com/stories/201401310651.html">Better geospatial data
access would be good news for the globe's poorest people</a>, who are often
worst affected by natural disasters. Access to historic data about market
prices of crops, which show trends in crop price fluctuation, would enable
better decision making on which crops to plant to yield the highest income.<br />
<br />
The digital data scarcity described above is also the result of a
"chicken and egg" situation. On the one hand there is little data
available. Most data in the region is available in analog format (on paper) as
opposed to digital format making it difficult to be analyzed by computer
systems and cannot easily be transformed into valuable, actionable information.
This is the case particularly for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in
the private sector as most of their business processes are still manual. On the
other hand, people and institutions are not building their capacities in data
analysis and statistics because of the data scarcity and the human capital,
such as analysts and statisticians, is missing. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<br />
So the first value of IBM’s project Lucy is to break that chicken and egg
problem by making one of the best cognitive systems available in Africa. Big
Data technologies have a major role to play in Africa’s development challenges:
from understanding food price patterns, to estimating GDP and poverty numbers,
to anticipating disease – the key is turning data into knowledge and actionable
insight. When data is processed into valuable information, it contributes
to fact-based decision making in the public or private spheres, improving
decision’s quality. That is what Watson can be applied for.<br />
<br />
Then I believe that once people will see the value of Watson’s analytical
capabilities, they will start collecting more data to feed into the system to
get even more value from it. And in turn this will inspire young talent to develop
their skills in that area as I can see with my students when I teach them about
the strategic value of digital information.<br />
<br />
Africa’s lack of data could actually turn out to be an advantage. In
America, we are overloaded with data from many different sources in various
formats, structured and unstructured, some call it Big Data. The challenge has
been really how to clean, integrate, load and transform that data from
different sources in the appropriate format to be analyzed by systems specially
programmed for it. So another reason why Watson could deliver value faster in
Africa is that there is not much legacy data and systems in place as explained
earlier and new data can be formatted for analysis by Watson. Watson represents
a new era of cognitive computing, in which systems and software are not
programmed, but actually improve by learning so they can discover answers to
questions and uncover insights by analyzing massive amounts of <a href="http://www.ibm.com/big-data/us/en/">Big Data</a>. Once Africans
understand the value of Watson, they will be incentivized to generate and
collect data for Watson analysis resulting in reduced time-to-value.<br />
<br />
Another advantage is that in Africa <a href="http://www.iweek.co.za/special-report/smes-lead-local-cloud-adoption">businesses
and organizations will be using a different IT paradigm</a>. Instead of decentralized
data systems installed on premise in enterprises and public institutions as is
the case in developed countries, <a href="http://www.nextbillion.net/blogpost.aspx?blogid=1981" target="_blank">Africa is moving straight to the new model ofaccessing or creating data from mobile Internet devices (tablets, smart phones,etc.) connected to centralized IT resources in cloud service centers</a>. By
storing data in a central cloud space we may find that it facilitates data integration
and makes access to data quicker and easier<span class="MsoCommentReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 8.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="display: none; mso-hide: all;"><span style="mso-special-character: comment;"> </span></span></span></span>. For
example, the use of mobile based Point of Sales (POS) systems in retail stores connected
to cloud-based services provides instant centralization of data (important
especially to chain stores), and the ability to access that data from anywhere
there is an Internet connection.<br />
<br />
Moreover, the use of mobile devices for data collection may allow for
capture of better quality and more relevant data since it is generated closer
to its source of creation.<br />
But I think that the main reason for the potential success of Watson in
Africa will be the “infinite” value it can deliver. The use of such systems could
accelerate at a rate similar to the mobile phone penetration.<br />
<br />
When mobile phones first became available in developed countries, they were
a "nice to have" technology, but not critically needed. Indeed those
societies already benefited from good communications for long time with postal
services, express mail services, land-line phones, faxes, Internet email, etc.
So the mobile phone was just another new and more convenient communication
tool.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Such was not the case in Africa.
Until the mobile phone arrived, there was no communication generally available:
no post mail, very few phones, not to mention very limited Internet and that
lack of communication has been identified as one of the main reasons for Africa’
slow development. So when mobile phones became available, their added value was
“infinite” because there was “zero” communication systems available. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a result, the mobile phone market in Africa
has grown more rapidly than any other technology in any market, reaching more
than 50% by the end of 2010, less than 10 years after its introduction.<br />
<br />
Much like mobile phone use, Watson could be a game-changer in Africa. Watson’s
added value in the West is analogous to mobile phone technology when it became
available in that part of the world: marginal. There, enterprises and
organizations have been using business intelligence systems and analytics for long
time. While Watson capabilities are superior to these “old” technologies, the
added value in the West was marginal. But in Africa, Watson’s value is to be
viewed relative to existing data analytics capabilities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Africa, such systems are practically nonexistent due to the combined scarcity of data and skills to analyze that
data.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is why a system like Watson presents
an “infinite” value, which could lead to a similar penetration phenomenon than
that of mobile phones.<br />
<br />
Yet for Watson’s value to be fully realized, two conditions have to be met.<br />
<br />
First, Africa needs more, and more reliable, data and we hope that Watson’s
value will incentivize stakeholders to undertake more data collection, as
explained earlier. <a href="http://www.afdb.org/knowledge/statistics/open-data-for-africa/" target="_blank">Thecurrent open government data movement could also be a factor as government isthe major data producer in the region</a><span class="MsoCommentReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 8.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a class="msocomanchor" href="https://draft.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5849633784037504405#_msocom_2" id="_anchor_2" name="_msoanchor_2"></a><span style="display: none; mso-hide: all;"><span style="mso-special-character: comment;"> </span></span></span></span>.<br />
<br />
Secondly, there must be more data scientist skills available. While the
mobile phone is relatively easy to use, requiring minimal skills, Watson
requires expert skills even if the use of artificial intelligence is
facilitating the human-machine interaction. It is critical for academia to
enter the game here and for IBM to collaborate with universities to promote the
development of those skills in Africa.<br />
<br />
In the meantime, an open data movement in Africa can attract expert skills
from the world to analyze its data and deliver the value that may have an immediate
impact on Africa's development, thereby leading to more interest and
accelerating the movement.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/43106.wss">“Watson's
cognitive capabilities hold enormous potential in Africa – helping it to
achieve in the next two decades what today's developed markets have achieved
over two centuries.”</a><br />
<br />
Seeya later alligator... <br />
<div style="mso-element: comment-list;">
<br /></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18021995038744733130noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849633784037504405.post-48999262378302878912014-03-30T09:32:00.001-07:002014-03-30T09:32:38.282-07:00Africa is in need of an African App and Content Store, and can bitcoin help?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
In the last 5 years, Africa has seen a fast growing number of innovation hubs, labs, coworking spaces across the continent.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GKhEQdK2w_o/UzaXqrHHGnI/AAAAAAAAA6o/knvfp93q6Jc/s1600/InnovationHubAfrica.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GKhEQdK2w_o/UzaXqrHHGnI/AAAAAAAAA6o/knvfp93q6Jc/s1600/InnovationHubAfrica.png" height="640" width="588" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://activspaces.com/2012/08/infographic-innovation-centers-in-africa/" target="_blank">Innovation Centers in Africa</a></div>
:<br />
<br />
Here in Kigali, the <a href="http://klab.rw/" target="_blank">kLab</a> has become a central meeting point for young (and older!) people passionate about ICT and working on developing mobile apps to address and solve needs in the region.<br />
<br />
The challenge for many of these entrepreneurs is to get their solutions to the market. While they usually have good technical skills (or rather the community of them offers an incredible combined pool of skills) they are usually lacking commercial/marketing and financial skills making it difficult to sell and monetize their innovation. They need to devote a significant part of their efforts in creating their own company for that purpose.<br />
<br />
There could be a solution to that problem: making it easy for them to publish and sell their mobile applications or content in "app stores". The app store would then automatically take care of the publishing, sales and distribution of their apps or content. There are two major "app stores" in the world today: the Apple AppStore/iTunes, and the Google/Android Play Store.<br />
<br />
The problem is that none of these stores are appropriate for young African innovators and the African market.<br />
<br />
First these stores offer large numbers of apps of which the majority are irrelevant to or can't be used in the African market. They are in a language (English) that most Africans don't understand, they require infrastructure not existing in most of Africa yet, and they address different needs than those existing in Africa. <br />
<a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckjones/2013/12/11/apples-app-store-about-to-hit-1-million-apps/" target="_blank">Apple App Store recently hit 1 million apps</a>, Google has 800,000. Unless these stores provide a dedicated space for African apps (which is unlikely), apps from African innovators would be lost in these huge stores. If good, they could make it to the top of rankings and be more visible, but for that to happen, their target users (from Africa) should be able to find them easily.<br />
<br />
But here comes the next problem: to buy these apps, they will need a credit card, and that is a show stopper for most Africans.<br />
<br />
So how can we solve this problem?<br />
<br />
This is where I advocate for Africa to create its own African App Store platform. If such an appstore would exist, it would allow African innovators to publish their apps and have them easily accessible by African users. This will be an easy way for them to monetize their efforts and allow them to focus on more innovation instead of creating their own company.<br />
<br />
What are the requirements for such an App Store to be successful?<br />
<br />
Many of those requirements will be similar to those required by the Apple or Google Store. First is to put in place strict technical and quality criteria for apps to be published in the store. Quality should also imply ease of use to compensate for the low ICT awareness in the region.<br />
<br />
Another requirement is to provide an appropriate payment mechanism. In Africa, people don't use/have credit cards. They use mobile money like mPesa in Kenya. The app store should support mobile money payments. The problem is that each telecom company in Africa has their own mobile money and that they are incompatible. For example, if you have a Tigo mobile phone, you cannot send Tigo mobile money to an MTN phone. In addition, you cannot send money outside of the country as the currency is different. The appstore platform should support all mobile money in all coutries, which is probably impossible because telecom companies are not willing to open up their mobile money system to other companies. Unless an independent organization like Swift in the banking word organizes a cross platform payment system, I can't see a solution to this problem.<br />
<br />
This is where I'm proposing to investigate the possible use of bitcoin.<br />
<br />
Bitcoins are a so-called 'cryptocurrency'
which exist only digitally and function without the involvement of
conventional financial institutions. Launched in 2008, they form a kind
of virtual currency that can be transferred between users in what can
best be described as a peer-to-peer electronic cash system. Bitcoins are
purchased using ‘real’ currencies and then stored
in ‘e-wallets’ from which payments can be made. They are universal and can be used in any country.<br />
<br />
Not being a technical person I propose the following idea for my readers who have more technical expertise than I to comment. <br />
<br />
An appstore is mainly about micro-payments. Typically content like songs sell for $0.99 or apps for a few dollars. Using bitcoins would make it easy to pay in any country independently of the local currency. The challenge is: how can African users buy bitcoins? Most Africans today have access to mobile money. They exchange cash for mobile money on their mobile phone which they can then use to pay for things they buy or to send to other phones through a mobile call/sms. In each country, there is an existing network of telecom representatives or counters where people can exchange cash for mobile money.<br />
<br />
If we could find a system to transform mobile money to bitcoin, they could use bitcoins to buy mobile apps or content in the African App Store from any country in Africa.<br />
<br />
One of the problems of bitcoin is the volatility of its exchange value. This is mainly because its use it not very spread yet and most bitcoin buy and sell activities are speculative in nature. As the use of bitcoin extends, volatility should diminish.<br />
<br />
But bitcoin volatility should not impact appstore transactions for the following reasons:<br />
1) Appstore transactions are micro-transactions. Volatility is a concern for people investing significant amount of money in bitcoins, not if you spend a few dollars or less.<br />
2) Appstore transactions are short term transactions. When the user decides to buy a song for $0.99, he or she buys bitcoins with his/her mobile money and send those bitcoins to the appsstore to execute the buy. The appstore then does the same operation in reverse (if so desired by the owner of the song) transforming bitcoins back into mobile money for the content owner. This should take a few minutes, the value of bitcoin is not going to change much during that time. The value of bitcoin here is mainly to serve as an exchange currency allowing you to get payments across country borders and currencies without the cost of international transfer usually charged by banks. In addition, banks would not allow transfer of such small amounts, and if they do the transfer cost would be prohibitive relative to the amount transferred.<br />
<br />
So the question is: can someone develop a mobile application that can instantly transform mobile money into bitcoin and vice versa bitcoin into mobile money? I found two such applications: <a href="https://kipochi.com/" target="_blank">Kipochi</a> and <a href="http://bitpesa.co/" target="_blank">Bitpesa</a>. However these seem to be specific to mPesa, the Vodaphone mobile money used in Kenya. Is it possible to develop bitcoin-mobile money exchange apps that can work for any mobile money in any country? Or does each country need to develop such an app specific for that country's mobile moneys?<br />
<br />
Looking forward hearing back from you and your suggestions.<br />
<br />
If we can solve this problem, we can implement an African Appstore and open the gates to Africans innovations with an easy solution for the monetization of their mobile apps, games or content. This could change Africa's mobile apps market and launch a new industry in Africa. <br />
<br />
Seeya later alligator... <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18021995038744733130noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849633784037504405.post-8871657825509821702014-03-16T00:43:00.000-07:002014-03-16T00:43:30.457-07:00"One Laptop Per Child may be done", what is the future in Africa?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The following paper appeared in VB News this week: <a href="http://venturebeat.com/2014/03/11/one-laptop-per-child-may-be-done/" target="_blank">One Laptop per Child may be done</a>.<br />
While I have been critical about some technical aspects of the OLPC project, it is sad to see this project shutting down. I still believe that Negroponte's vision is the right one. But a vision without execution is hallucination, and maybe it was the execution that failed. In this fast moving IT industry it seems that OLPC was not able to adapt and deliver solutions fast enough and that they miscalculated their market. This is just my assumption as I have no information and OLPC has always been very mysterious, not posting much information on their website. This may also explain why they did not answer my recent emails.<br />
Perhaps another mistake was to concentrate a lot of efforts on proprietary hardware instead of the content. I think that it is really innovative e-learning content that can make a difference in children's education, more than technology that changes almost month by month. Perhaps a better model is to develop that content and make it available on any technical platform, but targeting mobile Internet devices that become more affordable than the OLPC itself.<br />
An example of such content is delivered by <a href="http://www.mediae.org/tv-media/knowzone" target="_blank">Mediae</a>, an organization producing media for education and development. The challenge is the development of quality content both from a technical stand point and from an educational point of view. In Rwanda we have the new <a href="http://rwandaadma.com/" target="_blank">Africa Digital Media Academy</a> (ADMA) that trains people doing just that. ADMA can train people creating good quality digital media content, companies like Mediae can help these people developing content for education and development, Rwanda is implementing a 4G wireless network across the country within one year, and affordable tablets become available on the market, It seems that the stars are lining up for a great future for e-learning. And this is not AID or charity! There is business to be done here. Alex Lindsay, founder of Pixel Corps, the Californian company that is partnering with the government of Rwanda for the ADMA estimates that the educational digital media market for Africa is a multi-billion dollar market.<br />
<br />
Seeya later alligator...</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18021995038744733130noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849633784037504405.post-70754534084258271782014-02-28T06:49:00.001-08:002014-02-28T06:49:40.771-08:00Why $19Billion for WhatsApp could be a bargain for Facebook and what does it mean for Africa?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Facebook, the world's largest online social network acquired WhatsApp the world largest mobile messaging service for $19 billion. <span style="line-height: 115%;">WhatsApp’s
price tag is </span>by far the company's largest acquisition, bigger than any that Google, Microsoft or Apple have ever done. It puts WhatsApp's capitalization (founded five years ago in 2009) higher than that of for example SONY founded in 1947.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It is this high price tag that has been the subject of most media published in the last days. The consensus seems to be that it is a brilliant move by Facebook but some called it "pricey" or some called it "over priced" like that journalist on French TV news who said that we are going back into a new dot.com bubble! </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I join the minority of people who think that $19 billion could be a bargain! </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In this posting I would like to explain why and what the potential impact could be for Africa.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I can understand that for traditional economists such a high valuation </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">does not make sense </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">for a company that was barely making any money (they had $8.257 million on their bank account in mid 2013), that was in business for less than 5 years, had only 55 employees and never spent 1 dollar in marketing!</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Robert Reich, former United States Secretary of Labor declares that <a href="http://www.salon.com/2014/02/22/the_billion_dollar_whatsapp_acquisition_is_whats_wrong_with_americas_growth_partner/" target="_blank">WhatsApp is everything wrong with the U.S. economy</a>!</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">To explain that valuation we need to understand how new technologies are disrupting traditional business as we move into the Personal Data Economy. (Explaining this new economy does not mean any endorsement on my side, see this interesting blog post: "<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-havens/protecting-your-digital-identity-_b_3981646.html" target="_blank">The Cost of Identity in The Personal Data Economy</a>"). </span></span><br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Personal Data Economy and its supporting innovations</span></span></span></span></h3>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Businesses are dependent on marketing (since the mid-1950s) to find the right products for their customers, ideally for each customer individually: one-to-one marketing. For long time the notion of one-to-one marketing has been largely a myth and the holy grail for marketers particularly in consumer packaged goods industry. One-to-one marketing is almost here and this change is driven mainly by three new technology based innovations that emerged less than 10 years ago: <b>online social networks</b>, <b>mobile Internet devices</b> and <b>Big Data</b>.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Indeed the leading <b>online social network</b> organizations like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. did not exist 10 years ago. I remember people' sarcasm wondering why would anyone want to publicly tell their friends how they feel, what they do, what they think, what they like or not, share personal pictures or videos, etc. Well 10 years later, Facebook has 1.23 billion users (more than 17% of world's population) who are active on their website every month doing exactly that. </span></span><br />
<br /></div>
Clearly, the incredibly large number (more than a billion!) of Facebook users is exceeding anything we have seen in this industry before.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">One reason for the large number of online social network users is the fast emergence of <b>mobile Internet devices</b> like smart phones and tablets. Global unit shipment of smart phones and tablets started to exceed PCs since end of 2010.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In developing countries in particular, more people use mobile devices to access Internet than PC.</span></span></span></span> In India that inflection point happened in mid-2012. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pOp3EdO_WrU/Uwjs2WAnPlI/AAAAAAAAA4o/7eWZ2kO4xoY/s1600/2014-02-22+20-28-15_KPCB_2012_Internet_Trends_Update_Stanford_120312_FINAL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pOp3EdO_WrU/Uwjs2WAnPlI/AAAAAAAAA4o/7eWZ2kO4xoY/s1600/2014-02-22+20-28-15_KPCB_2012_Internet_Trends_Update_Stanford_120312_FINAL.jpg" height="191" width="320" /></a></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Source: StatCounter Global Stats, 11/12</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span>It is clear that in the future the majority of people will use mobile devices to access Internet, even more so in developed countries due to the lower cost of those devices. And because online social network's appeal is based on the capability to share thoughts, events as they happen, mobile devices that you carry with you are becoming the access interface of choice.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Online social media collect trillions of diverse data from billions of users every day. Here are some numbers: YouTube: 100 hours of video every minute of every day, Twitter: 100 million tweets per day, Instagram: 40 million pictures per day, SMS: 100,000 SMS/sec, Facebook: 30 billion pieces of content per month. </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">That is <b>Big Data</b>! And all this content is recorded and stored by these social network companies. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The real value of those online social networks is not in the service they deliver, but it is in the data they collect, reason why they offer the service for free. </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As <a href="http://www.metafilter.com/95152/Userdriven-discontent#3256046" target="_blank">Andrew Lewis said in a community weblog</a>: "If you are not paying for something, you are not the customer, you are the product being sold!". </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The information contained in the social networks is a real treasure for marketers. It contains a myriad of information about each individual user making it possible to profile them into categories that can then be targeted by customized advertising: close to one-to-one marketing. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">New technology can analyze billions of pictures and automatically classify
them (and thus the people represented on the picture) in relevant
categories that can then be sold to marketers for content monetization.
For example, they can be categorized as People (e.g. infant), Interests (e.g. golf),
Travel (e.g. beach), Sports (e.g. basketball), Landmarks (e.g. Eiffel
tower), Entertainment (e.g. Rock'n Roll), Activities (e.g. wedding) and
more. The following people will likely receive offers for newly weds in
their mail or on their Facebook page.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BH9tx4fjNvk/Uwj5vWuyqYI/AAAAAAAAA44/TqE5kmnS2eg/s1600/new+weds+FB.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BH9tx4fjNvk/Uwj5vWuyqYI/AAAAAAAAA44/TqE5kmnS2eg/s1600/new+weds+FB.jpg" height="320" width="288" /></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Those
technologies can be quite accurate and capable of distinguishing very
similar but yet different pictures. Here is an example of automated
categorization of skying vs. figure skating pictures.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">The market of <a href="http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/business_technology/big_data_the_next_frontier_for_innovation" target="_blank">techniques and technologies to analyze and transform complex unstructured data into actionable information is booming</a>. Sentiment analysis technique can detect favorable or unfavorable opinions toward specific subjects such as organizations and their products from analyzing large number of documents or social media data. An enterprise can then combine this unstructured data analysis with its traditional data analysis and utilizes both types of information to discover significant business insights that could not otherwise have been obtained. For example, trends in the numeric data can reveal a slowdown in sales in a particular region during a certain time period. Analysis of the related documents, using sentiment analysis can discover customer complaints and product reviews, can help determine the cause of the slowdown. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In summary, affordable mobile Internet devices have accelerated the use of online social networks allowing people to share information about themselves or things of interest to them at a pace never achieved before. New Big Data analytic technologies allow to extract insights from this large volume of data that can be leveraged by businesses to make better decisions and deliver one-to-one advertisement to their customers, dramatically changing the way business is done is many industries. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/business_technology/big_data_the_next_frontier_for_innovation" target="_blank">Big Data is the next frontier for innovation, competition, and productivity</a> that puts the one-to-one holy grail of marketers within reach. It is in this context that we must analyze WhatsApp's acquisition by Facebook.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">What has been driving WhatsApp' success?</span></span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">WhatsApp is a different social network than Facebook and it brings another profile of users. How can we explain its success?</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Mobile phone saw the fastest
growth ever for a technology and in particular in Africa. But phone
calls were still expensive for the poorest and telecom companies
started offering SMS (Short Messaging Service) for a cost of typically
less than one hundredth of a one minute voice call. </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So SMS became most popular with poor populations. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But
the cost of a SMS was still very high, it was actually a rip-off! If
you consider that a one minute phone call represents about 500,000 bytes
of information depending on the codec</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="st">
you are using, an average SMS of 20 characters only uses 20 bytes, i.e.
25,000 times less, yet the telco company would charge you only 100
times less!</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="st"> </span> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">WhatsApp
became popular because it </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">allows their users to send text, multimedia, voice messages for free,</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> by using the Internet to send data instead of the cellular network. They do it using a "chat app" build for the mobile
phone. It allows free unlimited texting (although the cost is 99 cents
per year after the first year of service), anywhere, without
advertising. </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It also lets users
communicate with people overseas without incurring charges for pricey
international texts and phone calls.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Examples of other chat apps vendors are GroupMe, Line, WeChat, Kakao Tech. </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22334338" target="_blank">Almost 19 billion messages were sent per day using chat apps in 2012</a>,
compared to only 17.6 billion SMS messages.<a href="http://crave.cnet.co.uk/mobiles/chat-apps-like-whatsapp-viber-now-more-popular-than-texting-50011069/" target="_blank"> Users of chat apps were found to be about six times more sociable than texters </a>using SMS,
sending around 32 messages on average every day, compared with just five SMS texts. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In
addition to its free messaging service, WhatsApp lets users chat with
their phone
contacts, both one-on-one and in groups. The service allows people to
send
texts, photos, videos and voice recordings over the Internet. They have
just announced that they will add voice calls. So while WhatsApp offers similar
services than Facebook, a major difference is expressed by a WhatsApp
user: "Facebook has become a junkyard of updates from people I don't
really know. WhatsApp allows me to chat with my friends
only when I want, saving me from logging on to Facebook and being
inundated by its news feed and it's always on". </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The success of WhatsApp is also due to the availability of low cost
feature phones that incorporate access to Internet </span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(3G/EDGE or WiFI when available, non-HTTP/non-web socket data
channels) </span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">and are capable of supporting third-party
software like WhatsApp through <a href="http://blog.textit.in/your-path-to-a-$16b-exit-build-a-j2me-app" target="_blank">platforms such as Java J2ME.</a> This led to fast penetration of WhatsApp
in emerging markets like India, Africa or Latin America. </span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A recent
survey found that 55% of mobile messaging users in India use WhasApp.
Last year <a href="http://mashable.com/2013/04/24/nokia-whatsapp/" target="_blank">N</a><a href="https://draft.blogger.com/null" target="_blank">okia announced a low cost ($72) mobile phone with a WhatsApp button</a>
to access the free texting service. The cost of those feature phones is
easily offset by WhatsApp free texting services replacing the
"high" cost of SMS.</span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">At the time of its acquisition by Facebook, WhatsApp had 450 million users and was adding users at a rate of 1 million a day! </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://money.cnn.com/2014/02/20/technology/social/whatsapp-19-billion/" target="_blank">Their users are extremely active</a>,
sending more than 600 million photos a day -- more photos than Facebook
users upload. A whopping 70% of WhatsApp users are active every day. By
way of comparison, 62% of Facebook users are active daily. People
around the world send 19 billion WhatsApp messages per day,
including 200 million voice messages and 100 million videos.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Why did Facebook acquire WhatsApp?</span></span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></h3>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In business, the biggest challenge is to find customers willing to buy your products or services. There is a cost (market research, marketing, promotion, sales force, etc.) associated with that challenge: it is the Cost to Acquire Customers (CAC). That cost then needs to be put in balance with the ability to monetize those customers, i.e. how much money can that acquired customer potentially spend with you over his/her lifetime: the Lifetime Value of a Customer (LTV). <a href="http://www.forentrepreneurs.com/startup-killer/" target="_blank">Many businesses fail because their CAC exceeds their LTV.</a> CAC obviously varies across industries and could vary from few dollars to thousands of dollars per customer.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The price of $19 billion to acquire information of 450 million WhatsApp users is a CAC of about $42 per customer. That is a bargain in many industries, particularly <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2014/02/20/technology/social/whatsapp-19-billion/" target="_blank">compared to some of its competitors. </a>LinkedIn's share price values that professional social network at $153 per user.
Twitter trades at $140 per user, and Facebook itself is at $123. But the cost is actually lower than $42 because WhatsApp can provide Facebook with more than 450 million phone numbers as they have access to the phone numbers in the address books for those 450 million people. Here is an excerpt of WhatsApp agreement you sign before using it: "... you acknowledge and agree that you will
have to provide WhatsApp with your mobile phone number... You expressly acknowledge and agree that in order to provide the Service,
WhatsApp may periodically access your contact list and/or address book on your
mobile device.."</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">More
importantly WhatsApp market penetration has been significantly faster
than that of Facebook in its 4 first years of existence.</span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LNXaiXH4smE/UwjsAXbqiFI/AAAAAAAAA4g/qmCTMIZpBvE/s1600/Whatsapp+afster+than+FB.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LNXaiXH4smE/UwjsAXbqiFI/AAAAAAAAA4g/qmCTMIZpBvE/s1600/Whatsapp+afster+than+FB.png" height="310" width="320" /></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The fast growth rate of Whatsapp was a major threat for Facebook and the acquisition cost was growing accordingly. So there was not much of a choice and others before like Google tried to acquire WhatsApp but the synergy was probably best with Facebook as we will see. Facebook can now merge the list of their customers with those of WhatsApp and combine the information collected about their users in Facebook with WhatsApp's information making their data even more valuable. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But there are more reasons for that acquisition. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">First we have seen that the future is the use of Mobile Internet Devices for access to Internet. This is why the mobile advertisement market is growing at 40+%. WhatsApp users are exclusively using mobile devices providing Facebook with access to that market. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Second we have seen than WhatsApp market penetration is particularly high in emerging markets where Facebook is lagging even if they are growing. WhatsApp acquisition extends Facebook's market leadership to emerging markets.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Third, the <a href="http://allfacebook.com/whatsapp-reactions_b129450" target="_blank">growth projection for WhatsApp is that they could reach 5 billion users within the next years</a>. Their pricing strategy of 1 dollar per year which should be easily accessible even to the poorest people makes this a potential $5 billion revenue per year, probably an illustration of the "Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid" book by Prahalad.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">What could be the impact of this acquisition in Africa? </span></span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As WhatsApp becomes popular in Africa, it means that it will become more than extensions of people's social lives. In this High Tech business, constant innovation is required to keep ahead. WhatsApp needs to constantly create new value for its users in Africa. For example, combining social network-style services with existing mobile money systems. It has to <a href="http://thenextweb.com/facebook/2014/02/23/lessons-for-facebook-how-whatsapp-went-from-red-hot-to-passe-in-southeast-asia/#!wWHKD" target="_blank">go beyond replacing SMS</a> to provide a range of connected services like games, virtual content, video/voice calling, e-commerce and more.</span></span></div>
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<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It should not ignore the local advertising culture and invest in raising awareness with a traditional media campaigns (billboards, media ads, etc.) which are still efficient in Africa. <a href="http://thenextweb.com/facebook/2014/02/23/lessons-for-facebook-how-whatsapp-went-from-red-hot-to-passe-in-southeast-asia/#!wWHKD" target="_blank">That is how Line a messaging company in Thailand was able to take over market leadership from WhatsApp.</a></span></span></div>
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Africa is the next frontier for many businesses. The "Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid" and the fast economic growth rate of the past decade has put Africa in the center of attention of many global companies looking for new growth markets to compensate for the anemic Western world market. However, the lack of data in the continent is a challenge. Shanta Devarajan, the World Bank’s chief economist for Africa, struck a dramatic tone in his address to a conference organized by Statistics South Africa, calling the state of data collection on the continent “<a href="http://blogs.worldbank.org/africacan/africa-s-statistical-tragedy" target="_blank">Africa’s statistical tragedy</a>.”<br />
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WhatsApp may soon become the largest private data data collector in Africa. While they have a "no advertisement" policy, Facebook doesn't. Consumer goods companies can't wait for it.<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But WhatsApp can also become a cheap and efficient tool for data collection, I mean a tool to reach people and ask for information. Several companies entered that business in Africa: <a href="http://opendatakit.org/" target="_blank">Open Data Kit</a>, <a href="https://camfed.org/latest-news/monitoring-goes-mobile-how-camfed-revolutionising-/" target="_blank">Camfed</a>, <a href="http://www.mhealthinfo.org/project/episurveyor-mobile-health-data-collection" target="_blank">EpiSurveyor</a>, <a href="https://textit.in/" target="_blank">TextIt</a>. However for it to work WhatsApp will need to open their system (through an API) which is not the case today, probably to protect itself from spammers. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Another potential mover is the recent announcement by IBM to make its Watson cognitive system that famously won the contest against Jeopardy champions, available in its research lab in Nairobi. So more data collection capabilities combined with access to advanced Big Data technology may break the data-analysis chicken and egg problem in Africa. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>C<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">ommunication is required for any economic development to take place. </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There is strong evidence that</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> big data can play a significant economic role to the benefit of not only private commerce but also of national economies and their citizen. WhasApp can deliver both improved and affordable communication and data collection to the benefit of Africa if used appropriately.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />Seeya later alligator...</span></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18021995038744733130noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849633784037504405.post-82166692196046431932014-02-27T11:30:00.000-08:002014-03-01T10:47:06.949-08:00How African Ingeniosity Can Sometimes Beat the Best Engineering School in the World<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Dr. Ernst Friedrich "Fritz" Schumacher in his influential book "Small is Beautiful" speaks about sustainable development and appropriate technology. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appropriate_technology" target="_blank">Appropriate technology is generally recognized as encompassing technological choice and application that is small-scale, decentralized, labor-intensive, energy-efficient, environmentally sound, and locally controlled. </a><br />
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I'd like to share such an appropriate technology that I recently found in a school in Kigali.<br />
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In my posting "<a href="http://brel54.blogspot.com/2013/02/olpc-from-mit-lab-to-reality-on-ground.html" target="_blank">OLPC: from MIT lab to the reality on the ground</a>" I explained why the OLPC laptop was inappropriate for Africa. In particular, the OLPC short battery lifetime of 2.5 hours created a logistic nightmare in that school who had just received 907 OLPC laptops for their students. With only a few power plugs in the school, how could they possibly reload these laptops (907 of them!) every night? I was desperate but did not want to share my feeling with the school as I really think that these laptops could make a difference for these kids even if <a href="http://brel54.blogspot.com/2013/02/olpc-from-mit-lab-to-reality-on-ground.html" target="_blank">they may not be the best solution</a>.<br />
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A few months later, at the OLPC booth at a conference in Kigali, I saw the OLPC solution to the problem developed by their MIT experts. They built a multi-battery charger capable of recharging 15 OLPC batteries at once. I was excited by that solution until they told me the price for it. I don't recall exactly how much it was, but I remember it was in the thousands of US dollars. I was not able to get an answer to my email to OLPC org to know the current price.<br />
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I found that charger at the National Library in Kigali. Here is a picture of it and how it works.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1O5QQPbWscY/Uw96SJKbCuI/AAAAAAAAA5g/bdu3G4MU9n8/s1600/OLPC+charger.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1O5QQPbWscY/Uw96SJKbCuI/AAAAAAAAA5g/bdu3G4MU9n8/s1600/OLPC+charger.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
OLPC multi-battery charger (capacity: 15 batteries)<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zXqVcRuvEhU/Uw96xUCPZLI/AAAAAAAAA50/187NvPxk1kk/s1600/OLPC+battery+from+PC.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zXqVcRuvEhU/Uw96xUCPZLI/AAAAAAAAA50/187NvPxk1kk/s1600/OLPC+battery+from+PC.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
First you need to remove the battery from the OLPC laptop<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FRz44tEVgUU/Uw96iTjgs3I/AAAAAAAAA5s/N_2wtgpFNuU/s1600/OLPC+battery+in+charger.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FRz44tEVgUU/Uw96iTjgs3I/AAAAAAAAA5s/N_2wtgpFNuU/s1600/OLPC+battery+in+charger.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
Then you insert the battery in the multi-battery charger<br />
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When charged, you need to reinstall the battery back into the laptop.<br />
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Recently I went back to the same school I left desperate 18 months earlier. I was helping journalists from a french TV station working on a documentary about ICT in Rwanda. I invited them to come film young kids working with the OLPC laptops in that school. I was a bit apprehensive, hoping that they found a problem to the battery problem.<br />
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And here is the solution they designed: a cabinet that can host 60 OLPC laptops for recharging.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VuQB8gVMsXU/Uw9_OBoe6aI/AAAAAAAAA58/VCJdY-VqcXI/s1600/OLPC+cabinet.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VuQB8gVMsXU/Uw9_OBoe6aI/AAAAAAAAA58/VCJdY-VqcXI/s1600/OLPC+cabinet.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
There is no need to remove the battery from the laptop. Instead you insert the laptop with its recharging cable in the shelve inside the cabinet where there is one power plug per shelve to connect the small charger.<br />
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This charging cabinet hasn't been tested yet, this is the first "prototype". But at first it offers some significant advantages.<br />
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Here is how the school had to handle the 907 laptops. After each class, they had to bring the laptops back into a secured storage room to prevent theft. As air can be very dusty during dry season, the laptops were stored into boxes to protect them from the dust. The chargers were stored separately. The transport from the storage room to the classroom and back was happening every day. Because of the battery charging logistic problem, the laptops' batteries were not recharged. Instead the school was using home made multi-power plugs and each laptop was connected to power for use by the students in the class. Just that installation of 50+ laptops to be connected before being used took 45 min when we visited the school last week.<br />
<br />
The Rwandan made charging cabinet is designed for one classroom. In Rwanda you can have from 50 to 60 students per classroom. In the final design it will be secured with locks on the doors addressing the security problem. By storing the laptops into a closed cabinet, it will address the dust problem. The cabinet being in the class room, it will spare the transport of the laptops to the secured storage room, freeing that room for other purposes. The laptops will be stored in the charging cabinet at the end of the class, connected to the power plug in the cabinet and recharged over night, ready to be used again the next day. So there will be no need to install power for all laptops (45 min). Instead the students will just take the laptop from the cabinet in the classroom, without the power plug that will be left in the cabinet, and they will use the laptops from the recharged battery.<br />
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Last but not least the cost of one charging cabinet for 60 laptops in $147!!! and it provides work to a local artisan!<br />
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There could be few problems still to be solved, but these are not difficult to address. One could be the heat from the chargers in the cabinet. Small fans could be installed (local cost is around $10). Another one is that if the charger stay connected after the battery is fully recharged, it will still consume a little bit of electricity. One could use a power plug with a timer (estimated cost: $15) for the cabinet cutting of the power after the time needed for the recharge. This is an appropriate solution and all material required can be found in Rwanda and it can be build locally, meaning it can be repaired locally if needed.<br />
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When visiting the National Library to take pictures of the OLPC multi-battery charger, I was wondering why it was stored in a corner. They told me that they were missing a piece of equipment and that is was therefore not working for several months as they can't find that piece.<br />
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So make your choice: four OLPC multi-chargers (for 60 batteries) built by the best engineering school in the world in the US (to be shipped to Rwanda) for thousands of dollars or the locally made charging cabinet for $147?<br />
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If you choose the first solution, beware that its main material is aluminum a limited earth resource, its carbon footprint will be high as you will need to ship the equipment from the US to Rwanda in the middle of Africa, that it will cost you probably 10 times more, and that all that money will go back to a company in the US to pay a few people operating a production chain.<br />
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If you choose the second solution, its main material is wood a renewable earth resource, its carbon footprint will be minimal as it is locally produced, its cost will be affordable and it will generate a large number of jobs for its manual labor based production and that money stays in Rwanda and will impact hundreds of people's life through the workers salary supporting their families.<br />
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Rwanda currently has <a href="http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Rwanda" target="_blank">at least 210,000 OLPCs</a> so there is a need for 3,500 of these charging cabinets. This can generate jobs for years.<br />
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That is what I call a sustainable and appropriate solution for Africa which I have been advocating for years in this blog.<br />
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Seeya later alligator...<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18021995038744733130noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849633784037504405.post-54670355636557074062014-02-16T22:14:00.000-08:002014-02-16T22:14:33.511-08:00The Very Profitable "Non-Profit" ETS Business and its Impact in Africa (ETS is the organization managing educational tests like GRE, SAT, TOEFL)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Educational Testing Services (ETS), founded in 1947 and headquartered in Lawrence Township, New Jersey USA, is the world's
largest private nonprofit educational testing and assessment
organization. It delivers educational testing services like GRE (Graduate Record Examinations), SAT (<span class="st">Scholastic Aptitude Test</span>), TOEFL (Test Of English as a Foreign Language), any <a href="https://www.ets.org/about/fast_facts">many more</a>.<br />
These tests are required by the majority of universities worldwide for students applying to their education programs. We at Carnegie Mellon University in Rwanda require students applying for our Master of Science in IT to take the GRE and TOEFL tests like we do on our main campus in Pittsburgh.<br />
<br />
ETS has made "fundamental contributions to the progress of education worldwide
through educational research and analysis, fair and valid assessments,
innovative product development and informative policy studies." While ETS is a US organization, the world education system is benefiting from their services and ETS "develops, administers and scores more than 50 million tests annually in more than 180 countries, at 9,000+ locations worldwide." In Rwanda, ETS' tests are delivered by the College of Business and Economics (ex School of Finance and Banking) of the University of Rwanda.<br />
<br />
So what is the problem? The problem lies in the high cost of those tests that make them unaffordable for the majority of African students.<br />
<br />
The official fee for the GRE test is <a href="http://www.ets.org/gre/revised_general/about/fees">$185 "worldwide"</a>. This is the cost for the computer based online test. But to offer an online testing facility, ETS ( or rather its subsidiary Prometric) requires the installation of robust test centers and rightfully so as they want to guarantee the integrity of the system. The problem is that this investment can only be justified in countries with a large number of students taking the test each year. That is not the case of Rwanda and as a consequence they can only offer a paper based test. That is further penalizing Rwandan students as they are paying an additional cost of $50 for the paper test (probably because its grading can not be easily automated) and a cost of mailing the test back to the US. The the total <a href="http://sfb.ac.rw/academics/international-tests/" target="_blank">cost of GRE</a> for Rwandan students (and probably in many other African countries in a similar situation) is $266. Similarly the<a href="http://sfb.ac.rw/academics/international-tests/" target="_blank"> TOEFL test cost</a> is $251 compared to the official fee of $170. That represents a premium of 45%! I guess this is another negative example of t<span class="paragraph">he concept of a poverty premium that was first outlined in a 2002 HBR article by C.K. Prahalad and Allen Hammond: "<a href="http://hbr.org/2002/09/serving-the-worlds-poor-profitably/ar/1" target="_blank">Serving the World's Poor, Profitably</a>".</span><br />
<br />
<span class="paragraph">When adding the cost of GRE and TOEFL, Rwandan students need to disburse $517 for both tests. They may have to pay an additional cost for the use of a credit card for the registration as payment is due by credit card which they obviously don't have making their online registration even more difficult. The neighboring country of Uganda is offering online testing at a lower cost, but Kampala is 12 hours away from Kigali by bus and we heard stories of students who had to take the tests after a sleepless night in a bus, not the best conditions!</span><br />
<br />
<span class="paragraph">More importantly the sum of $517 is equal to 80% of Rwanda's GDP/capita of <a href="http://www.gov.rw/Rwanda-s-GDP-per-capita-in-2012-rises-to-USD-644-from-USD-593-in-2011" target="_blank">$644</a>. To put this in perceptive this would be like asking US students to pay $41,360 (80% the US GDP/capita).</span><br />
<br />
<span class="paragraph">To address this problem at CMU-Rwanda we divided the admission process in several selection steps, pushing the requirements for the GRE and TOEFL scores at the end of the process instead of requesting these before students can submit their application for our master program. During the first selection steps, we evaluate applicants based on their transcripts, statement of purpose, recommendations, interest, etc and we eliminate students who are not qualified.</span><span class="paragraph"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</xml><![endif]--></span><span class="paragraph"> In doing so, we only send pre-qualified students to take the GRE and TOEFL tests avoiding the cost of it for those who are not preselected. But we still require the GRE and TOEFL scores to make the final admission decision.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="paragraph">As the chair of our admission committee I have been investigating if ETS would be willing to lower the fees for these tests in Africa. While ETS offers test fee reduction programs, they are only available for </span>U.S. citizen or resident alien. My request to representatives of ETS and their Prometric subsidiary was met with a negative answer. I don't know if I was talking to the right people, but I found absolutely no compassion for the situation that their fees was creating in Rwanda and Africa in general.<br />
<br />
Therefore I wanted to understand if perhaps their financial situation did not allow them to offer that reduction. As ETS is a private non-profit organization, they are tax-exempt and there is very little transparency to their cost structure has they are not obliged to publish their annual report. From Google and from ETS' own website, I was able to find the following facts:<br />
In 2011 ETS had 731.4 million USD in assets and an income of 1,056 billion USD. One wonder what these assets are and we don't know the answer but this is a significant number. ETS claims 2,500 employees on their website, which translates their income into $435K/employee, not bad at all but this is a non-profit organization remember... I know that comparing this with my former company is not very relevant but I can't resist: IBM made $100 billion with 435K employees in 2011, i.e. a revenue per employee of $230K employee. I should have worked for ETS!<br />
<br />
How does that translate into salaries at ETS? I was able to find that information in ETS' 990 form. Form 990 is an annual reporting return that certain federally tax-exempt
organizations must file with the IRS. In that form dated 2011, I found the following facts:<br />
- ETS's president salary (reportable compensation from the organization) was $1,254,023 plus $80,374 of estimated amount of other compensation from the organization and related organization. That makes a total of $1,334,397 in 2011.<br />
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- ETS has declared 36 Senior VPs, vice-presidents, Chief of something in 2011. These executives made an average salary of $399,496. The average total compensation (including the "other compensation mentioned above) was $411,655. As a reference, the US top executive median pay in the US in 2012 was $101,650 per year (from the <a href="http://www.bls.gov/ooh/management/top-executives.htm" target="_blank">United States Department of Labor</a>). At IBM VPs would make an average salary of $160-200K, with an additional bonus of 40% if they deliver good results (IBM is a for profit organization). The <a href="http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/thepresidentandcabinet/a/presidentialpay.htm" target="_blank">salary of the vice president of the United States</a> is currently $231,900.<br />
- ETS has declared 19 trustees paid an average of $54,166 for 6 hours of work per month.<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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I don't think that I need to say more, and I can only hope that this level of salary will not desensitize them from the African situation. It seems to me that there is room in this non-profit organization to offer African students test fee reduction proportionate to their living standards just like some global companies (e.g. Coca Cola, Microsoft, Samsung) do in their market.<br />
<br />
Seeya later alligator....</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18021995038744733130noreply@blogger.com24tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849633784037504405.post-89683019223063997912014-02-16T00:57:00.000-08:002014-02-16T00:57:21.612-08:00I'm not the brain behind IBM's Watson cognitive system recently announced in Africa<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
My intellectual integrity pushes me to respond to some false statements that appeared in the media and social media recently about my contribution to Watson, the IBM Cognitive System that was <a href="http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/43106.wss" target="_blank">recently announced</a> in Africa.<br />
After 25 years of career at IBM, I still consider myself an IBMer in my heart. So when my friends at the IBM Research lab in Nairobi told me about the Watson announcement for Africa, I was really excited as a professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Rwanda and proud as an ex-IBMer. As they asked me if I would agree to speak with the media about the importance of that announcement, I gladly agreed to do so. As a result I have been quoted in the <a href="http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/43106.wss" target="_blank">official IBM press release</a>.<br />
I was then interviewed by several journalists and I have further been quoted in more media. I have the greatest respect for the journalist job, and I know for having worked with them the pressure and stress they have to deliver information in time, or even before time as it is the rule of the media game. And as a result it happens that they may misquote you sometimes, and it happened with one of them for the Watson announcement. Again I have no quarrel with the jounalist but I need to put the record straight.<br />
During that particular interview (which happened late at night), the journalist asked me what I knew about Watson. I told him that the Watson project started at the same time I was working at IBM Research and that I knew about it because at that time I participated in some information and discussion meetings about it, but that was my only "contribution" to it.<br />
When translated in the published paper, it became "<span id="articleText">Michel Bézy, a Rwanda-based technology professor who helped develop the Watson system." That is a misrepresentation of what I said, as my contribution was insignificant, I was just one of many who discussed about the project at the very beginning of it.</span><br />
<span id="articleText">But then, social media take over, and now someone tweeted that "</span> Prof Bezy from CMU-Rwanda is the brain behind the IBM's new flagship system for African markets". This is totally innacurate and is why I post this correction.<br />
First I have not contributed to Watson while I was in IBM and I am not the brain behind it. Second if any contribution it would have been during my work at IBM, not as a professor at CMU-Rwanda.<br />
Again I have no grievance against any of the authors of these statements, I just needed to put the records straight.<br />
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Seeya later alligator...<br /><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18021995038744733130noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849633784037504405.post-10903286088388254692014-02-15T06:37:00.000-08:002014-02-15T06:45:18.712-08:00The Unbearable Lightness of ICT4Development<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
As I have done before in this blog, when I find an interesting article or post, I share it with you.<br />
<div class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="text-align: left;">
In April 2012 I published a post "<a href="http://brel54.blogspot.com/2012/04/is-ict4d-going-to-change-africa-or-is.html" target="_blank">Is ICT4D going to change Africa? or is it ICT4B</a>" where I shared my concern about the ICT4D approach to problems in Africa. ICT4D is mainly AID oriented and sometimes contributes to Africa problems more than it is solving them as brilliantly explained by Dambisa Moyo in her book "Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa".</div>
<div class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="text-align: left;">
Ideas conceived by people of good will in the West often don't work when implemented in Africa, as an example see my postings about <a href="http://brel54.blogspot.com/2013/02/olpc-from-mit-lab-to-reality-on-ground.html" target="_blank">OLPC problems in Africa</a>. </div>
<div class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="text-align: left;">
One of the main reason is the lack of understanding of the culture and problems from this continent of Africa by the people conceiving those projects. </div>
<div class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
This paper "<a href="http://smartmonkeytv.cmail2.com/t/ViewEmail/r/36B2374357BA56D32540EF23F30FEDED/1688993B5C0B7DB44D402EFBD42943A3" target="_blank">The Unbearable Lightness of ICT4Development</a>" published in Smart Monkey TV is addressing exactly that problem and provides good advice on how to measure success of ICT4D projects. I just want to quote one example from the paper that made me laugh as it shows how people sometimes don't understand the situation in Africa.</div>
</div>
<div class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
"There are still too many people developing ICT4D applications whose
primary skills are technical. Relatively few organisations have a deep
and rooted understanding of their core audiences and not many conduct
real tests on their user interfaces and make changes to them.<br />
They tend to assume that if there is a rational, efficiency based case
for a service, people will see it as a “no brainer” and use it. Far from
it as behavior often only changes slowly and has other perverse
incentives. One education SMS app we looked at had the facility to let
head teachers know when teacher’s wages were in the bank. Thus it was
argued that this would prevent long and unnecessary journeys to the
nearest town to discover this in person. Nobody actually thought that
the head teachers might actually enjoy these breaking up their routine
with these jaunts. See video interview with Mark Kamau, UXB Lab:
<a href="http://smartmonkeytv.createsend1.com/t/r-l-pidjttt-truhtlhjju-h/">www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8RH9Dohpvo</a>"<br />
<br />
Seeya later alligator...</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18021995038744733130noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849633784037504405.post-52820128988282100372014-01-11T08:02:00.002-08:002014-01-12T00:45:45.726-08:00OLPC claims tablet is unfit for young Africans!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
For more than three years now I have published postings in this blog about the inappropriate solutions that the OLPC company delivers to the African market.<br />
<br />
On November 1st 2010 in "<a href="http://brel54.blogspot.com/2010/11/one-laptop-per-childbut-what-laptop.html">One laptop per child...but what "laptop</a>"", I explained that the new paradigm that will be in use in Africa to access information will be based mobile internet devices using broadband internet to access applications and information. At that time, OLPC claimed a price of $100 for its laptop with a battery life of 12 hours which would qualify it as a mobile internet device. However I said that devices like the iPOD Touch were probably more appropriate as proven in a project in my town of Chapel Hill. I also said that the OLPC tablet would be a better solution but it was not available yet at that time.<br />
<br />
Since then I moved to Rwanda where OLPC has engaged with the government for the sales of thousands of OLPC laptops to schools. I had the opportunity to be involved in a project to teach the use of those OLPC laptops to 150 children in a primary school in Kigali. That is when I realized that the OLPC laptop was even more inappropriate for Africa than I thought. Not only was the price ($200) now double the announced price but more importantly the battery life was only 2.5 hours which is unacceptable in Africa where access to electricity is difficult. In addition, the laptops have proven to be very fragile as several where unusable after only two weeks of usage by children. I reported about that experience<a href="http://brel54.blogspot.cohttp//brel54.blogspot.com/2013/02/olpc-from-mit-lab-to-reality-on-ground.html"> here</a>, claiming one more time that the tablet is a better and more appropriate solution.<br />
<br />
So when in September of last year the OLPC Tablet finally became available I got really excited until I found out that it was not to be sold in Africa but only in the US at Wallmart! In a new posting <a href="http://brel54.blogspot.com/2013/09/time-to-switch-from-olpc-to-tablet-in.html">"Time to switch from OLPC to tablet in Africa" </a>I explained again why a tablet was not only more appropriate technically for Africa but also more intuitive for children to use.<br />
<br />
Then at the end of October 2013, I had the opportunity to meet with the OLPC CEO Rodrigo Arboleda Halaby at Transform Africa in the vendors exhibit, here in Kigali. He was running around holding the new OLPC tablet in his hands. So I talked to him about my experience with their OLPC laptops and the battery life problem. He said that we were probably using an old model to which I answered that these had just been received by the school, new out of the box. As I continued sharing the problems we had using them, I could see that he became more and more irritated. He told me that I did not understand the technology and that he would ask his technical team to contact me. I gave him my business card and I'm still waiting to hear from them.<br />
<br />
Then I asked him why they were not selling the tablet he had in his hands instead. He said that the tablet was not appropriate for young children, that the keyboard/touchpad interface of the OLPC has been designed specially for children and it was more easy to use. I have seen children struggling using that interface while I have seen even babies able to play on an iPad. He then said that they may eventually sell it later for high school kids because it was more appropriate for them! I could not believe what I was hearing as next door at the Samsung exhibit booth, they were showing more than 20 kids using their Samsung Galaxy tablets in a simulated school environment! It seems obvious to me that the touch interface is much more intuitive and therefore easier to use by young children. At the contrary, one could say that the keyboard interface used in the OLPC laptop could be of more use to high school kids when they start writing their assignments or their programming code. When I asked why they were selling the tablet only in the US and not in Africa, the answer was that they needed to establish a proven product before selling it in Africa! <br />
<br />
As I said earlier I wonder why OLPC keeps selling outdated technology to poor countries like Rwanda while the appropriate solution (their tablet) is now available? Do they need to sell their old stocks first?<br />
If so, shame on them...<br />
<br />
<br />
See you later alligator...</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18021995038744733130noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849633784037504405.post-75790366523669884512014-01-11T03:05:00.000-08:002014-01-11T03:05:29.963-08:00The Immorality of Western Family Planning Programs in Africa<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">Some
recent discussions with friends about the current explosion of family planning
policies in Africa are leading me to present an interesting point of view about
the morality of those policies mostly imposed by the Western world in Africa.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">This
point of view was published by my late father Fernand Bézy in 1975 under the
title “Démographie et Sous-Dévelopment” (Demography and Under-Development). I remember
my father telling me that this book was so controversial that no publisher agreed
(or was authorized) to publish it. The main reason for this is probably that
his thesis was going against the interest of rich countries (particularly the
USA) that were sponsoring the family planning policies. He demonstrated that
the reasons used to justify these policies were erroneous and actually that the
main reasons was that “ </span><i><span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle,Italic","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "BookmanOldStyle\,Italic";">the
working classes in Anglo-Saxon countries became aware of their privileged
position on the planet: the American worker knows that his purchasing power is
much higher than that of an Asian or even a European; there is much more to
lose than to gain from a general sharing with the world”.</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">So
my father decided to use his own money to publish it, but obviously, it did not
reach as many people as he wanted. In addition, it was written in French. I
have translated that study in English and you can find it in <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/fernandbezyenglish/">my father’s website</a>
as REF8 in the bibliography web page.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">This
blog posting is an edited summary of that study. I did not reproduce the
references but they can be found in the original document. Also remember that
it was published almost 40 years ago, so some numbers like China’s population
are not current anymore.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">Here
it is:</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">In
the early seventies, some preachers of the Apocalypse, as evidenced by the titles
of their works: “The Hungry Future” (R. Dumont and B. Rose), “Geopolitics of Hunger”
(J. de Castro), “Famine” (Paddock brothers), “The Population Bomb” (R. Ehrlich)
have led to the emergence of a neo-Malthusian strategy across the planet. It
can be briefly expressed as follows: excessive population growth is the main
obstacle to the development of the third world; therefore birth control must be
the essential element of any development strategy.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">And
the fascination with such a notion is even stronger because the cost of a birth
control program is negligible compared to the costs required by alternate
development policies. In the words of Lyndon Johnson, former president of the
United States marking the twentieth anniversary of the UN (June 25, 1965),
"</span><i><span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle,Italic","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "BookmanOldStyle\,Italic";">An investment of less than five
dollars in population control is equivalent to an investment of one hundred
dollars in economic growth</span></i><span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">”.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">Speaking
at the Second Asian Conference on Population, the American William H. Draper,
adviser to the UN Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) has estimated at one
dollar per capita the operational costs of birth control services: "</span><i><span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle,Italic","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "BookmanOldStyle\,Italic";">In total, therefore it will cost
about three billion dollars per year for Asia, Africa and Latin America. This
is only one eighth of the amount spent annually to purchase arms, and only 0.1%
of global domestic product”. </span></i><span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">And
to conclude, in a beautiful euphoric burst of enthusiasm:</span><i><span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle,Italic","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "BookmanOldStyle\,Italic";"> “Just three billion dollars to
convince three billion people that the two-child family is the right size for
their well-being and happiness</span></i><span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">!” </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">But
are family planning programs really designed for the well-being and happiness
of African population? Or are they rather designed to benefit the developed
countries?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">If
the answer is the second one, it is long overdue for one to wonder if the
politics of birth control can be morally tolerated. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">The
problem of overpopulation belongs primarily to economic science, as it is true
that what is at stake is the allocation of scarce resources to alternative use
among users whose number and capacity for consumption are ever increasing.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">The
first theory goes back to Malthus, who fully associated human multiplication
and animal multiplication, failing to clearly separate sexual instinct from
reproductive instinct. History has proven him wrong on this point, but his
error is shared today by demographers arguing that if poor nations have as many
children it is because they cannot help but to have them. In other words, they
are not aware of methods of birth control or they could not afford to get instruments
of birth control. Frankly, what are they thinking about men and women of the
third world? That they are mentally handicapped?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">First,
let’s make a distinction between the instruments of birth control, coming from
the pharmacy or the toolbox of the family planning propagandists, and the non-instrumental
methods, such as withdrawal, periodic abstinence, late marriage, etc.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">Until
proven otherwise - but we need serious and credible evidence - we argue that
the majority of third world people are deliberately prolific in their majority,
(and the exceptions that can certainly be explained, prove the rule).
Obviously, for certain categories of individuals, it is probably not with a
light heart: the African girl is probably not excited by the prospect of eight
births, in God knows what conditions and for how many pregnancies. And we understand
that she confides to the investigator from family planning organizations who
seek nothing else, her desire to have fewer children. But as undesired as they
are, she wants these children, and the clan requires them: infertility is a
disgrace. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">Another
interpretation —an interpretation that is just as disrespectful of the
intelligence and observational powers of third world people — posits that the
fertility of the present generation is a continuation of the mortality level of
previous generations. It is nothing more natural than peoples’ desire to
compensate for high mortality through a high birth rate: in India, to ensure
the survival of at least one son when the father reaches the age of 65, a
couple must have a minimum of five children; in several regions of West Africa,
the figure is more than seven.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">But
if we take this very natural concern for the fundamental explanation of
natalist ideology, we cannot fail to be puzzled by noting that birth rates
remain around 4 or 5%, when those mortality rates gradually lowered at 3, 2 or
even 1%. It would suit then to reconsider the explanation. Some provide it by
invoking the idea of a delay between the drop in mortality and the collective
realization that such a drop has occurred.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">This
interpretation once more implies that adults living in poor countries are
mentally handicapped.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">In
our opinion, it is not through ignorance that poor people remain fertile
despite reduced mortality; instead reduced mortality is rather seen as a good
opportunity to increase their living family. This means that in their view,
their family had not reached its optimal size in the previous situation. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">Another
explanation advanced to account for the natalist ideology is its prominent
position in the moral code of many religions that have retained their power in
the third world. This is both true and false; one should be careful to
distinguish between </span><i><span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle,Italic","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "BookmanOldStyle\,Italic";">proximate </span></i><span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">cause and </span><i><span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle,Italic","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "BookmanOldStyle\,Italic";">remote
</span></i><span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">cause.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">There
is no doubt that religions promote the fertility cult, which is used to form
the basis of the socio-political structure of traditional societies. For
example, what constitutes the essence of Bantu philosophy, is the vital force,
related to the notion of being that is supposed to move from divinity to
humanity through the channel of the tribes’ founders (the archipatriarchs);
then the departed ancestors, now spiritualized and participating to some extent
to the divine Force; then the living chief, the Elder, who distributes it to
all that is living in the clan: it is he who strengthens the lives of men,
animals, plants. This principle of continuing transmission of the being has two
consequences: it is the seniority which determines the whole social structure
and it is the fecundity— the most obvious expression of the vital force— which
best ensures social promotion. It goes without saying that such a philosophy is
encouraging prolificacy.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">The
economic structure of society is characterized inter alia by the variety and
relative importance of the production factors it implements: what economists
call its manufacturing coefficients or its production functions. In the
underdeveloped world, the combinations of factors are intensive in unskilled
labor; the use of capital is very low. In contrast, in industrialized
countries, the functions of production are capital intensive and using skilled
labor.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">We
argue that it is their economic structure which dictates natalist ideology to developing
countries because the child is really not a burden but an advantage, more a
necessity, and this both for a production and savings point of view. It is precisely
because of the domination of unskilled labor in the production function that
the child represents an early economic value, while in the developed world he
acquires value only at the end of a long and expensive training. Indeed, even
as low as it is, the child’s productivity is significant in relation to that
quite low level</span><span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;"> </span><span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">of
the adult worker who only produces enough to feed 1.5 to 2 people annually in
the country side. So, in developing countries, the child brings up more than he
costs.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">Some
will object: how is it possible to draw an argument from the contribution of
child labor in economies that are distinguished by underemployment and
disguised unemployment? This is because although important - but is it really
important everywhere? -unemployment is only seasonal. In non-mechanized
agriculture, the crop cycle includes periods of, sometimes short, but crucial
intense activity in which any impairment of labor results in a collapse of production.
The abundance of child labor is then vitally important.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">So
far, our argument’s relevance comes from the characteristics of production function
in the countryside. For the record, it is because two-thirds of the third world
active labor force is still employed in agriculture.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">We
know that in traditional societies, social structure is characterized by the
predominance of the extended family, which includes all members of the same
lineage, compelled to a series of several obligations, under the rule of an
undisputed chieftain. On the contrary, in modern societies, the sociological
unit is the nuclear family, which counts only the father, mother and immediate descendants.
Not only is this unit independent of those that are related, but dependency
within that unit is attenuated significantly after education and social
security, as we know, took over support from young to old.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">The
requirements governing the operation of the clan provide parents with the
personal enjoyment of the work of youngsters, which are in a way their pension
scheme. Should these rules come to weaken, and it should not be surprising to
see the natalist ideology being questioned. Here is what Alfred Sauvy believes:
"</span><i><span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle,Italic","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "BookmanOldStyle\,Italic";">The father does not want more
children from the day they cost him or when he no longer has full authority
over them</span></i><span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">". That is indeed what occurs, with
varying intensity in the developing countrires’ cities when the bonds of
extended family are weakening.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">In
modern societies, the child never contributes more than he costs. Better, he is
expensive and brings nothing. To allow him to integrate into a technical
economy, parents need to provide him with a lengthy and costly training. And
once this training is acquired, no sociological imperative compels him to
surrender the fruits of his work. Socially and economically, modern societies
are the antithesis of traditional societies. Need we say more to account for a
difference in procreative behavior, which is fundamental and not subject to the
level of contraceptive information. The proof is that if the policy of birth
control can take advantage of some success in developing countries, it is
precisely in those few countries that actually entered into the path of
development, which involves a transformation of their economic and social
structures: this was the case yesterday in Japan, in Taiwan today. But in other
countries, if our friend, William H. Draper is trying to persuade the poor that
"</span><i><span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle,Italic","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "BookmanOldStyle\,Italic";">two-child family is the right
size for their well-being and happiness</span></i><span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">",
he runs great risk of sounding insane and rightly so!</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">Certainly,
with adequate pressure - and we are unfortunately on the way to doing just that
- it is not impossible to convince the poor families to follow the views of the
Malthusian apostles. The ability of advertising, injected at high doses, to
shape the consumers’ behavior against their interests is not the least of the
paradoxes of our consumer society.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">It
is here that the moral question shows its true cruelty. We will deal with it in
the last part of this study.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">We
have defended the idea that children, as numerous as they are, for families in developing
countries, are a real economic value and we have to condemn a Malthusian view
that can only increase poverty if not preceded by a fundamental organic transformation
of production methods.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">The
economic history of agrarian societies attests unequivocally that the earth has
never been a limiting factor. Everywhere populations have developed or reduced
under the influence of exogenous factors and a wide range of farming systems have
emerged in response to the different pressures of men on the regions, and
agricultural production has adapted to the population expansion.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">Could
the less dense countries show a faster growth, offsetting in the global
development statistics a slower or even a growth decline in overpopulated
countries? It is not. G. Ohlin, who certainly did not fail to carry out audits
of this nature, concludes: "</span><i><span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle,Italic","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "BookmanOldStyle\,Italic";">In
the present circumstances, it is easy to show how it is absurd to claim that
the population density alone is a determinant of economic prosperity. Whichever
way you measure it, we find that the density is high or low in poor countries
as in wealthy nations, while we can’t detect any systematic trend</span></i><span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">”.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">So
we will rely upon the per capita product, measuring instrument of well-being -
or rather well have. Regression calculations, performed worldwide, clearly show
that countries with the highest population growth rate present, on average, a
faster increase in per capita product, as is the case today in Rwanda.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">It
is also one of the most widespread errors to attribute famine to overpopulation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">Developing
countries and Africa in particular have been and still are subject to many
famines, naturally attributed to overcrowding, with no more reason than for the
pre-industrial Europe. In an underdeveloped society, famines come primarily
from the technical inability to comply with the agricultural calendar or to
address the irregularities of climate. And in that matter, tropical agriculture
is unfortunately much more vulnerable than that in temperate regions. Colin
Clark tells us that in Kenya, for example, sorghum has a yield of 1.7 tons per
acre if planted before the rains, yield which reduces by 27% if one waits just four
days after the early rains, and 50% at least for a delay of seven days. Maize,
which produces between 1.5 and 2 tons per hectare depending on the season if
planted before the rains, is losing 40% of its performance for a delay of six
days.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">When
nothing is done to remedy the drawbacks of agriculture in areas with highly
irregular climate, crop size can vary from 1 to 8 depending on the years: in
Libya, the barley harvest was 22,000 tons in 1947, the year of drought, and
177,000 tons in 1949, the year of plenty.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">There
would be a remedy: the support of the regions suffering from shortages by those
who enjoy plenty, but the developing countries are poorly integrated (particularly
in Africa): the frequency of famine is also the result of a lack of
transportation infrastructure and trading. It is well known that in late
nineteenth century, parts of India have been depopulated by starvation, while others
lived in abundance.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">The
obsession with physical limitations, which inspired the Malthusianism of a
privileged class in England in the late eighteenth century, is at the origin of
a neo-Malthusian, but this time on a global scale and from all privileged
nations, including the United States. This is the view of Alfred Sauvy: "</span><i><span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle,Italic","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "BookmanOldStyle\,Italic";">The sense of international
solidarity, the Malthusian paternalistic concerns, occurred also on a broader
level: the fear of global overpopulation. As soon as the commercial if not
political dominance of the West was not as absolute, and as soon as various forms
of assistance, somewhat comparable to the "Law of the poor" emerged,
the fear of the excessive number would preoccupy minds. And it was logical that
it developed especially in the richest country, that is to say the United
States. The fear of having to feed needy people, and even stronger the fear of
having to one day open a place for immigration in their vast barely exploited
territories, had to awaken this Malthusian</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle,Italic","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "BookmanOldStyle\,Italic";">reflex. </span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle,Italic","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "BookmanOldStyle\,Italic";">"On the other side, the
working classes in Anglo-Saxon countries became aware of their privileged
position on the planet: the American worker knows that his purchasing power is
much higher than that of an Asian or even a European; there is much more to
lose than to gain from a general sharing with the world ... <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></i><span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">".</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">In
a strong article, Peter Pradervand cites several statements by U.S. officials,
immediately revealing the concerns of their countries about the third world.
Here, as an example, that of ex-President Johnson, who at least had the merit
of frankness: "</span><i><span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle,Italic","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "BookmanOldStyle\,Italic";">There are 3 billion people
around the world and we are only 200 million. We are</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle,Italic","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "BookmanOldStyle\,Italic";">outnumbered 15 to 1. If the
force was the law, they would sweep the United States and take what we have. We
have what they want </span></i><span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">".</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">And
don’t believe that the Malthusian ideology is the monopoly of politicians from
the rich world or official aid agencies, such as AID. It clearly contaminates
the specialized agencies of the United Nations, such as FAO, UNESCO, WHO, the
United Nations Fund for Population Activities, etc. It is found in scientific
institutions financed by major American foundations, such as the Population
Council which does not just "</span><i><span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle,Italic","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "BookmanOldStyle\,Italic";">study
the problems posed by growing world population, in terms of material and
cultural resources…stimulate and support research ... </span></i><span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">". It helps governments, they send special units to deal
with issues of information and education related to family planning, it
participated in the production and distribution of contraceptives, both through
government programs and through commercial channels. That a body funded mainly
by the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations, outside the scope of scientific
research became the producer and distributor of contraceptives is very
surprising.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">Since
population policies are so dependent on ideologies, it is necessary to
carefully scrutinize the validity of the criteria that inspire them.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">VALUE
CRITERIA</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">Should
we use the axiology? If the problem of relations between people and natural
resources belongs to economics, can we rely on economists? After all is this
not simply a matter of optimization? Far from it. A pure product of Western
civilization, economic science does not challenge its specific aims. There is
no universal economic science: the one whose authorship is attributed to Adam
Smith is based on data presented as based on human nature, while they are purely
contingent and related to industrial societies’ culture. That is the case for
example of the assumption of the homo economicus: the individual is assumed to
be determined by his greatest material interest. That such a philosophy of life
characterizes the West is all too true. But we cannot say the same of Bantu,
Muslim, Hindu civilizations.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">In
every society, the different structures (religious, social, economic) are more
or less integrated, of course, but on different planes: they are hierarchical.
And culture is nothing other than the identification of that hierarchy in the
social mentality: it is a value system that imposes standards of behavior. And
from one civilization to another, we observe fundamental differences in the
order of importance of the structures which are the very expression of their specificity.
In modern societies, it is the techno-economic structure that is predominant;
in traditional societies like in Africa, it is the religious structure, or the
social and prestige structure.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">Therefore
the economic optimum is not the maximum possible use of production factors, but
their use that best fit for the operation of each society in its specificity.
This means that the rationality of intentional economic behavior of members of
a given society is always aligned with the basic unintentional rationality of
the hierarchical system of structures that characterizes that society.
Therefore there is no rationality by itself, nor is there a final form, a model
of economic rationality (M. Godelier).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">Nothing
is less objective than the notion of well-being: each civilization has its own.
In the West, growth in production has often been regarded, at least implicitly,
as the growth of welfare or even happiness, so much so that recently it seemed
to be the necessary and sufficient condition for human progress in all social
systems. The West has been claiming to impose this design on the universe: to
colonize was to bring back the world's diversity to unity of which two or three
Western countries were then the models and the recipients (J . Berque). And
everywhere there was an elite that swayed towards the West, which seemed the ideal
model of all civilization and real culture (A. Memmi).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">But
even here in the West, the dogma of economic growth is questioned. We begin to
become aware, even if we are still confused, of the harm of growth and its
fatal results: destruction of nature, abuse of the concentration of economic
power, frustration due to growing inequalities, etc... Then a council of wise people
advocated zero growth, under penalty of apocalyptic disasters, and the American
economist JK Galbraith reassures us: "</span><i><span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle,Italic","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "BookmanOldStyle\,Italic";">Fear
not, St. Peter will not ask you how you have contributed to the growth of national
output!</span></i><span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">”. Finally some calming words! This is
the end of Eurocentrism: each culture has its own system of values and there is
none that can boast of being superior. The comparisons are pretty useless,
everyone being only able to appreciate each other's culture through its own,
which removes any objectivity in the comparison. Suffice it to acknowledge that
while economic growth will increase the control of man over his environment,
and even increases its freedom, it is subject to a purpose that goes beyond economics
and may vary from one society to another. Few economists have bothered to rise
to this level of thinking. One is of them is LH</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">Dupriez,
penetrating analyst of the secular expansion of industrial society: "</span><i><span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle,Italic","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "BookmanOldStyle\,Italic";">After reflection, the purpose
of economic action cannot be ended in the realization of the human condition
most conducive to secular economic expansion. For if this were so, the
expansion would be the very purpose of the entire production process and
maintenance of human qualities would be appreciated only in terms of the
resulting</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<i><span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle,Italic","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "BookmanOldStyle\,Italic";">efficiency. . . The human
qualities required for the secular expansion turn out to be necessary
conditions, but they present the subjective problem in a way which may not
present any real purpose.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<i><span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle,Italic","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "BookmanOldStyle\,Italic";">This purpose can only be found
by going beyond the political economy, which cannot lose its specificity of
being a resource science. As such, it cannot comment on whether the increase in
goods and services actually benefits men, it cannot, let alone claim to measure
the intensity of progress in the human condition. It must stop at the point
where it finds that man becomes more powerful at mastering of nature. Except
for things related to conditions of survival, it must yield to other
disciplines to judge whether the use made of this control of nature is
subjectively good</span></i><span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">”.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">"</span><i><span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle,Italic","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "BookmanOldStyle\,Italic";">Beyond the economic argument it
falls to the field of philosophy and even beyond it, to the religious
conceptions of human destiny. The first will tell us, with the help of subject
disciplines, to what extent the orientation of economic expansion and forms of
economic progress are conducive to the development of human faculties and
improving the human condition, on the natural plane. The second reminds us of
the insufficiency of such an objective and the need to report the economic achievements,
like all other forms of action to the achievement of purposes higher than human
destiny </span></i><span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">".</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">So,
as long as the conditions of survival are assured - which would require
sacrificing everything for it - the basic choices are not economic. Should we
prefer the domestic product growth to other objectives? And if there is growth,
should it be more or less rapid, in relation to other purposes? It is the
responsibility of the ethics of each society to decide. And there is no a
priori reason to advocate for a single ruling solution at the global level.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">Consider
first the agricultural land, which is very unevenly distributed. China, India
and Japan, which grouped 40% of world population and have rapidly growing
economies, have only 10% of the land; on an equal area, Canada, Australia and
New Zealand have 1% of world population, with derisory growth rates. For an
area of the same order of magnitude, Brazil and China have respectively 100 and
nearly 800 million inhabitants; Argentina and India 25 and 570 million. Two
times more populous than New Zealand, Australia, and Canada combined,
Bangladesh has only 1 / 125th of their area. And those Commonwealth countries
are practicing, as we know, a very restrictive policy of immigration of people
of color. How can we get these people to recognize the merits of the
restricting births policy that we want them to practice?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">With
regard to industry, it is estimated that 6% of the world population consume
more than 40% of raw material resources. Based on the current U.S. standard of
living, we are told, the world could maintain up to 600 million people. And if
we wanted to ensure for the third world the same standard of American life in
1967, we would need to extract more than 50 billion tons of iron, 1 billion
tons of copper, 100 million tons of tin, etc. However, for iron, copper and
tin, known reserves amounted to 98 billion tons, 280 million and 6.6 million.
We are far from sharing the pessimism of these forecasts, based on fragile
estimates, and deliberately ignoring the substitution possibilities and
especially the effect – totally unpredictable – of technical progress. These data
are presented here merely to emphasize the inequality of the current
consumption of raw materials.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">There
is also a synthetic expression of this inequality: the income gap per capita.
Assuming, as a rough approximation, that consumption of resources is proportional
to income</span><span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">1</span><span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">,
we must admit that an American consumes as much as 43 Indians or 80 people living
in poor countries of Central Africa (Upper Volta, Rwanda, Burundi). Therefore,
the 205 million Americans have the luxury of a consumption equivalent to 9
billion Indians or 16 billion Rwandans.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">In
these circumstances, they have some nerve to preach continence to poor people!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">It
requires a certain audacity to advocate zero growth. The model of the Club of
Rome is in fact serving the interests of the rich: stopping growth means
maintaining an established order. In the short term, only the rich have a
vested interest in maintaining an environment and reserves that they are alone
to enjoy. Ultimately, what is at stake is not so much the problems raised by
the growth as it is the additional product composition and the distribution of
the fruits of progress.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">Finally
what can be criticized is the allocation of scientific and technical resources
of the world. About half is devoted to military purposes, or for pure prestige,
against less than 2% for urgent problems arising from agriculture, ecology and
the industrialization of developing countries. How would these countries not conceive
bitterness thinking of that relative ridiculous cost, and the almost miraculous
effects of the green revolution?</span><span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;"> </span><span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">The solution of its problems is in easy reach for the rich
world. How not to suspect the good faith of those who advocate the Malthusian
formula as an alternative?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">If
poverty is widespread in the developing world and their economic growth is
poor, it is not proved so far that the fault lies to extreme densities or excessive
survival rates. Instead, the highest rates of population growth are often
combined with a rapid increase of domestic products. In terms of individual
producer, as long as modes of production are basically using labor, the large
family is economically profitable. Unless all this is reversed, Malthusianism must
be held as fatal. That poverty must be eradicated, nothing is more desirable;
that the prevention of births has the power of doing it, nothing is less clear.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">It
is beyond our purpose to judge the moral attitude of couples towards contraception.
What is at issue in this study is the legitimacy of government decisions and
international agencies to organize and promote contraception especially among
people who do not practice it deliberately and clearly show no desire to
receive assistance in that matter.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">The
family planning policy is multifaceted and includes the following methods,
listed in order of increasing constraints:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">—Removal
of benefits granted to large families;</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">—Lifting
of the ban on selling contraceptives;</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">—Legalization
of abortion;</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">—Free
distribution of contraceptives or reimbursement by Social</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">Security;</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">—Organization
of advertising campaigns;</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">—Benefits
(monetary or others) to couples who agree to limit their offspring, or to be
sterilized;</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">—Penalizing
families at the birth of Xth child;</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">—Automatic
enforcement of sterilization.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">All
this is more or less happening, including the most extreme measures. Dr. Cecile
Goldet, deputy secretary general of the medical college of "</span><i><span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle,Italic","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "BookmanOldStyle\,Italic";">Family Planning</span></i><span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">", assures us that in some countries, they automatically
insert an IUD into all women who come to the hospital to give birth to their
second, third or fourth child without asking for their consent. And the
constraints are used at all levels: in a press conference that raised a lot of
resentment in the third world, Mr. McNamara, president of the World Bank, even
said that he would refuse economic assistance to countries that have no program
of birth control. Peter Pradervand, describing the remarks, in fact, commented:
"</span><i><span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle,Italic","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "BookmanOldStyle\,Italic";">Apart from the fact that this
statement shows a worrisome misunderstanding of the problem by a person
occupying a position of such importance, that is exactly the opposite of what
he should have said: we will provide assistance in the field of population policies
only to countries that pursue an aggressive development policy</span></i><span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">".</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">Alas,
the Malthusian ideology is becoming wicked. This is the opinion of the late
Joshua Castro, who has devoted his life to fighting hunger</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">: </span><span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">"</span><i><span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle,Italic","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "BookmanOldStyle\,Italic";">In
the century of science and technology, the neo-Malthusian policies sound more
like a magic trick from the barbarian times than a scientific prescription. It
does not appear that there is a big difference between the attitude of some
primitive peoples of Polynesia, who ascribe volcanic eruptions to evil spirits
of nature and seek to appease their wrath by sacrificing animals that are
thrown into the craters of volcanoes and the pseudo-scientific attitude of
those who attribute hunger to the wickedness of nature and who order the
sacrifice of lives in the form of genocide, mass abortions, birth control to
appease it… And there is no doubt that the attitude of the latter proves far
more</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<i><span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle,Italic","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "BookmanOldStyle\,Italic";">barbaric and far more dangerous</span></i><span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">".</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">Finally,
it all depends on the value one places on human lives—even if they are
miserable. One can indulge in laxity if we agree with Jacques Sternberg, author
of the Dictionary of contempt: "</span><i><span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle,Italic","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "BookmanOldStyle\,Italic";">When
a car speeds through the night, one finds hundreds of insects stuck to the
radiator killed by the speed and the headlights beam. The human life at the
global scale has exactly the same importance. Neither more nor less</span></i><span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle;">". But of these insects, if we consider that they think
and have a soul, we will be compelled to join - and this time in a spiritual
sense - the views of Jean Bodin, a philosopher of the sixteenth century: THE
ONLY WEALTH IS MEN.</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18021995038744733130noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849633784037504405.post-66344388954488549262013-11-02T03:24:00.000-07:002013-11-02T03:24:50.382-07:00The damage of AID in Africa: Want to help someone? Shut up and listen!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Once in a while I find somene who expresses some ideas I have so much better that I can't resist sharing it with you in my blog.<br />
<br />
Ernesto Sirolli did a great presentation at TED about a better approach to AID: <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/ernesto_sirolli_want_to_help_someone_shut_up_and_listen.html">Shut up and listen!</a><br />
<br />
Also included are great ideas about entrepreneurship.<br />
<br />
Enjoy!<br />
<br />
Seeya later alligator....<br />
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18021995038744733130noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849633784037504405.post-69116080010153858732013-09-08T06:53:00.000-07:002013-09-08T07:28:56.191-07:00Time to switch from OLPC to tablet in Africa<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In November 2010 I published a posting "One laptop per child...but what "laptop"?"explaining why it was important that schools in Africa that want to develop ICT awareness
with their young students use the new mobile internet devices. </div>
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As opposed to traditional PC, mobile internet devices are more appropriate for Africa both from a technical and from a usage purpose point of view. Technically, those device typically have a longer battery life time which is a major requirement in a continent where access to electricity is difficult. But more importantly, mobile device is the way population in emerging market will access information. In India, the number of people accessing internet via mobile device exceeded those using desktop PC in less than 4 years.</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jDqfzKBaSQE/UixmV7P1NoI/AAAAAAAAA10/_VxPVgrlcgw/s1600/2013-09-08+13-53-25_KPCB_2012_Internet_Trends_Update_Stanford_120312_FINAL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="280" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jDqfzKBaSQE/UixmV7P1NoI/AAAAAAAAA10/_VxPVgrlcgw/s400/2013-09-08+13-53-25_KPCB_2012_Internet_Trends_Update_Stanford_120312_FINAL.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Source: Mary Keeler, Internet Trends, KPBC, 2012/ StatCounter Global Stats, 11/12</div>
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This is why I suggested that tablets would be better for kids to use in schools than PC if there is such a choice. At the time of my posting, the OLPC organization was showcasing the picture of a new tablet (OX-3) that they said would be available for $75. It as later proven that the picture was a montage and that the product was far from being released anytime soon. Eventually, OLPC <a href="http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9234140/OLPC_cancels_XO_3_tablet_downplays_need_for_new_hardware">canceled the new tablet</a>. </div>
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Well OLPC has now <a href="http://one.laptop.org/about/xo-tablet">made that tablet available</a> but only in the US in retail via Amazon, Target or <a href="http://www.walmart.com/ip/XO-Kid-s-Tablet-PC/24511209">Walmart</a> for $149, twice the original target price. The same thing happened with their famous OLPC which end up selling for more than $200 while the initial target was $100.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-194IWGpBfis/UiyDvQp_mGI/AAAAAAAAA2U/50CFa23uy1s/s1600/OLPC+tablet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-194IWGpBfis/UiyDvQp_mGI/AAAAAAAAA2U/50CFa23uy1s/s400/OLPC+tablet.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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OLPC XO Kid Tablet</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
The battery life time claimed is 6 hours, more than double the battery lifetime of the OLPC (see my posting on it: <a href="http://brel54.blogspot.com/2013/02/olpc-from-mit-lab-to-reality-on-ground.html">OLPC: from MIT lab to the reality on the ground</a>). The new tablet however does not solve the problem of difficult access to electricity. I'm wondering what would it take to develop a solar tablet? Or a solar charger for tablets? <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/technology/2013/05/earl-worlds-first-solar-powered-backcountry-survival-tablet/">Some have been announced</a> but at prices that are unaffordable for developing countries.</div>
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<br /></div>
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A tablet interface is much more intuitive to use for kids than a PC mouse and keyboard. In the famous <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-10663353">"A hole in the wall"</a> experiment in India, educational researcher <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_shows_how_kids_teach_themselves.html">Sugata Mitra </a>installed Internet connected PCs in a wall with a touch pad as interface in the middle of a remote village in India and was able to show that children were teaching themselves and able to use it without any external help.</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xm_gN-QWh5k/UixsJtdc9DI/AAAAAAAAA2E/kNi9uH4TVm4/s1600/hole+in+the+wall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xm_gN-QWh5k/UixsJtdc9DI/AAAAAAAAA2E/kNi9uH4TVm4/s400/hole+in+the+wall.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Kids in India using "hole in the wall" Internet connected PC.</div>
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Probably inspired by that experiment, the OLPC organization tried a similar experiment in remote villages in Ethiopia simply <a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/news/506466/given-tablets-but-no-teachers-ethiopian-children-teach-themselves/">dropping off tablet computers with preloaded programs and seeing what happens</a>. Similar results were observed: "OLPC workers dropped off closed boxes containing the tablets, taped
shut, with no instruction. “I thought the kids would play with the
boxes. Within four minutes, one kid not only opened the box, found the
on-off switch … powered it up. Within five days, they were using 47 apps
per child, per day. Within two weeks, they were singing ABC songs in
the village, and within five months, they had hacked Android,”
Negroponte said. “Some idiot in our organization or in the Media Lab had
disabled the camera, and they figured out the camera, and had hacked
Android.”"</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Tablets "engage the brain far better than traditional learning methods, in a way
that's similar to the way it reacts during challenging video games". "Tablet software can cut high school learning from 4 years to 6 months" <a href="http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2293245/nolan-bushnell-tablet-software-can-cut-high-school-learning-from-4-years-to-6-months">said Nolan Bushnell</a>, the "father of modern video gaming", founder of Atari. This would address a major problem found in traditional education in Africa (see my last posting:<a href="http://brel54.blogspot.com/2013/09/raising-bar-in-africas-higher-education.html">Raising the Bar in Africa’s Higher Education Quality - The Impact on the ICT Industry and the Danger for Africa</a>), i.e. the lack of stimulation of thinking and creativity. Also the mobility of the tablet makes it a better fit for access to digital books (similar to a Kindle device). This ultimately could help address the impossible cost and logistic challenge of school books distribution. This obviously assumes Internet access in the schools which is not he case in most of Africa. But optical networks are being deployed in many countries, particularly in East Africa. Rwanda has an extended 3,000 km optical network in place in a country not wider than 250km. But the last mile problem is not solved yet. But here again new solutions are about to emerge. Look at this <a href="http://vimeo.com/60073409">Mawingu Indigo Telecom Rural Broadband Vision</a> in Kenya linking tablets to broadband network in remote villages.<br />
<br />
While I think that traditional PC will still make sense when it comes to creative processes requiring more input devices and power, the tablet touch interface seems to be most adapted for the first encounter of kids with ICT. </div>
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</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.news24.com/Technology/News/Thailand-rolls-out-school-tablet-scheme-20130628-2">Thailand recently announced</a> that it will supply 1.2 million tablets to schools. The tablets produced in China and Thailand will cost between $63 and $93. Similar project is taking place in <a href="http://www.todayszaman.com/newsDetail_getNewsById.action?load=detay&newsId=270656&link=270656">Turkey</a>.</div>
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</div>
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The time to switch from OLPC to tablets is now and it is unfortunate that the new XO tablet is not available yet in developing countries. The OLPC device is a Netbook. Netbook is already an old paradigm, <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/261877/are_netbooks_finally_biting_the_dust_.html">Netbook sales have been declining for the last couple of years</a>, replaced by tablets. However OLPC seems to continue pushing the sales of old OLPC (designed in 2007). Particularly here in Rwanda where they are even pushing for the building of an OLPC factory. It seems that they need to have their unsold stocks paid for by poor countries while they sell their tablets in the US where nobody would buy the old OLPC. It is unfortunate, to say it diplomatically!</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Seeya later alligator...</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18021995038744733130noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849633784037504405.post-49110392910917492402013-09-03T02:26:00.000-07:002013-09-03T02:26:47.146-07:00Raising the Bar in Africa’s Higher Education Quality - The Impact on the ICT Industry and the Danger for Africa<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
<div class="Quote1">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">“Education, and higher education in particular, is
the fulcrum and pivot upon which all other developments rest and rotate around.
In the words of Andrew Carnegie, 'Upon no foundation but that of popular
education can a man erect the structure of an enduring civilization'” </span></div>
<div class="Quote1">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">– Professor
Olugbemiro Jegede, Sec. General, Association of African Universities, 2012</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Abstract</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">We describe the
general context for the economic environment of Africa. We begin broadly, but
we highlight the unique obstacles in ICT sector development that result from
the current higher education system.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
discuss the current challenges in higher education and we argue that tertiary
education can sustain market-driven growth, especially in the ICT sector, if
governments, universities, and their partners improve access to and the quality
of higher education using new and innovative approaches to develop the sector. </span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Finally, while
there are no easy answers or blueprints we elaborate on five focal points that
offer simple and inexpensive techniques to improve higher education outcomes
across the continent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While we are
focusing on Higher Education in Science and Technology (HEST), most of our
recommendations can be adopted more broadly for other subjects of study. </span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">While this paper
addresses the problem on a continental level, we are conscious that every African
country faces its own set of distinctive challenges and opportunities.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Africa’s Booming
Economy </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Business
in Africa is getting serious [1]. The continent's markets have grown at
unprecedented rates for the past decade; a consumer class with significant
purchasing power is forming [2]. At a time where Europe and the United States
are in a more-or-less chronic state of stagnation (recent EU numbers declared a
second recession in just four years [3], and the US is still trying to recover
convincingly from the financial crisis of recent years [4]), Standard & Chartered
bank forecasts that Africa's economy will grow at an average annual rate of 7%
over the next 20 years, slightly faster than China's [5]. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Opportunities
abound for foreign investors and African entrepreneurs alike [6]. But there is
a consensus that, while they certainly form key parts of the picture, growth in
the region has to be about more than oil and minerals, and will require more
than just highways and factories. In 2010, Howard W. French of Columbia
University concluded that: “<i>All things considered, resource-based or
infrastructure-driven development [...] appear unlikely to lead to a meaningful
African renaissance" </i>[7].</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">In
particular, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can be a powerful
tool to boost economic growth by increasing efficiency, providing access to new
markets or services, and creating new opportunities for income generation. “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ICT enables economic growth by broadening
the reach of technologies such as high-speed Internet, mobile broadband, and
computing; expanding these technologies itself creates growth, and the fact
that technologies make it easier for people to interact and make workers more
productive creates additional benefits.</i>” [8] The impact of ICT can be even
more dramatic in Africa where its use is still emerging. It is estimated that
even a 10% increase in broadband penetration can deliver a 0.1 - 1.4% boost in
GDP [9].</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Africans believe so too. South African Deputy
President Kgalema Motlanthe addressing leading ICT enterprises at an ICT
conference in Cape Town in June 2012</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">
said that “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">while primary or traditional
industries remained important, the biggest commodity in the world today is
knowledge, and the ability to generate, access, and distribute knowledge have
become key determinants for a higher developmental trajectory for any nation.
African countries can provide the innovators for future technological
development in ICT that can in turn continue to drive economic and social
development on the continent, through developing innovations and applications
relevant to the needs of our peoples</i>." </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Africa’s Workforce’
Skill Gap</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Africans
are innovative and familiar with the problems they face in their own
environment; much more so than Westerners. The problem is not lack of
innovation, but rather lack of skills. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Human
capital is freely available on the continent in the shape of a huge young, but
largely unskilled, workforce. Increasingly highly skilled labor is required as
the African market mature and grows – labor that is in short supply on the
continent. In 2012, global HR specialists Going Global reported that <i>"More
than half of South African CEOs report it is becoming increasingly difficult to
recruit workers and the shortage of skilled candidates is the most significant
recruitment challenge" </i>[10]. A 2011 report by Dahlberg for the
Initiative for Global Development "Pioneers on the Frontier: Sub-Saharan
Africa's multinational corporations (MNC)" [11] echoes the skilled labor
supply-demand gap challenge for MNCs operating in the region. In most sub-Saharan
African countries, about two-thirds of all young workers in the labor market—95
million people—lack the basic skills needed to be competitive in the labor
force [12]. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 111%; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Specifically,
the continent faces a dire challenge when it comes to well-trained professionals
in science and technology. While about 50 percent or more of students enrolled
in tertiary educational institutions in fast growing countries such as Korea,
China, and Taiwan are enrolled in science, engineering, technology (SET) or
business, only about 20 percent of tertiary education students in Africa are
enrolled in these subjects [13]. In sub-Saharan Africa, there are only 83 scientists
and engineers engaged in R&D for every 1 million people compared to about
1,000 to 1,500 in the developed world [14]. The disparity is enormous. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The ICT Challenge</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">In
spite of a sluggish world economy, the demand for skilled ICT engineers and developers
remains high outside of Africa [15]. According to a 2013 report by the Bureau
of Labor Statistics, in the US there will be two jobs available per every
graduate with a computer science degree over the next ten years [16], pushing a
substantial number of African students to travel overseas in search of quality
education to obtain ICT-related degrees and jobs. But only 30 percent of
Africans studying abroad return to the region after graduation [17] to the
detriment of African start-ups and investors looking to implement projects on
the continent. Moreover, the degree they obtain overseas may not be
particularly well suited to the challenges faced in Africa, reducing the
probability that they will return. Expressed differently, over 20,000 qualified
Africans have worked abroad every year since 1990 [18]. Developed countries are
thus hosting more than 1 million Africans holding higher education degrees. To
fill the human resource gap created by this brain drain, Africa employs up to
150,000 expatriate professionals at a cost of 4 billion dollars per annum [19].</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">As
a consequence, despite Africa’s largely endogenous growth, Africans are not
reaping as many rewards from the plentiful opportunities on the continent as
they could, in particular in the ICT sector. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">To
elaborate, let us review Africa’s experience inventing mobile money. While the
idea of M-PESA, a mobile money system, was born in Kenya by Kenyan innovators,
the technology is owned by Vodaphone, a British Company. Vodaphone managed
M-PESA’s technological development by outsourcing the job to Sagentia, a global
innovation, technology and product development company in Cambridge, UK; rather
than developing the product locally amid its inventors. Eventually Vodaphone
tasked Safaricom, a Kenyan telecommunications corporation, with the operational
management and commercialization of the product, but ultimately Vodaphone
collects the royalties.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">M-PESA
is simply one example of Africa’s endogenous innovations. Much has been written
about the revolutionary impact of cell phones that enabled Africans to
technologically leap-frog. The continent has overcome the challenge of limited
infrastructure by attaining connectivity on a par with any developed country, seemingly
overnight [20]. That same handset driven revolution continues to push the
envelope by enabling mobile banking, mobile agriculture, and mobile healthcare applications
in countries such as Kenya, Niger and Senegal, and unique innovative applications
tailored to meet African needs for information sharing and transactions to
thrive. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Unfortunately
Western companies, mostly MNCs, are the ones who profit from these
technological developments since the innovators are ill-equipped to capture
their brain-children’s promise of profit. The ICT market in Africa seems to
replicate the old colonial relationship between Africa and the Western world.
During colonial times, the metropolis exploited Africa by importing natural
resources from colonies and exporting finished manufacturing goods or selling
unsustainable factories. Now the developed countries import human resources and
innovations from Africa and export hardware and software developed by their
global IT companies, often selling solutions that are inappropriate for the
region and that require expatriate resources to implement and maintain. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Apart
from lacking resources, it is the skills gap between Africa’s ICT professionals
and those in the West that obstruct Africans from reaching their full
technological development and profit potential. Vodaphone was able to take
ownership of M-PESA because local companies could not access the appropriate
human capital and other resources that could build the technology beyond its
initial inception.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The Role of Higher Education
in Africa’s Economic Development</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Higher
education has a unique and important role to play in resolving the skills gap
in Africa. A Harvard University study published in 2006 by Bloom et al
("Higher Education and Economic Development in Africa") [21] was
among the first to document the importance of tertiary education on economic
growth and poverty reduction. Building on that research, UNESCO in 2006
declared that: <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">"<i>Expanding
higher education contributes to promoting faster technological catch-up, improving
a country's ability to maximize output and decrease the knowledge gap and
poverty in the region. There seems to be an increasing recognition of a
positive contribution of higher education to economic development, and there is
a strong case for expanding the base of tertiary education in the developing
world</i>."<i> </i></span>[22]</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">After
years of explicitly steering funding away from universities in favor of primary
education, the World Bank in 2009 concluded that, <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">"[...] <i>maximizing productivity and achieving competitiveness
will depend upon success in augmenting human capital and raising its quality.
The key to economic success in a globalized world lies increasingly in how
effectively a country can assimilate the available knowledge and build
comparative advantage in selected areas with good growth prospects, and in how
it can enlarge the comparative advantage by pushing the frontiers of technology
through innovation.</i>"<i> </i></span>[23] Everyone, it seems, at last
agrees that higher education plays a pivotal role in sustaining growth and
development. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Quantity and
Quality Gaps in Higher Education</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Higher
education outcomes in Africa leave much to be desired from the institutions
charged with delivering educational excellence. As discussed above, many graduating
jobseekers do not have the skills that industries seek in candidates. The
problem is twofold: higher education in Africa suffers in terms of quantity and
quality. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Quantity
wise, Africa has one university for every 1.2 million people. In comparison,
the number of inhabitants per university in North America is 100K, in Europe it
is 125K, in Latin America 105K, and in Asia 572K [24]. At best, higher
education in Africa is 2 times less accessible than in Asia. At worst, the
continent’s higher education is more than 12 times less accessible than in
America. We know that 65% of Africa's population is less than 25 years old and
therefore demographic pressure further exacerbates the chasm. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">In
2008 the World Bank noted that only 5 percent of the relevant age group in
Africa attends university, compared to the world average of 25 percent. In a
2009 speech to the Africa-US Higher Education Initiative Partners Conference,
National University of Rwanda Rector Silas Lwakabamba declared: "<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">We all recognize that basic education is
indeed important.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, it is also
increasingly evident to policy makers and educators that a sustained focus on
higher education is necessary to achieve a 10% [university] graduation rate – a
minimum for any country to ensure the possibility of sustainable development</i>"
[25].<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">A
2010 follow-up report from the World Bank [26] examined the financing of higher
education in Africa. It is the only region in the world that has experienced a
decrease in the volume of current expenditure per student by 30 percent in the
last 15 years. This is mainly due to the dramatic increase in the number of
students that could not be matched by public expenditures. This growth is
fueled by demographics and the Millennium Development Goals’ (MDGs) focus on
primary and secondary education. Between 1991 and 2006, the number of students
in higher education more than tripled, rising from 2.7 million to 9.3 million.
This was an annual increase of about 16%, but public resources for expenditure only
grew by 6%, and the same report concluded that "<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">in most Sub-Saharan African countries, enrollment in higher education
has grown faster than financing capabilities, reaching a critical stage where
the lack of resources has led to a severe decline in the quality of instruction
and in the capacity to reorient focus and to innovate. Public funding in most
countries is already overstretched, and alone it will not be sufficient to
respond to the growing demand for access to higher education while delivering a
level of quality that provides students with the skills necessary to succeed in
current and future labor markets</i>."</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Quality
wise, there are only three African universities in the “Academic Ranking of
World Universities” of the top 500 best universities in the world, and all
three are from South Africa. To have an idea of the ranking of Sub-Saharan
African universities (not including South Africa) we must rely on automated
rankings like Webometrics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In that
ranking, the first university from sub-Saharan Africa emerges 1080<sup>th</sup>,
indicating a significant gap in quality of higher education in that region.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">To
provide quality instruction and research, one significant measure of the
capability of the professoriate is doctoral-level certification. In Africa,
doctoral-level faculty are the minority, sometimes with percentages as low as
20%. In addition, studies have shown a disturbing trend at several universities
of a slide in the proportion of academic staff with doctoral degrees, and an
increase in the proportion of staff with only a bachelor’s degree, symptomatic
of the further decline of the quality of African universities [27].</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">When
the “sage on stage” is relatively unqualified to teach complicated material, it
is no wonder that education is often limited to the first two stages of the
Bloom's classification of cognitive skills. Bloom identified 5 stages of
cognition, or in other words, critical thinking: remember, understand, apply,
analyze, evaluate and create. In many African schools, students are expected to
only reach the first two stages and are thus evaluated based on their capacity
to remember and repeat the content of the course. That rote learning, while useful
for some topics, is devastating in engineering education. Bloom’s
classification promotes additional next higher forms of thinking in education:
applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating rather than just remembering
facts. Identifying and solving problems, thinking critically, developing
creative solutions, these additional skills are critical to develop a
generation of innovators and entrepreneurs but they require different and
adapted teaching methodologies and higher faculty to student ratios in order
for students to be able to develop those skills.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 111%;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The
apex of Bloom’s cognition classification is “creating.” In the engineering and
ICT context, students should be challenged to create semi-complex and relevant
projects. However, as a graduate school professor I have learned that my
students who were once enrolled in bachelor-level programming language courses
(e.g. a C or Java course) have reported that their most complicated assignments
were in fact ridiculously simple. For instance, assignment projects included:
“Write a program that simulates a calculator” or “Write a program that prints
‘Hello!’ on the screen.” Ultimately, professors fail to task students to solve
even a single real business related problem that stimulates their critical
thinking and creativity.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Insufficient
resources also hamper ICT teachers and students’ ability to deliver and receive
high quality education. My students explained that oftentimes they have no
access to a PC or five students share a single PC. As a result, many students
may graduate from a programming language course without ever running a program
on a computer. This is like learning to swim by book without ever jumping into
the pool.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">In
addition, ICT curriculum content is often outdated and not adapted to the business
needs in the region. For instance, many IT departments in universities teach
artificial intelligence (AI) courses, copying the curriculum directly from
Western universities [28]. One wonders what AI can do to address Africa's
problems? Yet at the same time, you rarely find courses on mobile and wireless technology
or mobile software development, although both are critical for Africa. During a
recent visit to a school of computer science in a major South African
university, one faculty recognized that their curriculum had been unchanged for
the last 20 years!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">In
summary, difficult access and poor quality of higher education combine to
create major disadvantages for the development of Africa. There is a profound
mismatch between the degrees offered and the skills required by the African
labor market. All of this should be seen in light of the extremely high rates
of unemployment in Africa, even for those with university degrees. Collier and
others write extensively about the implications of youth - often male -
unemployment on social unrest; it should be a significant consideration for a
continent all-too-familiar with conflict. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Limitations of
Existing Traditional Approaches</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoCaption" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoCaption" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Government
with Foreign Aid</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Governments
are often facing the impossible challenge of addressing the quantity problem of
university access while at the same time improving quality of education.
Attempts have of course been made to address the issues surrounding higher
education in Africa. While the bulk of economic activity on the continent
remains untaxed, African governments have recently started seeing a sustainable
tax base from business activities [29]. This offers some discretionary funding
to spend on higher education, but unfortunately there are a multitude of
competing demands made on limited funds. Ultimately, other investment choices
are persistently deemed as higher priorities than tertiary education. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Besides
taxes, other attempts have been made to address the issues surrounding higher
education funding in Africa. Ultimately, the source of most of Africa’s higher
education funding is foreign aid from foundations, trusts, grants, etc. (e.g.
the "Partnership for Higher Education in Africa" initiative that
invested $440M in higher education from 2000-2010). But often they come with
strings attached. Governments endure significant external pressure from aid
agencies that inhibit their ability to freely choose where they may spend their
borrowed budgets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The MDGs aim to ensure
that by 2015 children everywhere – boys and girls alike – will complete a full
course of primary schooling. But the MDGs fall silent on the issue of higher
education, which pressures governments to allocate funds towards primary,
rather than university, education. This, coupled with a history of IMF-imposed
structural adjustments programs funneling funding away from higher education
towards basic education as part of debt forgiveness programs, helps explain why
funding for higher education has declined steadily over the past decade as
enrollment increases substantially. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">One
might also argue that the funds made available for higher education are
misallocated. Governments concentrate on the quantity problem of university
access. Most investments are directed at real estate and university and
technology center construction has become a flourishing business in Africa.
Announcement of mega tech city projects are popping up from Kenya to Ghana [30].
But the quantity gap is so significant that it cannot be solved in the short or
medium term and it should not be addressed at the cost of quality. In fact
priority should be given to quality. But addressing the quality issues is
tougher than building universities and the political pay-off is arguably lower.
Yet those quantity investments will be wasted and result in empty buildings and/or
contribute to a growing unemployable workforce if the quality problem is not
addressed. If governments would only divert a small percentage of the $billions
they are planning to invest in those mega projects, they could at least start
addressing the quality gap. It would require hiring of highly killed faculty, updating
curriculum, etc. to address problems identified earlier.</span></div>
<div class="MsoCaption" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoCaption" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Private
Entities</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Due
to the pressure of the demand for more universities and the difficulty of
government to support the investment needed,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>private universities have flourished across the continent as a
supplement to the government-run tertiary education system [22]. Some of them
are local initiatives; others are partnerships with foreign schools. In this
latter case, most often the private university is a partnership with a European
or American university leveraging their brand to attract students. However the
quality of education is often inferior to the quality of the Western partner
university. The imported curriculum is taught by local instructors with the
support of visiting professors. The latter only come to Africa for short
periods of time, inhibiting their ability to understand the real needs of the
region and integrate these needs, and creative teaching techniques, to
exemplify and solve them in the imported curriculum. Also, in part because it
is cheaper and easier for these private entities to educate humanities
graduates rather than e.g. engineers, they increase the gap in HEST.</span></div>
<h4 style="margin-left: .3in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .3in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.3in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"> </span></h4>
<h4 style="margin-left: .3in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .3in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.3in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">New innovative approaches</span></h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">It
seems that traditional education approaches are entrenched in a long history of
failure in the region. They fail to deliver a quality education and fight a losing
battle to close the higher education quality gap between Africa and the rest of
the world. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 111%; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">It
is obvious that new approaches are required. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“The traditional structure, in which universities supplied the entire
value chain from knowledge-generation to course delivery, is breaking down.
Instead, specialized players are emerging. Knowledge generation is very costly
and only well-endowed schools or schools that have access to sufficient public
funds can afford that ‘stage of production’”</i> [31]. A new paradigm of
government-industry partnerships in the realm of education involving companies
and organizations to fill critical skilled shortages in Africa may offer an
opportunity to improve higher education quality delivery and close the quality
gap [32].</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">New
partnerships, and the innovative institutions they produce, implicitly or
explicitly promote the more sophisticated strata espoused in Bloom’s cognition
model. They also engage the private sector to develop closer linkages between
industry and education, ensuring that improvements in higher education have
direct positive impacts on local economies. In tandem, they support the
integration of students into the regional workforce, resulting in high
employment rates of their graduates. By raising the bar for higher education
they can make a significant contribution towards a renaissance in Africa. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">We
are here highlighting a non-exhaustive list of three such partnerships. The
first of these partnerships elicited Centers of Excellence (CoE). In October
2007, the Connect Africa Summit recommended the establishment of five CoEs in
each sub-region of Africa to support the development of a critical mass of
science and technology skills required for the development of the continent. As
a HEST strategy, CoEs deliver tertiary and vocational training on a regional
basis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Rwanda
is spearheading the initiative for the East Africa Community with the opening
of an ICT CoE in Kigali with financial support from African Development Bank.
In order to fulfill this ambitious goal, the Government of Rwanda strategically
targeted Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) to establish and operate a master's
degree-granting program in Rwanda because of CMU's strong culture of research
and innovation [33]. This is the first time that a world class university is
opening a campus in Africa with onsite presence (as opposed to online courses)
and resident CMU faculty assigned to Rwanda from Pittsburgh (as opposed to
visiting professors). The uniqueness of this ICT COE project is its integration
with the development of an ICT industry in the region through functions like an
innovation incubator, a mobile research center and executive education
programs. Other CoEs are being established in Tunisia and Mali.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Alongside
Rwanda, Ghana is on the frontier of higher education innovation. Ghana’s Ashesi
University is the first university in the country to adopt and blend the
Liberal Arts method of education with majors in Computer Science, Management
Information Systems and Business Administration. Its goal is to educate African
leaders of exceptional integrity and professional ability: “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">An Ashesi student is able to apply critical
thinking and quantitative reasoning to approach complex problems, demonstrates
skills in data analysis and modeling, sees things from multiple perspectives,
and has awareness of a broad range of concepts and ideas that have personal,
local and global significance</i>”. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Ghana’s
Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) leverages the experience
of business executives and professionals through an “alternative education”
approach.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>MEST’s entrepreneurial program
is designed around three phases: training, incubation and mentorship. At MEST,
these experienced professionals successfully train young students to become
software entrepreneurs, fulfilling their vision to “create wealth and jobs
locally in Africa.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The
major challenge for these new innovative approaches is to deliver world class
quality education while being sustainable to reduce dependency on donor funding.
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">An
example of such a successful sustainable institution is the International
Institute for Water and Environmental Engineering in Burkina Faso. It was
created 40 years ago, it is accredited in Europe and its engineering degrees
are internationally recognized, and more than 95 % of their students find a job
within six months of graduating. “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">This
unique rate in Africa is the result of a factor combination: the quality of our
training programs, our partnership strategy with companies, backbone for an adequate
training of qualified human resources adapted to the market needs, and finally our
aim to offer solutions that meet the continent challenges.</i>”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">And
one more option has now come online it seems -- literally -- in the form of
distance learning or the Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC). While MOOCs are
making the buzz these days, they are subject to some healthy skepticism [34]
particularly about their value for Africa where they face major challenges like
inappropriate language, affordability of required hardware and Internet access,
hardware malfunctions, power outages, intermittent Internet connectivity, and
inadequate bandwidth. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">More
importantly, more than others, African students are looking for role models and
inspiring teachers that cannot be provided by technology only. However ICT
offers the opportunity to overhaul access to resources and change the nature of
the teacher-student interaction. “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Soon
faculties will be lecturing less and tutoring more, along the lines of the
‘flipped classroom’ model in which students are assigned videos and online
materials for their homework, and come to class in order to discuss what they
saw with their teachers</i>” [31]. This should allow learning to move from the
“sage on stage” model to higher level of cognitive skills in the Bloom’s model.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Focal Points for
Improving Higher Education Outcomes</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Innovations
in higher education are taking shape in isolated pockets throughout Africa. There
have been many studies published about improving higher education in Africa,
several of them referred to in this paper. But clearly, African universities
and governments could also benefit by taking advantage of “low hanging fruit,”
or simple and inexpensive methods for improving higher education outcomes
across the continent. The following five proposals are just that: suggestions
for process changes and measurement methodologies that double as tools for
improvement. These proposals are neither complex nor expensive; and although we
focus on HEST, they could be used more generally.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 111%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 111%; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The
five proposals are as follows:</span></div>
<div class="MsoCaption" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoCaption" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">1)
Improving teacher effectiveness</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Most
universities in the US have teaching excellence centers where faculty and
instructors can get support and training to help them improve as teachers. The
centers’ staff people collaborate with instructors to design and implement
meaningful educational experiences for students that leverage innovative
teaching methodologies and technologies. In particular, they organize
orientation programs for new incoming faculty to ensure consistent teaching
quality in the university. Finally, these centers also train faculty to be
quality monitors for their colleagues. Each faculty is then required to be
monitored by one of his peers once a year with the purpose of providing
positive feedback for helping him/her improve his/her teaching.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Governments
should dedicate part of their investment to support the creation of such
teaching excellence centers in each university. Universities should also
provide attractive and motivating salaries to those faculties who demonstrate
improved quality teaching through these trainings. Quality improvement can also
come from the diaspora academics who return to Africa attracted by the fast
growing economy and the development of the IT market [35]. </span></div>
<div class="MsoCaption" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoCaption" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">2)
Feedback for course improvement</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Aside
from measuring students, universities should develop mechanisms to improve the
quality of courses taught by its faculty members. Several websites exist that
allow students to rate their instructors, such as “rate a prof” or “rate my
professors”. Some media are even using data from those websites to publish a
list of schools with the worst professors! Here we need to be cautious as it is
difficult for those websites to identify sincere from fake ratings. The last
thing you want is for a student to vindicate his/her (maybe rightfully) low
grade by trashing the grading professor on those sites.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Instead,
we would recommend for each university to introduce their own similar rating
systems such that students registered for a course are given the opportunity to
rate that course after they received their final grade for that course. Most
universities in the US have such a system in place. At Carnegie Mellon
University students are invited at the end of each semester to rate the courses
they attended on a voluntary and anonymous basis. What is important here is
that the result be used not to penalize individual professors but rather to
help them improve the quality of their teaching by learning from student
feedback. This can also be used by academic committees to promote outstanding
professors and encourage others to improve their teaching quality, potentially
inviting them to “teaching excellence” seminars. For these systems to be successful
they should be implemented with the voluntary collaboration of the faculty
themselves and the results from course surveys and their use for course
improvement need to be communicated back to the students [36].</span></div>
<div class="MsoCaption" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoCaption" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">3)
Engaging industry in curriculum development</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Any
university must have a curriculum review committee who determines course
offerings for any given academic program. These review committees are usually comprised
of professors and department heads who review program and course criteria from
a solely academic perspective.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>University
schools should also have an advisory board made of representatives from private
sectors that correspond to the fields of instruction. The curriculum review committees
should then share their curriculum information with and get advice from the
advisory board made of private sectors representatives- the people who
ultimately would recruit the students. In that way curriculum review will
involve department heads, professors and private sector representatives; they
will then include the individuals managing the educational institution, the
instructors delivering the material, and the professionals who ultimately would
recruit the students after the program. They could influence curricular content
in an effort to endow today’s students (and tomorrow’s workers) with the skills
necessary to strike equilibrium between the labor supply and labor demand in
their industry. We realize this may be a controversial suggestion for
traditional academics, but at this stage Africa cannot afford the luxury of
universities delivering graduates who cannot be employed immediately because
they lack necessary industry skills. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Another
approach to better integrate industry needs with academic education is for
professors to get more involved with private sector people. The ultimate
objective is to provide students with the opportunity not only to learn, but
also practice what they learn. This can be done in different ways: inviting
private sector guest speakers in their courses, organizing "real"
internships for students in local and regional businesses, asking industry for
problem ideas that can be used in class for students to address, and so many
others.</span></div>
<div class="MsoCaption" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoCaption" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">4)
Aptitude Testing </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The
Graduate Record Examination (GRE) is an aptitude testing tool. It is intended
to measure some individual characteristics that are important for graduate
study: reasoning skills, critical thinking, and the ability to communicate effectively
in writing. These are some of the higher cognitive skills from the Bloom’s
model that we identified earlier as lacking in Africa’s higher education. We
acknowledge that there are many other different criteria for success in
graduate education that are not measured by GRE such as motivation, creativity,
interpersonal skills, subject matter knowledge, financial support, etc.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The
GRE test has been used for many years and has improved over time to a point
where it is now recognized as valuable graduate admission criteria by most
universities. The test is managed by independent organizations guaranteeing the
fairness of its results.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Some
people will argue that these tests are not appropriate for African students. I
reject the notion that African students should receive simplified tests. This
test is taken by students from all regions, and rather than lowering standards
for Africans, we should help African students raise their skills to a globally
competitive level. One of the advantages of these tests is that students around
the world take them to gain admission to American universities and the best
universities in Europe. This will allow Africa to compare its students to the
best students in the world. There is no reason why African students cannot
compete against others if we can improve the quality of higher education in
Africa.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">One
challenge here is that the cost of these tests can be prohibitive for
individual students.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps these costs
could be integrated in the university tuition. Another challenge will be to
familiarize students with these tests during their studies to get prepared. There
is a lot of literature available out there with tutoring material for these
tests and that can be used for tutoring at the university.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">How
then should we use the results of these tests? Few countries in Africa have
functioning national learning assessment systems, depriving policymakers of the
flow of information needed to guide reform. By integrating the GRE test at the
end of undergraduate SET education, it can provide some measure of the
students’ abilities evaluated by the test like reasoning and critical thinking
skills. The aggregate statistics of all GRE scores from graduating students
from one university can then be used to monitor university progress year after
year</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Obviously,
the result of these GRE tests can also be used by students to apply for
graduate studies in universities worldwide.</span></div>
<div class="MsoCaption" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoCaption" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">5)
Organize and mobilize alumni networks </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Alumni
organizations are well developed in American universities. They serve many
purposes: develop a network of alumni that can be tapped into by graduating
students for employment support, by the university for fund raising, and for
other purposes. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Alumni
organizations were not possible in Africa in the past as they required good
communication structure that was either lacking or too costly in Africa. ICT
and social networks have now reduced that cost to almost zero.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">While
African universities can use it for the same functions, my suggestion is
slightly less conventional. Africa cannot afford to continue investing in
universities that deliver students that are unprepared to work in the country,
let alone the regional economy. Alumnus networks can be used to track the
employment of students after they graduate. Statistical data can then be easily
collected to show the percentage of students finding jobs over the years after
graduation, the level of income they earn, and the types of jobs they are hired
for. This, in turn, can be made publicly available granting some monitoring of
the data to prevent fraud. It will help parents to identify and select the best
university studies for their sons and daughters.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">These
are not magic bullets, but the advantage of these ideas is that they have no or
small costs associated with them, they are easy to implement and can only
improve the situation.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Conclusions</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Africa’s
higher education is facing the challenge <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">to
“respond to the growing demand for access to higher education while delivering
a level of quality that provides students with the skills necessary to succeed
in current and future labor markets" <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>[26].<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">
</i>In particular, the skills gap is significantly impacting the development of
an ICT industry in the region. If not addressed, it will increase Africa’s
dependence on the Western world at a critical time. Indeed the West is no
longer the sole source of technological breakthroughs, and the West is no
longer the dominant growth market for ICT. In fact, many people are now saying
that Africa is the place where there will be an explosion in technological
markets and innovation that will outpace anything that has been seen before
anywhere else in the world. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The
technological breakthroughs that are going to be the foundations of the ICT
industry in Africa will come from inventors and entrepreneurs who work in
Africa and understand the technological challenges and needs that are unique to
Africa. More than ever before, now is the time and the opportunity for Africans
to control their future in this ICT industry before someone else does it. There
are many "someone else’s" vying for the same market but Africans
should not fear that competition because this time they have the home field
advantage but quality higher education is the required road to success.</span></div>
<div align="left" class="Author" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="Author" style="margin-top: 0in; text-align: left;">
Michel Bézy</div>
<div align="left" class="Author" style="margin-top: 0in; text-align: left;">
Kigali,
September 3rd, 2013</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">[1] The
Economist: "The Lion Kings?”, January 6, 2011. </span><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;">Available: </span><a href="http://www.economist.com/node/17853324"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;">http://www.economist.com/node/17853324</span></a><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">[2] The
Economist "Africa Rising?”, December 3, 2011. </span><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;">Available: </span><a href="http://www.economist.com/node/21541015"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;">http://www.economist.com/node/21541015</span></a><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">[3] BBC
News, “Europe Falls Back into Recession”, November 15, 2012. Available: </span><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20337245"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20337245</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">[4] The
New York Times, “A Slow Recovery in the United States, but It’s All Relative”,
June 15, 2012. </span><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;">Available: </span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/16/business/economy/a-slow-recovery-but-its-all-relative.html?_r=1&"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;">http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/16/business/economy/a-slow-recovery-but-its-all-relative.html?_r=1&</span></a><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">[5]
Standard Chartered, “The Super-Cycle Report”, November 15, 2010. </span><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;">Available:
</span><a href="http://www.privatebank.standardchartered.com/_pdf/en/The%20Super-cycle%20151110%20CB.pdf"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;">http://www.privatebank.standardchartered.com/_pdf/en/The%20Super-cycle%20151110%20CB.pdf</span></a><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">[6]
McKinsey Global Institute, "Lions on the move: The progress and potential
of African economies", November 2010. </span><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;">Available: </span><a href="http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/africa/lions_on_the_move"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;">http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/africa/lions_on_the_move</span></a><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">[7] H.
W. French, “The Next Empire”, The Atlantic, May 2010. </span><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;">Available: </span><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/05/the-next-empire/308018/"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;">http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/05/the-next-empire/308018/</span></a><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">[8] 2010
World Economic Forum, “The Global Information Technology Report 2009-2010”. </span><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;">Available:
</span><a href="http://www.weforum.org/pdf/GITR10/Part1/Chap%205_Fostering%20the%20Economic%20and%20Social%20Benefits%20of%20ICT.pdf"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;">http://www.weforum.org/pdf/GITR10/Part1/Chap%205_Fostering%20the%20Economic%20and%20Social%20Benefits%20of%20ICT.pdf</span></a><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">[9] 2010
World Economic Forum, “The Global Information Technology Report 2012”. </span><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;">Available:
</span><a href="http://www3.weforum.org/docs/Global_IT_Report_2012.pdf"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">http://www3.weforum.org/docs/Global_IT_Report_2012.pdf</span></a><span style="mso-ansi-language: FR;"> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span lang="FR"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">[10] M.
A. Thompson, “Employment Outlook: South Africa”, Going Global, November 29,
2012. Available: </span><a href="http://www.goinglobal.com/articles/1147/"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">http://www.goinglobal.com/articles/1147/</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">[11] Initiative
for Global Development and Dalberg Global Development Advisors, “Pioneers on
the Frontier: Sub-Saharan Africa’s Multinational Corporations”, 2011. </span><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;">Available:
</span><a href="http://dalberg.com/sites/dalberg.com/files/IGD-Dalberg_Pioneers-on-the-Frontier_0.pdf"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;">http://dalberg.com/sites/dalberg.com/files/IGD-Dalberg_Pioneers-on-the-Frontier_0.pdf</span></a><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">[12] M.
Garcia, J. Fares, “Youth in Africa’s labor market”, The World Bank, Washington,
DC, 2008. </span><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;">Available: </span><a href="http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EDUCATION/Resources/278200-1099079877269/547664-1208379365576/DID_Youth_African_Labor_Market.pdf"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;">http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EDUCATION/Resources/278200-1099079877269/547664-1208379365576/DID_Youth_African_Labor_Market.pdf</span></a><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">[13] W.
Sawahel, “AFRICA: Serious mismatch between skills and needs”, University World
News, 22 May 2011 Issue No:78. Available: </span><a href="http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20110520184126297"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20110520184126297</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">[14] “Voice
for the World's Poor: Selected Speeches and Writings of World Bank President
James D. Wolfensohn”, 1995-2005, May 2005, p 524: Merging Global Knowledge with
Local Knowledge, Remarks by James D. Wolfensohn, World Bank President at the
Knowledge Economy Forum in Abuja, Nigeria, January 30, 2005 </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">[15]
“New e-skills UK research shows demand for IT staff at a record high”, e-skills
UK, 04/07/12. </span><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;">Available: </span><a href="http://www.e-skills.com/news-and-events/july-2012/new-e-skills-uk-research-shows-demand-for-it-staff-at-a-record-high/"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;">http://www.e-skills.com/news-and-events/july-2012/new-e-skills-uk-research-shows-demand-for-it-staff-at-a-record-high/</span></a><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">[16] K.
Withers, “The Shortage of Computer Science Majors”, Ashley Ellis, May 31, 2013.
</span><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;">Available: </span><a href="http://www.ashleyellis.com/2013/05/the-shortage-of-computer-science-majors/"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;">http://www.ashleyellis.com/2013/05/the-shortage-of-computer-science-majors/</span></a><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">[17] F.
Marmolejo, “African Higher Education in the World: Are They (and We) Ready?”,
The Chronicle of Higher Education: Worldwise, March 31, 2011. </span><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;">Available:
</span><a href="http://chronicle.com/blogs/worldwise/african-higher-education-in-the-world-are-they-and-we-ready/28025"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;">http://chronicle.com/blogs/worldwise/african-higher-education-in-the-world-are-they-and-we-ready/28025</span></a><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">[18] “From
Brain Drain to Brain Gain”, Education Today No 18. </span><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;">Available: </span><a href="http://www.unesco.org/education/education_today/brain.pdf%20"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;">http://www.unesco.org/education/education_today/brain.pdf
</span></a><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">[19] A.
Tebeje, “Brain drain and capacity building in Africa”, IDRC. </span><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;">Available:
</span><a href="http://www.idrc.ca/EN/Resources/Publications/Pages/ArticleDetails.aspx?PublicationID=704"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;">http://www.idrc.ca/EN/Resources/Publications/Pages/ArticleDetails.aspx?PublicationID=704</span></a><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">[20] K.
Fox, “Africa's mobile economic revolution”, The Observer, Sunday 24 July 2011. </span><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;">Available:
</span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jul/24/mobile-phones-africa-microfinance-farming"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;">http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jul/24/mobile-phones-africa-microfinance-farming</span></a><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">[21] D.
Bloom et al., “Higher Education and Economic Development in Africa”, Harvard
University, Feb. 2006. Available: </span><a href="http://ent.arp.harvard.edu/AfricaHigherEducation/Reports/BloomAndCanning.pdf"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">http://ent.arp.harvard.edu/AfricaHigherEducation/Reports/BloomAndCanning.pdf</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">[22]
UNESCO, "Growth and expansion of private higher education in Africa”.
Available: </span><a href="http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0015/001502/150255e.pdf"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0015/001502/150255e.pdf</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">[23] The
World Bank, “Accelerating Catch-Up: Tertiary Education for Growth in
Sub-Saharan Africa”, 2009. </span><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;">Available: </span><a href="http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTAFRICA/Resources/e-book_ACU.pdf"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;">http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTAFRICA/Resources/e-book_ACU.pdf</span></a><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">[24]
These numbers have been calculated based on the number of universities per
region from Webometrics and population from Worldstat Info.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">[25] S.
Lwakabamba, “Speech to the Africa-US Higher Education Initiative Partners
Conference”, 28 Aug 2009. Available: </span><a href="http://www.aplu.org/document.doc?id=1935"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">http://www.aplu.org/document.doc?id=1935</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">[26]
World Bank, “Financing Higher Education in Africa”, Directions in
Development:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Human Development, April
21, 2010, ISBN: 978-0-8213-8334-6</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">[27]
W.J. Tettey, “Challenges of Developing and Retaining the Next Generation of
Academics: Deficit in Academic Staff Capacity at African Universities”, Study
Commissioned by the Partnership for Higher Education in Africa, 2010. </span><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;">Available:
</span><a href="http://www.foundation-partnership.org/pubs/pdf/tettey_deficits.pdf"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;">http://www.foundation-partnership.org/pubs/pdf/tettey_deficits.pdf</span></a><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">[28] M.
Chetty, C. Buckhalter et all, “Description of Computer Science Higher Education
in Sub-Saharan Africa: Initial Explorations”, Georgia Institute of Technology,
2007. Available: </span><a href="https://smartech.gatech.edu/handle/1853/20060"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">https://smartech.gatech.edu/handle/1853/20060</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">[29] A.
Sawers, “Getting serious about Africa”, Ernst & Young, June 12, 2012. </span><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;">Available:
</span><a href="http://tmagazine.ey.com/insights/getting-serious-about-africa/"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;">http://tmagazine.ey.com/insights/getting-serious-about-africa/</span></a><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">[30] J.
Lumumba, “Why Africa Should Be Wary of Its‘New Cities’”, The Rockefeller
Foundation’s Informal Cities Dialogues, May 2<sup>nd</sup> 2013. </span><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;">Available:
</span><a href="http://nextcity.org/informalcity/entry/why-africa-should-be-wary-of-its-new-cities"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;">http://nextcity.org/informalcity/entry/why-africa-should-be-wary-of-its-new-cities</span></a><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">[31] The
eLearning Africa Report 2013, ICWE, 2013. </span><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;">Available: </span><a href="http://www.elearning-africa.com/media_library_publications_ela_report_2013.php"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;">http://www.elearning-africa.com/media_library_publications_ela_report_2013.php</span></a><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">[32]
African Economic Outlook, “Human Capacity Building in ICT and Innovation
Skills”, May 28, 2012. </span><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;">Available: </span><a href="http://www.africaneconomicoutlook.org/en/in-depth/ict-africa/human-capacity-building-in-ict-and-innovation-skills"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;">http://www.africaneconomicoutlook.org/en/in-depth/ict-africa/human-capacity-building-in-ict-and-innovation-skills</span></a><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">[33] P.
Wonacott, “Rwanda, U.S. University Team Up to Mint Masters of Tech”, The Wall
Street Journal, September 15, 2011. Available: </span><a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904491704576570603601801670.html"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904491704576570603601801670.html</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">[34] G.
Sharma, “A MOOC Delusion: Why Visions to Educate the World Are Absurd”, The
Chronicle of Higher Education, July 15, 2013 </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">[35] P.
Nkopane, “Brain drain to brain gain: Africa’s returning Diaspora”, Consultancy
Africa Intelligence, 04 June 2012. </span><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;">Available: </span><a href="http://www.consultancyafrica.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1036:brain-drain-to-brain-gain-africas-returning-diaspora-&catid=90:optimistic-africa&Itemid=295"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;">http://www.consultancyafrica.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1036:brain-drain-to-brain-gain-africas-returning-diaspora-&catid=90:optimistic-africa&Itemid=295</span></a><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">[36]
C.Ballantyne, “Improving University Teaching: Responding to Feedback from
Students”, Conference paper - Adult Learning Cultures: Challenges and Choices,
Wellington Polytechnic, New Zealand, February, 1998. </span><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;">Available: </span><a href="https://mahara.org/artefact/file/download.php?file=247973&view=71119"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;">https://mahara.org/artefact/file/download.php?file=247973&view=71119</span></a><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR;"> </span></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18021995038744733130noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849633784037504405.post-49077446128465992862013-04-20T02:51:00.001-07:002013-04-20T10:00:14.554-07:00Raising the Bar in Africa’s Higher Education - Four Simple and Cost-Effective Steps to Improve Higher Education on the Continent<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Africa has one university for every 1.2 million people. Cape Town University in South Africa is ranked 300th amid universities around the globe and yet it is the highest ranked on the continent. As discussed in a preceding <a href="http://brel54.blogspot.com/2011/09/carnegie-mellon-university-first-us.html">post</a>, a huge gap exists between the quality of Africa's higher education and that of the rest of the world. </div>
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The gap is twofold: a problem of both quantity and quality. Quantity wise, the number of inhabitants per university in North America is 100K, in Europe it is 125K, in Latin America 105K, and in Asia 572K [1]. At best, higher education in Africa is 2 times less accessible than in Asia. At worst, the continent’s higher education is more than 12 times less accessible than in America. We know that 65% of Africa's population is less than 25 years old and therefore demographic pressure further exacerbates the chasm. Overpopulated classes of several hundred students are common in many universities.</div>
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Quality wise, if we look for the first university appearing in <a href="http://www.shanghairanking.com/ARWU2012.html">world rankings</a> for each continent, we will usually find a US university in first position, while Europe emerges around the 5th to 20th position depending on the rankings. The first university from Asia ranks around the 20th to 50th position; those are typically universities from Japan, Hong-Kong or Australia. If we are looking for the first ranked university from China and India they appear in the 200th and 400th position. Yes, as I mentioned above, Africa is represented by a single university in the 300th position while Sub-Saharan universities appear much lower. In fact, the first university from sub-Saharan Africa is ranked 1080th, indicating a significant gap in quality of higher education in that region. </div>
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Difficult access and low quality of higher education combine to create major disadvantages for the development of Sub-Saharan Africa. To demonstrate how this affects the technical labor force, the region produces 83 scientists and engineers engaged in R&D for every 1 million people compared to about 1,000 to 1,500 in the developed world [2].</div>
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Based on the many interviews of student candidates to our <a href="http://www.cmu.edu/rwanda/degree-program/index.html">MSIT program</a> I have conducted, evidence of persistent problems have emerged, related specifically in the IT area of higher education. Here are five facts I have learned: </div>
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<b>Learning to swim by book.</b> Students enrolled in programming language courses (e.g. a C or Java class) oftentimes have no access to a PC or five students share a single PC. As a result, many students may graduate from the course without ever running a program on a computer! As a friend of mine used to say, this is like learning to swim by book without ever jumping into the pool! Moreover, assignments and projects are extremely simple. Some examples from my students include: 1) Write a program that simulates a calculator; and 2) Write a program that prints "Hello!" on the screen. Upon my inquiry, students admit that being assigned to write a program that prints "Hello" repeatedly on the screen is the most complex assignment they have been given! Ultimately, professors fail to task students to solve even a single real business related problem.</div>
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<b>Absentee Advisors.</b> Professors don't show up for class about 20% of the time. Nominal remuneration incentivizes professors to seek supplemental income, preventing them from dedicating their time to their students. I witnessed this situation thirty years ago while teaching at a national university in Africa and, frankly, knowing the difficult financial situation of my faculty colleagues, I cannot blame them for doing it. </div>
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<b>Curricular Mismatch.</b> The curriculum content is often outdated and not adapted to the business needs in the region. For instance, many IT departments in universities teach artificial intelligence (AI) courses, copying the curriculum directly from Western universities. Somebody explain to me what AI can do to address Africa's problems? Yet at the same time, you rarely find courses on mobile technology or mobile software development that are critical for Africa.</div>
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<b>“Green” Professors</b>: One significant measure of the capability of the professoriate to provide quality research and instruction is doctoral-level certification. In Africa, doctoral-level faculty are the minority, sometimes with percentage as low as 20%. In addition studies have shown a disturbing trend at several universities of a slide in the proportion of academic staff with doctoral degrees [3], symptomatic of the further decline of the quality of African universities.</div>
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I have seen many cases in universities where teaching positions were being filled by staff with only a bachelor's degree. These inexperienced bachelors, lacking teaching qualification, are recruited by universities to perform full teaching responsibilities. In addition, they are rarely the best students from their class as the best secure more lucrative employment opportunities. </div>
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Resultingly, thousands of students graduate in ICT, CS and related fields every year to join vast unemployment cohorts as businesses cannot make use of their poor or inappropriate skills. This is a shame in a region where ICT is a critical development driver.</div>
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How can we change the situation? How can we push faculty to deliver better quality education and universities to deliver better graduates? In fact the gap is so huge that it seems impossible to close. While I don't claim to have a solution to these problems, I'd like to share a few suggestions. My ideas are not complex and expensive; instead they are low or no cost common sense solutions. And although I focus on higher education in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and IT areas, my ideas could be used more generally.</div>
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My four core proposals are as follows:</div>
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1) <b>Aptitude Testing</b>: It is well known that human behavior can be influenced by measurements. No need here to reinvent the wheel, many measurement tools exist today. The GMAT (Graduate Management Admissions Test) and the GRE (Graduate Record Examination) are two examples. The former is a standard criterion for MBA programs for over 50 years, while the latter is the standard for graduate schools in general. My suggestion is that African ministries of education organize GRE and GMAT testing in their countries to test the quality of bachelor students after graduation. While no test score can perfectly represent the aptitude of a student taking it, these tests have been around for many years and have improved over time to a point where they are now recognized as valuable admission criteria by most universities. These tests are managed by independent organizations guaranteeing the fairness of their results.</div>
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Some people will argue that these tests are not appropriate for African students. I reject the notion that African students should receive simplified tests. Rather than lowering standards for Africans, we should help African students raise their skills to a globally competitive level. One of the advantages of these tests is that students around the world take them to gain admission to American universities and the best universities in Europe. This will allow Africa to compare its students to the best students in the world. There is no reason why African students cannot compete against others if we can improve the quality of higher education in Africa. </div>
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One challenge here is that the cost of these tests can be prohibitive for individual students. Perhaps these costs could be integrated in the university tuition. Another challenge will be to familiarize students with these tests during their studies to get prepared. There is a lot of literature available out there with tutoring material for these tests.</div>
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How then should we use the results of these tests?</div>
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First, we can employ these tests as tools to evaluate the quality of the students which indirectly provides an indicator of the quality of education of the university they graduate from. The aggregate statistics of all GRE scores from graduating students from one university can then be used as a measurement of the quality of that university year over year to monitor progress. I would recommend making these publicly available in order to help parents select the best universities for their children. Too often, I see African parents spending huge amounts of money to enroll their sons and daughters in poor quality universities based on minimal and imperfect information. With test score statistics, parents would have objective decision criterion to aid them in selecting the best universities for their children, while the "bad" universities will suffer from fewer enrollments. Poor performers’ only survival choice would be to seriously address the quality of their education, or disappear.</div>
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Obviously, the result of these test scores can also be used by students to apply to world class universities in other regions. </div>
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2) <b>Pressure for professor improvement</b>: Aside from measuring students, universities should develop mechanisms to measure the quality of its faculty members. Several websites exist that allow students to rate their instructors, such as <a href="http://www.rateaprof.com/">rate a prof</a> or <a href="http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/">rate my professor</a><a href="http://draft.blogger.com/null">s</a>. Some <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505145_162-37243771/25-colleges-with-the-worst-professors/">media</a> are even using data from those websites to publish a list of schools with the worst professors! Here we need to be cautious as it is difficult for those websites to identify sincere from fake ratings. The last thing you want is for a student to vindicate his/her (maybe rightfully) low grade by trashing the grading professor on those sites. </div>
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Instead, I would recommend for each university to introduce similar rating systems such that students registered for a course are given the opportunity to rate that course after they received their final grade for that course. Most universities in the US have such a system in place. At Carnegie Mellon University students are invited at the end of each semester to rate the courses they attended on a voluntary and anonymous basis. What is important here is that the result be used not to penalize individual professors but rather to help them improve the quality of their teaching and learning through student feedback. This can also be used by academic committees to promote outstanding professors and encourage others to improve their teaching quality, potentially inviting them to “teaching excellence” seminars.</div>
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3) <b>Organize and mobilize alumni networks</b>: Alumni organizations are well developed in American universities. They serve many purposes: develop a network of alumni that can be tapped into by graduating students for employment support, by the university for fund raising, and for other purposes. </div>
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While African universities can use it for the same function, my suggestion is slightly less conventional. Africa cannot afford to continue investing in universities that deliver students that are unprepared to work in the country, let alone the regional economy. Alumnus networks can be used to track the employment of students after they graduate. Statistical data can then easily be collected showing the percentage of students finding jobs over the years after graduation, the level of income they earn, and the types of jobs they are hired for. This, in turn, can be made publicly available granting some monitoring of the data to prevent fraud. Alumni organizations were not possible in Africa in the past due to the lack or high cost of communication. ICT and social networks have now reduced that cost to almost zero.</div>
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4) <b>Striking Labor Supply/Demand Equilibrium</b>: Get the private sector involved in university curriculum overview. Any university must have a curriculum review committee who determines course offerings for any given academic program. These review committees are comprised of professors and department heads who usually review program and course criteria from a solely academic perspective. Instead, these committees should include representatives from the private sector- the people who ultimately would recruit the students after graduation. They could influence curricular content in an effort to endow today’s students (and tomorrow’s workers) with the skills necessary to strike equilibrium between the labor supply and labor demand in their industry. I realize this may be a controversial suggestion for traditional academics, but at this stage Africa cannot afford the luxury of universities delivering graduates who cannot be employed immediately because they lack necessary industry skills. </div>
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Another approach to better integrate industry needs with academic education is for professors to get more involved with private sector people. This can be done in different ways: inviting private sector guest speakers in their courses, organizing "real" internships for students in local and regional businesses, asking industry for problems ideas that can be used in class for students to address, and so many others.</div>
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These are not magic bullets, but the advantage of these ideas is that they have no or small costs associated with them, they are easy to implement and can only improve the situation. </div>
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Seeya later alligator...<br />
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[1] These numbers have been calculated based on the number of universities per region from <a href="http://www.webometrics.info/">Webometrics</a> and population from <a href="http://en.worldstat.info/">Worldstat Info</a>. <br />
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[2] Voice for the World's Poor: Selected Speeches and Writings of World Bank President James D. Wolfensohn, 1995-2005, May 2005, p 524: Merging Global Knowledge with Local Knowledge, Remarks by James D. Wolfensohn, World Bank President at the Knowledge Economy Forum in Abuja, Nigeria, January 30, 2005<br />
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[3] W.J. Tettey, Challenges of Developing and Retaining the Next Generation of Academics: Deficit in Academic Staff Capacity at African Universities, Study Commissioned by the Partnership for Higher Education in Africa, 2010, URL: <a href="http://www.foundation-partnership.org/pubs/pdf/tettey_deficits.pdf">http://www.foundation-partnership.org/pubs/pdf/tettey_deficits.pdf</a></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18021995038744733130noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849633784037504405.post-5508710051050127432013-03-09T08:24:00.000-08:002013-03-10T09:37:46.825-07:00Striving to Become Africa's First Silicon Valley: Comparing Kenya and Rwanda<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">In 2000, The Economist pronounced Africa "the hopeless continent." Examining economic development within and throughout Africa since that time has surely proven The Economist wrong. In the past 10 years Africa has become the second-fastest-growing region in the world. In fact, six of the world’s ten fastest-growing economies between 2000 and 2010 were located in sub-Saharan Africa. <span style="font-size: small;"></span>The
information and communication technology (ICT) sector has been an
integral driver of that economic growth. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Analyzing the role of ICT
requires us to differentiate between two types of ICT markets: the
“resale market” and the “innovation market.” The former characterizes
how Western global ICT companies see Africa; that is, as an emerging
market for the sale of their existing ICT products: hardware, software
and services. Primary sales targets are large
local companies and the growing number of multinational corporations
(MNCs) who themselves target Africa for business development. Since many
MNCs and <span style="font-size: small;">sizable</span> local enterprises have IT needs similar to their
counterparts (or company offices) in developed countries, IT vendors can
sell their existing products which they import in Africa with no or
little adaptation to the African environment and needs, sometimes
leading them to sell inadequate solutions. Take the example of private
cloud computing, addressed in a <a href="http://brel54.blogspot.com/2012/10/good-cloud-bad-cloud-for-africa.html" target="_blank">preceding posting in this blog</a>.
The majority of sales is in hardware, which requires little if any
adaptation. A recent 2012 IDC survey of Kenya shows that 78% of the ICT
spending in Kenya is in hardware and only 9% in software and 13% in
services. Moreover, when the hardware is developed and built outside of
Africa, most of the revenue contributes to the profit of those companies
abroad without reaching the local economy.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />That
said, I'd like to focus on the latter ICT market for the remainder of
this posting. In contrast to the resale market, the “innovation market”
addresses the need for new ICT solutions that are adapted to Africa's
environment to support the millions of small and medium-size enterprises
(SMEs). In Africa, most SMEs have not yet leveraged the power of ICT to
automate their processes and manage their businesses. The major
challenge in this market is the lack of awareness of IT and the
inadequate IT model used by SMEs in the developed world as I explained
in</span></span> <a href="http://brel54.blogspot.com/2012/04/is-ict4d-going-to-change-africa-or-is.html">another posting</a>. </div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Africa
has a unique opportunity to take ownership for the development of those
new ICT solutions. ICT innovations for Africa will not come from the
West; rather they will come from inventors and entrepreneurs in Africa
who understand the challenges and needs that are unique to local
environments and contexts. This market should create more value for
Africa through the added value of homegrown enterprises that will
develop an ICT industry in the region. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />For
such an ICT industry to emerge in Africa there must be a favorable
environment; namely, an ICT regulatory framework, skilled workforce,
good business environment, incentives for private sector development,
and good IT infrastructure. As this is often not the case in many
African countries, the role of African governments as regulator and
capacity builder is critical for producing such an environment. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />Once
a suitable environment is in place, government should retreat and leave
it to private sector entrepreneurship to develop the innovation market
as the ability for innovation to blossom is usually not compatible with
government bureaucracy. Innovation requires an expert ICT skilled
workforce that is currently scarce in Africa and mostly employed by
large enterprises offering better salaries. For innovations to flourish,
a critical mass of creative engineers, entrepreneurs and investors are
needed for a dynamic ecosystem to develop. Silicon Valley offers a
blueprint; it is where ICT innovators resided in close proximity in an
environment that eased encounters and interactions, and ultimately
facilitated idea sharing and innovation. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />The
question then becomes: Where is the best place or country for such an
ICT ecosystem to develop and succeed in Africa? Where is the ideal place
or country to support grassroots technology entrepreneurship?</span></span></div>
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Where will the first African "Silicon Valley" be located? </h3>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There are several countries</span></span> offering the best characteristics for becoming the first African Silicon
Valley<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">. The leading ones are probably</span></span> Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria, Uganda, Rwanda,
Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">. In this posting I'd like </span></span>to analyze and
compare two <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">of them</span></span>: Kenya and Rwanda. Kenya
has made the news lately in articles describing it as the Savannah
Valley of Africa: <a href="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2080702,00.html" target="_blank">Silicon Savanna </a>(Times), <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/30/kenya-silicon-savannah-digital-technology" target="_blank">Kenya building a digital future in Africa's silicon savanna</a> (The Guardian), <a href="http://www.economist.com/node/21560912" target="_blank">Kenya's technology start-up scene is about to take off</a> (The Economist), <a href="http://www.france24.com/en/20121120-planet-hope-kenya-nairobi-silicon-valley-africa-internet-mobile-phones-development-technology" target="_blank">Kenya: Africa's Silicon Valley </a>(France24).
Rwanda was named East Africa's leading ICT nation by the UN in 2007.
Both countries are located in the East Africa Community (EAC). In that
region, the ICT sector has been <a href="http://www.infodev.org/en/Publication.1040.html" target="_blank">growing on average by as much as 40% in the last decade</a>.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Thus,
the following comparative analysis begins by <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">looking at commonly used <span style="font-size: small;">environmental</span> indicators.<span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span>Then I will
compare global competitiveness and networked readiness indices of both
countries. Finally, I will outline and compare each country’s national
ICT strategy. This analysis utilizes publicly available data from
recognized world organizations that is not older than 2 years (see links
to data sources in appendix A).<br />
<br />
Here are the metrics and indicators I
selected: </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
1) Education:<span style="font-weight: normal;"> literacy rate and quality of higher education (HE).</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
While
one can find many publications about methods of evaluation of higher
education quality, there are very few rankings of HE quality by country,
and when they exist they don't cover Africa. Therefore I used the world
ranking of the best university in the country (www.webometrics.info) as
an estimate for the quality of tertiary education in that country. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
2) Business environment: ease of doing business, corruption perception index, total tax rate, and quality of infrastructure (<b><span style="font-weight: normal;">transport, telephony and energy).</span></b></div>
3) Political, economic and social environment<b>:</b> democracy, good governance, GDP/Capita, GDP growth rate, and quality of life.<br />
4) Government ICT Drive: government prioritization of ICT and importance of ICT to government vision of the future.<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Comparing Kenya’s and Rwanda’s rankings</b><br />
<br />
Below
is a table comparing Kenya and Rwanda’s rankings in each metric
outlined above. You will find the details of the comparison in <a href="http://brel54.blogspot.com/2013/03/analyzing-indicators-of-two-countries.html">this posting</a>. Green indicates the country with the advantage (WR =
World Ranking)</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bt212eFdmPY/UTbgZHGjXZI/AAAAAAAAAzg/LjpjJrdJZPQ/s1600/KenRwa+comp.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bt212eFdmPY/UTbgZHGjXZI/AAAAAAAAAzg/LjpjJrdJZPQ/s400/KenRwa+comp.jpg" width="312" /></a></div>
<br />
Kenya is leading in the important education sector. Kenya has a better literacy rate and their top university is
ranked significantly higher. Kenya's best university is the University
of Nairobi ranked 1435th in
the world, and Rwanda's best university is the National University of Rwanda
ranked 4157th. This better quality of tertiary education is informally
confirmed by
feedback I receive from business people hiring in both countries. While
Kenya has a clear advantage, it is only relative.
Indeed, when looking at successful "Silicon Valley" types of
development, they have been driven by world-class universities ranked in
the top 100, like Stanford University in the Bay area, MIT in the
Boston area, the National University of Singapore in Singapore, or the
Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa. Clearly one of the
major challenges for the development of a Silicon Valley in Africa will
be the <a href="http://brel54.blogspot.com/2011/09/carnegie-mellon-university-first-us.html" target="_blank">quality of higher education</a>
to deliver the talent to work on the development of high-tech ICT
innovation. The hope for Rwanda is that the recent opening of
a Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) branch in Kigali will impact the
quality of higher education in the country. CMU world ranking is 19th in the same webometrics.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Rwanda is leading in most of the other indicators. Most important are the ease of doing business and the corruption
perception index where Rwanda has a significant advantage over Kenya being ranked respectively 52nd vs. 121st for ease of doing business and 50st vs. 139th for corruption index. Rwanda has also the advantage in governance. Finally for the priority of
ICT and importance of ICT for the government, Rwanda is ranked
significantly higher than Kenya, being ranked third in the world for
those criteria behind Singapore and Sweden. But is the drive of the
government of Rwanda (GoR) enough? We will discuss it in the second part
of the analysis.</div>
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Global Competitiveness</h4>
<br />
Based on the World Economic Forum’s <a href="http://www.weforum.org/issues/global-competitiveness" target="_blank">Global Competitiveness Report 2012-2013</a>, the following table compares the Global Competitiveness Index (CGI) of Kenya and Rwanda for the last three years. <br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5C10X5EX4Ho/UTbgnJd_hLI/AAAAAAAAAzo/33enWs_WMAM/s1600/CGI+table.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="136" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5C10X5EX4Ho/UTbgnJd_hLI/AAAAAAAAAzo/33enWs_WMAM/s400/CGI+table.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
Here
again it is interesting to observe how Rwanda's global competitiveness as
measured by the GCI is better than Kenya's. In fact, Rwanda’s GCI is
improving as Kenya's GCI is stagnating over the last three years. </div>
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Networked Readiness Index </h4>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">One of
the most authoritative exercises to measure and benchmark ICT
developments is the Networked Readiness Index (NRI) available in the
World Bank and INSEAD’s </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><a href="http://www3.weforum.org/docs/Global_IT_Report_2012.pdf" target="_blank">Global Information Technology Report 2012</a></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">,
which has been adopted by several governments as a valuable tool for
assessing and leveraging technology for competitiveness and development.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0Dpd1C33_Uw/UTbi-TQKWjI/AAAAAAAAA0M/t34hOEGo7uk/s1600/NRI+table.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="115" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0Dpd1C33_Uw/UTbi-TQKWjI/AAAAAAAAA0M/t34hOEGo7uk/s400/NRI+table.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">No country seems to have a definite advantage over the other for this criterion.</span> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
After
this first part of the analysis based on public data, let's now move to
the second part of the analysis where I will compare Kenya and
Rwanda's ICT strategies. </div>
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Kenya's ICT strategy</h4>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
While
Kenya’s ICT strategy has future potential, it is already enabling ICT
development and innovation. This effort is undertaken by multiple actors
who have started a multitude of activities: the public sector
development efforts in ICT infrastructure, data liberation campaigns,
dissemination of ICT knowledge from urban to rural areas; and private
sector activity such as technology development in mobile money, creation
of tech hubs.</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
One
of Kenya's first major steps in ICT by the public sector was connecting
undersea fiber optic cables from the Indian Ocean to Nairobi, to
deliver high-speed internet access to millions of people. The
initiative, launched in 2007, was the result of relentless efforts of
Dr. Bitange Ndemo, permanent secretary at the Information and
Communications Ministry.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In 2008, the first <a href="http://www.kirdi.go.ke/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=ExtKzW44mVw%3D&tabid=77&mid=403">National ICT Sector Master Plan</a> was published, covering a period of five (5) years (2008 – 2012). It is part of Kenya's <a href="http://www.vision2030.go.ke/">Vision 2030</a>,
launched by Kenya's President Mwai Kibaki that same year. The second
installment, set to cover the next five years (2012-2017), was due in
November last year, but its publication has been delayed. It is
available in a <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/110892993/Kenya-ICT-Masterplan-2012-2017-For-Review">draft version</a>.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Another major achievement of Dr. Ndemo was to get Kenya to be one of the first countries in Africa to commit to the <a href="http://opengovernmentdata.org/">Open Government Data</a>
partnership launched by eight founding governments in 2011. This is
even more remarkable knowing Kenya's low ranking in the corruption
perception index. Dr. Ndemo's attempt to reduce inefficiencies and
corruption has been an uphill battle and has made him enemies along the
way. Organizations have been less than forthcoming with their data;
resultingly, ministerial frustrations have led the initiative down what
seems to be <a href="http://www.nation.co.ke/business/news/Open-data-initiative-has-hit-a-dead-end/-/1006/1617026/-/n18uhrz/-/index.html">a dead end</a>.
It takes more to discourage Dr. Ndemo, though. He recently urged
universities, hospitals and other Kenyan institutions sitting on large
data sets to release them for public use saying the move would promote
Kenya's quest to be a knowledge economy. The government is actively
recruiting data scientists to help break down data to a level usable by
consumers with the hope that the initiative will unlock the potential for new businesses to deliver added
value from those data.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
But
probably the news that enjoyed the widest media coverage was the
announcement in 2011 of the future construction of a $10 billion Konza
Technology City outside Nairobi, claiming to position Kenya as the
Silicon Savanna of Africa. The president just <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-21158928">launched the start of the project</a>. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Yet the warning alarms have sounded as this mega <a href="http://www.itwebafrica.com/ict-and-governance/256-kenya/229804-kenyas-konza-tech-city-marred-by-procurement-scandal">project has already been marred by procurement scandal</a>, giving credence to Kenya’s poor governance ratings discussed earlier. </div>
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lm1xTqcbfyI/URFZEgHWxHI/AAAAAAAAAyE/pZZjIG1rDWw/s1600/Konza.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lm1xTqcbfyI/URFZEgHWxHI/AAAAAAAAAyE/pZZjIG1rDWw/s400/Konza.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
Konza Technology City (source: http://www.konzacity.co.ke)<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In
the face of doubt, the government claims that "Konza is set to be one
of the most successful cities in Africa, competing economically and
culturally with the best cities in the world."<br />
Buttressing urban
ICT development is the Digital Villages project entitled Pasha, meaning
“transmit” in Kiswahili. Its purpose is to diffuse ICT know-how from
exclusively urban enclaves to rural and marginalized areas.<br />
<br />
The
private sector has played an indispensable role in Kenya’s ICT
development strategy. Mobile money is probably the most visible example
of African ICT innovation today. It has been a tremendous driving force
in the spread of IT throughout the continent, and its first iteration-
mPesa- was born in Kenya. Credit is due to the ordinary Kenyans who
began cellphone banking using airtime to send money to their friends and
family. By disrupting convention, they gave traditional banks and
money-transfer companies like Western Union a run for their wired money.
Eventually it was Vodaphone that capitalized on the opportunity to add
sophistication and scale to this new practice by developing the
technology, albeit outside of Kenya. Now the company owns the patent,
but ultimately it was ordinary Kenyans, not Vodaphone, who innovated and
started a phenomenon that attracted the attention of the continent’s
leading telecommunications companies, including Safaricom, MTN and
others, while capturing the attention of ICT innovators globally. <br />
<br />
Another
important element of Kenya's ICT landscape that was born from the
private sector is the iHub. Founded in 2010 by Eric Hersman, one of the
co-founders of Ushahidi, iHub is a tech incubator that fosters
innovation and collaboration among its tech start-up membership base.
Hersman’s visionary concept came at a time when less than 5% of people
in Africa had access to internet. Yet iHub sets a precedent and the idea
has replicated- there are now more than 70 similar tech centers across
the continent. iHub is fast becoming the nerve center for Nairobi's tech
community; expatriates are even migrating to Nairobi to start their
business at iHub. Several successful startups have already been created
there.<br />
<br />
I have seen no explicit effort made to improve
the quality of higher education. We saw that Kenya's higher education
quality is better than Rwanda but it still requires significant
improvement if it wants to deliver the level of skills required in the
innovation market. Diverting even one percent of the Konza investment
for higher education could make a significant difference. Instead public
and private partnerships are pursued to deepen the professionalization
of Kenya’s human capital and improve linkages between ICT labor supply
and demand. Kenya recently engaged with Carnegie Mellon University to
create a <a href="http://www.ict.go.ke/index.php/bpoites-stakeholder-update/408-carnegie-mellon-university-working-with-kenya-to-create-professional-certification-for-software-developers">professional certification for software developers</a>. The
certification will be based on a credentialing examination that will
help employers identify software developers with the skills necessary to
step into jobs immediately. Developed in partnership with Kenya, this
certification will be available worldwide.<br />
<br />
Collectively,
public and private efforts seem to justify the National ICT Plan’s
claim that "by 2018 Kenya will become the leading ICT hub in Africa,
attracting leading global players and generating globally respected
local entrepreneurship and innovation."</div>
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Rwanda's ICT strategy</h4>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
</h4>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Rwanda offers a somewhat
different story. At present, the framework for ICT development in the
country is set squarely on the shoulders of the GoR. The GoR vision is the result of a national consultative process
that took place in 1998-99. There was broad consensus on the necessity
for Rwandans to clearly define the future of the country. <a href="http://www.minecofin.gov.rw/ministry/key/vision2020">Vision 2020</a>,
Rwanda’s national development document published in 2000 by the
Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, described the plan to
transform Rwanda from an agrarian to a knowledge-based economy with ICT
as the key economic development driver. The first national ICT strategy
was described in detail in the National Information and Communication
Infrastructure (<a href="http://www.ist-africa.org/home/files/Rwanda_NICI2010.pdf">NICI I</a>) plan, a 400 page document published at the same time.<br />
<br />
In
the introduction of the NICI plan, Rwanda's President Paul Kagame
proclaims: “By spreading access to knowledge via modern communication
technologies I am determined that we in Rwanda will work smarter. I am
personally committed to an ICT-led future for Rwanda and I know that
with good planning and sufficient resources, Rwanda can ‘leapfrog’ into
the digital-era global economy. ”<br />
<br />
The plan is defined in four phases of 5 years each, as seen in the graph below. <br />
<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0va_WbI59_8/URFZ4Nr_dSI/AAAAAAAAAyM/VAUeKQ1cLOU/s1600/NICI+roadmap.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="196" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0va_WbI59_8/URFZ4Nr_dSI/AAAAAAAAAyM/VAUeKQ1cLOU/s320/NICI+roadmap.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Phase
1 (NICI I), launched in 2000, established institutions and mechanisms
to create an enabling environment for ICT development. Specifically, GoR
did put in place a conducive legal and regulatory framework that
included the creation of the Rwanda Utilities Telecommunication
Regulatory Agency (RURA). One result was the end of the telecom monopoly
by Rwandatel and the arrival of other operators on the market,
significantly reducing the cost of mobile communication.<br />
<br />
As
scheduled, 2005 marked the start of the second phase (NICI II), when
the GoR deployed a critical world-class infrastructure. The high
capacity fiber sea cable laid in Kenya was extended from Nairobi to
Kigali, making Rwanda one of the only landlocked countries in Africa
with high-capacity fiber access to sea cables. A second connection was
established through Tanzania to provide higher availability and
capacity. An extensive optical fiber network (3,000 + km of fiber in a
country only 250 km wide) was also installed across the country covering
all 30 districts. Simultaneously, the construction of a <a href="http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/D/data_center_tiers.html">tier 3</a>
national data center was completed. That is the second highest ranking
of data center requiring dual power source for highest availability, an
important attribute in a region with frequent power outages. There are
not many tier-3 data centers in Africa.<br />
<br />
The third phase (<a href="http://www.rdb.rw/uploads/tx_sbdownloader/NICI_III.pdf">NICI III</a>) to develop a service sector, as visualized below, started in 2010.</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-64hrEMpzvQQ/URFcEH_A4II/AAAAAAAAAyU/F-vPs0J-_Us/s1600/NICI+3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="246" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-64hrEMpzvQQ/URFcEH_A4II/AAAAAAAAAyU/F-vPs0J-_Us/s320/NICI+3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
NICI - III five focus areas<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The first step of that phase is to address skills development.<br />
<br />
In
October 2007, the Connect Africa Summit recommended the establishment
of five Centers of Excellence (CoE) in each sub-region of Africa in
order to support the development of a critical mass of science and
technology skills required for the development of Africa. Rwanda decided
to lead the initiative for the East Africa Community (EAC) by opening
an ICT CoE in Kigali. In order to fulfill this ambitious goal, the GoR strategically targeted CMU, a world-class
university to
establish and operate an engineering master's degree-granting program
in Rwanda because of CMU's strong culture of research and innovation.
The <a href="http://brel54.blogspot.com/2011/09/carnegie-mellon-university-first-us.html">CMU-Rwanda branch opened in September 2011</a>
in Kigali, making it the first time that a world-class university is
investing in Africa with on-site presence and CMU faculty in residency
in Rwanda. The first class of Master of Science in IT graduate students
started in August 2012.<br />
<br />
NICI III is also addressing <span style="font-family: inherit;">four</span> other areas: private sector development, community development, e-government and cyber-security.<br />
<br />
Today,
“the ICT private sector lacks sufficient capital to start, expand and
develop businesses” and the GoR needs to “support the development of a
competitive ICT sector”. The objective is to “foster private sector
growth through ICT” and to “increase ICT sector contribution to GDP”<br />
<br />
Community
development is critical to achieving socio-economic development goals.
The objectives are to “promote ICT awareness in communities, establish
and institutionalize ICT-enhanced systems to increase citizen
participation and improve access to services and information, and
improve healthcare delivery through ICT”.<br />
<br />
To improve
government operational efficiency and service delivery, the goals are
“to improve communication and reduce barriers to government
transactions, streamline government business processes using ICT,
increase transparency and accountability in government processes through
ICT, and foster a conducive legal and regulatory environment to allow
easy adaptation to emerging technologies”.<br />
<br />
Similarly to Kenya, Rwanda is developing the Smart Village project to deliver ICT benefits in rural and disadvantaged areas.<br />
<br />
Finally <a href="http://www.klab.rw/">kLab</a>
the first innovation center in Rwanda opened in Kigali in March 2012 in
the same building occupied by CMU-Rwanda. This open innovation center
has seen its membership growing rapidly even before its official
inauguration and is becoming a central location for ICT events and
meetings between the industry sectors and young entrepreneurs.</div>
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Comparing Kenya and Rwanda's ICT strategies</h4>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
</h4>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Before comparing respective ICT strategies, let's observe some important economic differences between Kenya and Rwanda.<br />
<br />
The
Kenyan economy is largely driven by the private sector with a
significant presence of multinational entities. The value of its
estimated exports for 2011 was $5.77 billion, mainly from agriculture
(tea), manufacturing and financial services. The <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/26/tullowoil-brief-idUSL5E8MQ1HZ20121126">recent discovery of major petroleum resources</a> in the country raises the hope that Kenya could become a petroleum producer and exporter which will increase that figure.<br />
<br />
Private
sector development in Rwanda lags behind Kenya, leaving the government
as the main driver of ICT investments. In comparison to Kenya, Rwanda's
exports are valued at $293 million (2011 est.). The fact that the
country is landlocked, lacks port access, struggles with inflated
airfreight rates, and is embroiled in the political instability of its
neighbors, provokes the GoR to invest in a knowledge-based economy with
ICT as its cornerstone. Thus the government aims to unlock the country
by targeting virtual services such as internet-based services or
business process outsourcing (BPO).<br />
<br />
Achieving strategic
targets hinges on the ability to plan and implement realistic targets
within a realistic timeline of activities leading to the ultimate goal.
Rwanda began executing their National ICT plan in 2000, twelve years
ago, together with the Vision 2020 National Plan. The first NICI plan
was fully and extensively documented for the next 20 years and revisions
of the plan were scheduled every five years. Rwanda is now in its 13th
year of the plan execution and so far it is pretty much on target; a
truly remarkable feat for a public project.<br />
<br />
In
comparison, Kenya's strategic plan was charted only four years ago (in
2008) and, like Rwanda, they will plan new phases every 5 years. The
first “new phase” due last year has been delayed, <a href="http://www.humanipo.com/news/3152/OPINION-Kenyas-ICT-sector-shivers-from-delayed-ICT-master-plan">creating some concerns with investors</a>.
Kenya ICT Board’s CEO Paul Kukubo rightfully explained that "the
deadline set had been crazy and too aggressive." In fact, the draft
version of the second phase to be announced pushes for Kenya’s ICT
industry to contribute an estimated $2 billion (25 percent of Kenya’s
GDP) by 2017, in addition to the creation of a projected 500 ICT
companies and 50,000 jobs. In other words, the ICT industry is expected
to create about 1 company every two working days and 45 jobs every
working day for the next 5 years: very aggressive numbers, indeed!
Compare that with the more realistic targets (albeit for a smaller
economy) of the third Rwandan plan after 10 years of preparation: 50 ICT
companies operating in the Technopole by 2015, 50 ICT intellectual
property registered annually by 2015, and the ICT sector contributing to
15% of the economy by 2015. That represents the creation of 10
companies per year over five years.<br />
<br />
Looking at the
structure of the plans, the Rwandan plan is structured in phases that
are building upon each other, like the building of a house. First the
foundation is laid by creating an enabling environment. Then building
the infrastructure, and providing the framework on top of which services
will be built. Formation of a knowledge economy will be the finishing
of the project. The Kenyan ICT plan does not have a similarly
progressive structure. Instead, it focuses mainly on economic pillars
that are prioritized based on their ability to reduce cost, improve
outcomes, add value to society and enhance citizen experience. One of
the focus areas is <span style="font-family: inherit;">the </span>creation of <a href="https://sites.google.com/a/ict.go.ke/tandaa/">local digital content for Africa</a>.
The Kenyan plan seems much more oriented towards practical applications
of ICT and how ICT can be used to develop different sectors rather than
oriented towards how the components must be built in order to be
functional.<br />
<br />
Comparing the content of the publicly
available ICT plans, one must recognize that the Rwandan plan is more
thoughtful and detailed. That country’s plan was developed by a task
force of 22 representatives across different ministries who were
supported by ten international consultants. The product appears much
more professional and thoughtful than its Kenyan counterpart. For
example, For example, the Kenyan plan scratches the surface of the ICT sector in two pages while the Rwandan plan delivers an in depth analysis of the sector, covered in 22 pages. Another example is the topic of security. In the Kenyan plan, the subject of security is mentioned somewhat superficially in only one paragraph not addressing solutions in detail. In comparison, the Rwandan plan provides more details about their plan to address security using proven processes outlined in a 4-page security section.<br />
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Moreover,
the first Kenyan ICT plan does not address some basic fundamental
components required for the development of an ICT industry, like quality
higher education linked to the development of a technopole as was the
case in Silicon Valley. Instead the Konza Tech City is described in the
Vision 2030 plan more as a real estate project: “Establish a modern ICT
Park in Nairobi with reputable local and international BPO suppliers.”
This description can be interpreted as independent from the need for the
development of a skilled labor force. In contrast, Rwanda's first
ICT plan clearly indicates that "universities and colleges are to
facilitate the setting-up of Campus Companies/Units or Industrial
Facilities and Parks to serve as incubators for ICT-related production
and service provision activities." As we all know, California’s Silicon
Valley did not start in a $10 Billion Tech city, but rather in a garage
(read Steve Job's biography). Silicon Valley was started by smart people
coming from the best universities in the US, Stanford University in
particular, who owned the land. They were the brains who created
innovations that lead to the birth of global companies like HP, Intel,
Apple, Google, eBay, Facebook, and the like. Attractive architecture
came only later when these brains turned a profit from their innovative
products. More importantly it was the close proximity and ease of
communication between smart people, entrepreneurs and venture capital in
a good business environment that created Silicon Valley. <br />
<br />
If
you compare Kenya's approach to Rwanda's it seems to me that the
latter is better positioned to reproduce the Silicon Valley phenomenon
by addressing the priorities in the right order: ICT skills development
first, buildings later. Instead of planning for a $10B city, Rwanda
recruited Carnegie Mellon University to deliver graduate programs in
Information Technology and Electrical and Computer Engineering in
Kigali. Then Rwanda plans to construct an ICT Center of
Excellence that integrates a new campus for CMU-Rwanda, an innovation
incubator and a mobile technology research center. Their plan is to
deliver the park infrastructure (not to build a city) and let investors
and innovators decide when and what they want to build in that space.<br />
<br />
Patiently
producing the conditions and environment necessary for Kigali’s
homegrown Silicon Valley, the capital’s ICT Park “phase-one” is
developing in the Telecom House building in Kigali where CMU-Rwanda is
located 3 floors below kLab, with 12 IT companies strewn amidst its 7
floors; some of these companies include Korean Telecom; BSC, which is
managing the fiber optic network of Rwanda; and the National Data
Center, located in the basement of the building. While you cannot
compare this with Silicon Valley, it presents the same dynamic of close
proximity between a world-class university, entrepreneurs and IT
businesses. In comparison, the University of Nairobi is located at more
than a one hour drive from the iHub and all the IT companies are
dispersed throughout a city renowned for its terrible traffic jams. This
is not a very conducive environment for people to meet and discuss
ideas. That is probably why the plan is to build Konza Tech City 60 km
outside of Nairobi. But that in turn <a href="http://www.ihub.co.ke/blog/2012/09/the-trouble-with-konza/">creates other problems</a>.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Conclusions </h4>
<br />
The squeaky wheel always gets the grease,
an American saying goes. In other words, the louder you speak the more
attention you’ll receive, regardless of whether you deserve it most.
Recall the history of Microsoft and IBM: when the new entrants competed
for PC operating system market share, IBM’s OS/2 was generally
recognized as technically superior to Windows, yet it was Windows that
won in the market. As IBM invested millions in the further development
of OS/2, Microsoft invested in marketing Windows to PC vendors- and won.
<br />
<br />
So too is the case of Kenya and Rwanda. The latter
offers an advantageous investment environment and is strategically
better positioned than the former for the “innovation market.” Rwanda
has an eight year lead in the execution of its ICT plan, while Kenya
plays catch-up by unleashing aggressive media campaigns to brand the
country as Africa’s ICT hub – and it works. But despite Rwanda’s
attractiveness, the world simply doesn’t know about it. I cannot count
the many investors I have met who were astonished by my description of
Rwanda’s ICT situation, confessing that the country was not even on
their short list of countries to investigate.<br />
<br />
Thus it
is Kenya – not Rwanda – that attracts international ICT investors
through bold media campaigns. The identification of Kenya as the Silicon
Savannah by many commentators comparing it to Silicon Valley is often
based on their impression from visiting the iHub. While there is no
question that innovative applications are coming out of these innovation
centers, this is not to compare with what happened in Silicon Valley.
Most of these apps are built with "<a href="http://www.howwemadeitinafrica.com/kenyas-tech-industry-over-hyped-or-just-learning-to-walk/24767/">a social impact in mind, but with little commercial potential</a>", and as a consequence usually not sustainable. Calling one app companies real businesses is a bit of a stretch to say
the least. Silicon Valley was built from enterprises with a real
business plan, and a strategic vision for the industry. These companies
like Intel, HP, and Apple were built by visionaries supported by teams
of highly skilled engineers developing complex high tech solutions and
building sustainable companies that have stand the test of time. This
model is far from what can be found at iHub or other similar innovation
centers. So it was a remarkable event that IBM recently opened its first
African research lab in Nairobi. This is a clear shift from Kenya’s
well-developed “resale market,” composed of ICT products developed
outside of Africa, and into the “innovation market,” where appropriate
products and services are developed from within to address challenges
unique to Africa. Attracted by Kenya’s robust economy, it is unlikely
that major ICT vendors like IBM, Google, Microsoft, Intel and others
will invest in establishing sales offices in Rwanda’s comparatively
constrained economy when it is more efficient to serve the country from
Nairobi. <br />
<br />
The question becomes: can an ICT ecosystem
grow independently of the existing large IT companies from the world
over? Doubtfully, if only because growth of these intricate,
sophisticated systems requires access to global talent who are prepared
to work on cutting-edge, high-tech innovations. <br />
<br />
One of
GoR’s first steps to address this problem is its partnership with CMU.
However, GoR must better leverage CMU’s presence in the country (which
is unique in Africa) to attract more ICT expert skills. What is needed
for Rwanda is to clearly position itself in the “innovation market”
rather than the resale market. Practically speaking, what Rwanda needs
are not huge financial investments at this stage, but instead Rwanda
must gain an influx of world class researchers, engineers and
entrepreneurs who, together with CMU, will lift local skills to a
competitive level and create a sustainable ICT ecosystem. And if these
experts and entrepreneurs fail to come to Rwanda, then Rwanda must go to
them and make its case. <br />
<br />
The case of India highlights
another- perhaps even more critical- issue that Rwanda must address: a
stagnant private sector. The World Bank’s latest “<a href="http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTINFORMATIONANDCOMMUNICATIONANDTECHNOLOGIES/Resources/WBG_ICT_Strategy-2012.pdf">ICT for Greater Development</a>”
report acknowledges that “the success of India‘s IT-based services
industry is widely believed to have taken off in the absence of heavy
government intervention, other than effective telecommunications and
education policies and marketing for major Indian cities as investment
destinations.” There is no question in my mind that the G<span style="font-family: inherit;">oR</span> has done its part to create a favorable environment. It is now
time for the government to leave the space and encourage private
initiative.<br />
<br />
In the end, there should be only one
winner, and that should be Africa. My sincere hope is for both Kenya and
Rwanda to succeed. In the IT industry one speaks about “coopetition,”
that is, a mindset that combines competition and cooperation. Before
competing in a market, vendors need to cooperate to create that market.
For Kenya and Rwanda the time is ripe for cooperation; their strategies
are clearly complementary and together they can create a unique market
for ICT sales and innovation development in East Africa, a region
booming with technology opportunities.</div>
<br />
<br />
Seeya later alligator...<br />
<br />
I realize this a long posting. For those of you who would rather read it in print, send me an email at blogbezy at gmail dot com and I'll be glad to send you a PDF copy. <br />
<br />
Thank you to Patrick Kabagema, Andrew Kinai, Bruce Krogh, Nic Pottier, and Ashlee Tuttleman for their constructive comments.<br />
<br />
PS: <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-21658149">Ghana just entered the race</a> with a similar strategy than Kenya based on mega real estate projects probably financed by their new oil revenue. <br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
APPENDIX A</h3>
The following links have been used to collect the data used in this posting:<br />
- Literacy rate (2010): <a href="http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.ADT.LITR.ZS" target="_blank">World Bank Literacy rate</a> (% of people ages 15 and above)<br />
- World ranking of best university (2012): <a href="http://www.webometrics.info/en/Africa" target="_blank">Webometrics</a><br />
- Ease of doing business (2012): <a href="http://www.doingbusiness.org/rankings" target="_blank">Doing Business.org/World Bank </a><br />
- Corruption perception index (2012): <a href="http://cpi.transparency.org/cpi2012/results/" target="_blank">Transparency International </a><br />
- Inflation rate (2012): SID: <a href="http://www.sidint.net/docs/SoEAR2012_final.pdf" target="_blank">The State of East Africa 2012</a> page 65<br />
- Total tax rate (2012): The World Economic forum: <a href="http://www3.weforum.org/docs/Global_IT_Report_2012.pdf" target="_blank">The Global IT Report 2012</a> page 336 <br />
- Quality of overall infrastructure (2012): INSEAD/The World Economic Forum: <a href="http://www.weforum.org/reports/global-competitiveness-report-2011-2012" target="_blank">The Global Competitiveness Report 2012</a> page 412 <br />
- Democracy (2011): Economist Intelligence Unit: <a href="http://www.eiu.com/public/thankyou_download.aspx?activity=download&campaignid=DemocracyIndex2011" target="_blank">Democracy Index 2011</a> (requires free registration for access) <br />
- Good Governance (2011): <a href="http://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi/index.asp" target="_blank">World Bank</a>: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worldwide_Governance_Indicators" target="_blank">Worldwide Governance Indicators</a><br />
- GDP per Capita (2011): <a href="http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD" target="_blank">The World Bank</a><br />
- GDP growth rate (2011): <a href="http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.KD.ZG" target="_blank">The World Bank</a><br />
- Quality of life (2010): <a href="https://www.google.com/fusiontables/DataSource?snapid=134959" target="_blank">International Living </a><br />
- Government prioritization of ICT (2012): The World Economic forum: <a href="http://www3.weforum.org/docs/Global_IT_Report_2012.pdf" target="_blank">The Global IT Report 2012 </a>page 374<br />
- Importance of ICT to government vision of the future (2012): The World Economic forum: <a href="http://www3.weforum.org/docs/Global_IT_Report_2012.pdf" target="_blank">The Global IT Report 2012</a> page 375 </div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18021995038744733130noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849633784037504405.post-47341494118438848112013-03-05T11:42:00.002-08:002013-03-09T08:18:43.263-08:00Analyzing indicators of two countries seriously tackling the ICT market: Kenya and Rwanda<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">For the last ten years, African leaders made many declarations about the importance of ICT for their development without much result so far. </span><span style="font-size: small;">Here is</span> a non-exhaustive list of some of those declarations:</span></span><br />
<br />
<b>Blantyre, Malawi – 2001</b><br />
Southern African Development
Community needs a coherent regional policy and strategy on Information
and Communications Technology, signed by 13 heads of governments<br />
<b>Geneva, 12 December 2003</b><br />
The
World Summit on the Information Society: 44 Heads of State, Prime
Ministers, Presidents, Vice-Presidents approve plan of Action which sets
forth a road map to build on that vision and to bring the benefits of
ICT to underserved economies.<br />
<b>Khartoum, Sudan - 2006</b><br />
African Regional Action Plan on the Knowledge Economy (ARAPKE) adopted by the Executive Council of the African Union<br />
<b>Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt - 2008 </b><br />
13th
Ordinary Session of the Executive Council in calling on the AU
Commission to take the necessary measures to speed up the implementation
of the Reference Framework for Harmonization for Telecommunication ICT
Policy and Regulation<br />
<b>Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - in 2009</b><br />
African Heads of State and Government Declaration on supporting the Program for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA)<br />
<b>Johannesburg - November 2009</b><br />
Oliver Tambo Declaration adopted by the African Union Ministers in charge of Communication and Information Technologies <br />
<b>Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - 2 February 2010 </b><br />
14th Assembly of Heads of State and Government Declaration on Information and Communication Technologies in Africa<br />
<b>Abuja, Nigeria - 7 August 2010</b><br />
Africa’s Information Communications Ministers Resolve to Push ICT Sector at Continental Level<br />
<b>Brazzaville, Congo - 3 May 2011</b><br />
African health ministers have called for the use of information and communication technologies <br />
<b>Cape Town, South Africa - 4 June 2012</b><br />
The
Ministers responsible for Information Communication Technologies (ICTs)
declare common desire and commitment to eradicate the barriers of
poverty through the promotion and use of enabling ICTs <br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">In this posting we analyze two countries that have<span style="font-size: small;"> "walked the talk" and started implementing real <span style="font-size: small;">ICT strategies: Kenya and Rwanda.</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">T</span></span>he following comparative analysis begins by applying political, social, economic and technical metrics to both countries. Then we will compare global competitiveness and networked readiness indices of both countries.<br />
<br />
This analysis utilizes publicly available data from recognized world organization and that is no older than two years (see links to d<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">a</span></span>ta sources in Appendix).<br />
<br />
Here are the metrics and indicators I selected: </div>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
1) Education</h4>
- <b>Literacy rate:</b> % of people aged 15 and above who can, with understanding, read and write a short, simple statement on their everyday life.<br />
- <b>Quality of higher education (HE)</b><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
While one can find many publications about methods of evaluation of higher education quality, there are very few rankings of HE quality by country, and when they exist they don't cover Africa. Therefore I used the world ranking of the best university in the country (www.webometrics.info) as an estimate for the quality of tertiary education in that country. </div>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
2) Business environment</h4>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
- <b>Ease of doing business</b>: starting a business, dealing with construction permit, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contract, and resolving insolvency. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
- <b>Corruption perception index</b>: capturing perceptions of the extent of corruption in the public sector, from the perspective of business people and country experts.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
- <b>Total tax rate</b>: sum of profit tax, labor tax and social contributions, property taxes, turnover taxes, and other taxes, as a share (%) of commercial profits.</div>
- <b>Quality of infrastructure</b>: transport, telephony and energy.<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
3) Political, economic and social environment</h4>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
- <b>Democracy</b>: electoral process and pluralism; functioning of government; political participation; political culture; civil liberties.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
- <b>Good governance</b>: voice and accountability; political stability and absence of violence; government effectiveness; regulatory quality; rule of law; control of corruption.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
- <b>GDP/Capita</b>: gross domestic product divided by midyear population.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
- <b>GDP growth rate</b>: annual percentage growth rate of GDP at market prices based on constant local currency.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
- <b>Quality of life</b>: based on economy, environment, freedom, health infrastructure, risk & safety, and climate.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In Africa the relationship between economic development and democracy is less clear than between economic development and good governance as explained in an article recently published in African Business (French edition), Dec 2012-Jan 2013 by Ch. d'Alayer. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The measurement of good governance is controversial and difficult, as explained in a <a href="http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/files/wpf36governance.pdf" target="_blank">report</a> by Marie Besancon from the World Peace Foundation at Harvard University. In her report she mentions that "the most comprehensive set of global governance indicators has been compiled by the World Bank and combines subjective and objective attributes" which I'm using here. I have extracted the following graphics from that World Bank report. I calculated the average of the 6 indicators' percentile for each country as a total estimate for good governance.</div>
Graphic color coding:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-I1SH5M5pdWc/URAZwVRZR5I/AAAAAAAAAw8/wpZ-8thcCis/s1600/graphic+color+coding.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="26" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-I1SH5M5pdWc/URAZwVRZR5I/AAAAAAAAAw8/wpZ-8thcCis/s320/graphic+color+coding.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
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<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-I1SH5M5pdWc/URAZwVRZR5I/AAAAAAAAAw8/wpZ-8thcCis/s1600/graphic+color+coding.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fCkFirx8cQ0/URAaD2hxkfI/AAAAAAAAAxE/UgL_vrzsQYo/s1600/Kenya+governance+2011.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="236" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fCkFirx8cQ0/URAaD2hxkfI/AAAAAAAAAxE/UgL_vrzsQYo/s400/Kenya+governance+2011.jpg" width="400" /> </a></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TXT6-_wEXPs/URAbafBj8lI/AAAAAAAAAxM/DYKblzXtXL8/s1600/Rwanda+governance+2011.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="238" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TXT6-_wEXPs/URAbafBj8lI/AAAAAAAAAxM/DYKblzXtXL8/s400/Rwanda+governance+2011.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
4) Government ICT Drive</h4>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
As discussed earlier, governments need to play a key role in establishing a favorable environment for the development of an ICT industry. I have selected two indicators about the government ICT drive:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
- <b>Government prioritization of ICT</b>: How much priority does the government places on information and communication technologies?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
- <b>Importance of ICT to government vision of the future</b>: To what extent does the government have a clear implementation plan for utilizing information and communication technologies to improve the country’s overall competitiveness?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Comparing Kenya’s and Rwanda’s rankings</b><br />
<br />
Below is a table comparing Kenya and Rwanda’s rankings in each metric outlined above. Green indicates the country with the advantage (WR = World Ranking)</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bt212eFdmPY/UTbgZHGjXZI/AAAAAAAAAzg/LjpjJrdJZPQ/s1600/KenRwa+comp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bt212eFdmPY/UTbgZHGjXZI/AAAAAAAAAzg/LjpjJrdJZPQ/s400/KenRwa+comp.jpg" width="312" /></a></div>
<br />
Kenya is leading in:<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
- Education: Kenya has a better literacy rate and their top university is ranked significantly higher. Kenya's best university is the University of Nairobi ranked 1435th in
the world, Rwanda's best university is the National University of Rwanda
ranked 4157th. This better quality of tertiary education is informally confirmed by
feedback I receive from business people hiring in both countries. While Kenya has a clear advantage, it is only relative.
Indeed, when looking at successful "Silicon Valley" types of
development, they have been driven by world-class universities ranked in
the top 100, like Stanford University in the Bay area, MIT in the
Boston area, the National University of Singapore in Singapore, or the
Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa. Clearly one of the
major challenges for the development of a Silicon Valley in Africa will
be the <a href="http://brel54.blogspot.com/2011/09/carnegie-mellon-university-first-us.html" target="_blank">quality of higher education</a> to deliver the talent to work on the development of high-tech ICT innovation. The hope for Rwanda is that the recent opening of
a Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) branch in Kigali will impact the
quality of higher education in the country. </div>
- Democracy: Kenya's advantage is mainly based on the electoral process, pluralism and the political participation.<br />
- GDP/capita: Kenya is the region's leading economy<br />
- Quality of life: Kenya's advantage is built on leisure and culture, freedom and climate.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Rwanda is leading in all other indicators. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
- Ease of doing business: Rwanda’s advantages are particularly in starting a business, getting electricity and registering property, protecting investors, paying taxes, and enforcing contracts. It is still lagging in construction permit, getting credit and resolving insolvency.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
- Corruption perception index: Rwanda has a significant advantage here, being ranked 4th in Africa after Botswana, Cape Verde and Mauritius. Compared to Kenya, its advantage is based on performance and institutional assessment, executive opinion survey, and bank governance rating.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
- Total tax rate: This criterion is more difficult to assess as there is often a difference between official tax rates and actual tax rates due to different loopholes in tax legislation. In particular for IT, one can expect governments to offer tax free zones for the development of IT businesses. For instance in Rwanda, all IT equipment can be imported tax free.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
- Quality of infrastructure: Available data does not provide detail about the countries' scores for the indicators used (transport, telephony and energy). Based on my personal experience, traffic jams in Nairobi represent a very serious problem when it comes to move from one location to another; it can easily take hours to cover only a few miles. This can have a significant impact on the dynamic of the development of an ICT ecosystem as discussed later in this posting.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
- Good governance: Here again Rwanda' score is significantly better mainly due to political stability/absence of violence, rule of law and control of corruption (see graphics above).</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
- GDP growth rate: Rwanda’s economy has enjoyed high growth rates (6-8%) for the last decade. Last year its GDP growth rate was the 14th in the world. As a result Rwanda has lifted more than one million people out of poverty. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
- Priority of ICT and importance of ICT for the government: Rwanda is ranked significantly higher than Kenya, being ranked third in the world for those criteria behind Singapore and Sweden. But is the drive of the government of Rwanda (GoR) enough? We will discuss it in the second part of the analysis.</div>
<br />
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Global Competitiveness</h4>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Based on the World Economic Forum’s <a href="http://www.weforum.org/issues/global-competitiveness" target="_blank">Global Competitiveness Report 2012-2013</a>, the following table compares the Global Competitiveness Index (CGI) of Kenya and Rwanda for the last three years. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5C10X5EX4Ho/UTbgnJd_hLI/AAAAAAAAAzo/33enWs_WMAM/s1600/CGI+table.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="136" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5C10X5EX4Ho/UTbgnJd_hLI/AAAAAAAAAzo/33enWs_WMAM/s400/CGI+table.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Global competitiveness is based on indicators grouped in three categories with different weights: <br />
1) Basic requirements (60%): institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomic environment, health and primary education<br />
2) Efficiency enhancers (35%): higher education and training, goods market efficiency, labor market efficiency, financial market development, technological readiness, market size<br />
3) Innovation and sophistication factors (5%): business sophistication, innovation<br />
<br />
It is interesting to observe how Rwanda's global competitiveness as measured by the GCI is better than Kenya's. In fact, Rwanda’s GCI is improving as Kenya's GCI is stagnating over the last three years. Let’s look at the details.<br />
The following graphic provides the details of the indicators entering the composition of the CGI. Indicators derived from the survey are expressed as scores on a 1-7 scale, with 7 being the most desirable outcome. I integrated the scores for both Rwanda and Kenya in the same graphic for easier comparison.</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fQZHMfU9SqE/UTbhk_wLYdI/AAAAAAAAAz8/TFrYWnfaljM/s1600/NRI+comp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fQZHMfU9SqE/UTbhk_wLYdI/AAAAAAAAAz8/TFrYWnfaljM/s400/NRI+comp.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Rwanda and Kenya score 5 and 4, respectively, tying for three indicators. Kenya has the advantage for the following indicators: higher education, confirming previous data; financial market development, pushed by the presence of multinational corporations; technological readiness; and market size, mainly due to the size of its eco<span style="font-family: inherit;">nomy as</span> Kenya's GDP is more than five times the size of Rwanda's GDP. Rwanda leads in institutions, macroeconomic environment, health & primary education, good market efficiency, and labor efficiency, confirming its advantage in ease of doing business and good governance from previous data.</div>
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Networked Readiness Index </h4>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
</h4>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
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</xml><![endif]--><span style="font-family: inherit;">One of the most authoritative exercises to measure and benchmark ICT developments is the Networked Readiness Index (NRI) available in the World Bank and INSEAD’s </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><a href="http://www3.weforum.org/docs/Global_IT_Report_2012.pdf" target="_blank">Global Information Technology Report 2012</a></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">, which has been adopted by several governments as a valuable tool for assessing and leveraging technology for competitiveness and development.<br />The NRI comprises four sub-indices that measure the environment for ICT; the readiness of a society to use ICT; the actual usage of all main stakeholders; and, finally, the impacts that ICT generates in the economy and society. These four sub-indexes are divided into 10 pillars: 1. Political and regulatory environment; 2. Business and innovation environment; 3. Infrastructure and digital content; 4. Affordability; 5. Skills; 6. Individual usage; 7. Business usage; 8. Government usage; 9. Economic impacts; 10. Social impacts. </span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0Dpd1C33_Uw/UTbi-TQKWjI/AAAAAAAAA0M/t34hOEGo7uk/s1600/NRI+table.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="115" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0Dpd1C33_Uw/UTbi-TQKWjI/AAAAAAAAA0M/t34hOEGo7uk/s400/NRI+table.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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The following graphic provides the details of the NRI indicators for both countries integrated in the same graphic. </div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-z8jFxS2m35w/UTbgx_F_MnI/AAAAAAAAAz0/7yY4f0SqMqU/s1600/CGI+comp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-z8jFxS2m35w/UTbgx_F_MnI/AAAAAAAAAz0/7yY4f0SqMqU/s400/CGI+comp.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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In contrast to the GCI, both countries score 3 each while they tie in three criteria. Kenya's advantages are in affordability; skills, confirming again the better quality of its education; and individual usage, due probably to higher penetration of technology in the country. Mobile phone penetration is 65% in Kenya versus 41% in Rwanda (it is <a href="http://www.rwandagateway.org/spip.php?article1462" target="_blank">projected to increase to 60%</a> this year after the arrival of Airtel in Rwanda) and Kenya’s internet penetration rate is quadruple that of Rwanda at 28% versus 7%, respectively. It should come as no surprise that Rwanda is leading or equal in all other indicators- mostly relating to public sector interventions- including in political & regulatory environment, business and innovation environment, and government usage. </div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You will fnd a more detailed analysis and comparison in my next posting.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Seeya later alligator... </span></span></div>
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APPENDIX </h3>
The following links have been used to collect the data used in this posting:<br />
- Literacy rate (2010): <a href="http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.ADT.LITR.ZS" target="_blank">World Bank Literacy rate</a> (% of people ages 15 and above)<br />
- World ranking of best university (2012): <a href="http://www.webometrics.info/en/Africa" target="_blank">Webometrics</a><br />
- Ease of doing business (2012): <a href="http://www.doingbusiness.org/rankings" target="_blank">Doing Business.org/World Bank </a><br />
- Corruption perception index (2012): <a href="http://cpi.transparency.org/cpi2012/results/" target="_blank">Transparency International </a><br />
- Inflation rate (2012): SID: <a href="http://www.sidint.net/docs/SoEAR2012_final.pdf" target="_blank">The State of East Africa 2012</a> page 65<br />
- Total tax rate (2012): The World Economic forum: <a href="http://www3.weforum.org/docs/Global_IT_Report_2012.pdf" target="_blank">The Global IT Report 2012</a> page 336 <br />
- Quality of overall infrastructure (2012): INSEAD/The World Economic Forum: <a href="http://www.weforum.org/reports/global-competitiveness-report-2011-2012" target="_blank">The Global Competitiveness Report 2012</a> page 412 <br />
- Democracy (2011): Economist Intelligence Unit: <a href="http://www.eiu.com/public/thankyou_download.aspx?activity=download&campaignid=DemocracyIndex2011" target="_blank">Democracy Index 2011</a> (requires free registration for access) <br />
- Good Governance (2011): <a href="http://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi/index.asp" target="_blank">World Bank</a>: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worldwide_Governance_Indicators" target="_blank">Worldwide Governance Indicators</a><br />
- GDP per Capita (2011): <a href="http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD" target="_blank">The World Bank</a><br />
- GDP growth rate (2011): <a href="http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.KD.ZG" target="_blank">The World Bank</a><br />
- Quality of life (2010): <a href="https://www.google.com/fusiontables/DataSource?snapid=134959" target="_blank">International Living </a><br />
- Government prioritization of ICT (2012): The World Economic forum: <a href="http://www3.weforum.org/docs/Global_IT_Report_2012.pdf" target="_blank">The Global IT Report 2012 </a>page 374<br />
- Importance of ICT to government vision of the future (2012): The World Economic forum: <a href="http://www3.weforum.org/docs/Global_IT_Report_2012.pdf" target="_blank">The Global IT Report 2012</a> page 375 </div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18021995038744733130noreply@blogger.com40tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849633784037504405.post-91762175526911291482013-02-23T09:37:00.001-08:002013-02-23T09:37:52.206-08:00OLPC: from MIT lab to the reality on the ground<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organization was founded by Nicholas Negroponte with the mission to empower the world's poorest children through education. OLPC is a Delaware-based, non-profit organization created by faculty members from the MIT Media Lab to design, manufacture, and distribute laptops that are sufficiently inexpensive to provide every child in the world access to knowledge and modern forms of education.</div>
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<br />Their flagship product is the XO computer.</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bF85EhsPGY8/USj55KksSHI/AAAAAAAAAyo/A9TT3v1u7N0/s1600/XO+OLPC.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bF85EhsPGY8/USj55KksSHI/AAAAAAAAAyo/A9TT3v1u7N0/s1600/XO+OLPC.jpg" /></a></div>
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Source: engadget.com</div>
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<br />Initially known as the $100 Laptop, the XO was designed in the early 2000s to cost less than $100 but ended up costing $200 which was still an incredible technical achievement at that time when laptop computers’ cost was exceeding $1,000.</div>
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<br />The OLPC program is a great concept and many countries have invested in acquiring OLPC XO computers for their schools: Argentina, Brazil, Libya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Thailand, and Uruguay. Negroponte told TIME in an e-mail interview: "We want Rwanda to be a showcase." But was it a good choice for Rwanda?</div>
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<br />Last summer, four students from Carnegie Mellon University came to Rwanda to help a local school deploy OLPC XO computers to 300 fifth grade kids. Here is an excerpt of the CMU students’ report: <br />“Project Rwanda 2012 is a Carnegie Mellon University student-run program dedicated to empowering Rwandan youths through technology and arts education. From August 16th-24th 2012, four students from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh taught interactive lessons to 300 students at the St. Vincent Pallotti School in the Gikondo district of Kigali. </div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hz3UOaxyvYU/USj6-74FkaI/AAAAAAAAAyw/gwN38YIJoHw/s1600/Gikondo+school+kids.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hz3UOaxyvYU/USj6-74FkaI/AAAAAAAAAyw/gwN38YIJoHw/s320/Gikondo+school+kids.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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5th grade kids at St Vincent Pallotti School in Kigali</div>
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<br />Utilizing XO laptops provided by One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) and their own creative imaginations, the students explored a number of ways that they could cultivate their unique talents. The core subjects covered in these lessons included computer programming, keyboarding, and fine arts. From animated game development using the Scratch software to performative reenactments of their favorite pastimes, the students had the opportunity to engage themselves in a wide variety of fun learning activities. Not only did the students enjoy themselves while actively participating in these educational exercises, but they also taught their teachers a wealth of information about their fascinating culture. We are incredibly excited to share these inspiring personal stories with the Carnegie Mellon University community in Pittsburgh, and we cannot wait to see how the students continue to further their interests in technology and the arts!” – report written by Sara Faradji, CMU student leading the project.</div>
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<br />While the project was a success, I want to share some reality faced on the ground by the CMU students when using the OLPC XO computers. Between a product conceived by smart people in developed countries and the reality on the ground in Africa there is often a gap. The major problem encountered was the computers’ battery lifetime. The average battery lifetime was 2.5-3 hours maximum (these were brand new computers) which corresponds to the average battery life of 3 hrs announced by OLPC. It seems that the computers were equipped with low quality batteries to keep the cost low (below $200).<br />What is the impact of that battery life limitation for the school in Rwanda? The school has received more than 900 XO computers and there are only two power plugs for all the classrooms in the school. Considering that it takes three hours for a full recharge of the battery, you can imagine the nightmare for recharging 900+ computers every day. The CMU students had to take a maximum of batteries back to their hotel every night for recharging them. When talking with the local OLPC representative about this problem, he told me that they were going to help the school installing more power plugs. But that is not the solution. The reason why there are only two power plugs in the school is that they want to limit usage of electricity as it is very expensive. The cost of electricity in Rwanda is twice the cost of neighboring countries. A quick calculation showed that the cost of recharging the 900 computers every day for one month would be equivalent to the salary of one teacher. The best solution seems to be for the students to take their computer with them back home and charging it at home over night. That is if they have electricity at home which is mostly the case in Kigali, but not in rural areas. Electricity penetration in Rwanda is only 16 %.</div>
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<br />Another problem encountered was keys and buttons breaking after less than two weeks usage. It was not clear how those could be repaired even if OLPC claims that XO computers are designed to be repaired quickly in the field by users with a minimum of training.</div>
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<br />So it seems to me that the XO computer is not appropriate for Rwanda from a technical point of view. Even more so that today, 8 years after its design, you can buy a Netbook in Africa for less than $200, i.e. cheaper than the XO. It is true that XO is loaded with special education software that was specially designed for it. The cost of installing this software should be added to the cost of the Notebook for a fair comparison. </div>
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<br />In another <a href="http://brel54.blogspot.com/2010/11/one-laptop-per-childbut-what-laptop.html" target="_blank">posting</a> published in 2010, I explained that a better solution could be tablets or iPods. They offer the advantage to have longer battery life but also they don’t have keyboards and buttons that can easily break. Keyboards and buttons are virtually represented on the screen. But more importantly they are examples of real mobile internet devices that will be used in Africa in the coming years. In addition, solar panels on the back of these devices could help with recharging the battery at no cost. A couple of years ago, OLPC claimed to be working on such a solution showed in my 2010 blog posting, but no news since then. Instead they seem to try to sell their inappropriate XOs which they build by the millions to get their money back ... at the cost of poor Rwanda!</div>
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Seeya later alligator...</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18021995038744733130noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849633784037504405.post-84344450609182970602013-02-20T12:14:00.000-08:002013-02-20T12:14:15.894-08:00Rwanda's Historic Health Recovery: What the U.S. Might Learn<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Dear readers,</div>
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I <i> </i>just want to share a very interesting article published today in The Atlantic by Neal Emery is a Chicago-based writer who focuses on public health.</div>
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Here is the link to that article: <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/02/rwandas-historic-health-recovery-what-the-usmight-learn/273226/" target="_blank">http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/02/rwandas-historic-health-recovery-what-the-usmight-learn/273226/ </a></div>
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Enjoy the reading.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18021995038744733130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849633784037504405.post-31480762334045605412013-02-13T05:46:00.000-08:002013-02-13T05:46:06.824-08:00Rwanda: A Stunning Turnaround On A Continent Marked By Broken Promises<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
A good article recently published in Forbes Magazine:<br />
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<a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2013/02/12/rwanda-a-stunning-turnaround-on-a-continent-marked-by-broken-promises/" target="_blank">Rwanda: A Stunning Turnaround On A Continent Marked By Broken Promises</a></h1>
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seeya later alligator... </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18021995038744733130noreply@blogger.com0