AFRICA: Local academics excluded from policy-making

Crafting of policies in Africa largely excludes African academics, with over-reliance on donor agencies and foreign consultancies. But universities can play a key role by building stronger linkages with facilitative institutions to ensure that adequate skills are developed in policy research.

So said Professor Kevin Chika Urama, executive director of the African Technology Policy Studies Network (ATPS), who spoke to University World News after the conference "Linkages between Policy Research and Policy-making for African Development", which took place in Mombasa last month.

Kenya-based ATPS organised the meeting to identify how various stakeholders can be engaged to strengthen science, technology and innovation, or STI, policy research, policy-making and implementation for African development.

"In spite of sporadic progress in some African countries, the use of policy heavily informed by research evidence in critical domains in policy-making still leaves much to be desired," said Urama, an environmental and ecological economist and the inaugural acting president of the African Society for Ecological Economics, the African chapter of the International Society for Ecological Economics.

Urama said the policy agenda had not fully exploited the expertise of African scholars, leaving the African policy landscape much too influenced by the agendas of external development agencies, consultants and bilateral development partners.

He said that as a result, questions arose as to whether Africa's priorities were truly at the heart of its development agenda - because African governments have a strong tendency to overlook local research capacity in favour of expatriate researchers, and purpose-specific consultancies are rampant.

"For the impact of research to guarantee development in Africa, the research results must inform and shape policies, which must be adopted into practice," Urama said.

He said that while the linkages between policy and national development were often determined by other factors, the absence of an appropriate policy framework, which includes theoretical and empirical research and multiple stakeholders' views, may spell disaster for any national development agenda.

He pointed out that, fortunately, African leaders have seen the wisdom of empowering policy creators "even though this effort is in its early stages".

The economist said this needed to happen in all sectors linked to national development, particularly in science and technology, economic transformation, food security and health, which are key to a positive national growth agenda.

Urama, who serves on the editorial board of Ecological Economics, said it was necessary to review the linkages between research, policy and practice, to identify strategies for strengthening the uptake of development research into policy and practice in Africa.

He emphasised the importance of having "a strategic vision, and a proactive approach", and called for proper understanding of research communication and knowledge translation, so as to facilitate the use of research evidence to influence policies and effect change in practice.

Urama expressed concern at the poor culture of collaboration on the continent. "Different disciplines work in their own disciplinary silos while different government ministries and agencies defend their turf against any ideas or innovations from sister ministries," he said.

He also said the state of regional cooperation on the continent was weak, as visa restrictions prevented knowledge and technology flows among African countries. "Experts from outside the continent have readier access to African countries than African experts," he said.

Urama noted that investment in policy research and STI policy-making in Africa was also far too low compared to other countries and continents, with the majority of the countries in Africa investing 0.3% of their gross domestic product on research and development.

By contrast, he pointed out, the emergence of the Asian Giants and the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries was clear evidence of the high correlation between gross national income and investment in research and development.

Urama suggested the need to tailor university education to national development priorities.

"Most universities in Africa tailor their research agenda to donor priorities, leading to a very poor correlation between university enrolments and gross national incomes. This leaves Africa in a vicious cycle of 'knowledge poverty'," he complained.

Universities also needed to build stronger linkages with transdisciplinary facilitative institutions, such as the ATPS, to ensure that skills were developed in policy research and policy advocacy. This would promote effective uptake of the research activities going on at universities.

Urama challenged Africa to learn how to celebrate its own scientists and policy-makers, and also to provide viable platforms for Africans in the diaspora to feel welcome to contribute to STI development in Africa.

Institutions championing STI in Africa should be given more attention by African governments and the Africa Union Commission, he suggested.

"This will encourage others to do more," Urama said.