Engineering: issues, challenges and opportunities for development ...

ENGINEERING: ISSUES CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR DEVELOPMENTEngineering policy, planning and managementEngineering policy, planning and management, and associatedinformation and indicators, are necessary to facilitate engineeringeducation and capacity-building, the development ofnetworks and partnerships, infrastructure, applications andinnovation. Serious issues and challenges in this context relateto the fact that engineering is often be overlooked in the policycontext, as is engineering as part of the broader discussionof ‘science’. Although interest in science and technology studiesand policy developed in the 1960s, the focus was mainly onscience and technology studies, policy and planning, with littlereference to engineering, and the study of engineering andengineering policy have remained a rather neglected area ofinterest and emphasis. At the same time, statistics and indicatorson science and engineering are aggregated in internationaldata gathering, which is of little use in the analysis of science orengineering, or of different branches of science and engineering.There is therefore an important need, and opportunity, todevelop the fields of engineering studies, engineering policy,planning and management, and to develop better statisticsand indicators on engineering as an input to policy and planning.These fields need to be developed with specific referenceto the role of engineering policy, planning and managementfor development.5.2Regional perspectives on engineeringAfricaNelius Boshoff and Johann MoutonThe engineering discourse in Africa is largely focused on mattersrelated to capacity-building and the contribution of engineeringprojects to sustainable development. The discourseinforms engineering initiatives in Africa . The development ofthe African engineering profession in recent years has alsobenefitted from the activities of the Engineering Council ofSouth Africa (ECSA).For example, in 2005, ECSA signed an important memorandumof understanding with the New Partnership for Africa’sDevelopment (NEPAD). This signified the intent of ECSA andNEPAD to collaborate in building engineering capacity inAfrica where ECSA, for instance, assumed responsibility forthe design and quality assurance of educational programmesin engineering for African countries. However, even prior tothe signing, ECSA was already providing support to AfricanFigure 1: Number of publications produced by African-based researchers inengineering and applied technologies, 1990–200710000800060004000200003170377246985500635678861990-1992 1993-1995 1996-1998 1999-2001 2002-2004 2005-2007countries as far north as Ethiopia (Poggiolini, 2004) 78 . ECSA isalso collaborating with the South African Centre for Scientificand Industrial Research to create centres of excellence in theSouthern African Development Community (SADC) region(ECSA, 2007). 79 Only twelve countries in Africa have nationalscience academies (Cameroon, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar,Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Zambiaand Zimbabwe), and of these only South Africa has an engineeringacademy.Sub-Saharan Africa, with the exception of South Africa, lagsbehind in terms of engineering capacity and research productivity.The building of engineering capacity-building in Africais dependent on a number of factors and conditions such aslarge internationally-funded engineering projects to serve aslearning sites, the prioritization of engineering education andthe creation of engineering schools and even engineering academiesthat can provide recognition to promising engineers(Juma, 2006). 80 Existing engineering research capacity andexpertise in Africa can be highlighted by looking at the publicationpatterns of engineering researchers, in particular thecountry affiliations of publications and field classifications forthe journals in which the publications appear. Figure 1 showsthat between the early 1990s and the most recent reportingperiod, African-based researchers more than doubled theirtotal publication output (from 3170 to 7886).The ISI Web of Science database by Thomson Scientific wasused as the main data source. Publications, for our purpose,78 Poggiolini, D. 2004. Achieving new heights in professionalism. IMIESA, September 2004,pp.63–65.79 ECSA. 2007. Media Release. Engineering Council of South Africa, 1 June 2007.80 Juma, C. 2006. Engineering education vital for Africa’s growth. The East African, 16October 2006.208