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

ENGINEERING CAPACITY: EDUCATION, TRAINING AND MOBILITYoped as an urgent priority to address the problems of seriousand increasing human and institutional capacity and resourceshortages in engineering in Africa. To achieve this an EngineeringProgramme for Africa and for other developing regionsneeds to be developed by UNESCO, in conjunction with AfricaEngineers Forum and other participating organizations as apriority activity of the proposed International EngineeringProgramme.7.2.4Needs and numbers in civilengineering in South AfricaAllyson LawlessIntroduction‘Scientists discover the world that exists; engineers create theworld that never was’Theodore Von Karman, aerospace engineerThe economic well-being of any nation is dependent ongrowth, the availability of finance, policies conducive to sounddevelopment and capacity. It is essential that countries constantlyreview economic scenarios and the associated developmentrequired to maintain or improve the status quo. In muchof the Western world, the engineering capacity to supportgrowth has declined over the past twenty to thirty yearsposing a significant threat to long-term sustainability. Outsourcingand privatization have further depleted engineeringcapacity in the public sector, hence it now falls to voluntaryassociations such as engineering institutions and associationsto review supply and demand of engineering professions toensure that adequate training and capacity development istaking place to support their nation’s well-being.In South Africa, the accelerated development that is occurringhas found the professions wanting in terms of capacity. Thispaper describes a comprehensive research programme carriedout by the South African Institution of Civil Engineering(SAICE) that culminated in the publication of an authoritativebook outlining all the interventions required to rebuild theskills base.BackgroundThe World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburgin 2002 focused world thinking on quality of life andthe environment. Many of the goals have fallen to engineers toaddress. These include halving the number of people withoutaccess to safe drinking water or basic sanitation; developingand manufacturing chemicals that are more environmentallyfriendly than at present; and implementing poverty reductionstrategies. Clearly the first two are the domain of thecivil engineer, and the third falls squarely on chemists andchemical engineers. The link between poverty reduction andengineering is not so obvious. However, J. F. Kennedy offereda clue when he said, ‘It is not wealth which makes good roadspossible, but good roads which make wealth possible.’ Indeed,roads – again the domain of the civil engineer – offer access toeducation and the job market and make it possible to trade.Job creation – the escape from poverty – is also dependent onthe availability of energy and machines, the domain of electricaland mechanical engineers.Thus a sound engineering skills base is critical to the well-beingof any nation. Engineers were centre stage during the pioneeringera of John McAdam, Thomas Telford, the Stephensons andothers in the nineteenth century who gave us surfaced roads,bridges, rail, water networks and waterborne sanitation. Evenin the earlier part of the twentieth century, engineers held toppublic sector posts such as city engineer and director-generalof infrastructure departments.Sadly, in the latter part of the twentieth century the engineeringprofession found itself sidelined, playing second fiddle tothe growing management and financial structures in mostorganizations. Engineering departments were not only sidelined,but were at the mercy of non-technical support departmentsfor funding and permission to institute developments,upgrades and even operations that are essential to ensure sustainableservices.As a result, infrastructure development, in particular maintenance,has received inadequate attention. Furthermore,because the engineering profession had fallen from grace,fewer young people were inclined to study engineering. Theresult is that many countries are suffering from engineeringshortages and face massive upgrading bills to restore theirunmaintained infrastructure.The world is once again starting to realize that engineers arecritical for successful infrastructure service delivery, operationsand maintenance. This at a time when much of the infrastructurein developing economies is inadequate and much infrastructurein the developed world is starting to fail. As a result,headlines about the need for and the shortage of engineers arebeing seen with increasing frequency, and capacity constraintsare being cited as the most significant hindrance to development.The challenges facing the post-1994 democratic governmentof South Africa have been exacerbated by the enormous developmentbacklogs caused by the policy of apartheid, resultingin more than half the population having limited or no accessto basic services. The country is thus now embarking on publicsector infrastructure development to the tune of some R500billion (US$80 billion) to ensure the desired 6 per cent growthrequired to stimulate job creation and alleviate poverty. Thepoverty relief cycle, shown in Figure 1, outlines the need for319