adminDr Gibson Mandishona
Science and technology needs to be demystified from its “ivory tower” perception to a space for codifying knowledge and experience through observation, experimentation and measurement.
This will embody traditional means of gaining knowledge through multiple perspectives, lateral thinking and shared opinions among scientists and beneficiaries who need to be mainstreamed into the new Zimbabwean scientific paradigm.
It will need to be validated to the extent to which it contributes to social transformation (poverty alleviation); to be regarded as the product of “co-creation” by the convergence of scientists, sociologists, end-users, engineers, financial and legal experts.
There is need to diffuse science and technology developments to SMEs and poor communities, which requires bankrolling a “bottom-up” approach as opposed to the “top-down” methods in common use.
This takes as its entry point not poverty, but often the wealth of the poor: skills and adaptive strategies that have in the past enabled them to cope against odds.
To join in the science and technology race, SMEs urgently need access to credit, business/technical skills, acquisition of sound equipment, product marketing skills, provision of enabling physical structures and seed capital to jumpstart businesses.
A desirable recipe to science and technology development is technology transfer which is pinnacled at three levels: “core” technology, as opposed to mere “assembly mode” prototypes; skills acquisition (capacity building of beneficiary); and lastly, selection of relevant/priority sectors.
Prior to searching for technology transfer from abroad, Zimbabwe should exploit its immediate environment for home-grown opportunities, consistent with Pareto’s Law: “Concentrate on what you do best”. There is need to develop an urgent localised agenda for technologies which will achieve high productivity in agriculture, local industry, mining and export value-addition.
Hence local capacity building strategies need to include the following milestones: establish technical, vocational and management skills; engage local scientists to solve pressing social/economic problems (energy, water, health, food); transform and upgrade quality of living standards, add value to natural resources and to exports, involve industry, women and youth in science and technology development; and use existing constraints and localised problem-areas as basis for developing vocational skills, as opposed to conducting frontier level research and development.
There is also need to develop good business climate to foster technology entrepreneurship, which requires cutting-edge ideas and a Zimbabwean perspective.
There are numerous challenges to the development of science and technology.
These include loss of experts due to poor remuneration and brain-drain; high failure rate in school mathematics, limited intakes for technology-related courses and high costs of establishing research and development centres.
Existing centres also lack equipment.
Research and development is not well supported by investors and industrialists while there is still low internet/ICT connectivity.
Other challenges include the lack of capitalisation of Innovators’ Fund: In Sub-Saharan Africa percentage expenditure on R&D is less than 0,3 percent (2010), versus 2 percent in newly industrialising countries (NICs).
Outdated technologies (some drug manufacturing companies using obsolete equipment) and resistance to change (maintenance of traditional norms) also hamper science and technology development.
The over-arching themes emerging from the science and technology adoption-diffusion debate invariably include the acknowledgement to ensure a sound science and technology development playing field; overcoming barriers to wider science and technology adoption and domestication which can be overcome by forward planning; strengthening the national voice on science and technology development initiative and its incorporation into national policy formulation and the promotion of science and technology development to achieve gains beyond basic skills and tackling the area of innovation-versus-implementation.
Gibson Mandishona writes in a personal capacity on science-energy issues. He can be contacted on [email protected]
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