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

ENGINEERING AROUND THE WORLD5.3Country perspectives5.3.1AfricaCôte d’IvoireIssié Yvonne GueyeIntroductionIn the 1960s and 1970s engineering efforts in the Côte d’Ivoirefocused on civil and agricultural engineering. After the military-politicalcrisis faced for six years, Côte d’Ivoire is now ata crossroads economically, politically and technologically. Tothrive, and given the needs for reconstruction and sustainabledevelopment, it is imperative that renewed efforts are placedon engineering, particularly with regards to internationalstandards, to allow the country to become part of the globalknowledge and information society. Engineering electricalengineering has an important role to play as it adds value tolong-term development and speeds up poverty reduction.EconomyThe economy of the Côte d’Ivoire is broadly split between agricultureat 22 per cent, industries at 26 per cent and servicesat 52 per cent of GDP. Some 34 per cent of the populationis engaged in subsistence farming. The country is orientedtowards private enterprise, with government participationthrough parastatal companies. Multinational corporations areinvolved in two-thirds of the largest businesses in such areasas construction, energy, petroleum, construction and foodprocessing.For many years, Ivorian engineers were highly regarded andenjoyed good job security, partly due to the influence andthe lobbying of the Federation of Engineering Organizations(FIACI); most high positions in government as well as in publicand private companies were held by engineers. For example,from 1975 to 2002 many members of the board of FIACIworked in the ministries of infrastructure, telecommunicationsor agriculture.Engineers today work mainly in public and private companiesand consulting firms of the country, in similar sectors such asagriculture and food processing, construction and civil engineering,energy, petroleum, chemistry and mining, computingand communications and industrial processing. According tothe available data, as of 2002, 86 engineers made up 1.2 per centof the working population.86 Kouassi, L. and Amani, M. 2002. Recensement général de la population et de l’habitationde 1998. Institut National de la Statistique, Vol. IV, Analyse des résultats, août 2002.Higher EducationEarly in the 1960s, the Côte d’Ivoire developed a long-termstrategy to build technological capacities to meet the challengesof national development. Professional technical centresand technical high schools were established to meet industry’sdemand for technicians and to prepare youth towardsengineering careers. The route to higher education is throughfour years of secondary school and three years to baccalaureaterequired for entry into universities or Grandes Ecoles. TheGrandes Ecoles were created to develop senior technicians andengineers, with the first of these established in 1962 for civilengineering sciences, with extensions to geology and miningavailable from 1973. The first national university openedin Abidjan in 1964, followed by three specialized provincialannexes. The national Institute of Technical Education, theSchool of Agricultural Engineering and the School of Statisticsand Economy were also launched. Private universities emergedto absorb the growing number of candidates, and trained twoyeardegree technicians in various fields.Data from 2005 shows that higher education in the Côted’Ivoire comprises: three public autonomous universitieswith 69,436 students; six private universities with 2,209 students;four public Grandes Ecoles with 10,150 students;and 108 private Grandes Ecoles with 94,745 students. Thesestructures fall under the remit of the Ministry of Higher Education.87 88 In addition, there are twenty-eight centres givingpost-baccalaureate professional and technical trainingto 15,604 students. These are under the remit of the Ministryof Technical Education. In sum, 192,144 students are inhigher education. Women make up 29.7 per cent of this total.According to national statistics, 8 per cent of the populationhave gone through higher education.New and next stepsTo better engage in the global economy and to accompany theindustrialization process, the government has initiated policiesto encourage innovation, covering areas such as taxation andintellectual property. For example, the Ivorian Office of IntellectualProperty 89 (a member of the African Office of IntellectualProperty and the World Organization for IntellectualProperty) was created in 2005 charged with promoting inven-87 Ministère de l’enseignement Supérieur: Direction de la Planification et de l’Evaluation,Statistiques 2004–2005. For more information: http://www.afristat.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=404&Itemid=58&pays=CI (Accessed: 15May 2010).88 Ministère de l’enseignement Supérieur: Direction des Enseignements SupérieursPrivés. Statistiques 2006–2007.89 Office Ivoirien de la Propriété Intellectuelle, Documents de Présentations et Publications.213