Engineers gather in Victoria Falls

Sifelani Tsiko in VICTORIA FALLS
ENGINEERS are gathered in Victoria Falls for the second edition of the Unesco Africa Engineering Week, which started yesterday. Engineer Martin Manuhwa, chairman of the Engineering Council of Zimbabwe, told The Herald that more than 300 members of the World Federation of Engineering Organisations had trooped in for this major global event, which aims to promote the profession and explore ways of addressing a myriad of development challenges facing Africa and other developing nations.

“More than 300 delegates have arrived and more will be streaming as the week progresses,” he said.

“We are excited about the event. African engineers are happy to be here and they are looking forward to fruitful deliberations.”

Zimbabwe won the bid to host the event, which will be held from September 14 to 19.

The Africa Engineering Week hosted in partnership with Unesco, the World Federation of Engineering Organisations and local engineering bodies, aims to educate the youth and the general public about engineering through outreach activities such as educational workshops, public awareness events and mentoring activities.

Eng Manuhwa said there would be 140 presentations of academic papers that show how engineers are key players in solutions to important continental and global challenges on issues such as climate change, transport, energy, mining, ICT, water and public works.

The conference is running under the theme “Engineering Innovation for Accelerated Infrastructure Development for Africa”.

Focus is mainly on raising the visibility of the profession and motivating young African students to get interested in career paths in engineering.

“We are expecting a lot of resolutions to come out of this conference,” Eng Manuhwa said. “We expect to establish the African Engineering Alliance which will work closely with the Africa Engineering Organisations and other stakeholders.”

According to a 2013 Unesco report, the shortage of engineers is a major concern in Africa and across the world where there has been declining interest and enrolment of young people, especially women.