Challenges and opportunities for African academies of science in generating knowledge to promote evidence-based policy advice

By: Dr Xola Mati - Xola@assaf.org.za,, Mr Takalani S. Rambau Simon@assaf.org.za Academy of Science of South Africa

Abstract:
Scientific policies cannot be formulated in a scientific vacuum, it is essential that the government must ensure that its science-related policies and decisions are based on scientific evidence. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to discuss ways that can contribute towards the development of Academies of Science in Africa so that they can play an important role towards the generation of evidence-based policy advice to their governments and the public. It is necessary to ensure that the best practices on providing ‘good advice’ are embedded in the now established African Academy bodies that have capacity to provide evidence-based science advice.

This paper will draw from the experience of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf)’s initiatives within Africa which include coordinating the IAP Programmes such as GMO challenges and opportunities, Water Resource and Management, Science Education Best Practices in the sub-Saharan Africa, a capacity building workshop aimed at developing a framework that would assist in strengthening the existing academies and facilitating the establishment of other academies in the African continent where none exist and the continent wide online scientific writing training programme.

With these initiatives, African Academies can play a significantly special role with regard to the provision of independent evidence-based advice to their governments within the continent. However, sustainable funding becomes a deterrent for the established academies to play such a meaningful service oriented role.

The paper recommends an African Academy framework to ensure that more synergistic initiatives aimed at addressing poverty, health, education and other social challenges are implemented within Africa.

INTRODUCTION

The Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) was inaugurated in May 1996 by the then President of South Africa and patron of the Academy, Nelson Mandela. It was formed in response to the need for an academy of science congruent with the dawn of democracy in South Africa – activist in it mission of using science for the benefit of society.

The mandate of the Academy encompasses all fields of scientific enquiry and its Membership includes the full diversity of South Africa’s distinguished scientists.

The Parliament of South Africa passed the Academy of Science of South Africa Act, Act 67 of 2001, which came into operation in May 2002.

ASSAf is the official national academy of science of South Africa and represents the country in the international community of science academies.

Since its inception, ASSAf has grown progressively from a small, emergent organization to a mature and well-established academy.

ASSAF VISION AND MISSION

Vision

The vision of the Academy is to be the apex organization for science and scholarship in South Africa, internationally respected and connected, its membership simultaneously the aspiration of the country’s most active scholars in all fields of scientific enquiry, and the collective resource for the professionally-managed generation of evidence-based solutions to national problems.

Mission

The mission is summarized as follows:

• To become increasingly associated with the highest levels of scholarly achievement and excellence in the application of scientific thinking for the benefit of society;

• To consolidate its infrastructure and capacity;
• To expand and mobilize its membership to include scholars from the full disciplinary spectrum;
• To proactively and reactively embark on a programme of systematic studies of evidence-based issues of national importance;
• To develop a sound and robust methodology for constituting study panels, producing authoritative reports that are well- disseminated and have significant impact;
• To publish science-focused periodicals to promote a national interest in the sciences;
• South African Journal of Science – multidisciplinary journal of the highest quality and international standing;
  • Quest: Science for South Africa – science magazine that showcases the best of South African research to a wide national and international audience;

  • Strategic Reports – policy advisory reports that seek to influence national decision- and policy-making;
• To promote the development in South Africa of an indigenous system of research journals of internationally recognized quality and usefulness;
• To develop and maintain productive partnerships with government departments;
• To develop and maintain collaborative linkages with science councils, non-government organizations (NGOs), higher education institutions, etc. with a view to the building of capacity in science and its applications within the National System of Innovation (NSI);
• To create new and diversified sources of funding for the sustainable functioning of an independent national Academy;
• To communicate effectively with general and specific publics, as well as with partners and sponsors;
  To expand activities in partnership with national science academies of other countries, including the contracted partnership with the US National Academies;

• To play a significant role in the international science system, particularly in Africa, through organizations such as the IAP, IAMP, IAC & G8+ 5 Academies; TWAS; ICSU; and NASAC; all within the context of NEPAD.

The values of the Academy are independence; using evidence and knowledge as drivers of thinking to attempt to resolve problems via the generation of sound, rigorous and evidence-based solutions; multi-disciplinarity and consilience; the highest ethical and moral norms; and recognizing the essentially developmental nature of our society.

The benefits the Academy aspires to bring to South Africa (and the wider world) are the sustainable provision of a professionally-managed organization that can mobilize the best intellect, expertise and experience to investigate and provide evidence-based solutions to national problems; inspiration and example in science and technology, applied for the benefit of society; international connectedness at the highest level of knowledge and insight; and facilitation of public understanding of the nature, scope and value of the scientific and technological enterprise.

The relevance of the Academy in the context of national policy frameworks and initiatives is that it strives to achieve the purposes of its enabling Act of Parliament through a public-domain, multi-year strategic plan; subscription to the intentions and recommendations of the White Paper on Science and Technology and the National Research and Development Strategy; the Ten Year Innovation Plan; and a role in meeting national priorities such as Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA) and Joint Initiative for Priority Skills Acquisition (JipSA).

GOALS

Corporate Objectives

The overall corporate objectives of the Academy in the coming year are to:

• exercise governance responsibly;

• promote the mobilization of Academy Members in the service of the Academy’s aims;
• establish the Academy as the apex intellectual organization of science;
• increase the understanding of the Academy’s existing and potential partners of its specific niche in the NSI;
• deliver products of high quality and value;
• strengthen and expand systematic evidence-based studies of national importance;
• ensure that its multilateral and bilateral international linkages are functioning well and complementary to those of government and other institutions;
• strengthen links with national institutions and government departments.

Financial Objectives

The financial objectives in the coming year are to continue with efficient and effective financial operations, performing appropriate internal audit and risk management, reporting correctly and transparently as needed, and continuing with our unbroken record of unqualified external audits. Diversification of sources of income is a further key imperative.

Key Challenges and Opportunities for 2009/2010

Key challenges in the coming year are to:

• improve the impact of the many study reports in the policy arena;

• increase the participation of Membership in ASSAf activities;
• successfully implement an open access platform for South African scholarly journals;
• achieve the goals of the Scholarly Publishing Programme;
• successfully implement the new SAJS editorial model and firmly establish the journal as Africa’s premier multi-disciplinary scholarly journal;
• increase the reach and impact of Quest among its target audience;
• consolidate and strengthen the service offered to Members by the ASSAf secretariat;
• improve ASSAf’s profile through increased communication activities;
• ensure diversified income streams as funding from the US National Academies through the African Science Academies Development Initiative (ASADI) draws to a close;
• strengthen interactions with key policymakers and stakeholders;
• ensure delivery of high quality reports and recommendations based on evidence-based project activities;
• address the needs and aspirations of young scientists;
• secure new office space for the ASSAf secretariat.

Opportunities include the following:

• Continued funding and support from the US National Academies of Science; Hosting of the Academy of Science for the Developing World (TWAS) conference;

• Hosting of the InterAcademy Medical Panel (IAMP) conference;
• Membership of the InterAcademy Council (IAC) Board from 2009 to 2013;
• Project-related collaboration with other African academies;
• Role in NASAC;
• Participation in the G8+5 academies meeting.

FORGING A RELATIONSHIP WITH THE NETWORK OF AFRICAN SCIENCE ACADEMIES (NASAC)

The Academy of Science of South Africa is a member of the Network of African Science Academies (NASAC) which was formed on December 13, 2001 with the following founding member-Academies:

1. African Academy of Sciences;

2. Cameroon Academy of Sciences;
3. Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences;
4. Kenya National Academy of Sciences;
5. Madagascar’s National Academy of Arts, Letters and Sciences;
6. Nigerian Academy of Sciences;
7. Académie des Sciences et Techniques du Senegal;
8. Uganda National Academy of Sciences; and
9. Academy of Science of South Africa.

The AAS, having initiated the process of forming the Network, agreed also to host the NASAC Secretariat. NASAC membership currently stands at 13 member Academies with the following four Academies as new members:

1. Tanzania Academy of Sciences;

2. Zambia Academy of Science;
3. Zimbabwe Academy of Science; and
4. Sudan Academy of Science.

The general objective of the Network is to: act as an independent African forum that brings together Academies of Science in the continent to discuss the scientific aspects of problems of common concern, to make common statements on major issues relevant to Africa and to provide mutual support to Member Academies. In pursuing this objective the Network collaborates with other Academies inside and outside the continent as well as with regional and international organizations concerned with African problems.

Derived from the general objective, the specific objectives of NASAC are to:

• Facilitate the provision of advice to governments and regional organizations on scientific aspects of issues of importance to Africa's development;

• Promote cooperation between Academies in Africa by exchanging information on programs and experiences, and sharing common visions;
• Assist in building the capacities of Academies in Africa to improve their role as independent expert advisors to governments and to strengthen their national, regional and international functions;
• Assist science communities in Africa to set up national independent Academies where such bodies do not exist; and to
• Organize conferences, workshops and symposia, and issue statements or reports on topics of major African concern.

The NASAC membership is drawn from African countries and member Academies are independent, non-governmental, non-political and non-profit scientific organizations, but above all, are merit-based and national in the scope of their operations. NASAC is governed by a General Assembly which consists of the Presidents of all member Academies, and an Executive Committee consisting of the President, three Vice- Presidents and the Secretary-General.

Visits and consultations

Between 2001 and 2006 NASAC has grown in terms of the number of member Academies, but also with respect to its activities. Significantly contributing to the development of those activities were two working visits of the Presidents (or their designated substitutes) of NASAC member Academies and NASAC staff to, respectively, the US National Academies of Sciences (US NAS) in April 2003 and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) in February 2006. A third visit to the Royal Society of London is scheduled for October 2006.

The US NAS-visit culminated in the African Science Academy Development Initiative (ASADI), which is funded by a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Under this initiative, all nine founding NASAC members receive support to strengthen their strategic planning capacities, while three Academies (those of Nigeria, South Africa and Uganda) are more intensively supported for purposes of capacity building.

At the end of the visit to the KNAW - with all 13 members participating - participants formulated a number of action items for possible follow-up and requested the KNAW to support NASAC in developing these ideas into a “NASAC Strategic Action Agenda”.1 This was followed by consultations among the NASAC President, the NASAC Secretariat and the KNAW team that organized the February visit.

STRATEGIC ACTION ITEMS

Context and impact

The “NASAC Strategic Action Agenda” presented below is of course about NASAC – and at the same time it is not about NASAC at all. Yes, it is about NASAC insofar as NASAC is the agent that will drive the implementation of the Agenda. No, it is not about NASAC as the most important aim of the project is not so much to strengthen NASAC, as it is to strengthen the thirteen national Academies of science that are member of NASAC – and beyond that: through these Academies to contribute to science itself. Accordingly, the strengthening of NASAC as such is not the purpose of the “NASAC” Strategic Action Agenda, nor is the purpose of that Agenda to invest in the NASAC member Academies as a goal in itself, that is: without regard to the role and position of these Academies in relation to science, scientists and national research systems.

There is great variety among the world’s science Academies, both in terms of history and organization, as well as in terms of their mandate and the functions they perform within their respective countries. The same holds true for African Academies of science that are members of NASAC. Some NASAC member Academies are established organizations with strong ties to active scientists and government – others are still very young and have a long way to go to establish the same ties.

For this reason, it is essential to articulate some overarching considerations that should guide not only the content of the Strategic Action Agenda, but also its implementation.

• First, an Academy of science is not a purpose in itself. Of course, it should bring scientists together – also socially – but this is not enough: an Academy should also be able to play a role in strengthening science and in advising decision-makers.

• Second, an Academy can achieve these expectations only if it makes sure that its membership is not only of the highest quality, but also includes in large part scientists who are actively involved in research at the cutting edge of science.
• Third, an Academy and the larger science community are mutually dependent: an Academy needs a high quality science community from which to recruit members and a science community needs an Academy to enhance its visibility and impact.

One implication of these considerations is that the best and most effective way to strengthen an Academy may well be to invest in the quality and quantity of the science being carried out in country or region: better science requires better scientists, the best of whom can then be inducted in an Academy. Yet, this is not the approach taken in this NASAC Strategic Action Agenda presented below. That Agenda opts for a more modest approach – also financially – by focusing on the question of what specific actions can help the NASAC member Academies to become better and more effective in helping to improve science in their country or region (“policy for science”) and in advising decision-makers and society on the scientific aspects of societal issues (“science for policy”).

Priorities and timeline

There are several categories of actions and activities that are inherent to NASAC as a network of African science Academies. NASAC is not NASAC if it is not involved in:

• Supporting the scientific leadership in countries with no national Academies of science to create new Academies;

• Strengthening the effectiveness and efficiency of existing Academies in Africa, both individually and collectively;
• Developing effective and appropriate links with other African and non-African science organizations or initiatives;
• Supporting member Academies with efforts to enhance public awareness of the potential of science for national development; and
• Serving as a platform for the exchange of information on best practices in respect to the core functions of Academies.

However, although inherent to NASAC, each of these categories of activities is so broad and long term that priorities must be set. This is indeed what the NASAC Strategic Action Agenda is all about: the setting of priorities within the overall framework of the categories of activities that were just mentioned. This implies that, within these overall categories, specific actions must be identified that are do-able with limited resources and within a relatively short period of time. Identifying and adopting such action items does not imply that NASAC will do nothing else. On the contrary: ongoing activities will continue, while there may also be unexpected opportunities to seize or problems to address.

TEN ACTION ITEMS

Within the overall framework outlined in the preceding two paragraphs, ten specific action items have been defined.

1. Support new NASAC members with developing a strategic plan and promote the adoption of concrete work plans As was mentioned before, ASADI supports the development of strategic plans by the nine Academies that founded NASAC, while three of these Academies receive additional support for capacity building. This leaves out the four new NASAC member Academies. These Academies will receive support from NASAC to also develop a strategic plan. This not only for their own benefit, but also as NASAC and its members can only move ahead in a coordinated manner if all NASAC member Academies have a strategic plan. For this reason NASAC will also support member Academies that do not yet have such a plan to develop a concrete work plan that indicates the specific steps to be taken by an Academy for the purpose of implementing the strategic plan.

2. Organize for member Academies a series of workshops on best practices for merit-based science Academies Each Academy is unique. Even so, much can be gained by sharing experiences and insights. For this reason NASAC will organize a series of multi-day workshops on best practices in areas like: membership election and mobilization, fundraising and resource mobilization, reporting and advisory functions, outreach to the general public, relations with the press and other media, participation in international science cooperation, etc. A first workshop may focus especially on Presidents and other elected Officers, while subsequent workshops will focus on Academy executive officials and other members of staff.2 A limited number of outside experts may participate, but the core agenda of each workshop is to stimulate discussion among the participants from the NASAC member Academies.
3. Develop, and share with member Academies, expertise on funding opportunities for African research One of the greatest challenges facing African scientists is to obtain adequate funding, both from sources within their respective countries and from worldwide donor organizations. NASAC member Academies are best placed to help address that challenge in their own country, but NASAC can help by making available to its members the expertise that is required if an Academy or (a group of) African scientists seeks funding from non-African sources. The European Union (EU) is a key actor here, especially as its Framework Programs are also open to African scientists. NASAC will mobilize expertise to tap into the EU funding system and make that expertise available to its member Academies so that they may support African scientists whose research qualifies for EU funding.
4. Request a study on re-vitalizing the role of African universities in national innovation systems from the InterAcademy Council (IAC) Currently, the InterAcademy Council (IAC) is exploring the feasibility of a study on the question of how to re-vitalize African universities so that they can better contribute to national innovation and development. Representing all African Academies of science, NASAC is ideally positioned to act as the requesting organization for such a study. In order to strengthen this request, NASAC will approach the African Union (AU) and the Association of African Universities (AAU) to express their support for the IAC study. As with previous IAC studies, this study will most likely have much international visibility, while the outcome of the study will be of interest to all NASAC member Academies, their governments and the international donor community. As the requesting organization, NASAC and its members will take the lead in defining follow-up initiatives. IAC itself will provide all funding for the study itself.
5. Develop a website to inform the general public of NASAC and its activities and to facilitate information exchange among NASAC member Academies NASAC will develop as soon as possible a high-quality website with up-to-date information on NASAC and its activities. The website will also provide information on NASAC member Academies that do not yet have a website of their own, while the NASAC site provides links to the sites of Academies that already have a site. Part of the website will be accessible to NASAC members only. Initially, this members-only-section of the site will be an archive where members can find information that should not be available to the public at large (for example, on plans and initiatives under consideration). At a later stage the members-only-section may evolve into a virtual office allowing member Academies to work together without physical travel.
6. Stimulate scientific networking between African and non-African scientists and enhance visibility of African science Excellent science is performed in Africa. NASAC will support its member Academies to make this visible, both in Africa and elsewhere. An important way of increasing the visibility of African science is to stimulate scientific networking, exposing scientists from Africa and the rest of the world to each other’s work. More specifically, NASAC will collaborate with the European Science Foundation (ESF) and other partners to organize a series of Europe-Africa research conferences on selected areas of research that are of interest both to Africa and European scientists. In addition, NASAC will support its members in issuing from time to time Statements on some of the critical issues facing African science or society.
7. Support member Academies with undertaking a fore-sighting exercise designed to a set research priorities at the national level In many countries fore-sighting is an important instrument in determining research agendas and priorities. Its outcomes are used not only by the scientific community itself, but also by governments and donor organizations. NASAC will support member Academies in initiating a national fore-sighting exercise, both for the purpose of developing expertise and experience with the methodologies of fore-sighting and for the purpose of defining research priorities in consultation with the science community, government and, where appropriate, the private sector and other stakeholders. NASAC will ensure that the lessons learned in these fore-sighting exercises are available to all NASAC member Academies.
8. Identify criteria and best practices for successful research collaboration between African and non-African scientists. Although almost always unintended, research collaboration involving African and non-African scientists is often of greater benefit to one party than to the other. If the disadvantage falls with African scientists, African science as a whole loses. Using the expertise of its member Academies, NASAC will therefore take the initiative for a study to analyse actual examples of joint research projects in an attempt to identify structural criteria or practices that are essential to secure a balance of benefits. If such criteria and practices are found, NASAC member Academies and donor organizations can use them to ensure that any future partnerships are indeed of mutual benefit.
9. Position NASAC as an attractive partner in matters of Africa-wide policy making and collaboration Once (most of) the above action items have been successfully completed, - and not any sooner - NASAC may be in a position to become the first port of call for institutions outside Africa that are looking for a partner on Africa-wide science and technology issues. Such a role for NASAC must complement and support the role of NASAC member Academies. Of special importance is the development of cooperative relationships with the EU, the global science donor community and organizations like the InterAcademy Panel (IAP), the InterAcademy Council (IAC) and the International Council for Science (ICSU). Within Africa NASAC must seek to establish strong and constructive links with the ICSU and TWAS Regional Offices and with bodies like NEPAD and the AU.
10. Support initiatives to develop concrete plans and proposals for the creation of and African Science Foundation Building an African Science Foundation is a major undertaking that cannot be driven by any organization on its own. For this reason NASAC and the NASAC member Academies will seek to support efforts to launch such a Foundation, recognizing that the most critical factor for the Foundation’s success will be its ability to generate structural financial support from African sources. In this process NASAC and the NASAC members must represent the voice of the science community – nationally and regionally - especially by mobilizing the voice of active African scientists that work at the cutting edge of their respective disciplines.

INTERNATIONAL LIAISON ACTIVITIES OF THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE OF SOUTH AFRICA

Network of African Science Academies (NASAC)

The Academy is a founder Member of NASAC, and is currently a Vice-President. The Secretariat of NASAC is at the African Academies of Science (AAS) in Nairobi. ASSAf will devote much energy to playing a leading role in NASAC activities in 2009-2010 and will partner with NASAC on a variety of activities.

African Science Academies Development Initiative (ASADI)

The African Science Academies Development Initiative (ASADI) programme funded by the US National Academies has provided an effective vehicle for improving cooperation between African science academies and their Members/Fellows. The fourth annual conference and training sessions of the ASADI members, and other NASAC members, was held in London in November 2008. The 2009 ASADI annual meeting, with a focus on “Improving Maternal, Newborn and Child Health in Africa”, is scheduled to take place in Ghana in November 2009. ASSAf is taking responsibility for the production of a policy-makers booklet on the topic and to this end will be organizing a series of workshops of national and international experts.

ASSAf will also host the 2010 ASADI annual meeting and will embark on planning for this activity during the coming financial year. It is anticipated that the focus of the meeting will be on energy.

The workplan and budget for Year Five (equivalent to the financial year 2009-2010) of the project will be submitted to the U S National Academies by 31 May 2009.

The ASSAf partnership with the US National Academies through the ASADI development programme continues to make a major contribution to the development and recognition of the Academy.

InterAcademy Panel (IAP)

ASSAf is one of over 100 member Academies of the IAP, head-quartered in Trieste, Italy. ASSAf can thus enhance its national science academy role within our country by drawing on the experience and capacity of the world’s science academies for South Africa’s benefit. Significant funding of projects has been obtained from IAP.

InterAcademy Council (IAC)

The President of ASSAf has been elected to serve on the Board of the IAC for the period 2009 to 2013. The work of the IAC is described as follows: “The InterAcademy Council (IAC) produces reports on scientific, technological, and health issues related to the great global challenges of our time, providing knowledge and advice to national governments and international organizations”. ASSAf intends during its period of membership of this council to participate fully in its activities.

InterAcademy Medical Panel (IAMP)

ASSAf’s membership of the IAMP provides valuable contact with the main medical academies world-wide and a focus on health problems of the developing world. Professor Anthony Mbewu, Presdient of the Medical Research Council (MRC), is currently a Vice-Chair. ASSAf will host the IAMP General Assembly in 2009.

The Academy of Science for the Developing World (TWAS)

ASSAf is an active collaborator of TWAS, which has programmes to stimulate scientific development in developing countries and co-sponsors ASSAf’s Young Scientist Award. Discussions are underway to establish a TWAS chapter in South Africa and to further promote TWAS fellowship schemes in South Africa. The hosting of the 2009 TWAS Conference in Durban will significantly increase ASSAf’s profile and role in TWAS.

G8 + 5 Academies

A significant outflow of ASSAf’s membership of the IAP has been its continuing inclusion in the annual meetings of the G8 + 5 academies, where the national science academies of the 13 countries discuss key issues of common interest and provide evidence-based advice to the heads of state at the G8 summit meeting. In addition, they issue Consensus Statements to international bodies and the world media/public. In March 2009, the meeting will take place in Rome and the statements to be issued are on migration and energy.

RESPONDING TO THE CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR AFRICAN ACADEMIES OF SCIENCE IN GENERATING KNOWLEDGE

The goal is to enable existing national science academies based in the SADC region to participate in a workshop with representatives from universities in SADC countries which do not (yet) have such academies, in order to jointly explore the ways in which academy functions may add significant value to the university system in each country and regionally. This value in the modern era consists mainly of creating a professionally managed, impartial, multi-disciplinary, high-merit and transparent system of providing evidence-based policy and planning advice in the country concerned, through the effective mobilisation of the best-available expertise (which resides largely in the universities). At the same time, national academies are amongst the most powerful incentives for academic performance, thereby providing universities with an external driver of intense and sustained effort on the part of their academic staff, in a system equally open to all institutions. As a “voice of science”, academies can also promote the development of research and education networks, and provide a reputable forum for multi-party consensus.

Therefore this goal accords very closely with the first action item of the Network of African Science Academies (NASAC) Strategic Action Agenda. Specifically, this action item states: “Help create new academies and support existing members with developing strategic plans and concrete work plans”.

Therefore this paper al seeks to align these two initiatives and to chart a way forward by suggesting a regional approach to the creation of new academies and using the SADC region to initiate this process.

At present, there are five national science academies in the SADC region that are members of NASAC, the secretariat of which is at the African Academy of Sciences (AAS) in Nairobi, Kenya. These are from Madagascar, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Academies of Science have recently been established or are in the process of being established in Mauritius, Mozambique and Botswana. The SADC countries without national science academies are Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, and Swaziland.

ASSAf is the only academy in the region which is part of the African Science Academies Development Initiative (ASADI), now in its fourth year of partnership with the US National Academies. ASADI seeks to develop the capacities of African national science academies to generate evidence-based advice in their countries, while simultaneously fostering receptiveness on the part of policy-makers to use the advice proffered by academies.

The individual universities of the SADC countries in both groups are all members of the Southern African Regional Universities Association (SARUA), which has informally indicated its interest in promoting a more purposeful and planned exploitation of academy functions.

An important aspect of African science academies is that while they can learn much from successful practices and contributions of the established academies of developed countries, they have to create their own adaptations that may be better suited to the circumstances of states which are in various stages of development and contexts.

Some of the outputs which might come from the workshops include models for establishing new national science academies by leap-frogging steps already taken in other countries; cross-representation in panels generating evidence-based advisory reports; productively linking university-based scholars into key agencies for African development; jointly developing and enhancing core academic resources such as scholarly journals, indexes of research outputs, and technology-enhanced information access; making NASAC a well-regarded voice in African policy-, making; maximising the benefits of the honorific function of academies, within countries and the region.

Fluid Populations.Porous Borders: Can Regional Emergency Early Warning mechanisms mitigate impact of disasters? Miss H.N.Nyabola

TITLE: Fluid Populations. Porous Borders: Can a Regional Emergency Early Warning mechanism mitigate against the impact of disaster situations? (working title)

AUTHOR: Miss H. Nanjala Nyabola

ORGANISATION: The University of Oxford

POSTAL ADDRESS:
P.O. Box 61666
Nairobi 00200
KENYA

The goal of this paper is to make a case for the development of an integrated early warning mechanism for conflict and emergency situations (including flooding, droughts and cross-border aggression) in East Africa. Operating from a political economy approach, it will first give a political economic background of the town of Mandera in Kenya that will be used as the case study for the paper. Mandera is selected due to its location with porous borders to Ethiopia and Somalia on either side, a location that has made it not only the base for relief efforts into the two country, but also a gateway for arms and illegal substances into Kenya and from there, the rest of Africa. Thus to understand Mandera and its linkages to Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia is to understand the complex linkages between the three countries and their potential to either exacerbate or ameliorate conflict in the region.

Next, the paper will construct a theoretical framework to justify the creation of such an early warning mechanism and suggest a rudimentary theoretical and institutional constitution of such a mechanism. To do so, it will firstly emphasise the increasing awareness of the interconnectivity of conflicts as reflected by significant shifts in approaches to conflict in the United Nations System. Subsequently, it will highlight the critical indicators that should go into constructing such a mechanism. Finally, it will use this proposed mechanism to highlight the ways in which shortcomings existing responses to emergencies in Somalia and Ethiopia contributed to the current emergency in Mandera, and the ways in which this feeds into insecurity in Nairobi and beyond.

In this way, it will be argued that it is impossible to effectively manage the impact of conflicts on populations and economies, particularly in Africa, characterised by fluid populations and porous borders, without a knowledge collection and management framework. Without such a framework, the goal will continue to be managing versus ending conflicts, preventing East Africa from repositioning itself as a region of great potential but minimal realisation.

How organisations can leverage intellectual capital to enhance capability & Performance - Rachel Muga Monyoncho

How organisations can leverage intellectual capital to enhance capability & Performance - Rachel Muga Monyoncho

PREPARED BY: RACHEL MUGA MONYONCHO-DIVISION HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGER, NORTH AND EAST AFRICA DIVISION-COCA-COLA SABCO
P. O. Box 73577 Nairobi-Kenya, Tel +254733461230
Email: rmonyoncho@ccsabco.co.za or rmonyoncho@gmail.com

INTRODUCTION

The concept of knowledge management is not new; it is rapidly getting a lot of attention in many areas in business. It encompasses identifying and mapping intellectual asset within the organization and generating new knowledge for competitive advantage.

Corporate governance on the other hand refers to the framework within which organizations are structured and how decisions are made in an organization. It is therefore impossible to discuss knowledge management in isolation of leadership and governance practices in an organization.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

Knowledge management comprises a range of practices used in an organization to identify, create, represent, distribute and enable adoption of insights and experiences. When knowledge resides in individuals it is referred to intellectual capital.

The need to manage knowledge seems obvious and despite proliferation of discussions on the subject, few organizations have acted on that understanding.

Unlike physical assets like, plant and equipment or money in the bank, intellectual capital is intangible. It is difficult to quantify and reflect in it in accounting books, making It easy for business leaders to underscore its role organizational growth and development. As the business environment is rapidly changing, organizations also need to adapt and learn quickly to remain relevant and competitive.

OBJECTIVE OF THE PAPER

This paper aims at showing how organizations can use knowledge management to enhance organizational learning and enhance overall organizational capability and performance. Since the subject of knowledge management is very wide, this paper mainly focuses on the kind of knowledge that resides in individuals in the organization, usually referred to as intellectual capital.

IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY

This paper is expected to challenge current practices of cutting costs through retrenchments, because they succeed in improving the bottom line in short term, but the huge cost of intellectual capital lost in retrenched employees may not be worth the short term gain of improved bottom line.

KEY FINDINGS

The key findings of this study include:

• The need for continuous life long learning is inescapable reality and coaching, mentoring and on-job training is key in facilitating continuous learning

• The tendency towards smaller workforces has created the need to replace informal knowledge with formal methods through the use of technology
• Nothing changes or happens unless people make it happen

CONCLUSION

This paper has attempted to challenge current organizational practices of focusing on the bottom line and short term results at the expense of the more intangible intellectual capital. Organizations need to begin to turn their attention at building organizational capability through continuous transference of knowledge through structured employee coaching, mentoring and on the job training.

Impacts of NTIC on Societies and Universities - Impacts des NTIC sur les Sociétés et les Universités

* NTIC = New Technologies of Information and Communication / Nouvelles Tecnologies de l’Information et de la Communication

By: Amadou Mahtar M’bow and Madiagne Diallo

Abstract :The sector of Information Technologies (IT) is now among the most dynamic of the globalized world. The rapidly changing and growing telecommunications sector ensures to the IT sector its easiness and power to shorten distances, in particular bringing people through its great nucleus called the Internet network.

The technological convergence that allows to combine data, voice and video in a single package and send it with Internet Protocol (IP) makes this huge network a considerable player in today and in future societies. In this article we provide an analysis on the evolution of IT and respectively its impact on societies and universities.

Résumé : Le secteur des Tecnologies de l’Information (TI) est de nos jours parmi les plus dynamiques du monde globalisé. L’évolution rapide et sans cesse croissante des télécommunications garantit au secteur des TI sa facilité et sa puissance de raccourcir les distances, en particulier rapprochant les personnes à travers son grand noyau dénommé le réseau Internet.

La convergence tecnologique permettant aujourd’hui de regrouper dans un même paquet des données, de la voix et de la video et l’acheminer par le Protocole de l’Internet (IP) fait de cet immense réseau un espace incontournable dans le quotidien présent et futur des sociétés. Dans cet article, nous proposons une analyse de l’évolution des TI et respectivement son impact sur les sociétés et les universités.

Amadou Mahtar M’bow
Directeur Général de l’UNESCO (1974--1987)
Dakar, Sénégal

Madiagne Diallo
Departamento de Engenharia Industrial,
PUC-Rio--Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro,
Rua Marquês de São Vicente, 225, Sala 950L,
Gávea – CEP: 22453-900, Rio de Janeiro – RJ, Brésil
Email : diallo@puc-rio.br

Introduction

Ancré sur les valeurs de chaque peuple, sur la vision qu'il a de son avenir, le développement peut être considéré comme une entreprise tendant notamment à intérioriser la dynamique du changement technologique, c'est-à-dire à mettre la science et la technique au service de l'intérêt de la communauté ainsi que du bien-être et de la réalisation des aspirations profondes matérielles et spirituelles de chacun de ses membres.

L'espace de la communication entre les hommes s’est mondialisé, tandis que ne cessent d'augmenter la quantité des connaissances et des informations, et avec le développement de l'informatique, les moyens pour les recueillir, les stocker, les utiliser et les transférer d'un point à l'autre de la planète. Les techniques de télécommunications se sont perfectionnées, s'ajoutant aux moyens classiques de diffusion - livres, revues, journaux - pour offrir les possibilités d'une communication qui peut être tout à la fois universelle et instantanée.

Si la biosphère apparaît désormais comme un espace unifié pour l'ensemble de l'espèce humaine, à qui revient collectivement la responsabilité de sa protection et de son aménagement, il est également évident que la convergence des nouvelles tecnologies de l’information a entraîné aussi une unification croissante du monde en tant que lieu de communication et d'échanges entre les hommes et entre les cultures.

Les satellites multiplient le rayon d'action des médias, effacent les frontières, intensifient la circulation des messages, facilitent l'accès aux banques de données informatisées qui s'enrichissent et se connectent en réseaux multiples. Ces échanges et ces contacts s'accompagnent à certains niveaux d'une tendance croissante à l'uniformisation des goûts et des comportements, à l'homogénéisation de certaines normes de vie, de pensée et d'action, de production et de consommation, véhiculées par la diffusion standardisée des mêmes feuilletons télévisés et des mêmes rythmes musicaux, des mêmes vêtements et des mêmes rêves d'évasion. La poussée des réseaux sociaux (professionels, culturels et académiques) sur Internet [2] accentuent ces phénomènes.

La communauté scientifique n’a pas manqué d’aborder des sujets sur l’évolution des TI et leurs impacts. L’auteur dans [1] aborde l’évolution croissante des communautés virtuelles en analysant l’influence que ces formes de regroupement ont sur les personnes qui y adhèrent. Dans [4], la dissémination du savoir par les voix electroniques y est discutée, abordant ses avantages avec l’évolution des TI. L’enseignement à distance et les nouvelles formes d’enseignement sous l’influence des TI sont analysés dans [3] et [5]. L’auteur dans [6] analyse la position de l’INTERNET dans la vie quotidienne actuelle des personnes. Les auteurs dans [6] et [7] abordent directement les impacts des NTIC respectivement sur la qualité de vie des personnes handicapées et la société du savoir.

Dans cet article, nous contribuons dans ce sens en proposant une analyse sur les impacts des NTIC sur les sociétés et les universités. Le reste de l’article est organisé comme suit. Nous abordons en premier lieu l’avancée de la puissance numérique. Ensuite, nous analysons les impacts sur les sociétés, puis ceux sur les universités. Nous terminons l’article avec une conclusion et des perspectives de recherche.

La puissance numérique

On vit actuellement un mouvement de convergence entre des technologies fondées notamment sur l'emploi de la numération binaire, le perfectionnement des semi-conducteurs, l'utilisation de l'espace extra-atmosphérique et la mise au point de moyens de transmission nouveaux. Ces technologies transforment les différentes fonctions relatives à l'information. Les possibilités de stockage de données, de sons et d'images se sont tellement perfectionnées, qu’aujourd´hui une mini-carte numérique peut stocker plus de 60 gigabits de données, qu’il y a 3 ans, correspondaient à la capacité de stockage d’un ordinateur de bureau. Les capacités de traitement et de calcul s'accroissent dans des proportions très considérables. En 2007, on découvrait les ordinateurs bi-processeurs 64 bits qui effectuent en quelques secondes des calculs qui nécessitaient des heures il y a quelques années. Qui croirait qu’avant la fin de la dégustation des processeurs 64bits arriveraient en 2008-2009 les processeurs de la ligne CORE intégrant et multipliant des 2x64bits (dual core, quad core, core 2 duo, core 2 quad, core 2 extreme ...). Ces hautes puissances de procession réservées dans les temps aux serveurs et stations à haute performance sont aujourd’hui devenues normales dans les ordinateurs coventionnels de maison, bureau et portables.

Les possibilités de transmission augmentent à travers l'espace grâce aux satellites de communication, à la surface de la terre ou sous les mers avec l'utilisation des ondes d'hyperfréquence ou des fibres optiques. La collecte des données enfin acquiert des dimensions nouvelles grâce aux techniques de détection numérique et de la télédétection.

L'association des technologies informatiques et des technologies de communication donne lieu à la création et l'interconnexion de réseaux complexes, permettant de traiter et de transmettre l'information instantanément, en temps réel.

Ces technologies contribuent à transformer les sociétés et à orienter leur évolution dans le sens d'une complexité toujours plus grande.

Les transformations en cours et les perspectives dans le domaine de la communication et de l'information sont liées non seulement au développement de certaines technologies nouvelles mais aussi à la puissance et aux possibilités particulières que confère leur conjonction, lorsqu'elles sont greffées les unes sur les autres. Mais ces transformations conduisent également à donner des dimensions nouvelles aux réflexions sur la communication et l'information, comme facteurs essentiels de changement dans la vie des différentes sociétés, sur les chances qu'elles offrent aux hommes et les problèmes qu'elles peuvent leur poser.

La communication et l'information peuvent en effet être considérées comme le système nerveux des sociétés contemporaines; elles sont indispensables à leurs activités, notamment économiques; elles jouent un rôle essentiel dans les transactions financières et les activités bancaires, dans le développement des échanges commerciaux, des transports terrestres, de la navigation maritime et aérienne, des systèmes de santé ou d'administration publique et aussi des systèmes militaires.

Les impacts sur les sociétés

Avec l'essor des télécommunications et de l'informatique, d'innombrables réseaux de communication se sont établis dont le plus célébre, l'INTERNET, proliférant des informations (données, voix et vidéo) diffusées sur l'ensemble de la planète. De plus en plus, les hommes rencontrent dans leur vie quotidienne d'autres cultures, découvrent d'autres valeurs, observent des attitudes qui ne leur sont pas familières, faisant ainsi l'apprentissage d'une humanité aux visages multiples. Et bientôt, avec la numérisation de la télévison, les émissions télévisuelles seront transmises en direct sur les téléphones portables. [5]

Le monde tend vers un champ totalement ouvert où la diffusion des connaissances pourra être assurée largement et où l'irruption des autres, devenue permanente, atteindra le moindre individu. C'est là une évolution dont on ne peut encore mesurer toutes les conséquences, mais à laquelle il parait nécessaire de se préparer dès maintenant, car elle aura une portée considérable dans la vie des peuples et dans les relations internationales.

Il est nécessaire une petite réflexion pour chercher et essayer d'identifier les principales caractéristiques de ce processus qui rend possibles des changements aussi radicaux et qui se propagent si vite. Évidemment, l’espace de ce résumé étendu ne permet pas une analyse plus profonde, mais nous aimerions, pour le moins, pointer ici certaines de ces caractéristiques :

• la conjugaison de progrès technologiques extraordinaires, dans les derniers 50 années, dans les secteurs du calcul et de la communication qui nous a mené vers la constitution de puissants réseaux informatiques;

• le processus exponentiel de diminution des coûts de production qui, alliée à l'augmentation de la capacité de calcul et de transmission des informations a mené vers l’actuelle dissémination de cette technologie;
• le phénomène « d’élimination des distances » rendu évident par l'utilisation des réseaux informatiques;
• l'extraordinaire renforcement des habitudes de coopération que le réseau stimule et qui a déjà mené vers certains résultats inimaginables il y a peu d'années;
• le caractère indissociant entre la jeunesse et la propagation des nouvelles technologies.

Examinons une de ces caractéristiques avec un peu plus de détails. En fait, quelle est la base de cette rapidité presque dévastatrice avec laquelle cette révolution avance sur nos habitudes tant quotidiennes que professionnelles? Elle se base sur deux processus prolongés et de croissance exponentielle: la capacité de calcul et la vitesse de transmission de données.

Le premier de ces processus de croissance exponentielle est déjà en cours depuis plus de cinquante ans avec l'apparition des premiers ordinateurs en vente sur le marché dans la décennie de 1950. Depuis là, à chaque dix-huit mois (ceci est à chaque année et demie) la capacité informatique double et peut s’acheter à un prix fixe sur le marché. Nous pouvons acheter, avec quelques milliers de FCFA qu’il coûte aujourd'hui, un vrai super-ordinateur dont le prix il y a quelques années serait des millions. Inimaginable ! Nous ne connaissons pas de processus analogue dans l'histoire de l'humanité. Plus puissant encore, il est prévisible sur la base des connaissances scientifiques et technologiques déjà existantes que ce processus va continuer encore pour au moins 15 ans [6,7].

En ce qui concerne la vitesse de transmission des données, la situation est encore plus dramatique. L'utilisation des fibres optiques, dans les derniers dix années, ont mené à une croissance surprenante de la capacité pour les communications. Il y a un peu plus de dix ans seulement, la plus grande vitesse de communication de données disponible dans le monde était de 56 mille bits par seconde (bps). Cette vitesse est aujourd’hui pratiquée par les ordinateurs sur des lignes téléphoniques communes (accès à INTERNET à travers son téléfone résidentiel commun). Les hautes vitesses pratiquées aujourd'hui sont de l'ordre de 1000 fois plus grandes, en étant déjà en phase expérimentale des vitesses supérieurs à 600 millions de bps. Les perspectives de progrès sont vraiment surprenantes.
Le pouvoir et l’économie --- Tout pouvoir politique se situe nécessairement au centre d'un système complexe de communication et d'information: les décisions exigent de plus en plus que soient prises en considération des informations toujours plus nombreuses et constamment renouvelées; toute politique, par ailleurs, doit être expliquée et commentée pour pouvoir recueillir l'adhésion. Par elles-mêmes la communication et l'information, entendues au sens le plus large, c'est-à-dire comme ensembles d'activités de manipulation de signes et de symboles, deviennent le secteur d'activité le plus ample dans certaines sociétés. Les industries de la communication et de l'information acquièrent dans certains pays un poids économique tel qu'elles tendent à devenir dominantes et à supplanter comme élément principal de formation du produit national les industries lourdes et manufacturières. De nos jours, l'économie est principalement fondée sur l'information, et que l'information est la ressource clé qui joue un rôle majeur, plus décisif encore que celui que jouaient les matières premières et l'énergie. Dans le monde industriel globalisé, l’information est une clé dans la compétitivité d’une entreprise. L'importance accrue de la communication et de l'information et la portée des bouleversements qu'elles introduisent dans la vie des sociétés conduisent à mieux mesurer leur rôle dans le développement des sociétés. ---

L’école --- On sait que, dans certains pays, il n'est pas rare que les enfants reçoivent des informations diffusées par les médias audiovisuels pendant une durée comparable à celle pendant laquelle un enseignement scolaire leur est dispensé. L'école, en tant que moyen de transmission des connaissances, se trouve ainsi située dans un contexte très différent de ce qu'il était dans le passé: elle est désormais confrontée à la nécessité d'assurer une sorte de "néo-alphabétisation" en suscitant la capacité de sélectionner les messages, de les interpréter de façon critique et de classer des flots d'informations discontinues et hétérogènes en savoirs organisés et cohérents. Les médias à leur tour peuvent ou pourraient constituer d'excellents instruments de sensibilisation, de motivation et de préparation à l'apprentissage.

Les nouvelles technologies, d'autre part, ont permis l'élaboration de très nombreux matériels d'enseignement qui visent à démultiplier les effets des activités de formation; leur utilisation et les gains, en temps, en personnel, en efficacité, qui peuvent être ainsi réalisés, le rôle également de l'informatique comme support et comme objet de l'enseignement sont au coeur de la réflexion sur les perspectives futures des méthodes et programmes éducatifs. Toutes ces transformations sont en effet susceptibles d'apporter de profonds bouleversements tant dans la nature des besoins éducatifs que dans les réponses qui peuvent y être apportées [2,3]. C'est dire leur importance pour l'avenir. Quant au développement scientifique et technique, il est influencé dans une large mesure par l'accroissement quantitatif et qualitatif des instruments de communication et d'information, qu'il s'agisse de la capacité d'investigation et de calcul, de la circulation et de l'utilisation de l'information scientifique et technique destinée aux spécialistes et véhiculant le patrimoine des connaissances acquises, ou de la sensibilisation du grand public à la science et à la technologie et de l'épanouissement d'une culture scientifique et technologique. ---

Nous assistons, ces dernières années, à un scénario de plus en plus familier d'avancées technologiques dans les secteurs de calcul et de communication. Ces avancées sont plus visibles à travers les réseaux informatiques, desquels l’INTERNET, de portée mondiale, et certainement le plus connu. Ces changements sont rapidement arrivés à la société en général, à tel point que, par exemple, dans certains pays en développement (Ex. Brésil et bientôt le Sénégal), une déclaration d'impôt sur les revenus peut simplement s’effectuer sur l’INTERNET, sans pour autant sortir de chez soi. L'accumulation d'expériences, bien que limitée encore, montre déjà que le réseau, en commençant à influencer dans une activité donnée, fréquemment transforme la même de manière profonde, en laissant des marques indélébiles.

Tout ceci amène à croire que nous sommes en pleine grande révolution qui transforme la société à court et moyen termes. Une réflexion plus soigneuse révèle que dans le centre de cette révolution il se trouve le concept de l’information. Le terme « Information », intimement lié au terme « savoir » [7], ne possède pas une définition précise bien que nous croyons qu'elle soit suffisamment bien caractérisée pour ne pas laisser de doute sur ce à quoi elle refère.

Ensuite, les avancées technologiques reflètent des changements marquants qui influencent la génération, la transformation, le stockage, la transmission et la récupération des informations. La tendance basique, dramatiquement prouvée par le phénomène récent de la toile mondiale, est un énorme accroissement dans la quantité d'informations, facilement disponible « en-ligne » dans le réseau, accompagné d'outils de plus en plus innovateurs pour les manier. La jeunesse en est l’acteur et comme aussi très souvent la cible et victime principale!

Impacts sur les universités

Les Universités, pour plusieurs raisons, sont au coeur du processus des changements. Un fait singulier est que pour des circonstances historiques, la communauté académique a eu l'occasion d'être l'acteur principal dans le développement des nouvelles technologies, en influençant décisivement dans l'établissement des nouvelles habitudes de son utilisation.

Ceci parce que les canaux académiques ont servi tant comme des auteurs que des « cobayes » dans la création et dans l'établissement de la nouvelle réalité qui est apparue avec l'avènement des réseaux d'ordinateurs. Une autre raison déterminante par laquelle les universités sont et seront profondément touchées par le phénomène en question est un constat très simple: l’information est, peut-être, la matière première, la plus importante et la plus concrète autour de laquelle se base lui-même le concept d’université.

En fait, d'une forme un peu simplifiée, mais même ainsi suffisamment précise, la raison d'être de l'Université est la création et la découverte de l’information (à travers la recherche), sa transmission (à travers l'enseignement et les activités d'extension et de développement) et son registre (à travers la production de publications qui sont stockées dans des bibliothèques [3]).

Néanmoins, si nous devrons accepter que la révolution en cours touchera tout ce qui est lié au concept d’information, il est nécessaire de conclure que les universités elles-mêmes seront profondément touchées par le processus. L'expérience qui accompagne la rapide avancée et dissémination de l'informatisation des activités universitaires confirme le diagnostic ci-dessus. En fait, des couches de plus en plus larges de la communauté universitaire sentent l'influence croissante des nouvelles technologies dans leurs tâches quotidiennes et sentent aussi qu'avec le temps qui passe, une proportion de plus en plus grande de leurs activités professionnelles sera touchée par l'influence transformatrice des ordinateurs et des réseaux informatiques.

Et à l'intérieur de cette perspective, quels seraient les secteurs d'intérêt de l'Université qui seront probablement les plus touchés? Difficile la réponse, mais sans doute, nous pouvons mentionner trois grands secteurs d'applications:

• l'éducation à distance ;

• la bibliothèque numérique ;
• la dissémination,
  dont la nécessité d’utilisation de l’INTERNET ne cesse de croître voire est devenu indispensable.

Chacune de ces applications a déjà suffisamment avancé et a déjà produit beaucoup d’effets substantiels pour que l’on puisse affirmer, avec une certaine sécurité, qu’elles continueront à se développer rapidement, avec impact, en particulier, sur certaines des activités universitaires des plus basiques.

Résultat de la convergence de technologies diverses qui s'interpénètrent et s'entrecroisent, l'univers de la communication et de l'information apparaît comme un tout mouvant et complexe et en quelque sorte omniprésent. De près ou de loin, il concerne la plupart des aspects de la vie des sociétés. Les disparités très importantes qui caractérisent la situation des différents pays, quant à leur capacité de communication et d'information, n'en sont que plus sérieuses. Les pays les moins bien pourvus, et en particulier les pays en développement, se trouvent privés de moyens parmi les plus efficaces pour maitriser les différents aspects du processus de développement. Ainsi le développement de la communication et de l'information dans les pays en développement, dont la nécessité fait actuellement l'objet d'un consensus de la communauté internationale, est-il un enjeu central pour l'avènement d'un monde plus équitable et plus solidaire et pour l'épanouissement de la démocratie au sein des diverses sociétés.

En se dotant de meilleures capacités de communiquer, de s'informer et d'informer, les pays en développement non seulement peuvent mieux faire entendre leur voix dans le concert des nations, mais aussi peuvent mieux progresser en matière d'éducation - notamment en ce qui concerne la lutte contre l'analphabétisme -, développer leurs capacités scientifiques et techniques, améliorer leurs systèmes de santé, promouvoir le développement rural, mieux combattre les catastrophes naturelles. La communication et l'information deviennent également pour ces pays, comme pour tous les autres d'ailleurs, un moyen de consolider l'unité nationale, de préserver l'identité culturelle et de promouvoir une participation accrue des populations aux évolutions en cours.

Deux problématiques spécifiques se dessinent cependant dans cet univers complexe: celle des organes d'information, des médias, axée sur la collecte, la circulation et la diffusion des nouvelles auprès du grand public, et celle de l'information spécialisée, notamment scientifique et technique, axée sur la collecte, la circulation et la diffusion de données factuelles, numériques ou bibliographiques destinées à des utilisateurs spécialisés. Certes, les mêmes canaux de transmission, les mêmes véhicules de communication peuvent servir, par exemple, au fonctionnement des agences et organes de presse et à celui des banques de données, mais les modes d'appréhension des contenus diffèrent. Dans un cas, le message, bien que médiatisé, prolonge la communication interpersonnelle, dans sa contemporanéité avec l'événement; dans l'autre cas, l'effort porte sur l'usage de méthodes et outils divers, qui permettent de classer, d'organiser l'information, de manière à la rendre accessible et utilisable au moment approprié pour des tâches ou des besoins spécifiques à l'intention d'un usager futur: chercheur, ingénieur, économiste, éducateur, etc.

S'agissant d'information scientifique et technique, il existe une relation circulaire entre l'émetteur et le récepteur; l'émetteur traite, sans la modifier, l'information résultant de recherches fondamentales ou appliquées et d'activités pratiques, et l'intègre dans un circuit de transmission adéquat (base ou banque de données, automatisée ou non, fichier de centre de documentation ou de bibliothèque spécialisée, publications).

Dans la masse d'informations mises à sa disposition, l'utilisateur exerce librement son choix et retient celles dont il a besoin pour approfondir sa connaissance de la question qui le concerne et orienter par la suite son investigation ou son action, elles-mêmes génératrices de nouvelles informations. L'information scientifique et technique joue donc un rôle moteur dans l'accroissement des connaissances, dans l'acquisition et la maîtrise du savoir ou du savoirfaire, et les services et systèmes chargés de la traiter et de la diffuser constituent un instrument essentiel pour le développement des sociétés.

Le volume et la diversité des informations, liés à l'avancement continu du savoir, ne cessent de croître, et toutes les sociétés soucieuses de progrès sont confrontées à la nécessité d'assurer le fonctionnement de mécanismes de stockage, de traitement et de diffusion de l'information spécialisée, et notamment de l'information scientifique et technique. Les systèmes et services d'information se développent surtout dans les pays industrialisés et certains d'entre eux détiennent une situation privilégiée, parfois une situation de monopole, tant en ce qui concerne les contenus qui résultent le plus souvent des travaux et des recherches effectués dans ces pays, qu'en ce qui concerne les moyens techniques du stockage et de la diffusion. De nombreux pays doivent surmonter divers obstacles techniques et des contraintes de coût pour accéder à l'information. L'exigence qui s'impose est celle d'un accès plus libre et plus efficace à une information plus pertinente.

L'information devrait pouvoir circuler sans entrave et chaque pays devrait être en mesure de disposer des données utiles à son développement. Il est donc indispensable, d'une part, d'assurer la compatibilité et l'interconnexion des sytèmes d'information á travers le monde, d'autre part, de favoriser le développement, dans tous les pays et sur le plan régional, d'infrastructures, de réseaux, de banques de données qui permettent de maîtriser l'ensemble de l'information nécessaire aux activités scientifiques, techniques, économiques, sociales ou culturelles, enfin de créer les conditions permettant un plus libre accès à l'information nécessaire au progrès des différents peuples.

Conclusion et perspectives

Ces quelques réflexions montrent l'étendue et la diversité de l'univers de la communication. Celui-ci apparaît de plus en plus comme le lieu où se rencontrent des réalités qui sont la substance même des sociétés contemporaines: les sciences, les technologies, l'éducation et les cultures. L'information scientifique et technique, dans ses formes les plus spécialisées, tend à s'entrecroiser avec les processus de transfert des connaissances et des technologies; quant aux médias, conjugués aux industries culturelles, leur rôle dans la destinée des cultures apparaît aujourd'hui déterminant.

Pour tous les pays, et en particulier les pays en développement, les nouvelles technologies de l'information et de la communication représentent un potentiel énorme et ouvrent des possibilités insouponnées. Faute d'être en mesure d'y avoir largement recours, les pays risquent de rester à la périphérie du monde, et leurs populations à l’écart des grands courants de la vie politique, économique et culturelle.

Il paraît donc essentiel d'éliminer les obstacles qui empêchent les hommes et les nations d'accéder à toutes les sources de l'information et d'exprimer directement leurs propres points de vue, essentiel aussi d'éviter les distorsions qui portent atteinte à la dignité et à l'indépendance des peuples.

Une perspective nette induite par les nouvelles tecnologies de communication et l’INTERNET est la création d’universités en réseau, complémentaire dans leurs activités diverses. L’INTERNET, à accés gratuit, met les universités des pays pauvres au même pied d’égalité que les universités de pays riches en ce qui concerne l’accès et la dissemination des informations publiques.

Dans cette perspective, il paraît important de favoriser l'épanouissement de toutes les formes de communication et d'information dans tous les pays et, en particulier, dans ceux en développement; d'encourager la recherche et la mise en pratique d'innovations, permettant une adaptation plus souple des structures et des contenus et des utilisateurs différenciés, une élaboration d'informations faisant appel à une plus large participation des populations, et une diversification accrue des expressions culturelles.

Références

1. HILTZ, R. (1984), On-line Communities: a case study of the office of the future. Ablex Publishing Corporation, New Jersey.

2. COLLIS, B. (1996), Tele-Learning-Making Connections,Thompson Publications.
3. DENNING, P. and ROUS, B. (1995), The electronic publishing plan, Communications of the ACM, 38 (4) 97-103.
4. STEPHENSON, J. , ed., (2001), Teaching & learning online: new pedagogies for new technologies. - books.google.com
5. WELLMAN, B. (2002), The Internet in everyday life, CA Haythornthwaite - 2002 - books.google.com.
6. BOUGIE, T., (2002), The impact of new technologies on the quality of life of people with disabilities. European Council.
7. DARIN, S. (2006), The Impact of the New Technologies of Information and the Communication in the Society of Knowledge. Technical Report available at http://www.villesnumeriques.org/rvn/bc_docpub.nsf/TBVSchDoc/1773bda62f05...

Implementing the social vision of an egalitarian society: intellectual capital and the production of social policy analysts

Corresponding author: Dr Lulama Makhubela - Intellectual Capital, Development Bank of Southern Africa, 1258 Lever Road, Headway Hill, Midrand; lulum@dbsa.org
Dr Robert Van Niekerk Centre for the Analysis of South African Social Policy, Oxford University, UK; Robert.vanniekerk@socres.ox.ac.uk

Abstract
This paper offers an analysis of intellectual capital as “intellectual action” in the social sphere, or the application of knowledge for social purposes. It is specifically concerned with the production of social policy analysts who can implement the social vision of an egalitarian society in the African context. The paper uses the case of South Africa to raise questions about knowledge-production and social policy. The paper begins by discussing the existing intellectual capital which has informed the creation of a social vision of an egalitararian South African society. These include foundational documents such as African Claims (1943), the Freedom Charter (1955), the RDP base document (1994) and the Constitution (1996). These foundational documents suggest a particular relationship between economic and social policy – that social policy should not be subsumed into economic policy and thus undermine the achievement of social goals such as inequality and poverty reduction. There has though not been sufficient attention paid to the production of social policy analysts which can give effect to the social vision – either through directly informing policy or reflecting on current knowledge and its production in the social sphere – and the degree to which such knowledge informs the implementation of the social vision of an egalitarian society. Crucial to the production of such social policy analysts is the institutional context within which knowledge is produced (such as universities from a disadvantaged as opposed to a privileged background) and the race, gender and class characteristics of the knowledge producers. We argue that engaging issues of representivity is important for not only issues of redress but to also ensure that a diverse range of voices are heard and can contribute to implementing the social vision. This will require concerted and intentional action. The paper outlines strategies to its achievement – including the development of social policy analysts skilled in meta-analysis who can evaluate existing knowledge in the social sphere, and the degree to which it informs the implementation of a social vision of an egalitarian society with due consideration to concerns of race, gender and class diversity. The paper concludes by considering some practical recommendations for producing the desired social policy analysts, based on the South African case of social policy and knowledge production.

Introduction

The paper offers an analysis of intellectual capital as “intellectual action” in the social sphere, or the application of knowledge for social purposes. It is specifically concerned with the production of social policy analysts who can implement the social vision of an egalitarian society in the African context. The paper uses the case of South Africa to raise questions about knowledge-production and social policy. It begins by discussing the existing intellectual capital that has informed the creation of a social vision of an egalitararian South African society. These include foundational documents such as African Claims (1943), the Freedom Charter (1955), the RDP base document (1994) and the Constitution (1996). These foundational documents suggest a particular relationship between economic and social policy – that social policy should not be subsumed into economic policy and thus undermine the achievement of social goals such as inequality and poverty reduction. There has though not been sufficient attention paid to the production of social policy analysts which can give effect to the social vision – either through directly informing policy or reflecting on current knowledge and its production in the social sphere – and the degree to which such knowledge informs the implementation of the social vision of an egalitarian society. Crucial to the production of such social policy analysts is the institutional context within which knowledge is produced (such as universities from a disadvantaged as opposed to a privileged background) and the race, gender and class characteristics of the knowledge producers. We argue that engaging issues of representivity is important for not only issues of redress but to also ensure that a diverse range of voices are heard and can contribute to implementing the social vision. This will require concerted and intentional action. The paper outlines strategies to its achievement – including the development of social policy analysts skilled in meta-analysis who can evaluate existing knowledge in the social sphere, and the degree to which it informs the implementation of a social vision of an egalitarian society with due consideration to concerns of race, gender and class diversity. The paper concludes by considering some practical recommendations for producing the desired social policy analysts, based on the South African case of social policy and knowledge production.

Implementing the social vision of an egalitarian society: intellectual capital and the production of social policy analysts

Recent evidence suggests that Africa is at development cross-roads. A report of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Africa Steering Group reported that achieving the Millennium Development Goals held “the promise of saving millions of lives; empowering women; addressing the scourge of illiteracy, hunger and malnutrition; and ensuring that Africa’s children have access to high-quality education and good health to lead productive lives” (MDG, 2008: 1). In achieving these significant development goals the MDG Steering Group reported however that the “continent as a whole is lagging behind on each Goal despite a very encouraging rise in the rate of economic growth, an overall improvement in the policy environment and strong macro-economic fundamentals” (MDG, 2008:1) The report of the MDG Steering Group suggests that successful economic development has not translated into improved social development, at least to the degree desired. The question that this paper aims to address is the relationship between social policy and economic policy and the production of capacity for social policy analytic decision-making which can advance the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. In explaining the relationship between social policy and economic policy it draws on the seminal work of Mkandiwire (2004) and Adesina (2008) on the need for a “transformative social policy” that engages with problems of economic development while preventing the traditional subsuming of social policy to economic development. The paper uses the case of South Africa to examine historical inequities and deficiencies in knowledge-production that have prevented the development of social policy analysts who have the necessary skills to address the new knowledge challenges of “transformative social policy” and who are demographically representative of the wider society. It examines historical thinking on egalitarian social policy in South Africa and discusses an institutional model of mentorship that can produce the type of social policy analyst with the knowledge creation and management skills necessary for realising this egalitarian and historical vision of an inclusive, transformed society. Some broader lessons for African countries confronting questions of analytic capacity for social policy and development are discussed.

The framework for new knowledge-creation and analytic capacity: re-examing social policy and economic policy in Africa

A myriad of definitions on Intellectual Capital have been advanced leading to different interpretation of the concept – in part because of the problem of how to measure and give value to a qualities that are intangible such as the tacit knowledge which is embedded in an individual and which, unlike explicit knowledge, becomes difficult to codify . In the literature on intellectual capital and policy making the original definition of Galbraith provides however a provocative insight on the purposive, social intent of knowledge-creation. Galbraith argued that intellectual capital was more than “pure” intellect but included “intellectual action, a progression from possessing knowledge to applying it and which implied relationships and processes which are needed to transform knowledge into value (Swart, 2006). Mkandiwire’s (2004) observations on the history of the relationship between social and economic policy in recent African development and the need for a “transformative social policy” represents an intellectual action with far reaching implications for African development policy and actions to achieve development goals. Recently reviewing the history of the relationship between economic and social policy he argues that social policy has been relegated to a “social safety” net for those who cannot participate or benefit from the proceeds of economic development (Mkandiwire, 2004). In this context social expenditure is seen as a drain on fiscal resources that should be supporting economic development. The consequences of this policy approach translated into action are the structural adjustment programmes which wreaked havoc with African development for two decades (Adesina, 2008). A re-balancing of the relationship between economic and social policy is now required – one where “social policy should be conceived as involving overall and prior concerns with social development, and as a key instrument that works in tandem with economic policy to ensure equitable and socially sustainable development. Social policy must be designed not only residually, to cater for social casualties, but also integrated as a central component of policies, to ensure the wherewithal for their sustainability (Mkandiwire, 2004: 3-4). The question which emerges is how are these insights on the need for a transformative social policy to be applied so that it influences social policy debates and their outcomes? Who will the agents of this new intellectual capital and how are they to be produced?

South Africa: The context of social policy fifteen years into the post-1994 democracy

Since 1994 South Africa has recorded significant outcomes from many of its social policies aimed at overcoming the deeply rooted legacies of apartheid and colonialism. Government figures1 on access to basic services indicate for example that households’ access to water increased from 62 percent in 1996 to 88 percent in 2007. In the same period access to sanitation increased from 52 percent to 73 percent. These indicators of successfully implemented social policies need to be set however against the difficulties of many social policies to achieve their inclusive and poverty alleviating intentions. In the area of housing the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing, while commending the legal provisions in the constitution that guaranteed the right to adequate housing nonetheless reported that despite the socio-economic right to adequate housing, evictions are a “regular occurrence” with 2 million people displaced since 1994” (United Nations Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing, 2008: 2). According to the Children’s Institute of the University of Cape Town ten million children continued to live in households earning less than R800 per month, considered an ultra-poverty or “indigent” poverty line (Children’s Institute, 2006).

At the level of policy these social indicators demonstrate a rapidly growing need in South Africa for social policy analysts with the analytic and conceptual skills to evaluate and monitor the progress and implementation of the government’s social policy reforms. Indeed the importance of such skills has been recognised by the government itself, with the Minister of Social Development, Dr Zola Skweyiya, of the ruling African National Congress government commented that “social policy is at the very centre of the vision of the type of society we want to build. Social policy is a way of thinking about the interventions and solutions for the many social and economic problems we face… We must find solutions to the malnutrition, the infant mortality, improve our education and health systems and make sure that our social and economic policy leads to real and positive outcomes for the millions of our children and young people” (Skweyiya, 2008). Dr Skweyiya’s comments are consistent with a history of thinking within the ANC on social policy and its utility as an agent for social transformation.

In 1943 the ANC produced “African Claims”, a document which set out a range of social policies based on the social rights concomitant with political enfranchisement. These rights, contained in a Bill of Rights, included the establishment of free medical and health services for all sections of the population; the right of every child to free and compulsory education and of admission to technical schools, universities and other institutions of higher education and equality of treatment with any other section of the population in the State social services, and the inclusion on an equal basis … in any scheme of social security and the extension of all industrial welfare legislation to Africans engaged in Agriculture, Domestic Service and in Public institutions or bodies (African Claims, quoted in Karis and Carter, 1987, 217 – 222).

In 1955 the Freedom Charter, the ANC’s historical programme for transforming South Africa, was adopted. The Charter contained a series of ‘demands’ framed by the primary citizenship demand that the ‘People Shall Govern’. In addition to civil and political rights, it (like Africans’ Claims before it) contained demands for social rights, including rights related to income maintenance, state-provided free and universal education, rights to housing and rights to free, state-provided medical care (Freedom Charter, quoted in Karis and Carter, 1987).

The other significant milestones in ANC thinking on social policy were the Reconstruction and Development Programmes (RDP) base document of 1994 and finally the Constitution adopted in 1996. The RDP set out as its five key policy programmes to achieve its objectives, ‘the meeting of basic needs, developing … human resources, building the economy, democratising the state and society and implementing the RDP (RDP, 1994: 7). The RDP located an interventionist role for the government in the economy. It further argued for a strong role for public sector investment, including nationalization as an option to achieve an expanded public sector (RDP, 1994: 80). With regard to health care policy, the RDP advocated a National Health Service based on the “complete transformation of the entire delivery system” (RDP, 1994: 13). The imperative of transformation was also reflected in its education proposals, which called for national, integrated system of education that met development needs. The RDP base document was principally concerned with building the human resources that would allow African citizens to have expanded life chances in the post-apartheid era, including opportunities in the labour market which had been racially differentiated. The radical, re-distributive impetus in the pre-election social policy proposals of the ANC reflected an intention to break with the racialised social policies of the apartheid era. These social policy proposals of the RDP base document, based on an ethic of social justice and acknowledgment of constitutionally guaranteed social rights were ideologically compatible with a social democratic approach to social policy and reflected a continuity with thinking since the 1940’s on the need for an interventionist state that prioritised social policy based on social rights of citizenship whilst simultaneously meeting imperatives of economic development. These imperatives were concretized in the Constitution of South Africa adopted in 1996, which guaranteed entitlements to socio-economic rights such as health, housing and education within available government resources.

This review reveals that the idea of a “transformative social policy” that locates social policy as central outcome and not subordinate to the objectives of economic development, as deeply embedded in the policy discourses of the ruling ANC. The problem has been how to successfully translate these intentions into practice, reflected in the uneven social indicators of development progress fifteen years into democratic rule.

Social Policy analysts, knowledge creation and the system of higher education

A key mechanism for ensuring that transformative social policy informs policy debates on development and as well as the discourse of development is through the training of future social policy analysts. In the medium-to-long-term it is essential that local academic and research institutions in particular are able to provide for the training of future social policy analysts who can independently undertake rigorous, critically informed research in the tradition of transformative social policy. Moreover, it is important that the education and training of such social policy analysts simultaneously redresses educational inequality in the system of higher education, in particular the educational privileging of a minority white elite historically through a racialised system of schooling and higher education. In the context of the constitutional imperative to promote equality through “legislative and other measures designed to protect or advance persons, or categories of persons, disadvantaged by unfair discrimination” it is necessary for African social policy analysts to be purposefully produced and who are demographically representative of the wider South African society most effected by poverty and inequality. This includes purposive action to educate and develop more African women social policy analysts and those from the working class. The concern that requires to be addressed here is that the imperative for deracialisation of political institutions in South African society needs to also extend to the de-racialisation of the production of knowledge and related processes of policy decision making, including social policy. The constitutional imperatives of equality require more-over that the government should play an active and not passive role in ensuring that targets for the production of social policy analysts are met. The government should establish an independent body that can review progress on transforming the academic culture at an institutional level. This body must ensure that there are no institutional obstacles to African academics playing the fundamental role in intellectual leadership of their institutions. This will ensure the longer term sustainability of education and training programmes aimed to develop a new cadre of social policy analysts as conceived in the discussion above.

Obstacles to the production of African social policy analysts

There are a number of obstacles that mitigates against production of African social policy analysts. Amongst the key obstacles which need to be considered are:

• the institutional capacity in the South African higher education system to provide education and training in social policy;

• the institutional culture in academia and its ability to nurture a new generation of African academics who can lead on the development of social policy as an area of academic study; and
• the potential constraints on African students in the social sciences undertaking a career path as social policy analysts in contrast to other competing career trajectories.

The three obstacles are further discussed below:

1. Educational capacity in the higher education system. Internationally social policy is studied in academic departments as one of the areas in the academic social sciences with a distinct empirical focus on the support for the well-being of citizens provided through social action. This distinguishes the study of social policy from other areas of social sciences such as Sociology, Development Studies, Economics and Political Science (Alcock, 2003)... South Africa has a long academic tradition of study in Sociology, Political Science and Economics, all of which have contributed to the analysis and critique of social problems in the apartheid and post-apartheid era. A review of social policy in academia in South Africa reported however that due to historical reasons there does not exist an established tradition of studying social policy as a separate academic discipline (CASASP, 2005). The apartheid regime discouraged the development of such a tradition by making it difficult to routinely collect centralised data and thus enable meaningful comparison of social indicators across race, class and apartheid geographical boundaries. In the post-apartheid era concerns with delivery during the transition led to a focus on developing practitioners who could implement government policy. While this was undoubtedly necessary, it was at the expense of developing evidence-based analysts who could critically reflect on why social policies were successfully implemented or not. The study further observed that the study of social policy was conflated with development studies, a different academic discipline, and that content on three areas critical to social policy was not provided in the curriculum. These related to content on welfare regimes, and the location of South Africa in such a theoretical framework; content on citizenship both from an historical and comparative international perspective, incorporating comparable middle-income developing countries and thirdly the comparative theorisation and conceptualisation of poverty and social exclusion from an international social policy perspective (CASASP, 2005).

2. The institutional culture in academia and its ability to enable African academics to take a leading role in the academic development of social policy. The education and training of future social policy analysts will be dependent on those academics that can provide appropriate education and training in social policy. The institutional culture in academia is arguably pivotal to developing a cohort of such skilled social policy academics who can take the lead in developing social policy as an academic area of study. The current institutional culture in South African higher education arguably undermines this development however, a consequence of the persistent racial inequalities in the composition of the academic workforce. If social policy is to take root and flourish as a relevant paradigm and subject of academic study it will need to be embedded in the new generation of academics who can research and teach social policy to future generations of students interested in becoming social policy analysts. Furthermore if the constitutional imperative of equity in higher education is to be realised, meaning substantively that the majority of future academics will be African in a manner consonant with the demographic profile of the country, then African academics will need to lead and staff future programmes and departments of social policy in higher education institutions. The evidence of continuing inequality in higher education suggests real concern however for the ability of the higher education system to develop such a cohort of African social policy academics who can be the bedrock of a distinctive South African tradition of social policy. As revealed in a recent study whilst African South Africans comprise nearly 91 percent of the population they make up only 38 percent of academics. The position is particularly stark in the case of African Africans who comprise 80 percent of the population but comprise only 24 percent of the academic workforce. Women who comprise 51 percent of the population comprise only 42 percent of academics (Badat, 2008). The fact that knowledge production is thus still “predominately the preserve of white men” (Badat, 2008) radically inhibits the possibilities for African academics taking academic leadership roles at departmental level. The possibilities for a social policy academic tradition to emerge which is rooted in a new generation of academics demographically and substantively reflective of the ideals of a post-apartheid society are thus diminished. The possible exception to this trend is the historically disadvantaged academic institutions (HDI’s). The HDI’s have an academic culture that does encourage the development of African academics into leadership positions. They are also significant for their location in provinces which experienced the worst forms of poverty and inequality and are thus ideally located to develop a cadre of social policy academics (and students) who can address social policy concerns at a provincial level. Compared to the historically white universities the HDI’s however are constrained by comparative lack of financial and human resources to develop new, innovative teaching and research programmes. The academics in HDI’s also have greater teaching commitments due to their comparatively higher intakes of students with a much smaller academic staff complement compared to historically white institutions. This diminishes the ability of many academics in historically disadvantaged institutions to undertake high quality research, a necessary ingredient for developing social policy as an academic area of study. Addressing these fundamental institutional, financial and human resource concerns will thus be necessary if African social policy academics are to be produced who can lead the development of social policy as an area of study and the production of a future generation of social policy analysts.
3. Potential constraints on African students undertaking careers as social policy analysts As argued in the previous sub-section the future education and training of social policy analysts will be significantly dependent on African academics who are enabled to undertake rigorous teaching and research in social policy and who can lead the institutionalisation of social policy as an academic discipline in higher education institutions. Constraints on African students pursuing careers as social policy analysts need to be considered however. With regard to student enrolment on courses a study by Breier and Mabizela (2008: 285) suggests that national targets for headcount enrolments in the social sciences are being broadly met, with 41 percent of target reached against national target of 40 percent in 2004. The concern is less enrolment than the sustaining of such students in education programmes for the duration of their studies. Evidence based on Department of Education sources suggest that 50 percent of first time undergraduates dropped out before attaining a qualification. Reasons cited include poverty and the insufficiency of bursaries and loans to cover fees (Breier and Mabizela (2008: 290)

   There is a further set of factors that potentially constrain students taking up studies in social policy that will lead to them becoming social policy analysts. The remuneration for a career trajectory as a social policy analyst may be significantly less than options of employment in the private sector. For African students from working class and rural poor backgrounds, often with families to support, this can become a significant opportunity cost. The other consideration is career pathways and prospects for career development. If there is not a clear pathway for entry into a professional career as a social policy analyst for students on graduating, either in government or the non-government sector, then the incentive to become social policy analysts diminish.

Preferred policy alternatives to address obstacles in the development of African social policy analysts.

The first key goal for addressing the obstacles identified above is to enhance the institutional capacity to deliver social policy teaching and research programmes through redressing inequalities in knowledge production. This can be achieved through a comprehensive mentorship scheme aimed at supporting African academics to enable them to lead the development of social policy as an academic discipline in their institutions. The mentorship scheme should be an institutional model – meaning that it will not only aim to re-dress inequalities of access of African academics to high level expertise in social policy but simultaneously enable individual departments to enhance and build their capacity in social policy teaching and research. The mentorship scheme will thus be dependent in particular for its success on full institutional support from the relevant academic department in which the candidate academic is employed. Without such institutional support the candidate academic on the mentorship programme will be unable to meet their assigned mentorship tasks and obligations. The mentorship programme will pair a local academic with an established international social policy academic who will confer their social policy analytic skills through an intensive social policy educational programme. This is intended to create a foundation for developing a programme of social policy teaching in the academic institution and which can be lead by the candidate academic on the mentorship programme.

The second key goal for addressing the obstacles identified above will be to create incentives for committed African students to enrol and sustain their participation in social policy education programmes. This can be achieved through the provision of adequate financial and pastoral support to ensure completion of the course. Support will be contingent on good quality results and supervisor reports. In addition a career entry into the civil service as a social policy analyst will be negotiated – commencing for a probationary period but which can then be made permanent on the successful completion of the probationary period.

Measurement of policy success

In regards to the mentorship scheme aimed at developing African academics in social policy the successful completion of 90 percent of the mentorees in the programme over the five year period will be the measure of success.

In regards to the African students enrolled in courses of social policy the successful completion by 90 percent of the selected students in the course and their entry and completion after the probationary period of employment into the civil service will be the measure of policy success.

The DBSA in the social vision of an egalitarian society: implementation modalities

Unlike commercial banks, the DBSA, has an additionality function of being a knowledge institution. This is occasioned by the fact that matters of development are not events but processes that go beyond initial transactions between the bank and its client. Further, and more important, the success of a development bank cannot be measured on the basis of its transactional or financial outputs, but on the impact of those outputs in the development agenda of a country, a region, a continent or the world itself.

For this reason, the DBSA has to have a reservoir of capacities (including human), processes, structures, platforms and networks within which it stores masses of knowledge that could be used to increase its outputs and more especially to assure its impact.

Intellectual Capital has been put to the forefront of an enterprise-wide activity in the DBSA, strategically linked to the Bank’s value position. As a key asset of the Bank, intellectual capital and the management thereof, must add value to the Bank’s core business and enable the Bank to be responsive to environmental changes and challenges, enhance its efficiency as a financial institution, and be a leading expert and change agent. The DBSA, as a Development Bank, must galvanise the most pertinent elements of the acquired knowledge to find solutions to development challenges in order to contribute to an improved quality of life, especially for the poor and marginalized within our nation and the broader region.

Poverty alleviation, narrowing of stark wealth inequalities, unemployment reduction, environmental sustainability, and countering the HIV AIDS scourge are only some of the key and pervasive development problems that both South Africa and the region are faced with. It is widely acknowledged that any attempts to resolve development challenges will be time-consuming; and similarly research, as a systemic enquiry to render value-adding and usable outcomes, especially to address the development challenges that besiege us, needs to be undertaken with a far-sighted approach. This in turn will lead to the requisite knowledge base that can adequately feed into insightful and innovative development solutions for local and regional applicability. Accordingly, the DBSA has devised the 2014 vision that is aligned to the Millennium Development Goals and that recognises delivery of relevant knowledge products that can contribute significantly to the improvement of the quality of life of people in the region.

The intellectual Capital Agenda seeks to align with the Bank’s position that the “DBSA is not just a money bank, it is a development bank” and the associated view that places people at the very centre of every development activity or intervention2, in an attempt to improve the quality of life and living conditions of ordinary citizens. This markedly informs the approach to development measurement which will incorporate elements of both economic-based assessments and equally importantly, social development.

The above foregrounds the DBSA Intellectual Capital function as centrally poised to facilitate the development of socially policy analyctic capacity through the research capacity development programme. The details of the programme are not given here, suffice to say that the basic tenets of such a programme acknowledges the critical skills shortage in both social and economic meta-analysis.

The Development Bank of Southern Africa and implementation modalities

The key founding principle of the Knowledge Management Africa biennial conferences was the recognition on the urgent need for the creation of endogenous knowledge solutions for the development agenda of Africa. The DBSA has been in the forefront of pushing this agenda through its articulation of its knowledge management programme. The third KMA conference therefore builds on the development gains achieved thus far but also identify gaps in sustainable development that hamper greater progress in Africa.

A huge gap exists in implementing the social vision of an egalitarian society, the intellectual capital and the production of social policy analysts within the South African university system as articulated in the paper. The Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA), in executing its additionality function, should make funds available on a tender basis for developing targeted knowledge areas in the departments of academic institutions. One such targeted knowledge area is the development of social policy analysis grounded in the paradigm of transformative social policy and skilled in meta-analysis and systematic reviews. The production of skills in meta-nalysis and systematic reviews will allow for a policy engagement that assesses the strengths and shortfalls in current social policy in realizing the egalitarian vision of a transformative social policy. Such skills allow for an evidence-based assessment based on clearly defined criteria of knowledge short –falls in social policy. This is an underdeveloped knowledge function – an overdue focus on the production of “new” policy knowledge has left unattended a systematic assessment of the quality of the knowledge and the degree to which it provides insights and pathways to realizing the goals of transformative social policy.

The DBSA tender would specify the knowledge area requirements and the criteria for tender assessment would include the number of African graduates in social policy analysts produced who demonstrate the desired knowledge and skills. The criteria would also include the degree of participation of African academics at departmental level in the education and training of social policy analysts – or plans to equip African academics to perform a leadership role in such training which would include mentorship schemes for such academics. The agreement would be with the individual department and with commitments undersigned by the university. The will ensure that the production of future post-graduate analysts and the development of academics equipped in social policy analysis occurs simultaneously. With regard to the monitoring function the governments Department of Education should perform an active role in evaluating progress in achieving agreed upon goals with an independent assessment of changes to the institutional culture in which such goals are delivered upon. This will ensure the production of African social policy analysts is sustainable and is based on a model of African intellectual leadership with clear steps to its achievement where this is absent. The Department of Social Development, which has a significant amount to gain from such social policy analysts, should create career pathways for incoming graduates, to be integrated into the social policy knowledge-creation and evaluation functions of the Department. This model is reproducible into other African contexts – albeit without the particularly racialised specificities of the South African case – and a regional clearing house should be created that allows participation of the SADC countries in this initiative.

Conclusion

The paper has discussed the context of knowledge production and social policy in South Africa. The need for social policy analysts skilled in the paradigm of “transformative social policy” who can ensure implementation of the historical vision of an egalitarian society will require a fundamental transformation of the institutional culture of academic institutions. This transformation should be achieved through a combination of incentives and monitoring of academic institutions undertaking academic activities in social policy.

A set of concrete recommendations to the DBSA and other key role players e.g. lead universities such as Rhodes and Fort Hare in South Africa & others in the SADC region for instance, and key government departments e.g DSD and DOE in implementing the social vision of an egalitarian society, the intellectual capital and the production of social policy analysts within the broader KMA project still needs to be problematised further.

Bibliography

1. African National Congress (1943). ‘African Claims in South Africa’, includes the “Atlantic Charter from the Standpoint of Africans within the Union of South Africa” and “Bill of Rights”. Adopted by ANC Annual Conference. Document 29b in T. Karis et al. (1987) From Protest to Challenge: A Documentary History of African Politics in South Africa 1882–1964: Volume 2: Hope and Challenge 1935-1952, Stanford University: Hoover Institution Press.

2. Adesina, J (2008). Transformative Social Policy in a Post-Neoliberal African Context: Enhancing Social Citizenship presented at RC19 Conference Stockholm 2008: The Future of Social Citizenship: Politics, Institutions and Outcomes, http://www2.sofi.su.se/RC19/pdfpapers/Adesina_RC19_2008.pdf
3. Alcock, P (2003). The Subject of Social Policy” in Alcock et al The Student’s Companion to Social Policy, 2nd Edition. Oxford: Blackwells
4. Badat, S (2008). Producing, Transforming the Social Composition of, and Retaining a New Generation of Academics: The Rhodes University Programme of Accelerated Development, Rhodes University. University Leaders Forum: Developing and Retaining the Next Generation of Academics, 24 November 2008, La Palm Royal Beach Hotel, Accra, Ghana
5. Breier, M and Mabizela, M (2008). Higher Education in Andre Kraak, Karen Press (eds.) Human Resources Development Review 2008, Education, Employment and Skills in South Africa. Pretoria: HSRC
6. Centre for the Analysis of South African Social Policy (2005). A Review of Social Policy Training in Academia, Key Report 1, March
7. Children’s Institute (2006). South African Child Gauge. Cape Town: UCT Department of Social Development (2008). Keynote address by Minister of Social Development, Dr Zola Skweyiya at the Social Policy Colloquium: 'Social Policy in Southern Africa: Exploring a new research agenda', University of Fort Hare, Bisho campus, Department of Social Development, 23/01/2008
8. DBSA Development Agenda.2007. DBSA, Midrand
9. Mkandawire (2005). ‘Introduction’ in Makandiwire, T (ed.) Social Policy in a Development Context, London: Palgrave Macmillan
10. The Presidency of South Africa, (2008). Towards a 15 Year Review, Synthesis Report. Government Printer: Pretoria.
11. Republic of South Africa (1996). Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, as adopted on 8 May 1996 and amended on 11 October 1996 by the Constitutional Assembly, Act 108 of 1996, Pretoria: Government Printer
12. South African Congress Alliance, (1955). "The Freedom Charter" in Karis, T. and Carter, G.W. (1973) From Protest to Challenge: A Documentary History of African Politics in South Africa 1882-1964, Volume 3, pp. 205 – 208. Stanford University: Hoover Institution Press.
13. Swart, J (2006). Intellectual capital: disentangling an enigmatic concept. Journal of Intellectual Capital Vol.7 pp. 136-159.
14. United Nations (2007). ‘United Nations Expert on Adequate Housing Concludes Visit to South Africa’. United Nations Press Release.p.2. [http://www.unhchr.ch/huricane/huricane.nsf/view01/677CD0B04A46B831C12572D400412717?opendocument]

Integrated Development [IDP] Service Delivery Impact Assessment Study: A case study from Buffalo City Municipality [BCM]

By: Jack Fine and Thembisa Norushe

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

The Director-General: Provincial and Local Government, Msengana-Ndlela, (2006), identified that the provision of basic service delivery and infrastructure still has to face the challenge of the slow pace and poor quality of service delivery. Specific mention was also made of the water, sanitation, and housing backlogs (Msengana-Ndlela, 2006:28).

BCM has made significant progress in meeting the basic needs of the majority of its population through the provision, expansion, upgrading and building of the necessary services. However, service delivery still has to overcome a number of challenges and setbacks in order for BCM to fully realise its aims and objectives to service the entire population within its jurisdiction.

In such a context, it is crucial for the municipal authorities to market the successes achieved to date in service delivery development. It is vital for people to see the extent to which BCM’s Management lives up to the long-term vision of the municipality as outlined within the context of the Integrated Development Plan (IDP) (2006/07:14) to ensure ”A people centred place of opportunity where the basic needs of all are met in a safe, healthy and sustainable environment.” The Municipal IDP necessitates that service delivery plans coincide with the strategic plans for the municipality as articulated in the annual objectives of the IDP of the Municipality. BCM (2006/07: 72) has explicitly maintained that it aims for a municipality that is “… well structured, efficient and (which) supports sustainable human settlements, thus enabling residents to meet their physical, social, developmental, cultural and psychological needs” in progressing towards basic services for the 30% of households that still lack adequate transport, social services, economic opportunities and an enriching environment.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

South Africa has recently seen a number of often violent Community protests targeting local Councillors and Councils in a number of municipalities across the country, amidst claims by Communities of non-existent or slow service delivery and the perceived failure of Councillors to meet the expectations of the local Communities they serve. BCM has not been immune to such actions, with a number of instances where calls for the dismissal of Councillors believed to have failed the local Communities, and concurrent demonstrations reported in the local media. While the objects of protest, including education and crime, are often matters outside the legislated competencies of Local Government, and within the jurisdiction of Provincial and National government, such behavior clearly points to the importance of meeting the needs of all the Communities comprising BCM

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The research aimed at answering the following questions from Communities:

• Mention the positive impact that service delivery from BCM has made on your Communities’ lives in your Ward?”

• “Tell us about the challenges that still exist (if any) with respect to service delivery in your Ward?”
• “How can service delivery be accelerated in your Ward?”

Ward and Proportional Representation Councillors, and BCM Officials were required to present relevant Projects while being filmed. The study aimed at answering similar questions:

• What impact will this Project have on the surrounding Communities?”

• ”What problems have been experienced with this Project?”
• “What progress has been achieved with this Project “
• “What are the sources of funding and the costs involved in this Project?”

OBJECTIVES AND SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The objectives of the study were to:

• To explore and describe the extent of service delivery in BCM

• To describe how BCM Communities view municipal efforts at service delivery
• To investigate and describe how BCM Ward and Proportional Representation (PR) Councillors see the progress made in delivering on the mandate to provide their constituencies with basic service delivery
• To provide BCM employees with a marketable visual record of the progress made by BCM in service delivery
• To make recommendations with regard to strengthening support for improved service delivery to BCM Communities.

The scope of this study in particular, looked at service delivery developments surrounding; housing; water and sanitation; primary municipal health services Electrification; transport and traffic engineering; local economic development and tourism, agricultural development; urban renewal programmes roads; and community services facilities

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHOD

The research design of the study included two phases. A qualitative, exploratory, descriptive and contextual research design was employed to get a deeper understanding of the impact of service delivery in BCM (Polit & Hungler, 1999:194-196; Babbie, 2004: 89, 370).

Method

SettingThe study was conducted at BCM which falls under the Amathole District Municipality (ADM) in the Eastern Cape Province, Republic of South Africa (RSA). This municipality has 45 Wards, a population of 724 312 and 208 389 households in 2007 (Statistics South Africa, 2008) and a staff complement of about 4 600.These Wards include urban, peri-urban and rural areas.

Population and Sampling
The sample was chosen from the research population consisting of 3 main groups, on the basis of non-probability purposive and convenience criterion- based sampling. The Population consisted of:

• Members of BCM Ward Communities

• BCM Officials
• BCM Ward/PR Councillors

The following criteria had to be met for inclusion in the study:

Group 1: BCM Ward Communities

• Residing in relevant Ward

• Wiling to participate in the study
• Both genders to be included
• Representatives of main cultural groups predominant in BCM
• Representatives of Urban, Peri-urban and Rural Communities
• Set of age categories

Group 2: BCM Officials

• Relevant ability to explain and describe their IDP service delivery Projects

• Relevant Programme Managers related to IDP and service delivery Projects

Group 3: BCM Ward/PR Councillors

• Official representatives elected in each Ward

• Official PR representative assigned to some Wards
• Knowledge to explain and describe IDP service delivery Projects

Collection Method

The interviews of Community members took place in a series of Community meetings, convened and facilitated by Councillors and Ward Committees in Community halls. Meetings either comprised individual Wards or a cluster of Wards, with an attendance ranging between 10 to 250 Community members, together with Ward and PR Councillors and BCM Officials. A total of 905 Community members participated.

The data collection method included observation, semi-structured and in-depth interviews as well as un-structured conversations on a group rather than individual basis by the researchers to facilitate broader discussion and greater engagement with the issues raised (Kvale, 1996:81-107; De Vos, 2000:25). Data was collected by means of a Video Camera. Muller (1995:69) states that these methods of data collection enrich data. The interviewer created a context where the research participants could speak freely and openly by utilising interviewing strategies such as paraphrasing, probing, summarising, clarification, minimal verbal as well as non-verbal ques (Wilson & Kneils, 1996:110-131). During the interviews, the researcher used bracketing (placing preconceived ideas aside) and intuition (focusing on the lived experiences of the various participants regarding impact assessment of IDP service delivery).

While the interviews were in progress, another researcher took descriptive, observational, theoretical and personal field notes since memory cannot be trusted (Babbie, 2004:305). The observations included seating arrangements of the participants, the order in which people spoke to aid voice recognition, non-verbal behaviour of the participants, themes that were striking as well as personal thoughts, hunches, impressions and ideas, environmental factors, and any problems experienced. Taking the foot notes assisted in transcribing and was the first step of data analysis. Interviews were conducted until data saturation occurred, as this was demonstrated by repeating themes. Saturation of data therefore determined the sample size (Chakalane-Mpeli, 2004:27; Burns & Grove, 2007:348).

From a total of 175 IDP and Executive Mayoral related Projects initiated over the past 3 years at various stages of development and implementation, the research team in consultation with representatives of Senior Management identified a total of 115 new and ongoing operational Projects for site visits with Officials and Councillors. Projects still in the planning phase, and the numerous Settlement and Forward Planning and Survey activities were discounted as there was no physical evidence to illustrate visually. Such consultation also enabled the identification of relevant Officials to provide the details of their Projects. These Officials were mandated by Senior Management to represent the municipality in highlighting these Projects

A pilot study was conducted in the 10 Wards that comprise Mdantsane, in the same BCM to test the research design and method, so that adjustments could be made to the tool if necessary. Following the Pilot study, adjustments were made to the semi-structured questionnaire.

Data Analysis

In order to categorise, order, manipulate and summarise data to obtain answers to research questions (Kerlinger 1986: 23), the transcriptions and field notes formed the data base. The data was transcribed verbatim during the 24 hours following each interview. The data were analysed using Tesch’s method of descriptive analysis (Krefting 1991, [in Creswell, 1998]; Marshall & Rossman, 1995).

An independent coder was used to analyse data and, through consensus discussion, the themes and sub-themes were finalised. Literature control was used to verify these findings.

ETHICAL AND LEGAL MEASURES

Permission to conduct the study was obtained from BCM. Consent was also obtained from research participants. A high quality of Ethical Standard (Strydom, 2002:64) was adhered to throughout the study with due regard to the quality of the research, issues of informed consent, confidentiality and anonymity, to ensuring the freedom from harm for participants, to not deceiving participants and in releasing findings to relevant stakeholders.

TRUSTWORTHINESS OF THE STUDY

Guba & Lincoln’s Model (1985:290) of Trustworthiness was utilised to ensure trustworthiness (Krefting, 1999:212-216). The criteria used from trustworthiness were credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability

DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS

1. BCM COMMUNITY MEMBERS

With regard to the Themes relating to: POSITIVE IMPACTS RE-SERVICE DELIVERY IN THEIR WARDS, four Major Themes emerged:

• Improved infrastructural development and provision
  The following findings concerning infrastructural development and provision were made:
  • Roads:
    Participants pointed to recent interventions by BCM in improving the quality and accessibility of roads and pavements in their areas, through the repair, reconstruction, and tarring of main roads, the fixing of potholes and the provision and/or repair of gravel roads. There was however the feeling that much more still needed to be accomplished in this respect.

  • Housing:
    Developments surrounding the construction and hand-over of new houses were also viewed as positive in at least providing for some of the shelter needs of the local Communities, and lessening the tension and conflict inherent in the house sharing scheme introduced by the former homeland government, through enabling more families to possess their own houses.

  • Sanitation:
    The provision, replacement and improvement of sanitation facilities within individual households and the improvement and expansion of sanitation infrastructure was also regarded as a manner in which the lives of BCM Communities had improved. The dismantling of the Bucket System, the provision of toilets at the level of the household, and the work done on new and existing pipelines were also specifically mentioned.

  • Electricity:
    Community participants praised BCM for the introduction of high mast street-lighting, thereby increasing and improving the safety in these areas during the night. The electrification of houses was also mentioned

  • Free Basic Services:
    A major positive development across the municipal area has been the introduction of free basic services – 600 litres of water and 60KW of Electricity- to the indigent and poorer sections of the BCM client base.

  • Recreation:
    Mention was also made of the improvements in Youth Recreational facilities, in upgrading and fencing current sports facilities, and providing new sports facilitates

  • Water:
    The advent of a regular, consistent and quality supply of water through the provision of water tanks and taps was also raised as an important achievement, as was the timely response to rectifying water problems on complaint.

  • Community Facilities:
    Improvements and expansion of Community facilities - halls, clinics and crèches - were furthermore noted.
• Increased employment and higher skills levels
  BCM LED Projects, skills and small business development programmes and employment opportunities were also hailed for their efforts at reducing the levels of poverty in BCM, even though the employment opportunities were often only temporary.

• Better mechanisms for communication and engagement to improve the situation at the Ward level
  Improved communication and engagement mechanisms for communities and individuals to contribute to the city were noted with respect to:
  • The IDP process along with the Executive Mayoral “Imbizo” schedule of meetings.

  • The accountability and accessibility of Ward Councillors.
  • Improved customer service at counter level and the promptness of BCM in responding to complaints and problems, and various natural and human made disasters.
  • The R100 000 Ward-based grants allocated by the Executive Mayor for Projects which prioritise local needs.
• Unique themes emanating from the study
  Certain Wards revealed unique and different patterns and issues such as:
  • The assistance provided by BCM in improving agricultural Projects, mostly through the purchase of tractors and other implements, the fencing of farming land, plot allocation and provision of land for grazing and watering of animals and agricultural produce in rural areas, and

  • Improvements in the lives of people with disabilities, public transport facilities and heritage Projects in township areas

With regard to the CHALLENGES THAT STILL EXIST RE-SERVICE DELIVERY IN THEIR WARDS, four Major Themes emerged:

The lack of an effective and efficient system of Monitoring and Evaluation [M and E], feedback and accountability

The most significant finding related to the lack of an effective and efficient system for monitoring, evaluation, feedback and accountability, most noticeably in the housing arena, but also apparent in other areas of municipal delivery, participants pointed to challenges surrounding:

• Human resources and labour issues in contributing to delays in or non-completion of Projects,

• Poor processes of engagement and communication and
• Confusion over the division of roles and functions of the three spheres of government- Local, provincial and national. Respondents for example mentioned challenges surrounding schooling and crime-fighting as significant problems in their communities. These are however, national and provincial competencies rather than municipal level concerns.
• The tendering process, again with severe negative consequences for effective and efficient service delivery.
• While a number of Projects had been initiated, and work commenced, the progress towards completion was often slow and delayed due to the lack of coherent and consistent system of holding contractors and service providers accountable. In some instances, these Projects had even been abandoned before they were completed.
• Processes of engagement and communication with BCM officials and Councillors also necessitate significant improvement, due to the:
  • Lack of material benefit actually accruing to communities despite promises of improved services, facilities and performance,

  • Lack of follow up on Projects, the inaccessibility/ invisibility of some BCM Officials and Councillors,
  • Slow rate of response to complaints,
  • Lack of periodic review of the needs of individual communities,
  • Divide and rule tactics employed by some Councillors, and
  • The concurrent high degree of antagonism shown by Community Members towards BCM Officials and Councillors

Limited delivery regarding Infrastructure development

The major challenges presented related to the same functions as those where progress was noted- infrastructure development surrounding roads, housing, sanitation, and street lighting-leading to the conclusion that although there has been positive momentum, the quality, pace and extent needs to be increased.

• Roads:
  The challenges posed by low quality, narrow untarred access and internal roads, full of potholes and cracks and without speed humps, for emergency services, police, funeral processions and refuse collection were particularly severe, as was the issue of safety on these roads. The limited provision of pedestrian and/or motor vehicle bridges connecting Communities to other parts of the city also presented with negative consequences.

• Housing:
  Housing was identified as the most important infrastructural challenge, with the large backlog, problems surrounding the sharing of houses, slow pace of resettlement and contractor problems-uncompleted Projects, labour and financial issues, Project management, low quality of workmanship- raised as major issues.

• Safety and Security:
  Action is also warranted to solve the potential health, safety, crime and security problems through increased streetlighting, expanded upkeep, increased electricity distribution, and cleaning and maintenance of public spaces.

• Water:
  The efficient and effective provision of safe and clean water to Communities was also less than optimal, with Communities pointing to a limited number of taps provided by BCM, an ineffective and inefficient water supply system where a single fault could negatively affect a number of neighbouring units, areas, suburbs and villages, the inaccessibility of water services and the limits on the amount of water provided to households.

• Sanitation:
  The obstacles blocking service delivery in the wastewater and sanitation sector included sewerage infrastructural problems, payments for sanitation services and limited household toilet facilities.

• Community Facilities:
  The lack of sufficient Community Halls, Clinics, Crèches and other Community facilities, as well as limited maintenance of existing Community facilities were also mentioned as a factor curtailing effective and efficient service delivery.

• Sports Facilities:
  Challenges were also noted in the problems posed in relation to the role of sports and recreation facilities in youth development and anti-crime programmes.

• Financial Constraints:
  Participants also revealed a number of financial constraints and problems, limiting effective and efficient service delivery throughout BCM, including the administrative and bureaucratic difficulties in the accessing, application and implementation of the indigent policy system for free electricity, water and sanitation in all areas in a uniform manner.

• Uneven Service Delivery
  It was also clear that the levels and type of service delivery differed considerably across type of settlement-urban, rural and peri-urban, across political environments and across the township-suburb divide.

• Rural Areas
  It was also apparent that the problems and challenges of service delivery noted in urban areas were magnified in rural areas. People in the rural areas were also more likely to advance agriculture-related concerns, particularly in relation to the failure of agricultural Projects, grazing and fencing issues

Decreased mechanisms for employment opportunities

• Developments surrounding the creation of employment opportunities were thought to have only made a slight dent in the high unemployment figures in BCM, with criticism also leveled against the system of temporary employment utilised by BCM, and hiring of people from outside the immediate area.

Unique Themes emanating from the study

A number of Wards identified challenges unique to their area,including:

• Lack of access for people with disabilities at BCM offices,

• Insufficient utilization of tourism potential,
• Delays in removal of large stones blocking roads,
• Non payment of Liaison Officer,
• Classification between urban and rural areas,
• Lack of benefits for youth forum, and
• Payment for use of BCM hall facilities.

With regard to the Themes relating to: HOW SERVICE DELIVERY CAN BE ACCELERATED IN THEIR WARDS, three Major Themes emerged:

Increase levels and systems of coordination between BCM and Communities

It is necessary to increase levels and systems of coordination, communication, interaction and cooperation. In addition, participants pointed to the need for an improved system of cooperation between the three spheres of government, through strengthening of Intergovernmental relations. Better Service Delivery would therefore require:

• Mechanisms for answering questions and dealing with grievances,
  BCM to get to know the communities and their needs first before beginning Projects,

• Advance communication,
• Strengthening cooperation between BCM and the Local Community, and Increasing transparency.

Accelerate pace of service delivery by improving financial/funding systems

Research participants suggested the following mechanisms to accelerate the pace of service delivery in BCM:

• Improved the budget system;

• Use volunteers/local people;
• Budget according to Ward priorities and needs;
• Basic servicing;
• An integrated budget; and
• Speeding up of infrastructure provision.
• Accelerate the pace of service delivery particularly through the funding regime

Strengthening Monitoring and Evaluation Systems through establishment of the Monitoring and Evaluation Unit

Participants pointed to the need for a well-planned, coherent, effective and efficient system of monitoring and evaluation of Projects, programmes and service providers to rectify this shortcoming. Such a system should be made an integral part of service delivery at BCM, and would ensure:

• High quality service delivery Projects completed timeousely,

• That Projects were followed through,
• That progress could be measured and
• That remedial and rectification actions could be taken to handle problems before it was too late, and ensure that BCM officials,
• Councillors and service providers would be held accountable for the Projects concerned during the Service Delivery process.

COUNCILLORS/ BCM OFFICIALS

The interviews and site visits with Councillors and BCM officials revealed similar generalised patterns concerning the achievements and challenges with service delivery. These groups confirmed Community Members’ notions that challenges are evident in relation to:

• The pace of service delivery,

• Non-completion of Projects
• The low quality of developments, particularly in the realm of housing, illustrating the cracks and defects of houses only a few years old and
• The uneven nature of service delivery developments, across the urban-rural divide and across different urban Wards.

Some Councillors however presented their own unique localised problems and challenges. Funding for these Projects is e sourced from a number of sources, including:

• The equitable share governmental funding formula

• Municipal Infrastructure Grant
• Foreign donors
• Relevant provincial and national government departments
• The Vuna Awards
• Buffalo City Metropolitan Transport
• Capital Replacement Reserve
• The Executive Mayoral Fund
• External Financing Fund and
• The Municipal Electricity Provider

The results of the site visits and interviews with BCM Ward and PR Councillors and BCM officials relating details of appropriate Projects can be seen on the DVD accompaniment to this report, which provides a visual showcase of these 115 Projects.

Positive Developments

BCM Councillors and officials tended to confirm the progress noted by Community members in building new facilities, and in the upkeep, maintenance and repair of existing facilities and infrastructure, with officials and Councillors pointing to the extensive effort shown, funding provided to and success achieved in the planning and implementation of Projects concerning:

• Housing:
  Completed and ongoing housing delivery as implementation agent for the Provincial Department of Housing

• Water:
  Progress in the construction of new Storage Reservoirs and new pipe infrastructure, and in the Bulk Water system.

• Sanitation:
  Eradication of the bucket system, the construction of new sewerage pumps, the improvement in the bulk sanitation system and the provision of VIP toilets in rural areas.

• Sport/Recreation Facilities:
  Upgrades and refurbishment of Sport and Recreation Facilities, including the Aquarium, local nature reserves, gymnasiums, swimming pools, and sportsfields and stadiums.

• Solid Waste:
  The beautification initiatives in high density residential areas, improvements in the standards of Public Conveniences and the closure of Waste Disposal sites, such as in NU 2.

• LED
  Local Economic Development, Rural Agricultural Development and Tourism Projects as IDP service-delivery related Projects.

• Roads
  Tarring and repairing of roads, potholes and paving of sidewalks

• Community facilities:
  Maintenance and upgrading of numerous community halls across the municipal area, and the development of Art and computer training centres, to the benefit of the local Communities.

• Architecture:
  Upgrading of and extensions to Primary Health Clinics, and the construction of Community Support Centres and the equipping of these centres with computers, furniture and other fixtures.

• Traffic Engineering:
  Improving facilities for pedestrians, commuters, cyclists and motor vehicle users, through additional traffic signals and signage, pedestrian and cycle paths, and the improvements surrounding taxi facilities.

• Electricity:
  Expansion of electricity provision, particularly with respect to the erection of new streetlighting, the electrification of schools, the electrification of low-income households and the construction of electricity substations.

• Executive Mayoral Projects:
  The ward-specific Executive Mayoral Projects, which each received R100000 in direct funding from the Executive Mayoral Projects Fund. This source accounted for the provision of grass cutting equipment, tables, chairs, and children’s playground equipment in a number of BCM Wards.

• Second Creek Special Project:
  The Second Creek Special Project, aimed at improving the nutritional, social and health needs of the Community of Second Creek informal settlement. This Project was singled out for special attention and focus by the Executive Mayor of BCM, with direct funding from the Executive Mayoral Fund.

Challenges in Service Delivery

The challenges presented by BCM Councillors and officials were similar to those outlined by the Community participants in the study and centred on:

• The Quality of work undertaken by contractors responsible for the construction of new facilities and/or maintenance and repair of existing facilities, most noticeable in the structural defects evident in recently constructed houses, deviation from agreed specifications and design flaws seen in a number of housing Projects across BCM, as well as with respect to children’s playground equipment. Low quality of workmanship was also noted in relation to the potholes that have yet to be fixed and roads that had only been partially gravelled.

• Delays, blockages in the completion and/or abandonment of Projects as a result of contractual, financial, design, capacity and human resource problems on the part of contractors and service providers. These obstacles need to be overcome to ensure efficient and effective service delivery that meets the needs of all members of the Buffalo City Community.

RESEARCH RECOMMENDATIONS

Based on the research findings of this study, the following recommendations are made:

Establishment of a Monitoring and Evaluation Unit

• It is clear that there is a vital need for a Monitoring and Evaluation (M &E) Unit dedicated to the regular consistent and coherent monitoring and evaluation of all Projects, processes and service standards at BCM, in the interests of effective and efficient service delivery, to ensure that Projects and processes are completed on time, within the required budget and to the requisite standard of quality.

• In such a context, it is imperative that all aspects of BCM operations are monitored and evaluated, as to avoid irregularities and to counter and rectify any problems that arise.
• The Organisational Development Department should Investigate the location of this unit

Strengthen the Intergovernmental Relations System

• There should be structured communication channels between the three spheres of government. This is in line with contentions raised during the discussion process with Councillors surrounding the review of the White Paper on Local Government, where it was maintained that the MEC and Mayors’ Forum is not sufficient for this purpose.

• Clear roles and responsibilities between the three spheres of government must be defined to avoid misunderstandings over roles and spheres of influence.
• Funding should follow functions.
• There should be an integrated programme and schedule of meetings between the Provincial, National and local politicians.
• BCM should extend, formalise and expand the systems and structures of cooperation with the other two spheres of government- Provincial and National- to ensure the most efficient and effective utilisation of financial, physical and human resources.
• With local government at the coalface of service delivery as implementation agent of Provincial and National government policies and programmes, it is crucial that there is formalisation of a closer, more coordinated working relationship between BCM line departments and the corresponding departments at provincial and national level.
• There should be a greater alignment of budgeting and Project cycles in BCM between the three spheres of government, for example by ensuring that the financial years of the spheres are the same in order to streamline service delivery.
• This approach should also lead to lower levels of duplication, waste, and greater attention to meeting the service delivery needs of the BCM population.

Regular Feedback, Communication and Interaction with Communities

• The 8 guiding principles of the “Batho Pele” philosophy for South African public sector public representatives should be strengthened amongst all representatives of BCM These principle are:
  • Consultation with communities,

  • Reinforcement of service standards
  • Increasing communities’ access to information,
  • Ensuring courtesy through continuous, honest and transparent communication with citizens
  • Providing communities with the necessary information,
  • Open and transparent governance
  • Redress when problems arise and
  • Value for money
• It is thus crucial that:
  1. Systems and structures are established and implemented that facilitate and ensure regular feedback, communication and interaction with communities.

  2. These systems and structures ensure that there is regular and coherent participation and involvement of the community as far as possible.

Expand skills development and employment opportunities

• Current LED programmes should be expanded,

• Further LED Projects should be developed to both provide employment, particularly to local Community members, and to increase the skills base of these Communities.
• Concerns surrounding the high levels of unemployment in BCM, and the concurrent lack of employment opportunities as well as the limited opportunities for skills development should result in an expanded focus by municipal authorities to rectify the challenges posed in this regard.
• An increase in skills development is likely to lead to an increase in the marketability of Community members, and their opportunities to obtain employment.
• There should be a preference for local Community members in all BCM Projects, rather than sourcing labour from outside the BCM borders.
• The expansion of such efforts should be an integral component in poverty eradication plans.

Align Projects with Community needs

• Project planning should be expanded at Ward-level, rather than at the macro-institutional level, thereby aligning Projects with the needs of individual Wards.

• Processes of considering the needs of Local Communities should be extended in the conception, design and implementation of BCM Projects and operations.
• There should be further interaction and discussion between BCM and the Communities of individual Wards before Projects are decided upon and where Community voices are heard and acted upon, in order to ensure that Projects undertaken are the ones that are deemed necessary by the Communities.

CONCLUSION

The preceding discussion has illustrated significant progress made by BCM in improving the lives of the its people, and important challenges still affecting the delivery of services. The successful application of the recommendations provided should however facilitate efficient and effective service delivery to the people of BCM.

Introduction to Knowledge Management (KM) of Enterprises & TVET Institutions

By: Eng. Mousatafa Wahba, Competency Assurance & TVET Consultant

What is Knowledge Management KM within Enterprises & TVET Institutions?

1. In the present day, in a very simplified manner, Knowledge Management KM within an Enterprise or Technical and Vocational Education and Training TVET Institution can be considered as an approach that enables each member of the Enterprise / Institution to individually know and apply what the Enterprise or TVET Institution knows as a whole, enables the Enterprise or TVET Institution to know what each member knows individually and reuse it at group level, and allows each member to recognize what he / she do not know and should learn.

2. Think of a coded welder as a simplified example of a knowledge worker. Coded welders do more high standard welding works than normal welders. When asked, a coded welder will give advice to other normal welders who can derive a benefit from the coded welder's advice such as a particular ‘TIG’ welding job. If a coded welder is willing to share what he knows with other normal welders, then they all may eventually earn more money.

What Constitutes intellectual or Knowledge-based Assets?

1. Not all information is valuable. Therefore, it's up to individual Enterprise or TVET Institution to determine what information qualifies as intellectual and knowledge-based assets. Intellectual and knowledge-based assets are either “Explicit Knowledge” consists of anything that is fully and clearly defined and can be documented, archived and codified, often with the help of IT or ‘Implicit Knowledge”, in which the knowledge that implied though is not directly expressed or the know-how contained in people's heads.

2. Shadowing and joint-problem solving are two best practices for transferring or recreating implicit knowledge inside an Enterprise or TVET Institution. In shadowing, less experienced staff observes more experienced staff in their activities to learn how their more experienced counterparts approach their work dialog and crystallize the knowledge transfer. As the trainees / students are often unaware of how they approach problems or do their work and therefore can’t automatically generate step-by-step instructions for doing whatever they do, the joint problem-solving support the trainees / students to work together as beginners with expert on a task / project with a view to bring the expert’s approach in solving problems to light.

Why we need Knowledge Management KM within Enterprises & TVET Institutions?

We need Knowledge Management KM within TVET Enterprises & TVET Institutions due to the following specific business factors:

1. Achieving substantial savings, significant improvements in human performance, and competitive advantage.

2. Reductions in staffing create a need to replace informal knowledge with formal methods.
3. The amount of time available to experience and acquire knowledge has diminished.
4. Early retirements and increasing mobility of the work force lead to loss of knowledge.
5. There is a need to manage increasing complexity in knowledge.
6. Enterprises & TVET Institutions compete on the basis of knowledge.
7. Provision of competent workers and training services are increasingly complex, endowing them with a significant information component.
8. The need for life-long learning is an inescapable reality.

What are the benefits and motivations leading Enterprises & TVET Institutions to undertake a KM project?

An effective KM programme should help an Enterprise or TVET Institution to do one or more of the following:

1. Promote innovation by encouraging the free flow of ideas

2. Improve customer (enterprise as end user) service by streamlining response time
3. Boost revenues by getting products (competent workers) and training services to market faster
4. Enhance Enterprise or TVET Institution’s retention rates by recognizing the value of employees' knowledge and rewarding them for it
5. Streamline operations and reduce costs by eliminating redundant or unnecessary processes
6. A creative approach to KM can result in improved efficiency, higher productivity and increased revenues in practically any business function
7. Making available increased knowledge content in the development and provision of competent workers and training services
8. Facilitating and managing innovation and Enterprise or TVET Institution’s learning
9. Leveraging the expertise of staff across the Enterprise or the TVET Institution
10. Solving intractable or wicked problems
11. The concept of KM embodies a transition from the recently popular concept of 'information value chain' to a 'knowledge value chain.' What is the difference? The information value chain considers technological systems as key components guiding the organization's business processes, while treating humans as relatively passive processors that implement 'best practices' archived in information databases. In contrast, the knowledge value chain treats human systems as key components that engage in continuous assessment of information archived in the technological systems. In this view, 'best practices' are not implemented without active inquiry by the human actors. Human actors engage in an active process of sense making to continuously assess the effectiveness of 'best practices.' The underlying premise is that 'best practices' of yesterday may not be taken for granted as 'best practices' of today or tomorrow. Hence, double loop learning, unlearning and relearning processes need to be designed into the Enterprise or TVET Institution business processes.
12. KM is necessary for Enterprise or TVET Institution because what worked yesterday may or may not work tomorrow. Enterprise or TVET Institution that were providing enterprises with competent workers became obsolete regardless of the efficiency of their learning, education and training processes since their graduated workers didn't keep up with the changing needs of the market. The same holds for assumptions about the optimal Enterprise or TVET Institution structure, the control and coordination systems, the motivation and incentive schemes, and so forth. To remain aligned with the dynamically changing needs of the business environment, Enterprise or TVET Institution need to continuously assess their internal theories of business for ongoing effectiveness. That is the only viable means for ensuring that today's 'core competencies' do not become 'core rigidities' of tomorrow.

What are the KM Strategies?

1. Knowledge is accessed through three stages: before, during, or after KM-related activities.

2. The traditional Performance Measurement System in the industrial era is losing its relevance in today’s fast changing environment where Enterprises & TVET Institutions are re-shaped into flat multi-functional hierarchies and their business models, teams’ roles and responsibilities are becoming more complex. It is therefore becoming more essential to move towards Performance Driven Enterprises & TVET Institutions and include KM in the performance appraisals with a view replace the traditional Performance Measurement System and improve the Performance Measurement Plans
3. One strategy to KM involves actively managing knowledge (push strategy). In such an instance, individuals strive to explicitly encode their knowledge into a shared knowledge repository, such as a database, as well as retrieving knowledge they need that other individuals have provided to the repository.
4. Another strategy to KM involves individuals making knowledge requests of Subject Matter Experts SMEs associated with a particular subject on an ad hoc basis (pull strategy). In such an instance, SMEs can provide their insights to the particular person or people needing this.
5. Other Knowledge Management Strategies for Enterprises & TVET Institutions include:
   • Rewards (as a means of motivating for knowledge sharing)

   • Storytelling (as a means of transferring implicit knowledge)
   • Cross-project learning
   • After action reviews
   • Knowledge mapping (a map of knowledge repositories within an Enterprise or TVET Institution and accessible by all)
   • Code of practice
   • Best practice transfer
   • Risk management
   • Benchmarking
   • Competence management (systematic evaluation and planning of competences of individual Enterprise or TVET Institution
   • Proximity & architecture (the physical situation of employees can be either conducive or obstructive to knowledge sharing)
   • Master-apprentice relationship
   • Collaborative technologies (groupware, etc)
   • Knowledge repositories (databases, etc)
   • Measuring and reporting intellectual capital (a way of making explicit knowledge for companies)
   • Knowledge brokers (some TVET Centre / CoC’s members take on responsibility for a specific "field" and act as first reference on whom to talk about a specific subject)
   • Social software (wikis, social bookmarking, blogs, etc)

Categorization of Knowledge Management Approaches

1. Mechanistic approaches to Knowledge Management
Mechanistic approaches to KM are characterized by the application of technology and resources to do more of the same better.

2. Cultural / behaviorist approaches to Knowledge Management
Cultural / behaviorist approaches, with substantial roots in process re-engineering and change management, tend to view the "knowledge problem" as a management issue. Technology — though ultimately essential for managing explicit knowledge resources — is not the solution. These approaches tend to focus more on innovation and creativity (the learning Enterprise or TVET Institution) than on leveraging existing explicit resources or making working knowledge explicit.

3. Systematic approaches to Knowledge Management
Systematic approaches to KM retain the traditional faith in rational analysis of the knowledge problem: the problem can be solved, but new thinking of many kinds is required.

How to promote a KM project in an Enterprise or TVET Institution?

• Don’t label the project as KM because the term causes so much confusion. Everyone has a different definition of KM (if they even know what it is) and those who have heard of it and have heard of all the failures associated with KM projects will be inherently biased against the KM project.

• Instead of calling the project as KM, consider it as a project designed to solve a particular learning / education / training problem within the Enterprise or TVET Institution. The KM project is much more likely to succeed if it addresses an actual learning / education / training goal or specific pain point, like improving collaboration in order to bring a product to market faster than the competition.

How to Demonstrate the Value of a KM Project?

• In order to highlight the pay back of a KM project it’s often wise just to promise that the project will pay for itself (if indeed it will) and therefore is worth trying out to see if incremental benefits can be gained. That approach works well if you’re trying to get funding from executives who habitually doubts generally accepted belief of KM.

• Instead of attempting to demonstrate the Enterprise or TVET Institution wide value for a KM project, look for value at the individual level. For example, if the project will reduce the amount of time for the Enterprise or TVET Institution’s training life cycle, you might be able to sell the project on that basis.

What is the Best Way to Approach KM?

• Start with smaller projects in order to have more control over the outcome, and less failure. Getting funding for a series of smaller projects is more feasible than getting funding for an Enterprise or TVET Institution wide initiative, especially if the benefits are hard to quantify.

• Define the achievement value of the KM initiative and establish at the outset metrics that will prove the success of the KM initiative
• Do not divorce the KM programme from a business goal. While sharing best practices is a commendable idea, there must be an underlying business reason to do so. Without a solid business case, KM will be an exercise having no useful result.

What Are the Challenges of KM?

Getting Enterprise or TVET Institution’s Staff on Board

The major problems that occur in KM usually result because the Enterprise or the TVET Institution ignore the people and cultural issues. In an environment where an individual’s knowledge is valued and rewarded, establishing a culture that recognizes implied knowledge which is not directly expressed and encourages employees to share it is critical. The need to sell the KM concept to employees shouldn't be underestimated. In many cases employees are being asked to deliver their knowledge and experience to prove that they are valuable as individuals.

KM Requires Ongoing Maintenance

As with many physical assets, the value of knowledge can erode over time. Since knowledge can get loosing freshness stale fast, the content in a KM program should be constantly validated, amended and updated. Relevance of knowledge at any given time changes as do the skills of employees and therefore, there is no endpoint to a KM programme.

Dealing with a Great Flood of Data

Enterprises & TVET Institutions deal with a great flood of data and KM programme has to identify and disseminate knowledge from a sea of information on the basis that quantity rarely equals quality.

How Can KM Project Be Supported?

In order to support a KM project and get the Enterprise or TVET Institution’s staff use the systems and processes designed to facilitate KM, we should:

• Pilot the project among Enterprise or TVET Institution’s staff who have the most to gain and would be the most open to sharing their knowledge. This will vary depending on the TVET Centre / CoC.

• Involve a selected group of influencers & employees in the pilot who are well-respected by their peers and whose opinions are highly regarded in the Enterprise or the TVET Institution with a view to convince others of the merits of KM.
• Transform the knowledge collection and make easily accessible and suitable for dissemination into everyday jobs of the Enterprise or the TVET Institution.
• Link KM directly to job performance, create a safe climate for the Enterprise or TVET Institution’s staff to share ideas and recognize people who contribute to the KM effort.
• Many Enterprises & TVET Institutions create incentive programmes to motivate employees to share their knowledge. This can work, but the danger with incentive programs is that employees will participate solely to earn incentives, without regard to the quality or relevance of the information they contribute. Ideally, participation in KM should be its own reward. If KM doesn't make life easier for employees, it will fail.

What is the Most Important for Enterprises & TVET Institutions to Do in Knowledge Management?

The most important KM issues for Enterprises & TVET Institutions are:

Focus on the cooperative interaction of data and processing capacity of information technologies IT and the creative and innovative capacity of the human members. Advanced information technologies can increasingly accomplish 'programmable' tasks traditionally done by humans.

If a procedure can be programmed, it can be delegated to Information Technology in one form or another. The information and control systems in an Enterprise or TVET Institution are intended to achieve the 'programming' for optimization and efficiency. However, checks and balances need to be built into the Enterprise or the TVET Institution’s learning, education and training processes to ensure that such 'programmes' are continuously updated in alignment with the dynamically changing external environment.

The Enterprise or TVET Institution’s learning, education and training processes need to implement what is called 'loose tight' Knowledge Management Systems. The tightening is in the reinforcing linkage between the archived Enterprise or TVET Institution’s 'best practices' and the actions taken by Enterprise or the TVET Institution’s members based on that information. The loosening is in the reverse separating linkage between actions taken by Enterprise or TVET Institution’s members that serve as a continuous check for renewing the archived 'best practices.' This is where human creativity and innovation comes into the picture.

Eng. Moustafa Mohamed Moustafa Wahba
Competency Assurance & TVET Consultant
Contact:
Egypt
Mobile: 0020101469376
Res. 002/03/5831540, 5854769 (Alexandria) - 002/046/4063005 (Marina)
E-mail address: mmm_wahba@hotmail.com

Managing and preserving nuclear knowledge for the socio-economic development of Africa

By: Dr Yousuf Maudarbocus

INTRODUCTION

In this modern era, development is largely based on technology. Africa is lagging behind other regions mainly because of its inability to make optimal use of modern technological development.

Instead of climbing the technological ladder gradually, Africa has now a unique opportunity to “leap frog” to the next development stage, especially through the judicious use of available new and emerging technologies which have been developed and well tested in other regions. However, mastering the new technologies necessarily implies an appropriate strategy and an efficient mechanism for capacity building in science and technology in the region. This view has been clearly specified in the NEPAD Action Plan as follows: “Science and Technology are the prime stimulators of national development….Because science and technology are products of education, the latter has been identified as the ultimate propeller of national and human development”.

Amongst available new technologies, nuclear technology can play a very important role in the socio-economic development of Africa.

PEACEFUL APPLICATIONS OF NUCLEAR ENERGY

To most people, “atomic energy” conjures up horrific visions of mushroom clouds or, at best, huge concrete structures which house nuclear power plants. However, there is much more to nuclear energy that meets the eye.

Currently, about 36 African Member States benefit from the Technical co operation Program of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Nuclear technologies are used in a wide variety of subjects including medicine, agriculture, industry, hydrology and the environment, amongst others. In many instances, nuclear technologies have distinct advantages over conventional means to address problems of development.

Nuclear Applications in Agriculture

Major nuclear applications in food and agriculture are

• Mutation breeding

• Insect and pest control ( sterile insect techniques)
• Food irradiation
• Soil fertility and crop production
• Animal production and health
• Agrochemicals and residues.

Irradiation- induced mutation breeding followed by selection of plants for desired traits has resulted in high-yielding rice varieties in several countries in Asia, including Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. In Pakistan, 25% of the area for cotton is planted with a high yielding mutant cultivar induced using gamma rays. It is estimated that this cultivar has contributed more than US$3 billion in cotton production and saved the textile industry of Pakistan when it was threatened by reduction in cotton production from insect pests. New improved mutants of tef in Ethiopia and cocoa in Ghana have also met with considerable success.

Pest control using a method called the “sterile insect technique” (SIT) is also well established. It is used effectively for the Mediterranean fruit fly to protect citrus orchards and vineyards, and for the screw worm to protect cattle ( for example in Libya). The extension of SIT to the tsetse fly is progressing very well in several sub-Saharan African countries and has already resulted in Zanzibar being free of this pest. As a result new breeds of cattle have been introduced, resulting in higher production of milk and meat in Zanzibar. The IAEA has initiated research to develop SIT for the control of malaria through area-wide suppression of mosquitoes. Field trials are being planned for a northern region of Sudan. Need less to say, the control and eventual elimination of malaria will result in immense socio-economic benefit for Africa. Globally, there are 300-500 million clinical cases of malaria a year, resulting in 2 million deaths (one every 30 seconds) more than 90% of which occurring in sub Saharan Africa.

Another technology- food irradiation- is being increasingly used for pest control to prolong the shelf life of various foodstuffs such as ground meat and spices. Food irradiation has been declared safe by the FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius, the international food safety body.

Nuclear Applications in Medicine

Nuclear applications in medicine serve multiple aspects of modern healthcare. They contribute significantly to prevention, diagnosis and cure. Some of the widely used nuclear techniques in medicine are:

• Radiotherapy

• In-vivo and in-vitro nuclear medicine
• Human nutrition

Radio therapy is widely used to treat cancer, with over 5000 treatment centers worldwide, treating millions of patients worldwide. In Ghana, the radiotherapy centers in Accra and Kumasi have contributed significantly to cancer treatment in the country.

Nuclear Medicine is playing a key role in both diagnosis and cure. Pharmaceuticals tagged with radioisotopes play a unique role in targeting specific organs, for both imaging and treatment. It is estimated that medical radioisotopes were administered to one-third of the 31.7 million patients admitted to hospitals in the United States in 2000

Nuclear techniques are also used to identify lack of micronutrients and microelements in infants and adults alike in order to plan remedial action.

Nuclear Applications in Industry

A broad and diverse array of nuclear applications today finds routine industrial use. These include:

• Radiation processing (for example, plastic and rubber curing to optimize cross linking of rubber molecules)

• Industrial radiation sterilization ( e,g medical products).
• Non destructive testing (NDT) in manufacturing, auto, air, rail, and electronic industries.
• Physical measurement ganges
• Humidity/density meters
• Oil well logging tools

Nuclear Applications in hydrology

Today, more than one billion people lack access to a steady supply of clean water. The Millennium Declaration resolved to “halve the proportion of people who are unable to reach or afford safe drinking water by 2015 “ and to stop the unsustainable exploitation of ground water. Nuclear techniques in isotope hydrology can play an important role in addressing this problem. Nuclear methods have distinct advantages over conventional ones with regard to studies on:

• Ground water charge and recharge mechanisms

• Surface water and ground water pollution
• Geothermal resources

Water samples have specific isotopic fingerprints that tell age, origin and climatic conditions.

Nuclear Power

In the developing world, 1.6 billion people – about one quarter of the human race- have no access to electricity. Moreover, population increases., rapid industrialisation and dramatic economic growth in countries such as China and India, are putting a lot of pressure on energy demand. It is estimated that the world’s energy needs could be 50% higher in 2030 than they are today. Yet the fossil fuels on which the world still depends are finite and far from environmentally friendly.

The need for a coordinated action on the identification and use of alternative energy sources and related issues (especially climate change and poverty alleviation) have never been more acute. The nuclear option should not be ruled out in view of its numerous advantages.

Globally, about 16% of the total electricity generated originates from nuclear power plant, ranging from 78% in France to just 2 % in China. 439 nuclear power plants operating globally avoid the release of nearly 3 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions annually, the equivalent of the exhaust from more than 428 millions cars. Of the 30nuclear power plants under construction, none is in Africa.

In the Africa continent, the only country with operating nuclear power reactors is South Africa, which produces about 7% of its electricity requirements from two nuclear power plants. Egypt and Nigeria are currently studying the possibility of establishing nuclear power reactors.

Moreover, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia are considering the possibility of setting- up nuclear desalination plants.

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN THE NUCLEAR FIELD

Like any highly technical endeavour, the use of nuclear technology relies heavily on a vast accumulation of knowledge combined with a vast assortment of people with the requisite educational background and expertise. The effective management of nuclear knowledge includes ensuring the continued availability of this essential reservoir of qualified personnel.

National Responsibilities

The availability of infrastructural and institutional nuclear facilities in a country will not be of much use without the necessary trained human resources to man such facilities. It is therefore necessary for every country where nuclear techniques are used or envisaged to design, develop and implement a national strategy to guide its efforts in nuclear knowledge management. It is important for such efforts to be sustainable. Reliance on outside experts is short-term and certainly not sustainable. Moreover, outside experts are not the most appropriate persons to understand the local conditions and cultures.

National training programmes should reflect the sectoral needs of the country and unnecessary wastage of resources should be avoided. Fellowship and training programmes should also match the priority needs. The key word is “relevance”.

Although optimal use should be made of existing national nuclear institutions, all countries stand to gain through the sharing of information nationally and regionally.

A regional Approach to Education and Training

To ensure sustainability in the application of nuclear technologies, it is necessary to achieve the most appropriate training to meet the specific needs of countries in Africa in the most cost effective and efficient manner.

In view of the specificities of Africans countries in certain sectors, the type and level of training available in industrialized countries may not be totally appropriate for the African region. The problem of tsetse and trypanosomosis is specific to Africa. Communicable diseases such as malaria and HIV/AIDS are more prevalent in Africa than in other regions. Other priorities include combating malnutrition, rehabilitation of saline lands, water resources management and the development of high-yielding and disease- resistant crops.

In view of the above, it is crucial to promote and strengthen regional collective self- reliance. Exchange of experience as well as the pooling, sharing and utilization of technical resources available in the region should be consolidated.

Regional organizations such as the African Union (AU) and SADC have a crucial role to play to promote TCDC in the region. The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) is a pledge by African leaders to eradicate poverty and to promote sustainable growth and development. Moreover, the African Union has taken the initiative to coordinate the Pan African Tsetse and Trypanosomosis Eradication Campaign (PATTEC). These are excellent initiatives, which could lead to the sustainable socio-economic development of Africa, provided a large component is devoted to appropriate human resources development and capacity building.

Role of the IAEA

Over the years, the IAEA has contributed significantly to the development of qualified human resources and building national and regional capacities in various fields of nuclear science and technology.

More recently, the IAEA has made a special effort to promote Technical Cooperation between Developing Countries (TCDC) through support to Regional Designated Centers (RDCs). So far 7 such RDCs have been established in the areas of non-destructive techniques, mutation breeding and biotechnology, radiation oncology and medical physics, radioactive waste management, irradiation processing and maintenance of scientific equipment. The RDCs could greatly assist African countries in consolidating their manpower capabilities in the nuclear field.

For decades, the IAEA has given considerable support to its African Member States in the utilization of nuclear techniques for socio-economic development. Such support will certainly continue for along time to come. However, Member States should ensure that the technical co-operation programme of the Agency meets their priority needs.

Availability of Nuclear Information

Updated information in the nuclear field is readily available through the Internet. Several dedicated networks already exist and can be readily accessed. For example,

• INIS – The International Nuclear Information System has been operated by the IAEA and can be accessed on http://www.iaea.org/inis/inis.htm

• DIRAC – The Directory of Radiation Centers can be accessed on http://www.iaea.org/programme.nahunet
• IARC – The IAEA has collaborated with the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) to create a network of various institutions (including all relevant African institutions) involved in this field.
• AFRA – Network of Scientists and institutions have been established under all AFRA projects.
• NNIs - Projects have already been initiated to share information between National Nuclear Institutions in the region on the experiences and lessons learnt from taking nuclear technology to the market place.
• IAEA/NUS - The national University of Singapore (NUS) has taken the initiative to start distant learning in radiation processing and tissue banking. The relevant website is http://citamed.nus.edu.sg/tissuebank

The above is by no means exhaustive.

Retention of Qualified Staff

To ensure the sustainability of nuclear capabilities, it is necessary to retain qualified and experienced staff. Adequate steps have to be taken to minimize the negative impact of brain drain.

Moreover, the smooth transfer of knowledge, skills and responsibilities should be ensured whenever there is a change of staff.

CONCLUSION

A well-known French Scientist, Ilia Pirigone, once said “the future cannot be predicted, but it can be designed”.

It is high time that African policy makers, with the assistance of competent scientists, industrialists and other stake holders, start designing the future of the African Continent.

Africa is endowed with considerable natural resources and there is no reason why we should not view the future with optimism.

However, the sustainable socio-economic development of Africa largely depends upon mastering various technologies, which includes the implementation of appropriate knowledge management strategies in the relevant fields.

One such technology deals with the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. Nuclear techniques have wide applications in the sectors of health, agriculture, industry, hydrology and the environment. The optimal use of such techniques can have a significant impact on the socio-economic development of the region.

Maximizing the Value of Public Sector Information for Scientific and Socioeconomic Development in Africa

By: Raed M. Sharif Ph.D. Candidate in Information Science and Technology at the School of Information Studies, Syracuse University, NY, USA. Research Fellow at the Intellectual Capital Unit,The Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) Email: {raedsharif@gmail.com} Phone: +27-72-419-4097, Mail Address: 337 Hinds Hall, Syracuse University. Syracuse, 13244, NY. USA

Abstract

Although it has always been an important asset to those who posses it, in the current knowledge society, information is considered as one of the most important goods in our daily life (Porat, 1977; Machlup & Mansfield, 1983; Mueller 1995; Stiglitz, 2000).

At the same time, the public sector is the biggest single producer and owner of a large variety of information (e.g., health and geographic information, financial reports, social and economic statistics, legislation and judicial proceedings, food and water resources information, and many other kinds of data and information, collectively referred to as Public Sector Information). Public Sector Information (PSI) represents an important resource with vast socio-economic potential to different communities. For example, governments can use this strategic resource to make sound policies and to promote transparency and accountability; and private sector can use it to produce innovative products and services, which in turn can contribute to the nation’s economy. Scientific communities benefit tremendously from the PSI. The list of benefits to the community includes the promotion of interdisciplinary, inter-sector, inter-institutional, and international research. As for citizens, PSI is essential for exerting their civic rights and enabling democratic participation. Finally, for civil society organizations, PSI can be a strategic resource for their work, especially in areas such as poverty eradication, public health, food security, disaster management, and governance, where the combination of different types of PSI (e.g., geo-spatial, economic, and health data) can be of tremendous value for successful targeting and support of marginalized communities. Although the OECD countries are sparing no effort to maximize the socioeconomic value of their PSI, similar efforts, or even discussions and future plans, are almost absent in most of the developing countries, especially in Africa.

This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the potential social and economic value of the PSI for different communities in Africa (and other developing countries), especially to areas such as good governance, market and organizational innovation and competitiveness, scientific research and development, good citizenship, poverty eradication, as well as other socioeconomic problems facing the developing world.

Because of the unfortunate absence of scholarship about the potential value of PSI in the developing countries, this paper mainly draws upon literature, experiences, and examples from the OECD countries. The author realizes, ofcourse, that for these potential values to be realized and enjoyed by different communities in the developing world, there should be sound government policies in place to govern the PSI in these countries. However, discussing such policies and their pros and cons is beyond the scope of this paper and will be the focus of a future paper.

Introduction

The public sector in most countries, by nature of its size and scope of activities, represents the largest single producer of data and information that could be a resource for the creation of value-added information content and services (Aichholzer & Buekert, 2004; see also Steinberg & Mayo, 2007). The economic, social, and political value derived from the vast quantities of data and information being produced by the public and private sectors around the world have become a source of global interest for a variety of stakeholders across academic, social, and political fields. Use and reuse of these resources within various industries and by different organizations is what allows for the creation of such value.

The OECD (2006a) defines PSI as having characteristics of being dynamic and continually generated, directly generated by the public sector, associated with the functioning of the public sector (e.g., meteorological data, business statistics), and readily useable in commercial applications. Given the assumed special characteristics of the PSI (e.g., comprehensiveness, reliability, timeliness, and accuracy), this information is considered by different stakeholders to have potential economic, social, and political values (Aichholzer & Buekert, 2004; Uhlir, 2004; Abd Hadi & McBride, 2000). These values make the PSI a strategic resource, potentially important for different stakeholders such as different agencies within the public sector, private businesses, academia, citizens and civic organizations (see Blakemore & Craglia, 2006; Aichholzer & Buekert, 2004; Uhlir, 2004; Abd Hadi & McBride, 2000; Young, 1992). In a recent review, Steinberg & Mayo (2007) emphasized the importance of PSI and argued that it “underpins a growing part of the [British] economy and the amount is increasing at a dramatic pace” (p.3). The review, titled The Power of Information, maintains that “ when enough people can collect, re-use and distribute PSI, people organize around it in new ways, creating new enterprises and new communities” (Mayo & Steinberg, 2007, p.3).

These information resources can be used broadly by public-sector organizations themselves, through intra- and inter-governmental exchange of information (see Sheriff, 2000; Abd Hadi & McBride, 2000); by private-sector companies in general and by information industry firms in particular as re-users, to use it in their operations or to produce value-added information products and services (Abd Hadi & McBride, 2000; Young, 1992); by scientific communities (e.g., employment information is now used extensively in the social sciences and in policy making; and data from public health organizations play a growing role in the advancement of life sciences) (see Arzberger et al., 2004) ; by individual users (e.g., for health and educational purposes and for making social and economic decisions); and by civil society organizations (e.g., the use of geospatial data, economic statistics, health and education information for poverty mapping and other related activities) (see CIESIN, 2006).

The assumed economic value of PSI comes from its exploitation by different communities. Given the perceived unique properties that the PSI has such as comprehensiveness and continuity (Hadi & McBride, 2000), successful exploitation of such resources can generate income to a country1 as well as expand its ability to compete internationally. An interesting aspect related to the economic value of PSI is that the economic synergy between many pieces of information makes the whole of the information worth more than the sum of the individual pieces.

The assumed social value of PSI relates to the value that citizens and civic organizations can derive from utilizing this information. An example of the social value of PSI is given in the “Policy Guidelines for the Development and Promotion of Governmental Public Domain Information,” a report conducted by the UNESCO in 2004 (Uhlir, 2004). This report shows that the United States weather information collected by the National Weather Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and provided free of charge, has resulted in a large number of public users in many sectors including education and research. The accessibility of such information enables citizens to make well-informed decisions related to any business or leisure plans. Expanding this principle across information sectors indicates that the availability of the different types of PSI will lead to a more knowledgeable society and therefore a smarter workforce, which will be able to leverage this information for the benefit of the nation as a whole (see Steinberg & Mayo, 2007; Bargmann, Pfeifer, & Piwinger, 2004; Weiss, 2003).

The economic, social, and political values of PSI all have the potential to enable a more effective and transparent government, a healthier and competitive economy, as well as a more knowledgeable and responsible citizenry. The special need to study and highlight the potential value of PSI to the developing world stems from the assumption that, given the special characteristics of PSI that I mentioned above, this strategic resource can be of special importance and usefulness to the humanitarian and development work that these societies need in areas such as governance, poverty eradication, public health, and environmental protection.

Potential Value of PSI to Societies in the Developing World

PSI represents an important asset with vast socio-economic potential2. It is an important element in the existence of a robust knowledge economy. According to Horton (2002) diffusing public information and knowledge resources efficiently and effectively is essential to:

• “Sustaining the competitive competency of the country’s businesses and industries, in both domestic and global marketplaces;

• Attaining the highest levels of educational excellence for all the nation’s children and adults in a lifelong learning context;
• Enabling citizens to participate more effectively in all facets of a democratic society;
• Informing public officials at all levels of government so that they can enact better laws, formulate and enact enlightened public policies, monitor the programs they authorize effectively, and govern fairly, equitably, and wisely; and,
• Enhancing the quality of life of all a country’s citizens, including responsibility to the special government information needs of disadvantaged and disabled individuals.” (p.3)

Below, I provide detailed discussions and examples of the value of PSI to different communities in the society3.

Potential Value of PSI to Governments

According to Pierre & Peters (2005), there are two key variables in determining the State’s capacity to govern. First is the authority of the State, referring to its ability “to make and enforce binding decisions on the society” (p.46), second is the State’s ability to gather and process information. The authors argue that the State must act in concert with society to gather information about it, and must also be “open to a wide range of information, including much that is uncomfortable and dissonant, if it is to be successful in governing” (p.46). Hill (1995) argues “if government wants its well researched and sensible policies to be accepted, therefore, it must not be willing merely to provide full and clear information about the issues and the expected consequences of its proposed policy; it must take every reasonable step to ensure that the electorate is given that information” (p. 280). The wealth of information generated by the government holds great value to the government itself and to the nation. The public sector, while it is the collector and creator of PSI, it is also one of the primary users of this information. Governments can use these resources in creating policies, dealing with everything from education to employment public health.

PSI for Improving Governments Efficiency

PSI can greatly improve the efficiency of many public agencies and functions. Public agencies can use their own information or information from other public sector bodies to craft policies, maintain, evaluate, and improve relevant government operations, plan for the future, inform the public, and ensure the vitality of the economy. Specific examples may include making decisions about where and how many schools, hospitals, nursing homes, prisons and roads to build based on information the government collects from the public. Governments also can plan and prepare for natural disasters by using such information as geospatial, health and population. Moreover, governments can exchange scientific and technical information to foster excellence in scientific research and to ensure effective use of federal research and development funds. To that end, public agencies can use PSI to determine appropriate funding to areas where further development is needed. Finally, access to and sharing of PSI within these agencies can eliminate work duplications, promotes faster services and better coordination.
In thinking topically, governments may find themselves better able to communicate across boundaries, thus eliminating duplication of effort and information.

PSI for Direct and Indirect Financial Gain for Governments

The last two decades or so have witnessed a noticeable increase in governments’ awareness of the commercial value of PSI (Weiss, 2003; Hadi & McBride, 2000). According to Hadi & McBride (2000), issues and developments that affected this increased awareness include:

• “increasing commercial pressure for access to government information;

• the expansion of the information industry;
• increasing dependence on information by many organizations and the expansion of information of information intensive industries;
• increasing use of the Internet and electronic exchange of data;
• the development of electronic access to government departments; and
• a push by governments towards identifying new means of income generation” (p.553).

Governments can benefit from the PSI by generating some direct and indirect financial gains. Because of the strong potential for re-use, some public bodies, especially from countries that follow a “cost recovery” policy, may use the PSI they collect to develop products and services on their own (see the U.K. OFT, 2006). Under the same policy approach, some other agencies may sell or license PSI to other public bodies, to commercial entities, or to a commercial “arm” of the government (U.K. OFT, 2006 ; Weiss, 2003). For example, revenues to the UK government from the sale and licensing of PSI are around 340 million pounds, and the total market for PSI stands at 590 million pounds per year (U.K. OFT, 2006). Approximately half of the income came from businesses, 45% from other public sector bodies and the rest from the general public.

On the other hand, in countries that follow the open access model such as the USA, the public sector benefits indirectly from the PSI through the increased financial rewards generated by open and free access to PSI. By increasing the revenues that the private sector generates from commercializing the available PSI, the government increases the tax base that the it can draw upon when funding future activities and projects (Weiss, 2003).

PSI for Awareness Raising and Democratic Values

Finally, PSI has increasingly been seen and used as an instrument to educate (and influence) citizens and raise their awareness regarding many social, economic, and political dimensions of their lives, which subsequently can speed up the social development of the country (see Thomson, 1999). Also, one major value that affects the government is transparency and promotion of democratic ideals: equality, democracy, and openness. The more information that is accessible from the government, the less likely it is to create corruption. Furthermore, if the information is easily and readily accessible in a certain format, then people can have the opportunity to obtain the desired information, and pursue their democratic rights. The transparency of government and public information prevents discrimination of access and use, which fulfills citizens’ right of freedom of information.

Potential Value of PSI to the Private Sector

The great variety of PSI is not only significant in administration, control and policy making processes, it can also have huge potential commercial value. Some specific qualities of the PSI that are becoming essential with the increasing reliance on information resources include:

• PSI has usually been collected over a long period of time, which makes it useful for time series analysis.

• PSI enjoys the assumption of reliability. The public sector has the means to enforce information collection. Reliability is increased because in many cases providing correct information is on the best interest of the information subjects if such information is, for example, necessary to obtain a specific legal status.
• The PSI collection enjoys the assumption of sustainability. At least discontinuing information services could be turned into a public policy issue (Buekert, 2004, p. 7-8).

In the OECD countries, the last two decades have witnessed a growing awareness within the private sector of the commercial value and reuse of PSI. The private sector understood that this source of information has a number of inherent qualities that are vital for the information market and could not simply be left to the public sector and their associated private enterprises (Buekert, 2004). Although much of the collected PSI was not intended for commercial purposes, businesses are continuously discovering that there are many potential commercial applications for this raw PSI. In such a process, the private sector plays an intermediary role between the PSI and the end-user, through adding some value to the raw PSI (i.e., combining sources and creating new data). According to the OECD (2006 a), some of the products and services that the private sector can produce using PSI include in-car navigation systems, digital online maps, weather forecasts for different platforms (e.g. mobile phones), enhanced legal text databases for research, location-based information on doctors and pharmacies, and location-based tourist recommendations including weather conditions, to name some.

In general, there are two distinct uses of this information within the private sector: dissemination and creation of value added products and services.
Publishing companies, web design firms and broadcasting networks are in the business of disseminating PSI. Many of these companies do nothing more than taking the information and making it viewable to the general public through print, television and the Web. On the other hand, companies who provide value added products and services transform and present this information in different ways so that consumers use it more easily to make decisions and to manage their lives. These companies come from the information intensive industries. IT consulting firms, research database providers, insurance firms and legal service providers are all part of these industries.

According to the U.K. Office of Fair Trading (2006, p.29), there are three ways to utilize PSI in the private sector:

• Own Business Use—This includes using PSI to make improvements within a business, such as developing an inventory system for a retailer. Using PSI to identify patterns to maximize sales and services is another application.

• Produce Products for Consumers—This includes the use of PSI to produce, for example, car navigation systems, hiking maps and genealogy services.
• Produce Products for Industry—This includes the use of PSI to develop products for an industry, such as training manuals, radar or auto-pilot maritime systems.

According to the U.K. OFT survey (2006), 39% of businesses in the UK use PSI for their own purposes, 28% use it to produce products for consumers, and 44% use it as an input to produce products for industry. The same survey found that among businesses generating products from PSI, 98 % ranked PSI as an important or very important input to their products. Moreover, three out of four of them stated that they would not be able to continue production in the absence of PSI.

Potential Value of PSI to Scientific Communities

The scientific community benefits tremendously from the PSI. The list of benefits to the community includes the promotion of interdisciplinary, inter-sector, inter-institutional, and international research (OECD, 2006b). Also, using PSI promotes new type of research; reinforces open scientific enquiry; encourages diversity of analysis and opinion; and facilitates the education of new researchers. Furthermore, it supports studies on data collection methods and measurement, permits the creation new data sets when data from multiple sources are combined, helps the scientific community to maximize the research potential of new digital technologies and networks.

Arzberger et al. (2004) argue that access to the raw data for research – not just the polished, published final product - is vitally important to furthering scientific progress. Factual databases that are supported by government collections and funding are fundamental to the progress of science, to the advancement of technological innovation, and to an effective educational system. Examples of the PSI that can be used in the scientific arena include general scientific research data, such as geographic information (e.g., aerial photos, geology, hydrology, or topography) or meteorological information (e.g., climate data and weather forecasts), as well as some aspects of social data (e.g., health statistics for medical research) (MEPSIR, 2006).

Potential Value of PSI to the General Public

The unique characteristics of information in a free, democratic society are best expressed by Thomas Jefferson who called it ‘the currency of democracy’. A democratic society requires free flow of information between the government and the public. As PSI relates to all spheres of life, it is important for this kind of information to be accessible to the potential users. Indeed, the general public benefits from obtaining information on various issues that improve their well-being and allows them to be productive citizens.

PSI can inform citizens of their rights and responsibilities, educate them and provide opportunities for life-long learning, and preserve cultural and historical information for the future. The general public can benefit from PSI directly and indirectly. Directly, through access to PSI, the general public can get information and instructions related to, for example, tax (e.g., domestic and international tax arrangements), education for children and adults (e.g., educational policy, further and higher education, special educational needs and additional support, workplace training and development), health services (e.g., hospitals, insurance coverage, compensations), housing issues (e.g., housing advice, housing finance, housing repairs and renovation), and safety matters (e.g., civil emergencies, emergency response, emergency services, emergency planning, and emergency warnings). The information on justice and legal rights is also important to the public. This information includes civil and human rights, consumer rights, crime and law enforcement (including crime prevention and police) employment rights, justice system (including prisons, probation, coroners, remand and youth justice), law (including legal services) and security (including data security, national security and security of equipment)4.

PSI also includes information on leisure time and culture (e.g., arts, entertainment and events, children’s activities, parks and gardens, sports and recreation facilities, tourism and young people’s activities) that could help people make decision on different vacation-related issues. The information on transportation and infrastructure (e.g., air transport, community transport, commuting, public transport, road transport, parking, road safety and traffic management, roads and highways, structures and installations, transport for disabled people, transport planning and water transport) can explain which means of transport is good to travel at a given time or a season. Moreover, information on government and public administration is also important for the general public. This category includes information on central government, constitution, democracy and elections, local government (including council procedures, councils, local government committees and structure and mayors), politics, public administration (including public bodies, public consultation, public services, public service agreements & standards in public life), etc. One of the most important examples of the value of the PSI can be seen when people use public health information. The Power of Information report (2007) highlights a few cases where the use of this information has greatly contributed to the health of the public. The report states that the provision of food safety information has lead to a 13.3% drop in food borne illness in Los Angeles. Medical studies have also proven that HIV patients better cope with their disease and have a lower treatment cost when they better understand their condition (Mayo & Steinberg, 2007).

Potential Value of PSI to Civil Society Organizations

In addition to providing an important link between citizens and the state, civil society organizations (CSOs) also provide an enabling environment necessary to enhance community cohesion and decision-making, with free and easy access to information being of paramount importance (see Arko-Cobbah, 2007). Given the importance and diversity of areas these organizations work on, CSOs stand to benefit a lot from the availability of PSI. Areas that could benefit the most from such information include good governance, public health, environmental protection and poverty eradication. The following section focuses on the potential value of PSI to poverty eradication.

PSI and Poverty Eradication

One of the lessons learned from the U.S. National Research Council (NRC) study “Down to Earth: Geographical Information for Sustainable Development in Africa” (2002) was that geographical information (most of this information is produced by governments) and technologies are central to achieving successful transition from traditional environment and resources management practices to sustainable development due to their integrative quality (i.e., linking social, economic, and environmental data) and their place-based quality (i.e., addressing relationships among places at local, regional and global scale). Furthermore, this growing interest in the potential role of spatial data (and other types of PSI) in sustainable development, especially in poverty eradication area, was clearly demonstrated by the organization of the 9th International Conference of the Global Spatial Data Infrastructure (GSDI) in Chile in November 2006 with the main theme of Spatial Information: Tool for Reducing Poverty.5 The conference highlighted specific issues such as spatial information platform for reducing poverty, geospatial data for sustainable development, applications relating to poverty and mapping, applications in disaster management and eradication, and applications related to poverty and community.
There was a general consensus that this kind of information will continue to play a critical role in eradicating poverty and enhancing other sustainable development activities. One of the of the main conference recommendations concerning spatial data and poverty eradication was: “Spatial Information becomes a real tool for reducing the poverty while the governments of the world create geo-referenced territorial information and statistics about the social, economic, cultural, institutional and environmental conditions of the territory and its population. Poverty is the major issue and scourge of our current society, leading in turn to other problems, for example the increase in crime, corruption, drug addiction, child abuse and so on…”6.

The logic behind the link between spatial data and poverty eradication is that the livelihoods of the majority of poor people around the world, especially in Africa, depend heavily on agriculture and natural resources, and that there are many pressing problems in these sectors that contribute to the level of poverty in these regions. Addressing these problems successfully in many cases requires better data and information, and more importantly better ways to integrate these information resources and to analyze the relationships between human activities and the changes in these land and natural resources. For example, poverty maps have proved to be a very strong tool to better understand the relationship between poverty and geographic factors such as climate conditions, elevation, access to transportation networks, exposure to natural disasters, and other important factors (CIESIN, 2006). They also are seen as permitting more effective targeting of poverty eradication efforts by enabling decision makers and the public to visualize the problems they are attempting to solve and facilitating more precise delivery of disaster relief services to vulnerable populations. These poverty maps7 have already been useful for some poverty eradication activities in Mexico and Bolivia (CIESIN, 2006).

Furthermore, the integration of health data and statistics in a relational database with a GIS interface, among many other benefits, is seen as enhancing health facility utilization, improving distribution of preventive care and response, and providing evidence-based rationales for targeted assistance and service delivery. Also, this integration of information is seen as useful in cases such as: health trends, human and animal disease tracking, health facilities, location and asset management, tracking child immunizations, and epidemiology (Cromley & McLafferty, 2002). Finally, the integration of environmental data and statistics in databases with a GIS interface can help in many applications such as land-use management and planning, urban planning and development, water and air quality assessments and enforcement, property assessment and tax policy development, and various agriculture-related services, and systems modeling and forecasting (Clarke et al., 2002). The integration of these different types of PSI (e.g., geospatial, health, unemployment, donors information, education information, etc.) and the resulting applications could have a significant and direct impact on the poverty eradication and other sustainable development efforts in the developing world.

Conclusions

As shown in this paper, provided that there are sound policies in place, the PSI has a huge potential to contribute to the information society, environmental protection, economic growth and the overall welfare of citizens in the developing world.The experiences and examples provided in the previous sections about the use and reuse of PSI by public sector agencies, private sector, scientific communities, CSOs, and the public demonstrate the potential importance and value that the PSI contains for political, legal, scientific, technical, and medical fields; the innovation and economic growth resulting from its use, and its role in educating citizens and maintaining a transparent and accountable government (Aichholzer & Buekert, 2004).

PSI can contribute value to governments through social, political and economic aspects. The availability of this information promotes a healthy economy. These social and economic aspects greatly add to the smooth functioning of a democracy. More specifically, the government can gain such social and political benefits as promoting national law and order as well as strong and peaceful global relationships. Also, enriching the educational and cultural knowledge of citizens can improve the economic well-being of citizens and thus the country and its government. The government that provides open and easy access to PSI to all interested parties can gain the trust, respect and support from both the public and private sectors, which in turn will ensure the prosperity of the country in general. Furthermore, there could be some financial benefits from the direct or indirect utilization of PSI by different communities.

Also, PSI is one of the raw materials that fuel the dynamic relationships between governments and private sector, allowing businesses to reduce their research and development overhead. Given an open marketplace, private corporations can make use of PSI to create new goods and services that add value to the raw data and in turn promote economic growth. This could increase the market size of information industry, and thereby expand the potential job market in the future. These kinds of positive externalities that result from access to and re-use of PSI create wealth and stimulate the economy, and are responsible for “enriching the population” (Uhlir, 2004).

Similar to the use of PSI in other areas, its application to science holds many opportunities for public benefit and socioeconomic development. Its value is magnified when used in important domains such as using meteorological information for agricultural predictions, using digital maps for responding to natural disasters, and in increasing research collaboration with the developing countries.

Finally, citizens and civic society can benefit tremendously from the utilization of PSI, especially in areas such as education, health, and environment. At a very basic level, it is quite known that citizens may incur some loses because they lack information when making important decisions, particularly in health and education areas. Also, the value of PSI to general public is in many ways parallel to the value of PSI to governments. Just as the government functions better with knowledgeable citizens, citizens are empowered and elect better governments with openly available information. The public needs to have access to government information to hold it accountable. The PSI becomes a communication tool that explains publicly funded projects and concerns. Furthermore, PSI is integral to the public’s freedom of expression; a freedom that is one of the hallmarks of a democratic society. PSI has practical value to the general public as well. Either directly from a publicly funded agency or indirectly available through other communities, PSI impacts the general public by creating new products, stimulating sales, adding jobs, and contributing to wealth.

References

1. Abd Hadi, Z., & McBride, N. (2000). The commercialization of public sector information within UK government departments. The Journal of Public Sector Management, 13 (7), p. 552-570.

2. Arko-Cobbah, A. (2007). The right of access to information: Civil society and good governance in South Africa. Paper presented at the World Library and Information Congress: 73rd IFLA General Conference and Council.19-23 August 2007, Durban, South Africa.
3. Aichholzer, G. & H. Burkert (Eds) (2004). Public Sector Information in the Digital Age: Between Markets, Public Management and Citizens Rights . Edward Elgar: UK/US.
4. Arzberger, et al. (2004). Promoting access to public research data for science, economic, and social development. Data Science Journal, CODATA, p.135-152.
5. Bargmann, M., Pfeifer, G., Piwinger, B. (2004) A Citizen’s Perspective on Public Sector Information. In Aichholzer, G. & H. Burkert (Eds) Public Sector Information in the Digital Age: Between Markets, Public Management and Citizens Rights. Edward Elgar: UK/US, p. 255-274.
6. Blakemore, M. and Cragila, C. (2006). Access to Public Sector Information in Europe: Policy, Rights and Obligations. The Information Society, 22:13-24.
7. Burkert, H. (2004). The Mechanics of Public Sector Information. In Aichholzer, G. & H. Burkert (Eds) Public Sector Information in the Digital Age: Between Markets, Public Management and Citizens Rights. Edward Elgar: UK/US, p. 3-19.
8. Charlie,P.R. & Robenitsch, E.S. (2003) Into the black box: the knowledge transformation cycle. Management Science, 49 (9) 1180-1195.
9. CIESIN (Center for International Earth Science Information Network), Columbia University. 2006. Where the Poor Are: An Atlas of Poverty. Palisades, NY: Columbia University. Available at: http://www.ciesin.columbia.edu/povmap/.
10. Clarke, K. C., Parks, B. O., and Crane, M. P. (Eds) (2002). Geographic Information Systems and Environmental Modeling, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ.
11. Cromley, E. and McLafferty, S. (2002) GIS and Public Health. Guilford Press.
12. Hill, M. W. (1995). Information Policies: premonitions and prospects. Journal of Information Science 21(4) 273-282.
13. Horton, F.W., (2002). Public Access to Government Information and Information Literacy Training as Basic Human Rights, White Paper prepared for UNESCO, the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, and the National Forum on Information Literacy, for use at the Information Literacy Meeting of Experts, Prague, The Czech Republic.
14. Machlup, F. (1962). The Production and Distribution of Knowledge in the United States, Princeton UP.
15. Mayo, E. and Steinberg, T. (2007). The Power of Information Review. OPSI, London. Available at: http://www.opsi.gov.uk/advice/poi/power-of-information-review.pdf
16. Measuring European Public Sector Information Resources (MEPSIR) (2006). Final report of the study on exploitation of public sector information – Benchmarking of EU framework conditions. Available at http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/policy/psi/actions_eu/policy_act...
17. Mueller, M. (1995). Why Communication Policy Is Passing “ Mass Communication” By: Political Economy as the Missing Link. Critical Studies in Mass Communication, 12 (4) 457-72.
18. National Research Council (2002). Down to Earth: Geographical Information for Sustainable Development in Africa, National Academy Press, Washington, DC.
19. Office of Fair Trading (2006). Commercial Use of Public Information. Available at www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/reports/consumer_protection/oft861.pdf
20. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (2006a). Digital broadband content: Public sector information and content. Available at: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/10/22/36481524.pdf
21. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (2006b). Workshop on public sector information: Summary. Paper presented at the 2006 WPIE workshop on Public Sector Information. Available at: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/34/42/37865140.pdf
22. Pierre, J., & Peters, B. G. (2005). Governing Complex Societies: Trajectories and Scenarios. Palgrave MacMillan Hampshire, England.
23. Porat, M. (1977). The Information Economy: Definition and Measurement. Office of Telecommunications, Washington DC,
24. Sheriff, M. (2000). The value of information in organizations: a study of information use situations as context of value, Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, London School of Economics.
25. Stiglitz, J. E. (2000). The Contributions of the Economics of Information to Twentieth Century Economics, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 115(4), pp. 1441-1478.
26. Thomson, O. (1999). Easily Led. A History of Propaganda. Stroud: Sutton.
27. Uhlir, P. (2004) Policy Guidelines for the Development and Promotion of Governmental Public Domain Information. UNESCO, Paris. Available at http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.phpURL_ID=15863&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SE....
28. Weiss, P. (2003). Conflicting International Public Sector Information Policies and their Effect on the Public Domain and the Economy. In Esanu, J. M., Uhlir, P. F. (Eds.). The Role of Scientific and Technical Data and Information in the Public Domain: Proceedings of an International Symposium, Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press.
29. Young, R.H. (1992), “The tradable information initiative”, in Heywood, I. and Hudson, J.K. (Eds), Geographical Information 1993-Year Book of the Association of Geographic Information, Taylor and Francici, London, p. 231-238.

Footnotes

1. In an influential and widely cited study of the value of spatial PSI in Australia, it was claimed that for every dollar invested on producing land and geographic data, $4 of benefits was generated within the economy. (ANZLIC, 1995). Available at http://www.anzlic.org.au/pubinfo/2358011751.html

2. Although this information is ascribed no power in its own right, however, it is a very valuable in the way it supports development of organizations and societies (Rraman, 1989).
3. It should be noted that the value of certain types of PSI is easier to grasp than the value of other types {see Cragila & Blakemore (2004) on meteorological information and Hannapi-Egger (2004) on cultural info.}
4. For more examples see www.Info4local.gov.uk
5. See the conference website: http://www.gsdiassociation.org/events/eventdetails.asp?event_id=97/
6. Ibid
7. In Mexico, poverty maps were the framework for selecting 22 locations in thee states for on-farm work using innovative breeding techniques for maize. The Bolivian government think tank UDAPE, together with the World Bank and INE developed poverty maps to report on poverty and inequality in municipalities.

Obstacles to knowledge sharing & KM

Knowledge results from humans interacting with their environment and upon each other. As human interaction is the source of knowledge, it is necessary to ask what factors may impede the effective generation of knowledge and the sharing of know-how. Knowledge sharing / creation can only occur in the context of a 'safe space' but unfortunately many organisations find it difficult to maintain those conditions of culture and lived values that make for a safe space. This represents a paradox and a challenge to all key role players in such institutions who profess to support KM to take an honest, objective look at themselves. There are a number of behavioural factors related to power politics which are known to impede KM activities. These behaviours are particularly important because they are emulated in a cultural context (Katz and Kahn). Behaviours that negatively impact knowledge sharing and the practice of KM include:

• Uninvolved, disinterested leadership

• Status seeking and social climbing
• Highly politicised environments
• Professional jealousy
• Corruption
• Power games
• Inconsistent behaviours
• Lack of follow-through / not keeping promises
• A history of organisational violence, punishment and reward (violence in organisational terms often means passive aggression, public humiliation, shooting down or ignoring ideas and suggestions etc.)
• Ineffectual participation or communication by those concerned within knowledge networks
• Lack of feedback or poor feedback
• Stalling, late payment of invoices, not returning emails or phone calls
• Poor support and reward of creators and holders of knowledge
• Role players who don't take ownership or responsibility
• The 'Invented in Africa' syndrome (one KMAfrica2007 conference paper suggested that while there was a useful model developed in Lesotho, it was rejected by role players simply because it came from Africa - some role players felt that models that come from the UK and America are 'better'.)

There are a number of writers (Walsh & Ungson (1991), Collison & Parcell (1998), Nonake & Takeuchi (1995)) who have emphasised the vital role cultural factors play in the creation and sharing of knowledge. The conclusion is that one of the main impediments to knowledge work are interpersonal behaviours and attitudes among organisational role players. This creates a challenge for any organisation which supports KM activities to demonstrate how they 'walk the talk' and how organisational values are lived on the ground. It also suggests that Knowledge Professionals need accept organisational politics as a reality of their work and should be prepared to keep themselves motivated with an own vision in mind.

Policy Space and Intervention: The Education Roadmap in South Africa

By: Graeme Bloch (Education Specialist, DBSA) graemeb@dbsa.org

Introduction: Theoretical Issues

This paper examines a policy intervention process, in which the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) played a central facilitating role on behalf of government in drawing up an Education Roadmap for the new incoming government of South Africa.

Questions are raised about the conditions that led to the specific request to DBSA as well as about DBSA’s positioning to participate as credible broker in this education policy development process. The wider social conditions and concerns that opened up space for critical policy development are clearly a part of this complex equation.

In addition, the limitations and specificity of the whole process are identified. This leads to some critical questions relating to follow up and implementation, and thus about the efficacy and impact of the particular policy intervention.

Lastly, the actual assumptions and basis for understanding the theory of policy development, becomes another area of analysis and learning.

In this case, it is about the key analytical frameworks that guided choices of both the diagnostic analysis (what is the problem with education?) and solution (what are the core interventions required?) that the Education Roadmap proposed. Were these theoretical assumptions brought to the surface? In point of fact, do they need to be explicit in a policy intervention process? Or do the proposals and their education assumptions simply but meaningfully reflect the common ‘public’ discourse; or the lowest common denominator of viewpoints amongst the stakeholders who engaged in the policy process?

This set of questions about assumptions underlying the policy model raises a series of similar questions about implementation and intervention, about hierarchy of importance and choice in the proposals going forward, and of course questions about follow up.

These questions are raised not so much as practical or pragmatic questions (who will pick up on the proposals?), but rather in terms of the assumptions made about policy implementation. In this case, it is assumed that a process of ‘elite’ agreement and common purpose to amend and develop an Education Roadmap through a given process of stakeholder facilitation, and a semi-formal ‘stakeholder’ agreement (the so-called 10-Point Programme) would have lasting policy and implementation impact. Is this a naïve view or a pragmatic assessment of institutional, political and social realities and opportunities?

Thus, this paper makes a contribution to a series of lessons asked or learned. It asks whether policy development and impact is purely contingent and accidental – being in the right place at the right time – or whether there are universal lessons for policy development. These are clearly not understood to be chance, as this paper will show, though there are aspects of the contingent that interact with the structural and the purposive (or branding/positioning and institutional capacities elements).

The paper thus also develops a further set of questions: what are the internal institutional conditions that allow a particular institution, the DBSA, to play an important role in this policy intervention and development process? Has participation of DBSA in this process been enhanced, contributed to, and led to improvements in, the practices within DBSA in relation to Education and to DBSA’s role in policy development, as well as being formed by preceding experience? The recent formation of a DBSA policy unit, has been enhanced and has been justified by the agreement to participate in developing the Education Roadmap.

The paper below will spend some time describing the policy process of drawing up the Education Roadmap, the participants, the methodology of working, the specific analytics and outcomes of the process and the role of information. In addition, the theoretical and practical lessons learned have been posed above, but can hardly be definitively answered insofar as this process is far from finished. (As this paper is written, South Africa is in the grip of election fever. The next Minister of Education and Cabinet are yet to be appointed, let alone provincial Ministers or top officials, and policy direction will only then become solidified and more clear. By the time of KMA, some of these issues may be resolved.)

It may be that many of the lessons are specific and unrepeatable; it is more likely a series of lessons and comparisons may be drawn for more effective strategic alignment and policy development in a range of differing situations.

Alignment and interconnection

In a previous paper, the twin relationship was posed, of the external constraints and structures – the actual state of education and its role in post-apartheid South Africa – and of the institutional development of a policy for intervention within the DBSA itself.

What this paper can say is that the successful positioning of the DBSA in the education policy space enabled it to be seen as first choice, as well as a critical and honest broker in the stakeholder policy process.

A 2005 paper on the developing of nascent education policy within the DBSA, argued:

“(Important is how DBSA) instituted a specific portfolio of education policy, the context and environment of this space, how it provides a platform for developmental education intervention, and the methodologies to open up such a meaningful range of interventions.
The main focus…is on alignment and interconnection, on how (a specific analysis of) the realities ‘outside’ intersect with the internal imperatives, mandates and potentialities of a specific institutional space at the DBSA. Although about one specific institution, the paper poses questions of institutional locations, their specificities, their modes of external intervention, the outcomes to be expected.” (Bloch, G: 2005, 3-4)

This is not really the place for a detailed examination of either the context nor of the development of education policy in the DBSA. These will be summarized:

Education context

The education context, fifteen years after apartheid, can be described as one of crisis. (see Bloch, G: 2007 and 2008).

While there were significant improvements and achievements in the first fifteen years of democracy, it remained clear that there were inadequate outcomes in terms of standard scores for literacy, mathematics and science, where South Africa routinely came last even amongst less-developed and resourced African countries. Skills scarcities and dependencies had their roots in an inadequate baseline of achievement within the schooling system from very early grade levels.

The second point is that the poor outcomes impacted far more heavily on poor, rural and township i.e. predominantly black schools. While a small portion of schools achieved success, however measured, 80% of the schools remained dysfunctional. Gangsterism, ill-discipline, hunger and AIDS impacted negatively on the social functioning of schools. Teacher issues, for a variety of reasons, resulted in a largely dispirited, demoralized, under-performing but angry teacher corps, and again this impacted particularly on the poorer schools leading some commentators to talk of ‘two school systems’.

It needs to be indicated that concern about the public school system and its shortcomings was widely and publicly expressed, and even acknowledged by education authorities. (This was also given impetus by DBSA’s own interventions in this policy discourse space).

These concerns found expression, amongst other places, within education resolutions at the ANC conference in Polokwane. This important conference defined a far more grassroots based and mobilisational approach by the ruling party (and of course the well-known election of Jacob Zuma as ANC president). In education, there was a call for attention to the impacts of poverty on schooling, and to address access issues for the poor, including through nutrition schemes and the extension of non-fee paying schools to 60% of schools (from 40%). In addition, crucially, there was a call to ‘restore teaching to the noble profession’ it had once been. In return for this commitment by society, teachers were to reciprocate by being ‘in-class, on-time, teaching.’ Education must go beyond being a concern of the education department, but become the concern of government as a whole. The ANC subcommittee on education was charged to give flesh to such formulations, as well as to develop a plan that could inform its key election platform dynamics in the field of education.

Institutional context: the DBSA and education

Was the DBSA in a position to involve itself in such concerns?

DBSA’s primary role is in infrastructure development, with a strong concern for social infrastructure. Education policy adopted in 2006 understood infrastructure not just in hard physical bricks-and-mortar sense, but to include management systems and institutional capacities. Nonetheless, DBSA’s core role as financier was to continue, particularly in relation to loan funding to universities, FET (vocational) colleges and ‘private’ schools with a developmental component.

Nonetheless, a key feature of the new education policy was to commit DBSA to involvement in the public schooling sector. This was a difficult area to fund directly, given its complex relation to the provincial fiscus, although it is possible new areas may open up in relation to attempts to improve the physical facilities in schools (see DBSA, Infrastructure Barometer, 2008).

In particular, as the earlier paper argued (Bloch, G: 2005, 8) “One of the key decisions was to develop the policy space as a public space…and the building of networks and sustaining of partnerships.”

Further, it was understood that “practical experience and carefully assessed learnings will be able to shape a longer-term frame on where the bank has the most expertise, development impact, leverage and ability to intervene. Policy, defined in terms of shaping a series of practical interventions within a specific institutional landscape, itself changes, as the wider education and schooling environment will also shift.

“The alignment of interventions to seriously address the issues of quality and equity in the South Africa education system, and finding the best interventions based on one’s own institutional location, are hardly short-term or superficial projects.” (Bloch, G: 2005, 11)

It is argued that a consistent involvement by DBSA in public discourse had three effects in the intervening years 2005 to 2008– (1) It helped change the public discourse and understanding of failings in the education system, to the point where the term ‘crisis’ has become a common currency. (2) Secondly, it placed DBSA into the public and educational eye as itself a critical but sympathetic observer and participant, with credibility and analytical reach, as well as commitment, expertise and passion for finding solutions. (3) Thirdly, a strong network of relationships, including with government officials, was built in a variety of ways, ranging from an education Thinktank of leading educationists (and officials) to a wider education conference on Investment Choices.

While this sounds terribly conscious, of course reality develops less overtly. Nonetheless, by June 2008, a combination of external concern with the state of education, and internal positioning of the DBSA, came into interconnection with the specific ‘political’ positioning and actions of the chair of the DBSA Board (a previous Cabinet Minister himself and well-respected social activist). Through networks and connections, he brought together the Education Minister, Naledi Pandor; the head of the ANC education subcommittee, Zweli Mkhize, who would have a strong influence on appointments and direction of the incoming government (in fact, strictly speaking, head of the ANC Social Transformation Committee); and the chair of DBSA himself, to suggest the drawing up of an Education Roadmap . He was also able to implement a similar process in relation to Health.

Was this serendipity or the conscious coming-together of a combination of factors that had been brewing over a number of years, and were now able to bear fruit?

Summary

In 2007 at the previous KMA conference, it was argued:

“Education change is enormously complex and outcomes often seem impervious to policy intervention.

A comprehensive coordinated approach to education policy will have to be put forward. Planning, targets and priorities for the medium term need to be developed. A clear national consensus among stakeholders needs to be elaborated.

The basic thrust is for a strong and principle-driven commitment to increased involvement in the education arena. This will also have to explore the range of non-school interventions that need to be coordinated and drawn together to impact on schooling.” (Bloch, G: 2007, 14-15)

The story of the Education Roadmap as such follows.

The Education Roadmap

Introduction

Education and specifically schooling in South Africa is in a poor state, in terms of skills production, outcomes such as basic numeracy and literacy, and the inequalities that are reproduced in schools and society. There is wide acknowledgement of these problems and their impact on social and economic development, Anextensive public debate about how to intervene to fix the apparent problems has emerged, and has been given impetus by the publication of the Education Roadmap.

On initiative of the three principal partners (Jay Naidoo of DBSA, Minister Naledi Pandor, and MEC Zweli Mkhize, MEC for Finance and Economic Development and chair of the ANC Education Education sub-committee), the DBSA agreed to convene a stakeholder process to examine problems in schooling and develop possible solutions. The process began with a meeting convened on July 25 2008 to set the agenda, included two major strategy/technical meetings, and a further two stakeholder meetings to amend documentation, before the final adoption of the Education Roadmap and 10-point programme on November 7, 2008.

The primary purpose of the process was to develop a ‘position paper’ and to stimulate debate and stakeholder involvement, by assisting in the development of a Roadmap to reform the education system. This Roadmap may play a significant role in the planning of the incoming government and any new education administration.

Process

The convener and secretariat for the Roadmap process has been the Development Bank of Southern Africa. Apart from the direct involvement of the Chair of the Board and the Group Executive for Research and Information, the process was managed by a team inside the DBSA led by the Education Specialist, and consultancy.

After a series of consultations with experts and role-players the Development Bank of Southern Africa, as part of its broader development mandate, convened a one-day meeting under the chairmanship of Jay Naidoo (DBSA) Minister Naledi Pandor and Dr Zweli Mkhize (MEC, and ANC subcommittee chair). This stakeholders’ meeting on July 25 heard input from Prof Servaas van der Berg of Stellenbosch University. The meeting then discussed challenges in education, and agreed to embark on the Roadmap process.

Two technical meetings were held on 22 August 2008. These looked at a diagnostic of the education sector, attempting to agree on an analysis of challenges and the reasons for blockages in delivery and the poor outcomes. The second technical meeting defined an agenda in terms of the solutions that might be required. This began to set up an understanding of the key levels of intervention required. These followed the Carnoy framework of in-school, support to school, and societal levels of impact (see Bloch et al, 2008).

Out of these meetings were developed the key documents and information. These included an introduction and overview that mapped out the processes, history and tasks ahead for the roadmap process. A second document – also continually updated - was a diagnostic with detailed slides of problem areas in education. As facts came to light or stakeholders pointed to new areas or new research, the diagnostic slides were updated. Thirdly, a matrix was developed – this provided a table that analysed blockages, suggested interventions, and tried to look at their impacts. This matrix too was continually updated, and made available to technical meetings and to stakeholders. It provided the menu or selection from which the pared-down 10 point programme was eventually developed.

These documents were fed into two key stakeholders meetings, on 15 and 19 September.

Groups met to focus on the following areas:

1. Diagnostics (data/trends): which focused on education outcomes, employability, teacher statistics and other indicators. While there is a range of statistical material available, it has to be admitted that many questions cannot be answered through statistical means due to poor data.

2. Solutions: this group had to develop and group key interventions, to allow for efficacy of interventions as well as to relate this to the diagnostic of challenges and blockages. In addition, the challenge was also to identify interventions in areas where there are currently programmes or even unresolved debates. This means a number of issues were flagged, with the challenge on stakeholders to intensify the search for resolution (eg the Integrated Quality Management System for accountable supervision of teachers).
3. Roadmap draft reports as amended were routinely provided to Working Groups and participants, with key elements structured into the main report.

Out of this, then, the DBSA group executive and education specialist drew up a final set of ‘Roadmap’ slides for presentation. This was approximately 56 slides in all, proposing a full diagnostic, an analysis of key problem areas, and a set of suggested priorities for intervention. The role of information in developing a consensus and analytical grid can be seen as central.
The last set of slides was presented by the Group Executive to the final stakeholders meeting on November 7. Here the final proposals for intervention were put forward. The chairs – Jay Naidoo, Minister Pandor, and Dr Zweli Mkhize – fashioned the proposals into the 10-point Programme that was finally released for public discussion.

To summarise the key meetings:

• July 25 2008– first stakeholders’ meetings – sets agenda and process.

• August 22 – two technical subgroups, on diagnostic and solutions.
• September 15 and 19 – technical groups, stakeholder defined – to examine documents as they develop.
• November 7 2008– final stakeholders meeting – adoption of Roadmap and 10-point Programme.

Participants

These represented a range of ANC-aligned and non-ANC aligned institutions, unions, government officials, academics, NGO’s and other commentators. While not a ‘representative’ forum as such, these would either represent key education stakeholders or carry the respect of stakeholders in the field.

‘Political’ Jay Naidoo (DBSA), Zweli Mkhize (MEC/ANC), Minister Naledi Pandor (Minister of Education); Education MEC’s (Yusouf Gabru, W Cape, and Aaron Motsoaledi, Limpopo); Ministerial advisors; Department of Education national officials (DG Hindle; DDG’s Tyobeka, Vinjevoldt, Patel); Provincial education officials (W Cape, Free State, E Cape); Treasury (Budget DDG Kuben Naidoo);
Teacher unions: NAPTOSA (National Professional Teachers Association – President Ezra Ramisehla, Dave Balt, former president) and SADTU (SA Democratic Teachers’ Union: chairperson Thobile Ntola, secretary Thulas Nxesi, development officer Matshiliso Dipholo); COSATU; ANC Education subcommittee; NGO’s: CEPD (Centre for Education Policy Development); EPU (Wits Education Policy Unit); Idasa; Historic Schools Restoration Project; JET Education Services; LEAP School; CDE (Centre for Development and Enterprise); NBI (National Business Institute); Monitor Group
DFI’s IDC; NRF (National Research Foundation); NEPAD;
Academics and commentators: Rhodes University (DVC); Tshwane University of Technology;Linda Chisholm (HSRC), Jonathan Jansen, John Pampallis, Shireen Motala, Servaas van der Berg, Mary Metcalfe; Mamphela Ramphele (Circle Capital): all well-known educationists
DBSA (team of 7, including Group Executive, Education Specialist, and 2 consultants

Key Issues highlighted

The Roadmap highlighted key areas that hold back education;

1. Social disadvantage: Parents are often uneducated, relatively powerless and lack information. Social disadvantage is reproduced across generations.

2. Teachers: Teachers are key to education improvement. A range of issues affect teachers, from poor subject knowledge and teaching practices, to insufficient numbers in training to little performance evaluation.
3. Dysfunctional schools: Schools mostly do not achieve acceptable outcomes, reinforced by confusion over OBE. Schools are badly managed and supported. The departmental Foundations for Learning Campaign begins to address issues of reading and numeracy at primary and foundation level, where it counts most.
4. Resources: Despite massive improvements, there are still huge backlogs: lack of libraries, labs and computers, and poverty effects from nutrition to AIDS orphans to gang violence.
5. Responsibility and accountability: far stronger national intervention is needed to overcome inefficiencies as policy drops down to provincial delivery levels. District support systems and management in particular need to be fixed to give impetus to school level improvement.
6. The Roadmap identifies three levels, for analysis and intervention. Most important is the in-school level, what happens in the classroom between teacher and learner. There are issues of ‘support to school’ where the principal and departmental district ensure that schools are managed, resourced and function well. Lastly, ‘societal’ issues mostly impact on the readiness of students to learn. Poverty and backlogs are a real heritage of apartheid. All 3 levels need to be identified and tackled together.

The 10 Point Programme

The actual 10 point programme was the key output from the process and is reproduced below.

A.In-school

• Teachers to be in-class, on time, teaching. Teachers to also be required to use textbooks in class.

• Focus efforts on improving the quality of early childhood education and primary schools, including implementing the “Foundations for Learning? Campaign emphasizing the promotion of language and numeracy.
• Conduct external tests for all grade 3 and grade 6 learners every year, and provide the results to parents
• Ensure effective evaluation of all teachers based on extent to which learner performances improve, with results influencing occupationally specific dispensation pay for teachers.
• Enhance recruitment of quality teachers and strengthen teacher development
  Offer bursaries to attract quality student in-take into teacher training institution and offer student loan repayments to attract young graduates into teacher contracts.
  Enhance pre-service and in-service teacher training, including through better coordination and resourcing

Ensure that teacher unions have a formal and funded role in teacher development

Support to school

• Strengthen management capacity to ensure working districts and schools. This entails bringing in management capacity from the private sector, civil society and elsewhere in the public sector.

• Phase in a process of measurable improvements through targeting efforts at selected education districts and dysfunctional schools.

Use of infrastructure budgets as an incentive for schools that deliver improved teaching and learning.

• Increase the use of ICT in education, including audiovisual teaching materials in the classroom to supplement teaching and demonstrate quality teaching to learners and educators.

• Improve national-provincial alignment and efficiency of education expenditure, through procuring textbooks nationally and allocating resources to improve district capacity. In this regard, the use of conditional grants is an important tool to ensure alignment.

Societal

• Develop a social compact for quality education. This will include a National Consultative Forum dedicated to clarifying the “non-negotiables” and performance targets for key stakeholders, and the monitoring thereof.
  Mobilisation of communities at all levels should be encouraged to raise awareness and participation in education issues. Examples include graduates assisting their former/ dysfunctional schools to assist, corporate social investment, party branch campaigns to clean up schools, and supporting food gardens, and encouraging young graduates to enter teaching (“Teach SA”).

• Implement poverty combating measures that improve the environment for learning and teaching, such as a nutrition programme (cross-cutting programme with health), basic infrastructure for schools, and social support for children.

Conclusions

The Roadmap process provides conceptual and programmatic guidance for education systems’ reform. Stakeholders convened on 7 November 2008 where the Education Roadmap was presented for a final review and adoption.

It is envisaged that the government will give due consideration to its findings and recommendations. Beyond this, the process provides the basis for a debate on education and education priority interventions. It opens up discussion of the need for a social compact of key stakeholders that could, through common purpose and collective action, achieve a more effective education system and better education outcomes.

The Roadmap process, although limited in what it can achieve, has produced a diagnosis of the strategic challenges facing the South African education system as well as a range of potential policy responses. The strategic policy options are high level and provide a starting point rather than a final definitive position on the way forward.

Although a definitive conclusion is not possible at this point it appears consistent with the evidence that an important contributor to South Africa’s poor education outcomes arises from institutional weaknesses within the public education system, problems in ‘delivery’ by education departments and officials, and the range of problems faced by teachers in ensuring effective teacher development. There is a need for an approach that would seek to improve the efficiency and accountability of the system at the same time as seeking to improve support to and accountability of the teaching corps.

It should not be underestimated the extent to which the Roadmap process may contribute to national debate and help focus discussion around core elements that may lead to solutions (see media list, below). The impact in this policy space is clearly difficult to measure, though the level of media interest may indicate public awareness and focus.

The Roadmap process has enhanced DBSA image as a facilitator with integrity, able to bring together key stakeholders in government, civil society, unions, and NGO’s as well as academics. DBSA has been acknowledged too as a centre of excellent knowledge applied to policy solutions. This positive response can also be translated into investment opportunities as stakeholders return to DBSA to implement resolutions at a later date from the Roadmap. DBSA should continue to position itself as a thought and policy leader in this regard. Areas such as agency work; resource inputs and management; management training and marshalling; policy debate; and a range of investment opportunities; are all ongoing areas for DBSA that may be enhanced by DBSA’s initiatives around the Education Roadmap.

The DBSA-convened Roadmap process has been completed.

Government, constituencies and the public are currently debating the Roadmap and have taken ownership of education system improvements. This is also a key limitation of the Roadmap, as both publication and implementation going forward are not in the hands of the DBSA.

It remains to be seen whether the concurrence of situation and circumstance; the specific positioning of the DBSA and its role going forward; and the underlying assumptions of the model of policy development, intervention and change, make enough sense to see positive transformation in the policy implementation space going forward.

The specific lessons presented and the series of analytical and theoretical questions posed in the introduction, highlight the importance of such projects and their documentation and public presentation.

Bibliography

1. Bloch, G (2005) Developing Education in a Development Bank: Considerations and Reflections, paper to Kenton Education Conference, Mpekweni.

2. Bloch, G. (2006) Education isn’t Just Education: Non-Education Expenditure to Improve Quality Education, paper to CCEM Conference, Cape Town, December 2006.
3. Bloch, G (2007) The Difficulties of Systems’ Change, paper to KMA Conference Nairobi.
4. Bloch, G (2007 and 2008) The Persistence of Inequality in Education: Policy and Implementation Priorities, paper to DBSA Knowledge Week November 2007, and EASA Conference, Club Mykonos, January 2008.
5. Bloch, G , Chisholm, L, Fleisch, B and Mabizela, M (eds) (2008) Investment Choices for South African Education. Johannesburg: Wits University Press.
6. Chisholm, Linda (2003) “The state of curriculum reform in South Africa: The issue of Curriculum 2005” in Daniel, J Habib, A and Southall, R (eds) State of the Nation South Africa 2003-2004. Cape Town: HSRC.
7. Chisholm, Linda (ed) (2004) Changing Class: Education and Social Change in Post-Apartheid South Africa. Cape Town: HSRC.
8. Chisholm, L (2005) “The State of South Africa’s Schools” in Daniel, J Southall, R and Lutchman, J (eds) State of the Nation: South Africa 2004-2005. Cape Town: HSRC.
9. Chisholm, Linda Motala, Shireen and Vally, Salim (eds) (2003) South Africa: Education Policy Review. Sandown: Heinemann.
10. Council on Higher Education (2004) South African Higher Education in the First Decade of Democracy. Pretoria: CHE.
11. DBSA (2008) Infrastructure Barometer, 2008. Midrand: DBSA.
12. Department of Education (2005, 2008) Education Statistics 2003, 2006. Pretoria: DoE
13. DoE (2005) National Framework for Teacher Education, Report. DoE: Pretoria.
14. DoE (2005) Report of the Ministerial Committeee on Rural Education. Pretoria:DoE.
15. Fiske, Edward B and Ladd, Helen F (2004) Elusive Equity: Education Reform in Post-Apartheid South Africa. Cape Town: HSRC and Brookings Institute.
16. HSRC (2003) Human Resources Development Review 2003: Education, Employment and Skills in South Africa. Cape Town: HSRC and East Lansing: Michigan State University.
17. Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (2005) Conflict and Governance: Transformation Audit 2005. Rondebosch: IJR.
18. Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (2008) Risk and Opportunity: Transformation Audit 2008. Rondebosch: IJR.
19. Jansen, Jonathan D (2002) “Political symbolism as policy craft: explaining non-reform in South African education after apartheid” in Journal of Education Policy, Vol 17 (2)
20. Jansen, Jonathan (2003) “The state of higher education in South Africa: From massification to mergers” in Daniel, J Habib, A and Southall, R (eds) State of the Nation South Africa 2003-2004. Cape Town: HSRC.
21. Jansen, J (2005) Educationally Essential: Teachers, Textbooks and Time” in IJR: Conflict and Governance Transformation Audit 2005.
22. Jansen Jonathan and Taylor, Nick (2003) Educational Change in South Africa 1994-2003: Case Studies in Large-Scale Education Reform. Washington: World Bank.
23. Kraak, Andre (2004) An Overview of South African Human Resources Development. Cape Town: HSRC.
24. Morrow, Wally and King, Kenneth (eds) (1998) Vision and Reality: Changing Education and Training in South Africa. Cape Town: UCT.
25. Seekings, J and Nattrass, N (2006) Class, Race and Inequality in South Africa. Scottsville: UKZN Press
26. Seekings, J and Nattrass, N (2007) Historical Causes of Contemporary Inequality in South Africa, background paper to DBSA Development Report (unpublished).
27. South African Institute of Race Relations (2008) South Africa Survey 2007/2008. Johannesburg: SAIRR.
28. Soudien, C. (2005) Education: Wrestling with Legacy in IJR: Conflict and Governance Transformation Audit, 2005.
29. Taylor, Nick Muller, Johan and Vinjevold, P (2003) Getting Schools Working: Research and Systemic School Reform in South Africa. Cape Town: Pearson Education.
30. UNESCO (2004) Education For All: The Quality Imperative (EFA Global Monitoring Report 2005). Paris: UNESCO.
31. UNESCO (2007) Education for All by 2015: Will we make it? Oxford: OUP.
32. Van der Berg, Servaas (2005) The Schooling Solution: Primary School Performance is the Key. In IJR: Conflict and Governance Transformation Audit, 2005.
33. World Bank (1995) South Africa: Education Sector: Strategic Issues and Policy Options. Washington: World Bank.

Media

Media reports directly related to the Education Roadmap include:

1. ‘We must all invest in education roadmap to put SA on track’ by Ravi Naidoo and Graeme Bloch (Sunday Times 30/11/2008)

2. ‘Charting the course of SA schooling’ by Graeme Bloch (Cape Times 05/02/2009)
3. Also as ‘Ways to fix our school system’ and ‘Education roadmap’s 10-point programme’ by Graeme Bloch (The Star 09/02/2009 and Pretoria News, Daily News).
4. ‘ANC takes long look at education, training ahead of election’ by Sue Blaine (Business Day 04/10/2008).
5. ‘ANC may give OBE the chop – New Roadmap compiled at education Indaba’ by Angelique Serrao (Star, 14/11/2008).
6. ‘Outcomes based education may be on the way out’ (Cape Times 14/11/2008).
7. ‘Education Roadmap’ calls to scrap OBE’ (Argus 14/11/2008.
8. ‘Padkaart’ vir onderwys saai paniek’ (Beeld 15/11/2008).
9. ‘UGO opnuut in die spervuur’ by Carien Kruger (Rapport 16/11/2008).
10. ‘Onderwys-krisis’ (Hoofartikel, Rapport 16/11/2008).
11. ‘ANC considers major changes in schooling’ by Sue Blaine (Business Day 17/11/2008).
12. ‘Awaiting the outcome’ (Business Day editorial 18/11/2008).
13. ‘More than just OBE is on the Agenda’ by Sue Blaine (Business Day 19/11/2008).
14. ‘Union backs outcomes education’ by Sue Blaine (Business Day 24/11/2008).
15. ‘Back to basics’ (Business Day editorial 27/11/2008).
16. ‘How to build a winning nation’ (Sunday Times editorial 30/11/2008).
17. ‘Matric failure (Business Day editorial 07/01/2009).
18. ‘Changing the course of SA schooling’ (Cape Times 5/02/2009)
19. ‘Teachers can forge a learning nation’ (Star 4/o3/2009; Cape Times 16/03/2009

The challenge of governance in creating, increasing opportunities for rural poor in Africa

Barasa Chrispinus Kuloba M.ED (VOX) B.EDISU (EU)

ORGANISATION AFFILIATION: Nang'eni Secondary School, PO Box 819, Bungoma, 50200, Kenya

The concern for the rural areas and recognition of the importance of meeting the needs of predominantly rural people is of course nothing new. Official policy for half a century and more have consistently stressed the need for developing agriculture as the economic backbone of Africa countries, for encouraging steady evolution of rural community towards more satisfying ways of life and for enabling them to maintain their social and cultural integrity whilst mobilizing their innate capacity to contribute to their own development. However, in the new era of economic planning with targets being defined in terms of growth in national income, social aspects of development lose sight of and salvation is sought through sectors promising greatest returns in short period of time, by the modern industrial sector largely dominated by requirements of the articulate and progressive urban populations. Both capital, skilled manpower, land as a resource are inadequate, political turmoil in our nations, impending population of our societies, insincere parliaments uncommited to radical reforms in their nations, total tyranny in our leadership, and lacking commitment to causes of pledges by incoming governments, all have weight down our efforts in positioning Africa in economic development. The rural poor are an asset in waiting. A volcano that is dormant. With ignition, the potential to get there, remains untapped. Due to inadequate empowerment to generate participatory decision making, value addition to all, We can change our society despite the ravaging wars and encouraging steady peace formation processes.

It is my conviction that Africa repositioning hinges on the retrospect evaluation of the intrinsic potential of our people to move Africa through the 'black consciousness' as put by Steve Biko. A departure to true freedom.

The determination to use resources inherent in our societies to move our economies. To avoid impunity in leadership, authoritarian Zimbabwean, simulated leadership. The youth may own the future. We must grant them a chance to lead not telling them tomorrow. If Obama, the president-elect of the USA was in Kenya in 2007, during the electoral process, no one could grant him a chance to the presidency because he is young. Today, we are happy when he is at the helm in the developed democracy. Leadership cannot be bought as in Africa. It is not to be hereditary, but we must strive to provide room for good leaders as put in the write-up.

The many pledges made by the political class in Africa, are fantasies that become elusive as soon as leaders take office. I am persuaded that we can create a bank of knowledge that through education, as put in this treatise, should be a government's duty to provide every citizen:

• Education proportioned to the conditions and pursuits of life (Hans: 189, 1992)

• Creation of a dual economy and dual society whose success framework would be measured by extent to which these resources in the rural would spread the benefits of development widely over the course of time. That is, allocation of sufficient wealth to rural development and selection of appropriate strategies for
  investment in rural areas (Thompsons: 106, 1990)

It is imperative that the leadership as in this write-up shall effectively deliver the rural poor. This must observe the varied potentials in our citizenry, available resources, time, space and cultivate peace and offer chances for correct, reliable, flexible and good leadership with clear vision.

REFERENCES

1. A.R. Thompson: Education and development in Africa; 1990; Macmillan Education Ltd.
2. Nicholas Hans; 1992: Comparative Education : UBS
3. Steve Biko: 1997; in an article “Frank Talk, We Write What We Like”.

The challenges and opportunities for implementing KM in public agencies in South Africa

By: Dr Nhamo W. Samasuwo, Learning and Innovation Subunit, Development Programme Services Unit (DPSU) Independent Development Trust (IDT), South Africa

Introduction

Although Knowledge Management (KM) as a discipline had been in existence for over decade now, its impact on the public sector seems to have remained minimal at best, or at worst, ineffectual. The apparent minimal impact which KM seems to have made on the public sector is in deep contrast to the public sector’s well documented role in producing groundbreaking knowledge in the fields of humanities, sciences and development alike. Research on the subject also suggests that older management theories have previously and successfully migrated from the private to the public sector with value enhancing impact.1 The apparent difficulties faced in institutionalizing knowledge management in the public sector in general has tempted some scholars to explain away the situation in terms of the incompatibility arising from knowledge management’s bottom-line “business-driven origins” or “citizenship in corporate environments.”2 Thus, despite its strong private sector pedigree, knowledge management still has special validity in the public sector where multi-governance imperatives for a people-centred, responsive, innovative and flexible government mean that old and costly mistakes cannot be repeated in perpetuity, and often without serious negative social consequences on the governed. As in other developed countries, the governments in Africa not only have a responsibility to ensure the continued economic viability of their respective countries, but they also have to spearhead and drive an innovative, learning and effective public sector which is able to deliver services efficiently and eradicates chronic poverty.3

This paper tries to critically examine the key challenges and opportunities for implementing and integrating knowledge management in key development agencies which fall under the Department of Public Works (DPW) in South Africa. While there is abundant literature on the potential of knowledge management to deliver value in the public sector in South Africa and beyond, little or no scholarly effort seems to have been spared for a critical analysis of the state of implementation and integration of knowledge management in the country’s key “change agents” or development agencies in general. This is despite the fact that knowledge management has long been recognised as key imperative in development best practice and a driving force for pubic sector reform and innovation in most developed countries. Suffice to say that development agencies in South Africa have a special role to play in closing the debilitating economic disparities and bridging the divide between what commentators and policy makers alike have referred to as the “first” and “second” economies. As if to make matters worse, all existing platforms for collaboration and knowledge sharing that have emerged in the public sector seem perpetually condemned to remain as mere talk-shops offering no practical solutions on how to knowledge management can have a real transformative and developmental impact on the country’s public sector in general.

The knowledge economy imperatives and the Public Sector

Just like elsewhere, public service managers and administration in South Africa have to contend with intractable and multiple challenges of the 21st century. These challenges range from creating sustainable decent jobs, keeping new human security threats such as diseases at bay and creating new knowledge for the creation of resilient, sustainable and cohesive communities. They also have to ensure that the education system meets the needs of a contemporary knowledge economy and repair decaying social infrastructure. In South Africa, where decades of apartheid social engineering created the twin evils of racial social marginalisation and hard infrastructure disparities, the public sector managers face the daunting task of developing new infrastructure programmes that go beyond delivering widgets. In other words, they have to deliver development outcomes based on new knowledge that supports innovative anti-poverty interventions.

In the current global environment, every public sector has to promote the country’s global competitiveness in economic and knowledge terms. In fact, in South Africa, just as elsewhere, the public sector can no longer escape the reality that “knowledge and innovation [have become] the life blood of development.”4 The public sector has to think globally and act locally because of increasing competition in the area of service and policy making by other new global players or non-state actors. For example, one observable new trend is that non-state actors such as civil society, non governmental organisations (NGOs) and the private sector have started to directly challenge and compete with government for resources to deliver services to citizens. This has forced the public sector in general to actively take part in a new “global war for top talent.”5 The public sector can no longer afford to be the proverbial retirement home where the country’s best minds go to die. On the contrary, the civil service has to continually reform and transform itself through the creation, acquisition, dissemination and deployment of new knowledge.6 Such a paradigm shift will only take place if systems are put in place if knowledge management is mainstreamed and is used as a catalyst to create a culture of learning and innovation.

KM initiatives in the Department of Public Works

The implementation of knowledge management in South Africa’s public service has been largely spearheaded by the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA). The DPSA, through its Centre for Public Service Innovation (CPSI), has helped develop a platform for knowledge sharing and dissemination across the public service. Since efforts on implementing knowledge management in the public service started around 2003, there has been a stampede by various government departments “to do KM” as way of engineering the renewal and transformation of the civil service in general. The stampede has since given rise to a range of uncoordinated knowledge management interventions and the setting up of units with the sole responsibility of the broader institutional mandate to promote a knowledge-based culture or approach to service delivery. The underpinning objective was to make sure that the public sector avoided the wasting of valuable resources either by re-inventing the wheel, duplicating functions or repeating the same mistakes. Put simply, the expectation was/is that knowledge management should help create a smart working and knowledge-driven public service capable of running a developmental state.7

Given its pivotal role in service delivery, the Department of Public Works (DPW), often in collaboration with the DPSA, has sought to embed knowledge management and knowledge sharing as a new way of implementing government mandates across its family of major public entities such as the Independent Development Trust (IDT), Council for the Built Environment (CBE) and Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB)8. While the DPW has tried to take a more holistic and strategic approach to knowledge management in pubic entities through the Research Directorate located in the Strategic Management Unit, the public entities referred to above seem to have individually chosen to embark on separate initiatives to turn themselves into learning organisations. Despite this, efforts are still underway to develop an institutional-wide programme that is aimed at integrating knowledge management activities between the DPW and its public entities.

The envisaged plan is aimed at leveraging the existing pool of information and knowledge to promote cross-functional learning across the DPW as a whole. Thus, the Knowledge Management and Research Directorate embarked on a process to:

• Conduct a situational analysis / information and knowledge assessment audit of information and knowledge management practice across Department.

• Develop an Information and Knowledge Management Strategy aligned to the goals of the DPW.
• Position and institutionalise knowledge management.
• Develop a better coordinated implementation, and
• Facilitate collaborative linkages between units within the DPW and the public entities

Key milestones in the context of the KM Life cycle

Although the introduction of knowledge management across the DPW’s various units and family of public entities appears to taken place in the absence of a broad framework strategy, certain milestones in terms implementation have been covered with varying results. The progress made so far by DPW and its public agencies is captured in the KM life cycle in Figure 1 below.

Figure 1: KM Life Cycle and Milestones in the DPW and Principal Public Agencies9

Key:

• Birth: This stage represents the stage at which KM is conceived.

• Premature birth: This represents a false start to KM.
• Over birth: At this state the institution knows the importance of KM, but levels of enthusiasm are not matched by institutional systems and internal culture.
• Toddler: At this stage, the new or fledgling KM initiative struggles to thrive and constantly battling nourishment and sufficient budgetary support.
• Adolescence: This stage represents the trial and error state characterised by pilot projects, platforms for sharing and processes for documenting knowledge.
• Adult: This is the embedding stage where an institution starts reaching out to explore collaboration with actors in networks.
• Mature: At this stage, the institution has reached a viable knowledge culture is thriving and KM becomes the way of doing business, albeit under active support by champions.
• Death/re-birth: This is the stage at which the institution has become a learning organisation and KM sufficiently internalised rendering existence of a separate KM unit redundant. Even more crucially, this is the stage at which in human terms, old knowledge becomes completely obsolete and new knowledge becomes extremely necessary for society’s continued sustenance, existence and survival.

Knowledge management milestones: analysis

The progress made in terms of knowledge management implementation and integration was extensively discussed during a workshop between DPW and its public entities hosted on the 22nd of October 2008 by the Learning and Innovation subunit at the IDT. During the workshop, knowledge managers from different public entities made presentations on the state and progress made on knowledge management in their respective organisations. All participants were encouraged to measure their progress against the stages in the knowledge management life cycle and to make comments on the internal challenges they faced as well as propose the way forward. The following results came out from the workshop.

DPW

It emerged during the workshop that the DPW, as the principal department of the public entities, has made significant progress in terms of implementation across its various internal units. In terms of progress, the DPW had reached the level of integration and implementation somewhere between the adolescent and adult stages as indicated in Figure 1 above. It was noted that the department showed greater awareness of the strategic value of knowledge management. Furthermore, various initiatives such as workshops, Ideas Festival and a library Week had been started to get the process moving. It was pointed out during the workshop that DPW was also initiating a public entity-wide Community of Practice (CoP) and developing a strategy framework to guide the implementation plan process.

While it was noted that the various units in DPW had young and energetic staff, the following factors were noted as the main challenges affecting the implementation and integration of knowledge management across the various units. The following factors were noted as key impediments:

• marginalisation of knowledge management champions.

• Failure of management support to filter down.
• Frustration with outdated and poorly maintained IT systems with limited bandwidth.
• Lack of a conducive environment for creative thinking and innovation.
• Lack of simple policy and procedural guides to perform tasks.
• Frustration arising from multiple lines of reporting.
• Constantly changing reporting formats that impact negatively on the documentation of knowledge
• Rigid business processes.

IDT

Compared to all other public agencies that fall under the DPW, the IDT seemed to have made more progress over a relatively short period of time. The adoption of knowledge management in the IDT forms part of the agency’s long-term vision to become the leading knowledge-based development agency of choice in South Africa. During the workshop, it emerged that the IDT stands at the adolescence stage. Besides having a dedicated function with a budget, IDT already has a strategy framework and road map to drive the implementation of its knowledge management initiatives. A more recent reflection of progress made on such initiatives was successful hosting of the first Development Week in the history of the IDT. Other initiatives underway include the implementation of a research and evaluation programme that is aimed at generating new knowledge based on the organisation’s development experience. The IDT has established various platforms for sharing knowledge such as development dialogues that draw on the knowledge and feedback from internal and external stakeholders such as communities that benefit from its programmes.

However, despite these achievements, the IDT is still battling with the devolution of knowledge management practice and integration across its dispersed staff located in various regions across South Africa. The IDT has regional staff based in offices located in KwaZulu Natal (KZN), Western Cape (WC), Gauteng, North West (NW), Eastern Cape (EC), Mpumalanga, Limpopo, Free State and Northern Cape (NC). One of the main challenges the IDT faces is lack of capacity to capture and document knowledge. An internal and organisation-wide knowledge management needs analysis carried out in 200810 summarised the state of knowledge management in the IDT by making the following recommendations:

• Develop an incentive system to support the knowledge management initiatives;

• Establish knowledge sharing platforms;
• Make knowledge management part of performance management system;
• Create a new culture conducive to knowledge management
• Build capacity of staff to carry out research as knowledge management cannot be implemented effectively on a low skills base;
• Promote staff exposure and networking;
• Build user friendly and interactive intranet with portals for sharing knowledge;
• Develop simple de-briefing and handover procedures for staff leaving the organisation;
• Provide support for knowledge management initiatives in the regions;
• Conduct proper research to document existing knowledge and also to capture and create new knowledge;
• Pilot innovative development models based on development experience;
• Creating a new culture in which mistakes and failures are regarded as part of the learning process;
• Eradicate silos and “functional segregation” to allow for greater synergies and integration of thinking

CIDB

In contrast to the IDT, participants to the workshop noted that in the CIDB, knowledge management is still at the toddler stage. In fact, it was revealed that the organisation was still in the process of coming to terms with knowledge management as an idea. In common with many other organizations, it also emerged that knowledge management in the CIDB was regarded as synonymous with information technology and that all initiatives were driven by library or information specialists

CBE

The CBE’s position was marginally different from that of the CIDB. It was revealed during the workshop that the CBE was still at the toddler stage of the knowledge management life cycle. Part of the problem was that the organisation lacked a common or shared understanding of what knowledge management is. The commonest assumption was that knowledge management was the same as communications. Also, while the knowledge management as a function in the CBE is located in operations, it has been left to be spearheaded by a single champion. To make matters worse, because of the association of knowledge management with communications, it emerged that the latter often took precedence over knowledge management and related activities or practices. There was a general consensus that the CBE still needed to develop a strategy, focus on records management and revive its virtual Knowledge Centre.

Way forward

In light of the challenges faced DPW and its public entities, participants at the workshop agreed that a KM Steering Committee (composed of DPW and its Public Entities) should be established to foster the cross fertilisation of knowledge and identify ideas that can fuel knowledge sharing and innovation in the public service. Amongst other things, it was proposed that the KM Steering Committee would:

• Assist in the development of strategy framework and implementation plan. with clear deliverables to address knowledge management issues,

• Develop key performance indicators or benchmarks for knowledge management as part of the performance management system;
• Oversee the development of an integrated IT platform backed by social software to promote online collaboration and knowledge sharing;
• Assist in identifying KM champions to act as flag bearers for KM in the across DPW units, regional offices and public entities alike;
• Spearhead the development of a single Integrated KM policy, information and knowledge sharing guidelines;
• Ensure that major knowledge events such library and development weeks are coordinated;
• Develop mechanisms or guidelines for collaboration and knowledge exchange through partnerships with research institutions, universities, private sector and civil society; and
• Explore the establishment of a shared knowledge gateway (i.e. shared data bases and subscriptions on electronic information).

Conclusion

It is clear that the challenges facing some of the country’s “change agents” or principal government departments such as the DPW are consistent with the findings of studies and discussions on knowledge management in the public sector in general. It is clear that there is variegated of differentiated picture of capacities and strengths among the different organisations. Indeed, this is symptomatic of the variegated nature of delivery capacities across the South Africa state as a whole. For example, studies on the state in South Africa have long pointed out that the existence of differentiated capacities and pockets of excellence across the public sector stood as the single most important obstacle to the realization of strong developmental state. This has led to calls by local development specialists for a reconfiguration of the state to boost service delivery capacity through coordination. However, what is missing in this new debate on reconfiguring the state is the potential presented by an effective public sector knowledge management strategy in building cohesion, shared learning and innovation across the whole sector.

There is no doubt that the highly compartmentalised structure of public sector institutions in South Africa also accounts for most of the problems faced by DPW and its public entities in implementing and institutionalising knowledge management. Furthermore, the lack of consensus and often varied understanding of what knowledge management is and its association with library and information technology both stand as key disablers.11 In particular, the thinking that knowledge management is the same as information technology has led to the development of unnecessary, expensive and often incompatible information technology systems or tools that only a few find useful. Even worse, this lack of understanding of knowledge management as a concept has led to the dusting-off and re-labeling of largely defunct information centres or libraries. Not surprisingly, institutions with established libraries regard themselves as knowledge management champions in the public sector. This misunderstanding of knowledge management as a concept also explains why people see it as extra work which they simply don’t have time for. This is despite the fact that most public service workers are actually knowledge workers themselves. An even bigger challenge to KM in the public agencies is a crisis of expectations. Rather expect KM to yield results in the near to long term, management sometimes expect instant pay-offs or results, almost as if KM was akin to instant coffee.

Beyond the isolated and emerging pockets of a thriving knowledge management culture in some departments and public agencies, a lot of other numerous obstacles still remain. Among those commonly cited at a recent DPSA workshop include lack of resources and internal research capacity to document knowledge, lack of viable learning platforms, weak management support for KM initiatives, a culture of intolerance to criticism, silos and the ‘not invented here” syndrome.12 The point about the lack of internal capacity to carry out research and document knowledge is a profound one because no viable knowledge management culture can be built on a low skills base. Part of the problem is the pervasive culture of consultancies in government departments. Little or no research is done internally as most of this research work is given or outsourced to consultants. Besides being costly, this over-reliance on external consultants ensures that departments don’t develop internal capacity to research, analyse and distil data or even document information and share knowledge by themselves.

The consequences of not cultivating the development of a knowledge-driven workforce or civil service mean that the problem of underdevelopment and chronic intergenerational poverty will continue to confront the majority of poor South Africans for yet another generation. Even with its vast mineral resources and untapped intellectual potential South Africa risks facing a similarly ironic fate alongside many other poor African countries: that of living like a pauper with the responsibilities of a rich man. It is therefore, pivotal that platforms such as the KM Africa Conference help address these knowledge management implementation challenges in the public sector. This includes looking at how the education systems should produce a new generation of interdisciplinary knowledge workers capable of integrating knowledge from different disciplines. While specialists remain relevant, the need to produce integrationist knowledge workers has become paramount. Thus, placing too much emphasis or resources on the teaching of science subjects only at the expense of humanities may not be the ultimate answer. Furthermore, it may also mean that KM practitioners may have to examine the potential for using adult education techniques in order to embed KM thinking and KM-based learning in their respective organisations.

What is clear is that while there exists some pockets of progress, there is no doubt that a new knowledge management culture or discipline remains largely in its infancy in the public agencies referred to above. In turn, the failure to implement knowledge management in government departments such as DPW and its key agencies will have far reaching consequences. Thus, platforms such as the KM Africa Conference have a responsibility to build capacity for implementation and to help link governments with external pockets of knowledge and learning on the continent. Ultimately, the conference will have served its purpose if it also helped devise new ways of tapping into the continent’s already existing rich but often maligned intellectual base. Africa’s intellectuals must be fully mobilised and utilised in order to develop fourth generation knowledge needed for the continued sustenance and survival of the continent not only in the current global knowledge economy, but also in an increasingly inequitable world where the rate of consumption has reached unsustainable levels.

Footnotes

1. For more details on this point, see, R. MacAdam and R. Reed, “A comparison of public and private sector perceptions and use of knowledge management,” Journal of European Industrial Training, 24 (6), (2000): 317-329.

2. F. J. Carrilo, “A global knowledge agenda based on capital systems.” [Online]
   Available: http://www.csc.mty.itesm.mx/materials_de_diffusion/archives_pdf/global_k...

3. M. E. la Grange, “The relevance of knowledge management in the public sector: the measure of knowledge management in government”, (Master of Philosophy and Knowledge Management thesis, University of Stellenbosch, April 2006), 32.
4. Robert Hawkins, “Knowledge for development and public service”, Issues, Vol 6, No.2 (World Bank Institute, 2007)
5. W. Horsely, “Europe in fight for top talent”, [BBC News Online]. Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/7843285.stm , (22 January 2009).
6. Towards Establishing a Knowledge Management Community of Practice in the Public Service, (Concept Document, Department of Public Service and Administration, DPSA Community of Practice Steering Committee, October 2008).
7. Towards a Knowledge Management Framework for the Public Service, (Chief Directorate; Department of Public Service and Administration’s Research, Learning and Knowledge Management –no date)
8. While the IDT is a development agency responsible for implementing government social infrastructure, the CBE is tasked with the transformation and development of professionals in the built environment. On the other hand, the CIDB is a statutory body responsible for sustainable growth, reform and improvement of the construction sector.
9. This model was developed during a KM strategy workshop between DPW and public entities. The workshop was facilitated by Kubeshni Govender from Black Earth Consulting.
10. Report on the IDT KM Needs Analysis Assessment (Final Draft), Development Programme Services (DPSU, IDT, 8 September 2008).
11. Nhamo w. Samasuwo, “Brief notes of the DPSA/GTZ Knowledge Management Workshop”, held at the Emperor’s Palace, Boksburg, South Africa, (2 March 2009).
12. X. Cong and K. Pandya, “Issues of Knowledge management in the public sector”, [Online]. Available on: www.ejkm.com (Academic Conferences Limited, 2003),

The management of knowledge: best practices learned from the people of the Great Lakes region of Africa

Author: Dr Andreas Gerhardus (Dries) Velthuizen

Organizational Affiliation: Centre for African Renaissance Studies, University of South Africa (Academic Associate)

Contact Details: dries@africanwisdom.info - Mobile: +27834736478

ABSTRACT

The paper deals with the management of knowledge for conflict resolution and the innovation of Africa. After a brief discussion of the research methodology followed, feedback is provide on field studies conducted in from 2006 to 2008 in Northern Uganda, Rwanda and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania and in the DRC. As a result of the field study certain principles and practices were identified by which the challenges of Africa could be engaged. The author found five “realms” in which KM can take place and that traditional knowledge practices if merged with more modern KM practices provides a valuable framework for KM for conflict resolution and the innovation of Africa. Best practices that were identified include an intra-connected and collective knowledge production system and the production of tacit knowledge especially among the new generation or “youth”. Furthermore, the importance of intellectual capital in the form of value-driven leadership, competent managers, and expert knowledge workers and the activation of intervention into the continuous spiral of violent conflict, ultimately leading to the innovative transformation of African society, is discussed. Finally, some recommendations are offered as possible solutions for conflict resolution and the innovation of Africa.

INTRODUCTION

Today there is a need in Africa for knowledge for decision-making purposes. Information from official structures such as the African Union (AU), the structures of its member countries, trans-national organisations, business structures, civil society, and indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) should become usable knowledge. Furthermore, it is necessary for African structures to accommodate the perspectives of local communities, the content of IKS, and intellectual capital of society ('higher minds') to ensure understanding of the challenges, prompting active intervention to find solutions.

The question remains: How should African knowledge and knowledge in Africa be managed to resolve conflict and to ensure the innovation of the continent?

The specific aim of the paper therefore is to propose a solution for the management of knowledge, including indigenous knowledge, to achieve desired outcomes for Africa while promoting the “African Renaissance”. The crux of the paper is to present a knowledge management (KM) solution on how to accommodate the wisdom embedded in the indigenous knowledge systems, communities and 'higher minds' of Africa in decision-making and actions together with knowledge brought by the trans-national organisations in a collective middle ground to create a new holistic knowledge.

The paper is the outcome of an extensive literature study and research conducted in the Great lakes of Africa from 2006-2008. After a brief discussion of the research methodology that was followed in Northern Uganda, Rwanda and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania some good practices were identified for the innovation of Africa through the management of knowledge.

THE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research was done by following a multi-disciplinary, inter-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary systems approach, using a qualitative research methodology on trans-national level.

A review of literature on the philosophy of knowledge, the theory of knowledge management, knowledge in Africa and African knowledge alerted the researcher of a few important themes:

• The production of tangible collective knowledge of indigenous society by means of an intra-connected knowledge system.

• The creation of tacit understanding by establishing a culture of learning towards a synthesis of knowledge and a holistic understanding for a new generation to develop and to find solutions for the innovation of Africa.
• Intellectual capital in the form of value-driven leaders, capable managers and facilitators as well as expert knowledge workers.
• The activation of intervention by means of knowledge-driven policy frameworks, strategies, and action plans to stop the cycle of violence that prevents the revival of Africa.
• The knowledge-driven innovative transformation of the normative foundation of African society.

The Great Lakes region of Africa (with specific reference to the DRC, Uganda, and Rwanda), was chosen as the general universum of the study because of the number of unresolved or managed conflicts in the area, and intense knowledge management activities related to conflict resolution.

A pilot study was conducted by means of content analysis of empirical literature related to KM for conflict resolution in the Great lakes region as well as preliminary exploration by means of travelling in the DRC, Uganda and Rwanda to make observations and to identify key informers and focus groups for the study.

Consequently, samples within the following units of analysis were selected that meets the criteria for selection

• The Traditional Acholi Conflict Resolution System in Uganda

• The Gacaca Court System in Rwanda
• The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha

The main investigation was conducted in these “samples” through:

• Content analysis of literature available in East Africa and published by East Africans on indigenous conflict prevention methods.

• Interpretative interaction with people involved in the selected cases during fieldwork in Kampala, Gulu, Kigali and the ICTR.
• Qualitative semi-structured in-depth interviews with selected key informers (specialists, professionals, and members of the communities and organisations) focussing on KM activities related to the specific conflict management cases.

The result of this research is some important concepts that can be serve as best practices for the management of knowledge for the innovation of African society.

THE INTRA-CONNECTED AND COLLECTIVE KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION SYSTEM

Research revealed a 'trans-dimensional KM paradigm’ that involves collective knowledge including knowledge claims from the African village (the traditional knowledge realm), the religions of the community (a religious knowledge realm), official structures (formal knowledge realm), judicial structures (judicial knowledge realm) and trans-national organisations involved in the community (global knowledge realm). Collectively these knowledge claims forms the indigenous knowledge of African society, when collective middle ground is found in the context of social capital of the community involved.

According to Dia (1996, 241), the first requirement for knowledge production is the need for a new participatory process that focuses on building convergences between formal and informal institutions, empowering beneficiaries and local communities. Reconciliation between indigenous groups and formal institutions brings together dominant societal values of indigenous cultures as well as technical and organisational ideologies supporting modern institutions. Convergence begins when both formal and indigenous recognise the need for sustained interaction. Renewing, informal institutions need to create relationships with adaptive formal ones, revolving around programmes and projects, releasing synergy between the interacting institutions and achieving institutional convergence.

Nabudere (2006a) concludes that nowadays business, communities and several non-academic settings, where groups of people from different disciplines and institutions come together, are centres of learning. Boundaries that used to exist between academic and non-academic learning is becoming blurred, as the ‘excluded middle’ is increasingly included. Policies must work towards a new convergence, which recognises that knowledge is necessary for production, and that other communities seek interlocking networks of economic and social relationships globally as Africa moves into a 'learning economy'.

The pilot study in the Great Lakes region disclosed the following knowledge management “realms” related to a collective and intra-connected knowledge production system.

• The African Traditional Knowledge Realm. On this level the traditional knowledge of Africa, including the knowledge embedded in collective memory and articulated in African language narrative is accessed in a spirit of Ubuntu2 to gather data on how to prevent or resolve violent conflict.

• The Indigenous Knowledge Realm. In this realm, the unique tacit or explicit normative knowledge and scientific/empirical knowledge claims embedded in the political, religious and traditional African society, including the universal knowledge claims that originate from outside Africa and that became indigenised in African society, is gathered and processed in a central point with new knowledge for decisions and actions as an output.
• The Collective Knowledge Realm. This realm involves the finding of collective middle ground where the indigenous knowledge claims of Africa and the knowledge claims of entities outside Africa (sometimes represented by trans-national organisations such as multi-national corporations and the UN) complement each other equally in a formal and informal way, through the implementation of good KM practices.
• The Social Capital Realm. In this realm social capital in the form of intricate trans-national and intra-societal networks of individuals and knowledge centres intra-act in a supportive dynamic trans-realm where knowledge is shared and renewed in a horizontal relationship, continuously seeking new synthesis and holistic perspective of the causes, development and consequences of conflict and opportunities to prevent or resolve it.

The new paradigm emerged that can be illustrated as follows:

The manifestation of the paradigm was found during field research in Gulu, Northern Uganda. It was found that the traditional system of the Acholi people enjoys an intra-connected relationship with broader society during which new knowledge is created. It was found that traditional knowledge is used extensively by organisations in Gulu to manage the consequences of internal conflict (with specific reference to the activities of the Lords Resistance Army during three decades of internal war). In contrast, it was found that an organisation such as the International Criminal Court (ICC) does not succeed in contributing to KM for conflict resolution in a similar way or with similar impact and the challenge remains in finding common ground between the indigenous society and the trans-national institution.

The observation in Uganda was confirmed during field research in Rwanda. It was found that the Gacaca court system3 allows for a structured way of maintaining an intra-connected relationship with broader society during which new knowledge is created. It also appeared sufficient common ground exist between the practices of Gacaca and the modern KM practices represented by the ICTR in Arusha4. However, it was found that traditional and indigenous knowledge inputs are only used by both systems as evidence, and do not result in production of sufficient knowledge for decision-making in contributing to KM for conflict resolution to such and extent that it would assist in the eradication of conflict.

Furthermore, it was found that the social networks and intellectual capital of Rwanda, together with a system based on traditional Gacaca practices, provides sufficient opportunity for peace and restorative justice. The challenge is in finding common ground not only between Gacaca and the ICTR, but also with actors in the global community in an equal and complementary fashion.

THE CREATION OF A NEW HOLISTIC UNDERSTANDING BY A NEW GENERATION

The research found that both tacit knowledge and tangible knowledge products, produced in knowledge centres created for that purpose as part of an indigenous knowledge system, could contribute to better understanding in the form of knowledge synthesis and holistic perspective, especially among the youth and an emerging new generation of leaders. In these centres knowledge production takes place through the processing of information (including indigenous knowledge) into tangible innovative knowledge products that provides early warning of conflict, lessons learned from conflict resolution initiatives and recommends specific solutions, as well as the creation of tacit understanding by means of skills development, formal courses, mentoring programs, coaching, counselling, and distance learning, including the use of information and communication technology (ICT) platforms to collaborate through the communication, storage and display of knowledge.

Nonaka (1998, 21) discussed the 'knowledge creating company' and proposed that the creation of new knowledge depends on tapping the subjective insights, intuitions and ideals of workers. He uses the example of 'holistic knowledge creation' as a tool for innovation in Japanese society. Garvin (1998) described the 'learning organisation' by saying that before people and companies can improve, they must first learn. People must be skilled at systematic problem solving, experimentation with new approaches, learning from experience and best practices, accompanied by quick and efficient transfer of knowledge through the whole organisation. Pelissier (2001) found that if the organisation is knowledge-based, it means that knowledge and business intelligence are competitive weapons in a borderless environment.

Gutto (2006, 306-320) argues that 'the primary purpose of education, formal or non-formal, is the development of interrelated and interdependent sets of human capacity to think, to know and to act by honing social consciousness or awareness, values and skills. This requires understanding of the interrelatedness and interdependence of knowledge systems, creative utilization of ICT, enhanced networking and distance learning.

According to Nabudere (2002b), African epistemology starts with the recognition that all knowledge is valid within its own cultural environment. Conditions must be created for communication and recognition of the contribution of each entity. This hermeneutic approach requires an African contribution that concurs with the needs of self-emancipation, while drawing on cultural heritage, taking into account new developments. Therefore tools must be developed to draw on the deeply embedded indigenous knowledge systems of Africa, including its practical knowledge, and build on it technical knowledge that can be of value in a global world.

These findings were reinforced by solutions proposed by ESCOM during a workshop on 17 and 18 February 2009 in Midrand, South Africa. Organisational learning should take place through mentoring programs, capturing of “lessons learned” and staff collaboration in communities of practice. Learning can be facilitated by “Grey Beard Mentors” (experienced people who already left the organisation) or by employees that will soon leave the organisation. Tools can be used to transfer best practices such as the design and development of courses, the use of case-study templates and collaborative technological platforms to do e-learning. The output should be to create understanding of the system by people on “grass-roots” or “coal-face” level.

During the pilot study in the DRC, Uganda and Rwanda the good practice of production of knowledge in knowledge centres in the form of early warning and foresight of the probability of incidents that might occur in the short term (such as genocide), or in the long-term, the probability of conflict in and among societies. Furthermore, it could deliver a more tacit knowledge product in the form of a person with a new vision of the future, learning new values, understanding of the causes and consequences of conflict and changed behavior, including managerial excellence and vocational skills.

During field studies, specific examples of these practices were found. Several centres of knowledge production and learning initiatives were found in the small town of Gulu. The traditional structures and culture of learning of the Acholi manifest in extensive social capital in local, regional and international context, nurtured by supportive organisations and individuals throughout the years of conflict. Coupled with the capacity to use modern ICT to disseminate knowledge to and receive knowledge from other centres, the social capital of the Acholi yields suitable conditions for knowledge production.

Observation and interviews on the Gacaca Court System in Rwanda revealed that epistemologically the procedures on village level are of value to create an understanding of the forces at play before and during the genocide. Especially when the intellectual capital of a jury as a form of community of practices is applied, an accurate view of actual events may emerge. Although not directly and immediately useful to eradicate ideologies such as racism and genocide, it may lead to a complete understanding of the underlying causes and consequences, an understanding that will be useful for actions to prevent similar events from recurring.

During the main study at the ICTR in Arusha it was found that involvement in the trans-national organisation means entering a culture of learning. The opportunity presents itself to African society to enhance professional and managerial competence, become multi-skilled and adaptable, and to learn from a culture that promotes managerial excellence, performance value-based learning, and the maintenance of standards required for service to others.

In 2007 and 2008, after ten-month long training projects under the auspices of the security sector reform initiative in the DRC it was concluded that value-based transfer of knowledge, following a trans-disciplinary (as opposed to specialisation) and multi-platform approach (training specialists but as part of a system) in a practical environment ensure lasting skills and capacity. The tacit outcomes of the training is a new generation of middle-level managers and specialists who understand the values of peace (as opposed to violence), self-emancipation (as opposed to domination), professional conduct (as opposed to corruption), justice (as opposed to impunity), national pride, trust, respect and the importance of becoming part of peaceful solutions in the region.

THE INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL OF AFRICA: VALUE-DRIVEN LEADERSHIP; COMPETENT MANAGERS AND EXPERT KNOWLEDGE WORKERS

During research in the Great Lakes region, it was found that intellectual capital in the form of value-driven leaders, competent managers and facilitators, expert knowledge workers (including ICT experts) work together in multi-cultural working groups or communities of practice to share worldviews and learn from each other. Together they form an intellectual capital pool of people with trans-disciplinary insight, holistic knowledge, cultural awareness and innovative thinking. The opportunities exist for the empowerment of Africans to participate equally as value-driven leaders in the production of new knowledge.

A recent study by the Department of Industrial Psychology, University of Stellenbosch (Du Toit, Engelbrecht and Pooven 2006) revealed that traditional African values, although in congruence with many universal ethical values, place more emphasis upon collectivism, collaboration, caring, dignity and respect. It is argued that these values should underlie a value-based leadership style to enhance team performance in modern organisations through better integration and understanding of a multi-cultural workforce and the management of diversity with a focus on teams.

In the ICTR it was found that value-driven leaders, competent managers and facilitators, expert knowledge workers representative of society (not only governments) are involved in joint working groups where they can participate in an equal relationship. Leadership is strongly value driven, especially concerning the universal values of justice, peace, respect and dignity. This environment creates an opportunity for Africans to participate and leadership role in modern trans-national institutions for not only the immediate purpose of seeking justice done and preventing further conflict, but also to exert positive African values such as self-emancipation and competitiveness toward a convergent relationship with the rest of the global community.

A further good practice that was found at the ICTR is the concept of an 'inter-disciplinary and representative knowledge pool' of intellectual capital consisting of productive leaders, managers and experts from within African society. Because KM supports the 'common cause', the identification of capable people from a knowledge pool is the ideal situation. The criteria for belonging to the pool include diversity in terms of geographical origin and the advancement of women. Specific expert skills like those of translators, security staff,' and base administrators' with multiple skills and inter-disciplinary ability, are needed. Leaders with an understanding of the system who are adaptable to a trans-national environment and innovative thinking must be in key positions. The ideal person should be an innovator with a will to meet targets.

It became evident that value-driven leadership, supported by a pool of capable managers and experts, is vital to activate innovative solutions to complex challenges facing Africa.

THE ACTIVATION OF INTERVENTION TO RESOLVE CONFLICT

One of the main conclusions of the research indicated that to activate intervention in conflict, knowledge-driven adjustment of policies, strategy and contingency planning are necessary to resolve conflict and to maintain peace. To this end collectiveness and the finding of common ground among conflicting parties as a first step towards peace and growth are vital.

One of the first steps towards the achievement of this objective was the 2004 AU Summit, which adopted a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the AU and the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) on KM responsibilities. According to the MoU, RECs should maintain a database and transmit quarterly reports to the PSC of the AU. Regular networking must be ensured, including visits by officials charged with implementation and REC representatives must attend AU meetings. Focal points must be created for liaison between regional mechanisms and the mechanisms within the AU. A guideline that was given is that conflict situations on the continent should be monitored by gathering information based on specific indicators.
Perhaps the most important integrated project for creating a peaceful and secure environment for African development is the establishment of a Continental Early Warning System (CEWS) of the AU. According to the Protocol of the Peace and Security Council (PSC), timely information collected through a CEWS will be used by the Peace and Security Council on potential conflicts and threats to peace and security in Africa. The CEWS is linked to regional situation rooms. Decisions on the best course of action will be based on this intelligence, and should preventive diplomacy fail, peacekeepers may be deployed to prevent violence.  (AU 2005).

Neuland & Venter (2005, 25) assert that policy measures of governments and governmental institutions to deal with conflict resolution in the NEPAD context should be complemented by a public peace process and a convergence of the roles of citizens, public organisations and NGOs with the role of government during conflict resolution. The causes of many conflicts are outside the reach of government-based diplomacy and the role of citizens and public organisations is crucial in building positive political relationships between people in conjunction with official peace processes, focussing on systematic dialogue among individuals, transformation to end violence and to build peace.

During field research in Gulu, it was found that the traditional justice system of the Acholi provides a valuable framework of KM practices that can be used for conflict resolution. The traditional initiative proved to be a knowledge driven process providing for the gathering of empirical data from the memory and narrative of the exact original observer or participant, and for context unique to the specific culture. It was found that traditional practices are reconcilable with modern KM practices, even to the point where the keepers of traditional knowledge can participate in modern collective knowledge activities where tangible knowledge is produced, lending a particular indigenous character to the knowledge product. Furthermore, it was found that traditional and indigenous knowledge inputs are used extensively by organisations in Gulu to produce a synthetic renewable knowledge because of intra-connectedness and convergence in a collective middle ground with the traditional community as part of broader Acholi society. It is especially in Gulu where the trend towards equal complementary nature of IKS and modern knowledge systems were discovered. The intra-action between the church leaders and traditional leaders can be considered as a good example of a traditional system that allows for extending traditional structures towards an intra-connected relationship with broader society during which new knowledge is created.

On the contrary, it was found that institutions such as the ICC and ICTR do not succeed in contributing to KM for conflict resolution to such and extent that it would assist in the eradication of conflict. The gathering of evidence to prosecute within a modern legal framework, serve mainly the prosecution strategies and corporate interests of the organisation and produces very little current knowledge that could be used for early-warning and planning purposes.

KNOWLEDGE-DRIVEN INNOVATION OF AFRICAN SOCIETY

During the field studies in the Great Lakes of Africa, it was found that it is in the realm of the African Renaissance where the totality of a holistic knowledge foundation serves to eradicate the causes and consequences of conflict. It was found that productive growth, competitiveness, self-emancipation, empowerment of the marginalised and restoring of equilibrium between African society and the global economy can only be attained through the innovative transformation of thinking away from negative values that drives conflict, to be replaced by a new thinking driven by values such as peace, freedom, and the spirit of Ubuntu.

The African Renaissance philosophy, which is about developing Africans and Africa, is a call for the rebirth, renewal, reinvention and repositioning of Africans and Africa in a globalizing world. The African Renaissance is seen as the rebirth of the continent after centuries of suppression, correcting negative images. Rebirth must be through rediscovery of Africa's past, reversing the downfall into chaos. It is about planning for the future based on a new knowledge framework accommodating the ideas and philosophies that created the great empires of Ghana, Monomotapa, Songhai and Mali. (Gutto 2006).

According to Nabudere (2002b, 13) the African renaissance has to be a globally humanizing experience involving whole masses of people under the enlightenment of 'global Ubuntu', which enables people to struggle for humanism and emancipation alongside oppressed humanity. Ubuntu does not seek to dominate and exploit; it can only seeks to liberate the African as a means of humanizing the world. The objective is to bring about social transformation in African societies. Research in Africa must seek to liberate and empower the marginalised to fight for their rights for self-transformation.

During field research, it was found that the immediate expectation of the people of the Great Lakes are that the continuous spiral of violent conflict must change into peace and reconciliation, before an African renaissance or any development initiatives can be possible. A first step after peace appears to be a need for justice, taking into account the need to restore normality where dysfunctions in society persist, and to reconnect people where connections were destroyed by conflict. The expectation is that this will lead to psychological healing, replacing the psychological causes of the conflict with the principles of Ubuntu, characterised by interconnectedness, togetherness, humaneness, respect and dignity. Only after restoration, reconnection and healing can the expectations of lasting human security, freedom to exercise human rights, production to relieve poverty and improved quality of life be fulfilled. The ultimate expected outcomes are self-emancipation from domination, transformative socio-economic growth, innovation in all aspects of life, towards a situation where African countries can project competitiveness in a global context in order to restore the historic disequilibrium and reach a new convergence with the rest of the world.

CONCLUSIONS

The first realm of knowledge management in Africa, as learned from field studies in the Great Lakes of Africa, involves collection of information based on confessions and investigation on village level, both in the cases of Gacaca and the traditional practices of conflict resolution of the Acholi. What is distinct here is the public nature of hearings as effective checks to determine the truth. The practices of traditional justice embedded in society and combined with modern practices, were observed. What is especially significant is that a new awareness has to be created of traditional practices to resolve Cold War- related conflicts and impunity.

The second realm of indigenous knowledge involves the broader context of society, visible in both Acholiland and Rwanda. Conventional modern justice systems are already formally integrated with the traditional system, political system and religions as part of one process. An advanced synergy has already been reached involving most actors with knowledge claims originating from traditional culture, religion, politics and modern justice. Traditional knowledge and the norms of Ubuntu complement knowledge brought by the pillars of modern society.

The third realm of collective knowledge management in a middle ground, reflecting the importance of intra-action and interaction among centres, was identified. The role of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and the government of Rwanda and relations between the traditional leaders of Acholi and the rest of Ugandan society are examples of these. Since the inception of Gacaca and the revival of the traditional system of Gacaca, the importance of intra-active communication has been realised. Communication between Arusha and Kigali and between Gulu and the ICC appeared to be problematic for various reasons. It is in these challenges that the need for principles and practices on how to develop as complementary epistemological relationship, formal or informal, in a common ground between entities to resolve conflict, were identified.

The fourth realm of social capital manifested itself as a complicated network of 'stake-holders' who are involved in the quest for justice and reconciliation (e.g. the ICC and the ICTR). It is concerning the use of social capital for conflict resolution that the need for good practices for intra-active relationship among global, regional and local entities was detected.

A fifth realm of innovative transformation of post-conflict societies through the fusion of knowledge was identified. The expectation of lasting peace in both Uganda and Rwanda and the resulting transformative growth and reconciliation, calls for effective intervention to prevent continued conflict. Apart from the current temporary solution of military intervention, learning interventions and the development of intellectual capital by institutions outside the conflict, targeting the next generation of leaders, promises to have a more lasting effect on the peaceful transformation of the Great Lakes society.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Based on the conclusions, the following practical solutions are recommended:

Government and organisations should refine processes involving gathering of data from the realm of the ‘lawn’ or village, the processing of information in community-based information centres, synthesis of interpretation in a an intra-connected and collective community of practice where vital decisions are made that would activate intervention and innovation.

The leaders of African society must continue to build trust, respect and cohesion between African Society and its partners that are involved in or support reconciliation efforts in order to plug into the wealth of knowledge offered by the global community.
The leaders of African society should involve the whole society, on not only organisational level but also accommodating the right of every citizen to contribute to the creation of knowledge. The managers of modern knowledge systems must adopt good practices from the traditional culture of Africa to solve modern problems in contemporary situations.

Service providers in education, training and development should develop a culture of learning among the new generation with the focus on creating a holistic understanding of the causes and consequences of conflict and measures to prevent the cycle of violence to continue. Moreover, it would require knowledge-driven transformation of society by means of learning interventions and value-driven development of intellectual capital to eradicate the thinking of class-consciousness, racism and impunity replacing it with universally accepted positive values.

African communities and organisations involved in Africa should establish inter-disciplinary and “Representative Knowledge Pools” of intellectual capital consisting of value-driven leaders, capable managers and expert knowledge workers as drivers of knowledge management in Africa.

Instruments such as the Gacaca court system and the international criminal justice system promised to be suitable instruments to ensure lasting peace. Whatever instrument is chosen would require the eradication of boundaries with local communities allowing for the management of knowledge in the specific episteme according to best practices, focussing on the use of social capital, transcending artificial boundaries between people towards sufficient common ground for lasting peace, productivity, socio-economic growth and competitiveness in the international arena.

REFERENCES

1. African Union. 2003. Report of workshop on the establishment of the AU Continental Early Warning System (CEWS). Unpublished official document. Addis Ababa: AU Headquarters.

2. African Union. 2005. Communiqué of the second periodic meeting of the African Union (AU) and the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) on peace and security. Unpublished document. Addis Ababa: AU Headquarters.
3. Dia, M. 1996. Africa’s management in the 1990s and beyond. Reconciling indigenous and transplanted institutions. Washington: World Bank.
4. Du Toit, M.K., A.S. Engelbrecht and N.Poovan. 2006. The effect of the social values of Ubuntu on team effectiveness. South African Journal of Business Management, Vol.37, no. 3, September 2006.
5. Garvin, D.A. 1998. Building a learning organisation. In Harvard Business Review on Knowledge Management, ed. P. Drucker, Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing.
6. Gutto, S. 2006. Towards a new paradigm for Pan-African knowledge production and application in the context of the African Renaissance. International Journal for African Renaissance Studies. Vol.1, No. 2. Centre for African Renaissance Studies, Pretoria:.UNISA.
7. Nabudere, D.W. 2002a. NEPAD: Historical background and its prospects. Paper presentation at the African forum for envisioning Africa in Nairobi, Kenya, 26 – 29 April 2002. www.hollerafrica.com/pdf/vol1AfricanRenSep_Oct_2004.pdf, retrieved March 2007.
8. Nabudere, D.W. 2002b. The epistemological and methodological foundations for an all- inclusive research paradigm for “field building” and inter-subjective accommodation. Mbale: Africa Study Centre.
9. Nabudere, D.W. 2006. The developmental state, democracy and the global society in Africa Paper for DBSA/HSRC/Wits NEPAD Conference 'Investment Choices for Education In Africa', 19-21 September 2006, Johannesburg.
10. Neuland, E and D.J.Venter. 2005. Conflict and governance: Nepad, South Africa and Africa. University of Pretoria: Institute for Business Innovation.
11. Nonaka, I. 1998. The knowledge creating company. In Harvard Business Review on Knowledge Management ed. P. Drucker. Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing.
12. Pellissier, R. 2001. Searching for the quantum organization. Midrand: IPG.

The role of traditional and indigeneous knowledge and technology: the citizens engagement

By Prof. Joseph O. Malo. KNAS and University of Nairobi

Abstract

The paper examines the role of traditional and indigenous knowledge and technology including the role of citizens in knowledge management of sustainable environment, health, water resources, education, habitat, disaster and emergency response, food security, clean energy etc.

The motivating factor is that most of the villages in developing countries are small and literally cut off from the rest of the world and hence under serviced. Social services particularly in health must therefore promote a combination of traditional and scientific approach. This calls for recognition of people who apply natural and traditional methods to sustain life.

One of the main bottle-neck in technology transfer is the current approach of the trickle-down effect rather than participatory bottom up approach where citizens are considered not just as partial beneficiaries but knowledgeable, active and centrally involved in both the upstream design and downstream delivery systems.

Background and Major Constraints

The key problem Africa is facing today is under-development that manifests itself in terms of abject poverty, diseases, ignorance and many other forms. It is regrettable to recognize and note that due to the severe but apparent lack of funds and other resources, many African counties have remained impoverished over the years. The weak fiscal status and the dim prospects for drastic economic improvement coupled with mismanagement, corruption in the continent also militate against any significant local support to alleviate the problems of under-development in the near future. From the experience of the industrialized countries it has become abundantly clear that for Africa to develop and survive this century, science, technology and innovation must take root in the continent to serve the people and improve productivity.

Global Environmental Change refers to a set of transformations of land, oceans and atmosphere driven by an interwoven system of socioeconomic and natural processes. Thus concurrent with the modern phenomena of globalization and to some extent as a consequence, human have begun to induce planetary-scale changes in earth’s life support systems.

Today human activities already match and sometimes exceed natural forces that regulate the earth systems. Current levels of carbon dioxide and methane are already well outside the range of natural variability over the years. Humans also now fix more nitrogen than nature dues. Furthermore particles emitted by human activities alter the energy balance of the planet as well as have adverse effects on human health.

It is however encouraging to note that the earth system is a very complex system with very many feedbacks to the extent that it can presumably still exhibit rapid global scale responses to changes in environmental conditions. However, a consequence of the interconnectedness of the coupled human environmental earth systems is that no region is independent of the rest of the world. For example the process at wok in the African region namely desertification and, biomass burning can have global consequences in the same way processes occurring in other regions can have influences in Africa such as particulate emissions from other continents affect rainfall patterns in Sub-Saharan Africa. Thus Global Environmental research in Africa requires not only Africa Scientists but also inputs from Scientists from outside the region. We are all interdependent.

It is therefore imperative that Global Warming and Climate Change that is real must be adequately addressed to bring sustainable development down to earth. To achieve this noble goal, traditional and indigeneous knowledge and technology including citizens engagement must be fully incorporated in the process of socio-economic development and more so in the developing world.

Science, Technology and Innovation Policy

It is today generally accepted that technology is “ the engine of economic growth” and technological innovation is indeed the principal currency of international competition. Thus technology plays a key role in attaining major goals in invigorating countries competitiveness in the global market place. For example the secondary applications of aerospace technology –spin-offs- span so broad a range of public needs and conveniences that is almost impossible to find an area of everyday life they have not improved and thus collectively represent a substantial dividend on the national investment in technology research.

A science and technology policy should therefore aim at improving the effectiveness of a national system of innovation, supporting public research and education, and sustaining the competitiveness of the business sector. So a major policy area should therefore focus on the promotion of innovation and investment, the diffusion of advanced technologies and creation of new firms. Thus a mechanism must be put in place for funding technological innovation by providing grants, low-interest loans and risk capital for supporting individual and cooperative research projects including downstream innovation that will mitigate the effects global warming and climate change.

Capacity Building

The highly interdisciplinary nature and mutuality of science in the development of new technology evolved mainly out of the capitalization on the solid foundation in science in the aspects of technology innovation, development and diffusion. Despite all the trailblazing advancements, our society is still experiencing an imbalance in improving literacy of citizens with the scientific technology development process, that has serious implications for public policy formulations, especially for developing countries.

Thus for Africa to enjoy the full benefit of Science and Technology they must be deemed critical to our effort to achieve economic well-being and indeed, social justice integrated into societal decision making structure and systematically supported by actions that nurture the nation’s capacities and indigenous talent/knowledge.

Since many of the urgent problems facing humanity today have potential solution derived from science and technology, it is vital that science and technology become part of the mainstream of education system. Thus courses that provide the basis of science and technology literacy and reasonable literacy and familiarity with scientific and technological culture, should be required at all levels and for all students including the many who do not intend to specialize in science and technology. This will create a science culture for a knowledge based society of the future.

Regarding Science Education we need to urgently introduce Inquiry-based Science Education (IBSE) at least from Pre- primary to primary school level. The conduct of science is also increasingly affected and indeed, driven by economic and other societal concerns .It is therefore necessary for the scientific community to be conscious of the concerns of the societies. Research agenda priorities derive not just from the wishes of scientists or their interest in certain problems, but from factors such as national needs, the availability of funding, access to tools of research and commercial prospects for deploying the resulting technologies such that almost always what get studied is decided by non-scientists.

Since the indigenous professionals generally understand their nation’s culture, they can easily communicate with it’s people. That is, they are uniquely placed to be disseminators of advanced knowledge and know-how to other critical local actors. This will greatly increase the likelihood that the new technologies will be well adapted to that society’s needs and cultures. The public can become sensitized on the important role of Science and Technology in society and their potential to help to solve urgent problems. A society that has become increasingly more dependent upon Science and Technology requires more professional scientists, more technically trained professionals and more citizens literate in science and technology who can make intelligent decisions on the increasing number questions of public policy with a technical component.

A nation that is involved in development, production or use of new technologies such as those deriving from biotechnology and bioengineering, should have the means to access and manage their benefits and risks. It is obvious that independent scientific advice improves decision making for public policies in terms of formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. The effective government programmes can be greatly improved if inputs and independent review are provided by scientific, engineering and health experts. These are honest brokers who bridge the gap between what is technically possible and politically achievable. We know that many international deliberations from intellectual property rights to environmental and health regulations require governments to fully understand the science and technology premises that underlie the decisions they are negotiating. It is therefore vital that we create suitable mechanisms for providing important scientific and technological advice to government policy makers. That will also mitigate the effect of global warming and climate change.

Our governments must therefore ensure that indigeneous science and technology capacities are in place not only for adoption of new technology but also for helping in implementing public health, human safety and environmental guidelines or regulations that address potential side effects of new technologies. The possibilities of long term effects must be kept in mind when setting up such systems which must remain fully adaptable to rapid advances in scientific and engineering knowledge. It is therefore highly desirable that there be coordination of such efforts among nations to permit the sharing of the experiences and standardization of some of the risk assessments.

Traditional and Indigeneous Knowledge and Technology

There is no doubt that traditional and indigeneous knowledge and technology, particularly in the developing world, can enhance and indeed play decisive role in the management of sustainable environment, health, water resources, education, habitat, disaster and emergency response, food security, clean energy etc. In this paper, I will however focus only on health.

Plenty of our villages are small and literally cut off from the world and under-serviced. Most are subsistence farmers and indeed live below poverty line. The children are under and malnourished and at risk of preventable diseases.
We must expand social services for these people who are particularly disadvantaged in remote villages. The few government institutions that exist are far away and most are under equipped, including lack of staff. In any case they are often beyond the reach of those without money. Needless to point out that young doctors prefer working in towns. In addition to this, language barriers and cultural differences make communication even more difficult.

Social services particular in health, we must promote a combination of traditional and scientific methods during training of all cadres of medical personnel. The so called healers should first impart basic knowledge of scientific, natural and dental care including sexual and reproductive health.

We must urgently start supporting people who manufacture and use natural healing methods and recognize the potential of traditional medicine. As a first step, we should compile a handbook that will indicate disease patterns, diagnosis and cure including details of identification and the correct way to use medicinal plants.

We should then use media such as Radio and TV that feature interviews including public lectures that are informed and knowledge based. This programme could give information on symptoms and report on how to prevent and cure illnesses. Last but not least train two or more people in each village.

Citizen Engagement

It has become imperative that high- tech promotion should be of particular interest for developing countries because research in this areas has the general advantage that leads and require technological advancement in the frontier fields that will produce important spin-offs on the development of a country in which it is performed. Thus only knowledge based on local realities and environment can resolve the appropriateness of an imported technology to the community and turn them into new products and services that address national and local needs.

Citizen engagement is vital to ensure Science, Technology and Innovation respond to the challenges of international development agenda that includes Global Warming, Climate Change, Bioengineering and Biotechnology. There are many pathways to poverty reduction including social, cultural and institutional dimension that are key. This is so because Science, Technology and Innovation should be perceived as a part of a bottom-up participating process of development where citizen themselves are centre stage. Instead of citizen being viewed as passive beneficiaries of trickle-down development of technology transfer, they be considered as knowledgeable, active and centrally involved in both upstream choice and design of technologies and indeed their downstream delivery and regulation.

How about the following issues (1) What role can technologies play in future of people in developing world (2) How can poor people become more involved in shaping their own technological future (3) What makes Science and Technology to work for the poor (4) Which forces will be involved in shaping this (5) How can those who work in science and development assist and (6) How and where should Research and Development funds be directed

One of the main bottleneck of acceptance of new technologies currently is how risk and uncertainties arising from technological applications are regulated. In this connection the marginalized people should be involved in decision about innovation and technology. Thus it is time to adopt a new vision of citizenship that goes beyond public engagement with science encompassing, how science and technology agendas are framed, and the social purpose they serve and, who stands to gain or lose from them.

Conclusion

Thus advances in Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) should not neglect the poor people’s own priorities in trickle - down model since this approach will ignore poor people’s own perspective and concerns. For these technologies to provide well being for the citizens, innovation must be rooted in the local realities. Thus more participatory approach is needed where innovation are seen as part of broader system of governance and markets that extends from local to national , regional and international levels . No doubt this will increase access and indeed ownership for sustainability.

I have tried above to present historical perspective of the development of science and then not only to underscore but also to underpin policy issues and capacity building together with citizen engagement for sustainability in order to guarantee achieving both goals and the desired result. My conclusion is that it is vital to ensure well being of the society than so called wealth creation by providing the necessary infrastructure and an enabling environment. I have no doubt that Science, Technology and Innovation will make lasting contribution in these efforts to by engaging citizens and incorporating of traditional and indigeneous knowledge and technology.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Malo J. O., Physics and Industrial Development, 3rd Regional ANSTI Seminar in Physics, 5 – 7 August, Gaborone, Botswana

2. Malo J. O., Capacity building in Science and Technology :The African perspective, International Conference on Physics and Industrial Development- Bridging the Gap, 17- 19 January ,1994, New Delhi , India
3. Malo J. O., Physics in Africa World Congress of Physical Societies, 17- 22 September 2000
4. Malo J. O., Major constraints in Application of Science and Technology in National Development- The African Perspective, COPID 200, Durban, South Africa, 4-7 September 2000
5. Malo J. O., Physics in Contemporary World: The African Perspective: Third World Congress of Physical Societies, Berlin, Germany 15- 16 December 2000
6. ICSU, Report on New Genetics, Food and Agriculture: Scientific Discoveries – Societal Dilemmas, 2003
7. Inter Academy Council (IAC), Inventing a Better Future: A Strategy for Building Worldwide Capabilities in Science and Technology, January 2004
8. Prof. E. O. Odada, A Strategy for Global Environmental Change Research in Africa : Science Plan and Implementation Strategy, 2000 PASS Secretariat, Nairobi, Kenya.
9. Malo J. O., Technology Development and Citizen Engagement; Career Development in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, 2008, USNAS

Towards a model resolution tracking mechanism for parliament and provincial legislatures

By: Kgabo Masehela and Isaac Nkuna, Limpopo Legislature

Background

The Republic of South Africa is a democratic state as stated in the Constitution of South Africa of 1996; it therefore has an obligation to ensure the maximum realization of the values of accountability, transparency, effective oversight agencies and institutions, agencies that are accountable to the public. In terms of the Constitution, parliament and legislatures as one arm of government at the provincial spheres play a crucial role in ensuring amongst others:

• Conduct oversight S 114(2)(b)/133(2)5 and-the-PPMA;

• Hold the executive accountable -S 114 (2)(a); and
• Protect and ensure maximum realization of the values of transparency, accountability, and open democratic process with respect to parliament itself

The above constitutional provisions empower the Parliament and Legislature to provide ‘mechanisms’ to maintain ‘oversight’ of any organ of state and Legislatures have responded to this key mandate by establishing portfolio and standing committees to play an oversight function over the executives.
This paper reviews the extent to which resolutions are implemented by the executive. Data shows that there gaps in the implementation of committee resolutions and therefore proposes a resolution tracking tool. The paper is located within the Limpopo Legislature’s Standing committee of Public Accounts (SCOPA) for the Financial Year 2006/07. We firstly analyze the level of implementation of resolutions and secondly, we propose a comprehensive guide for resolution tracking mechanism. The proposed model should be read within the broader framework of deepening democracy, oversight, accountability, evaluation of committee work, knowledge construction and bringing efficiency in the Legislative sector.

The concept of oversight

One of the most important roles of parliament is to exercise oversight over the executive (Murray and Nijzink 2002). Oversight means supervision, watchful care, management or control. It suggests a watchdog function over ongoing activities of an agency. This is in line with the assertion by (Scruton 1996) which defines oversight as "action or an act of overseeing something; supervision, inspection; charge, care, control."

According to Corder et al (1999) there is a tendency to view oversight in a limited way which it is seen as the role of the opposition ‘designed to police and expose maladministration and corruption’. Senay and Besdziek (1999) defines ”Oversight as a proactive interaction initiated by a legislature with the executive and administrative organs … that encourages compliance with the constitutional obligation on the executive and administration to account to the public’s elected representatives, and which advances the ideals of good government, development and cooperative governance’. This further entails: 'review, monitoring and supervision of the executive and other organs of state, programmes, activities and policy implementation.

Literature Review

Constitutional institutions such as Parliament are in their 15year in South Africa and as a result are still putting new systems and programmes in place. This include amongst others; resolution tracking mechanism by Committees - a system that should ensure that committee resolutions are implemented by the executive.

The current practice of resolution tracking is varied, complex and has limitations. Firstly, after committees pass resolution/s, and a copy of the resolutions is sent to the Department for implementation. Progress as to how far the implementation takes place with Departments concerned is largely left for implementation by the department. An oversight model (SALSA, 2007) with regard to tracking of committee resolutions proposes the following procedure.

• Tabling of Committee reports in the House

• Submission of House resolutions to Office of the Premier for referral to relevant executive department
• Resolutions & recommendations may also be referred directly to relevant executive departments
• Cabinet processes (ideal)

The above SALSA report (2007) falls short of outlining a detailed model on how resolutions should be implemented. Griffith (2005) argues that in order for the Committee deliberations and recommendations contained in Oversight Reports to be taken forward and make an impact as far as government performance is concerned, resolution tracking and evaluation (in terms of compliance) is required.

KwaZulu-Natal Legislature has developed a resolution tracker form which simply records committee resolution but doesn’t show whether the executive implemented the recommendation. It is not a mechanism to track but is an administrative tool for compliance.

Public Service Accountability Monitor (PSAM) developed a similar tracking mechanism for expenditure by comparing budget and programme objectives with quarterly financial reports. PSAM continuously tracks how government service delivery departments spend the money allocated to them. PSAM also tracks compliance with public finance regulations and legislated financial reporting requirements (including those governing the production of annual reports, audit reports and financial reports). Its emerging monitoring methodology consisted of undertaking a comparison between corrective steps taken and the regulatory provisions governing the discipline, ethics and accountability of public servants in post-apartheid South Africa. PSAM’s tracking tool focuses on monitoring expenditure and this paper argues that majority of Committee Resolutions are not just confined to financial accountability.

The above tools fall short of outlining a comprehensive mechanism that ensures resolutions which are pursue developmental priorities are implemented.

Methodology

Interviews and documentary analysis were the two main data gathering techniques. Documentary data was found a very important source of information. The main source included SCOPA documents on resolution implementation of all provincial departments for the FY 2006/07. Interviews were conducted with committee secretaries of Committees in the Limpopo Legislature. A method of unstructured interviews was utilized as means of validating whether there are existing models for resolution tracking. This tool proved to be most useful in extracting personal experiences from secretaries who had worked in the Legislature for more than 5 years each.
The data was converted into quantitative format for each of the 12 departments (Education, Health and Social Development, Sports, Arts and Culture, Economic Development and Tourism, Agriculture, Roads and Transport, Safety and Security, Local Government and Housing, Public Works, Treasury, Office of the Premier and Legislature ) and was analyzed to get a ‘get a sense of the whole’.

Findings

The state of resolution implementation

The legislature passes a number of resolutions every financial year which the executive is expected to implement. In this section attempt will be made to assess the level of implementation of resolutions and the implications thereof, especially with regard to resolution tracking by the relevant sections in the Legislature.

Figure 1 below indicates the distribution of resolutions passed by the Legislature across Departments in the year under review. The percentage of resolutions passed is a proxy of challenges and problems that a particular Department was faced with during the year under review. For instance, it is clear that out of the total of 164 resolutions passed by the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA), the Department of Health had most of the resolutions compared to all Departments at 20% (33). The above number reaches 49 (30%) when the social development section (16 [10%]) of the Department is taken into consideration. This is by comparison a very high number, especially given the fact that the passing of resolutions is indicative of problems and challenges facing the Department at a particular period.

As illustrated in Figure 1, another Department that had more challenges and problems in the year under review was the Department of Transport which had 18% (29) of the resolutions passed by the Legislature. Also worth noting with regard to the implementation of resolutions, there were 7 resolutions (Department of Transport and Office of the Premier) that were to be implemented by agencies (AG, Treasury) other than the affected Department itself. The successfully implementation of these types of resolutions need the commitment of both the Department and agency.

Figure 1:

As can be seen in Figure 2 below, most Departments struggled to implement SCOPA resolutions. For instance, out of the total of 164 resolutions passed for the year under review, only 38 (23%) were fully implemented. This is a small number given the number of resolutions passed. If resolutions are not fully implemented it means that the weaknesses in Departmental operations will not be corrected and hence problems are likely to recur. A general overview of Figure 2 shows that almost all of the Departments are lacking when it comes to the implementation of SCOPA resolutions with the average implementation rate at 0.3.

Figure 2:

Partially implemented resolutions consist of resolutions which have not been implemented in full as per Legislature recommendation. What it means is that certain aspects of the resolutions have not been addressed thus leaving outstanding issues which are likely to recur if not dealt with in full. The total number of partially implemented resolutions in the year under review were 44. This constitutes 27% of the total number of resolutions passed during the year under review. Figure 3 shows the distribution of partially implemented resolutions per Department. Worth noting is that it is important for resolutions to implemented in full as per recommendation by the Legislature. It is worrying to note that the number of partially implemented resolutions was at a significant percentage of 27%. It is crucial that this number should decrease in the future.

Figure 3:

As figure 4 illustrates Departments had resolutions that were not properly implemented in the year under review. The Department where this problem was most prevalent was the Department of Transport (13). These types of resolutions occur as a result of failure or negligence from Departments to implement the resolutions as per requirement. What emerged from the public hearings with Departments was that the reason why most of the resolutions were not properly implemented was the attempt by some Department to challenge the resolution or the findings of the Auditor-General. It is of concern to note that these type of resolutions made a significant chunk at 32 (20%).What makes this act to be unacceptable is that Departments often have time during and after the hearings to make follow ups on matters that affect them. In fact, clarity can be sought during the hearing is to what is expected from a Department or why a Department is not agreeing with the findings of the Auditor- General.

Figure 4:

Another problematic area that emerged during the hearings was the tendency by some Departments not to respond to resolutions. Often a Department is given the opportunity to submit its responses in writing. It is at this stage that it becomes clear that some resolutions have not been responded to. Figure 5 illustrates the total number of resolutions per Department and the prevalent or non-prevalence of the act of not responding to resolutions. It is clear from Figure 5 that not all Departments had this problem except for three Departments (the Departments of Public Works, Transport and Treasury). It is encouraging to note that the number of ‘not responded to’ resolutions was 4 (2%). Worth noting is that notwithstanding the minimal number of these type of resolutions, it is crucial that this problem must be avoided in the future as it makes the work of the Committee difficult and raises questions on the commitment of the Department concerned to address problems and challenges facing it.

Figure 5:

Resolutions that were to be implemented by an agent outside the Department were 12 (7%) in the year under review (Figure 6). The outside agent in most instances was the Office of the Auditor- General. For instance, the Committee may recommend that the AG follow up on the certain matters. The implementation of these types of resolutions involves both the Department and the agent (i.e. the Auditor General, SASSA). Each one of them has a role to play: the Department must cooperate with the Office of the AG while the AG has the duty to conduct his or her job as effectively as possible. The challenge with this type of resolutions is that if not monitored are likely to fall within the cracks.

Figure 6:

Another critical factor in resolution implementation is the tendency by some Departments not to implement resolutions passed by the Legislature. As illustrated in Figure 7, this anomaly was prevalent in three Departments [the Departments of Health (12), Office of the Premier (10), Social Development (9) and the Legislature (8)]. This is a disturbing phenomenon that needs to be dealt with.

Figure 7:

An overall examination of resolution implementation in the year under review shows that there are serious gaps which need to be closed. As can be seen in Figure 8, it is of concern to note that only 23% of the resolutions passed by the Legislature were fully implemented. This means that 77% of the resolutions were implemented, partially implemented or not responded to. The above scenario shows that there are serious gaps with regard to resolution implementation within Departments.

Figure 8:

Reasons for failure to implement resolutions by Departments

Data indicates that departments have somewhat failed to implement the majority and important resolutions which renders the parliamentary oversight ineffective. Reasons for the failure to implement resolutions by Departments are as follows:

• Challenging the findings of the AG.

• Not taking disciplinary action as proposed or applying a standard procedure to disciplinary matters which are completely different.
• Failure to recover money from responsible officials or agencies.
• Tendency to institute lengthy and unfocussed investigations.
• Lacking a sense of urgency even when dealing with resolutions with specific timeframes.

Concluding summary

Seeing that there are serious gaps in resolution implementation as indicated by the data provided, it is therefore important to ensure that an effective mechanism is put in place to track and monitor all resolutions that are passed by the Legislature or Parliament. The proposed model should not only add to knowledge production but should play a critical role in addressing matters pertaining to oversight and accountability to enhance service delivery. The model could inter alia be inclusive of the following aspects/elements:

• It should have an electronic resolution tracking device for effective, timeously and continuous tracking of resolutions. The device must be managed by the administrative staff of the legislature or parliament who handle all reports and submissions by government Departments.

• The model should clearly outline by when, by whom and how resolutions should be implemented.
• There should be a clear direction about the disciplinary measures that should be taken against negligent officials as per PFMA.
• The relevant committees of Parliament should note all resolutions that apply to them in their minutes and constantly check on them.
• There should be continuous hearings and report back by Departments to check/assess the progress made.
• A joint venture and collaboration among committees is essential for effective implementation of resolutions.
• There should be a buy-in from the executive to ensure that resolutions are effectively implemented.

It should be noted that although the decision to pass resolutions is a political process done by members of the legislature, however, the follow up with regard to the implementation involved checking and assessing progress reports (which is mainly an administrative exercise). It is at this level that effective knowledge management is needed. As part of the information society, effective knowledge management in this case should entail: using the right tools, devices or software to enhance resolution tracking as suggested above. Given the number and size of provincial Departments that committees deal with, it is possible that the information submitted could be overwhelming and complex to deal with. Complicating the situation is the fact that Departments submit their information in the form of hard copies. Scanning through the documents remains a challenge which could even be more frustrating if the data is not properly organized or converted into a user friendly format.

Finally by effectively managing knowledge emanating from resolutions, decisions and programmes, parliamentary committees will contribute to oversight, accountability, development and service delivery. In order to effectively exercise their oversight roles, parliamentary committees need knowledge which must be properly channeled and handled in order to achieve the intended results.

References

1. Caparine M “Challenges of control and oversight of intelligence services in a liberal democracy” Paper presented at the workshop on Democratic and Parliamentary Oversight of Intelligence Services Geneva 3-5 October 2002.

2. Corder et al (1999) Report on Parliamentary Oversight and Accountability. Prepared by Parliament UCT.
3. The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa Act no 108 of 1996.
4. Griffith,G (2005) Parliament and Accountability in the 21st Century: The Role of Parliamentary Oversight Committees, ASPG Conference, Sydney 6-8 October 2005.
5. Murray, C and Nijzink, L (2002) Building representative democracy South African Legislatures and the Constitution. Cape Town, Parliamentary Support Programme.
6. Public Service Accountability Monitor oldwww.ru.ac.za/community/PSAM
7. Senay, C and Besdziek, D (1999) Enhancing Oversight – The role of Provincial Standing Committees in an Open, Transparent and Accountable Democracy. Unpublished report
8. Secretaries Association Legislatures of South African (2007). Oversight Model, Unpublished report.
9. Scruton, R. 1996. A Dictionary of political thought. Macmillan: London