The well-being of African cities is tied to universities

African cities have been urged to collaborate more closely with universities and other tertiary research institutions within their jurisdiction, not only because they contribute to human resource needs but because higher education institutions are increasingly becoming key drivers for local economic development.

The call was made by the African Development Bank, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, and the Sahel and the West Africa Club, an independent platform hosted at the Paris-based secretariat of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

In a report titled Africa’s Urbanisation Dynamics 2022: The economic power of Africa’s cities, the three organisations that are partners in Africa’s development agenda said universities can be sources of innovation, research, business incubation and entrepreneurship that could be crucial to the economic development of cities.

“Besides businesses and governments, universities and other higher research institutions are the most important external actors in local economic development processes,” stated the report. The report studied 2,600 cities in 34 countries out of 7,000 cities across Africa.

Africities Summit

Released on 3 May, ahead of the ninth edition of the Africities Summit 2022, scheduled from 17 to 21 May in Kenya’s city of Kisumu, the report draws attention to the fact that Africa’s cities are the most rapidly growing cities in the world and are pockets on the continent that contribute better economic outcomes and higher standards of living.

According to Dr Ibrahim Mayaki, the chief executive officer of the African Union Development Agency, or AUDA-NEPAD, and the honorary president of the Sahel and West Africa Club, African cities have maintained their economic performance despite growing by 500 million people over the past 30 years, providing millions of people with better jobs and improved infrastructure.

But, to sustain the momentum, the report says, those cities require universities to provide strategic planning, transfer of skills and research connections that are useful to the local economy.

Triple helix partnership model

Towards that objective, the report is recommending to the African cities to adopt the triple helix model that advocates for collaborations and partnerships between academia, industry and government in order to improve business innovations and overall economic development.

The triple helix model as a concept for economic development was first suggested in 1990s by Dr Henry Etzkowitz, the president and co-founder of the International Triple Helix Institute, and his associate, Loet Leydesdorff, a professor of communications at the University of Amsterdam.

In their pioneering study, ‘The Triple Helix-University-Industry-Government Relations: A laboratory for knowledge-based economic development’, the two scholars predicted how interactions between governments, industries and universities could open new avenues for social and economic development.

In this regard, the African Development Bank and the joint authors of the report are urging African cities to provide grants for joint research by universities and businesses in addition to establishing entrepreneurial academic positions at universities dedicated to technology transfer.

“City governments should also build and operate infrastructure such as science and industrial parks for business incubators attached to the universities,” stated the report.

Weak links

Whereas, in the past, there had been cooperation between national governments and the universities in Africa, very little partnership had been promoted by city or local governments.

According to the report, the situation must change, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa where there is strong evidence of persistent mismatch of skills among graduates, a problem that exposes the limited interactions between businesses, universities and local governments.

Amid efforts to allow Africa’s urban dwellers enjoy better livelihoods and higher quality of life, the report urged urban governments to stop being far removed from the research activities of the universities but should consider local universities as partners in economic development.

“Currently, the role of universities in economic development is grossly undervalued in most African countries as businesses prefer to source technology and consultancy services from foreign actors instead of domestic universities,” stated the report.

Highlighting the urgency for adoption of the triple helix model of innovation by Africa’s cities, the authors of the report cited Stanford University’s role in the development of the Silicon Valley in California, a successful case study on how academia, businesses and local governments could work together to create vibrant economic clusters and innovation hubs.

But the issue is that, while Stanford University was not the only factor in this success story, Silicon Valley would not have existed in its current form without the university’s focus on industrial links, according to the African Development Bank and its associates.

Pointing out the Algerian experience, one of the African countries where helix models of innovations had been emerging since 2000, the report noted that no African city should be left behind in maximising the learning curve that could be obtained from various economic interactions.

Quoting Mohammed Saad, a professor of innovation and technology management at the Bristol School of Business in University of the West of England, the report stressed that local governments, universities and businesses should build institutional capacity that enables them to develop the strong ties necessary to engage in true collaborations.

According to Edlam Abera Yemeru, the acting director for gender, poverty and social policy at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa in Addis Ababa, cities can seek planning expertise from the universities in advance to cover areas where urban growth has not occurred.

“City governments need to be aware that it is impossible and sometimes too expensive to undo and redo the physical infrastructures of cities once urbanisation happens,” stated Yemeru.

Solomon Quaynor, the African Development Bank’s vice president for the private sector, infrastructure and industrialisation, noted that there is an urgent need to anchor the triple helix models as a new roadmap and drivers to the emerging economic realities and social transition in African cities.