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CLOSING THE GENETIC
AND DIGITAL DIVIDES:
Toward's Africa's Common Agenda
Dr John Mugabe, Kenya
Africa's Sustainable Development Challenges
Africa is today confronted with increasing food insecurity, a deteriorating public health, environmental degradation, and intense political and ethnic conflicts. The region's economies have performed dismally in the past two decades and poverty is a marked feature of more than three quarters of Africa's human population. In 1998 more than 301 million Africans were living on less than US$ 1 per day compared to 217 million in 1987. Africa has the largest share of people living on less than $1 per day. In contrast, poverty declined most rapidly in South and East Asia during the 1990s. In Vietnam, for example, the incidence of poverty dropped from 58 percent in 1993 to 37 percent in 1998. This was mainly as a result of economic growth from agricultural diversification.
Africa's poor economic performance and growth in poverty are closely linked to deepening environmental degradation. Soil depletion, deforestation and associated loss of genetic capital, unsafe water, over-fishing, and inadequate sanitation are some of the environmental problems that the region and its poor population are faced with. Agriculture which is the mainstay of the economies and majority of the poor has witnessed slow growth and in some countries rapid deterioration. Its capital stock per hectare of land is less than one quarter of that in Latin America and one-sixth of that in Asia. More than one-third of Africa's population is faced with starvation.
The region's telecommunications infrastructure is the least developed in the world. Africa has less than 2 percent of the world's telephone mainlines. By 1999 it had just about 10 million telephones. Of the 400 million Internet users in the world in 2000 less than 500,000 were in Africa. Many of the region's economies are yet to be linked to global e-commerce.
In terms of public health, recent estimates show that less than 35 percent of Africa's population has access to basic health or medical care facilities. Malaria and the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) are now major destroyers of human life on the continent. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates show that at least 0.4 million adults and 1.6 million infants died of AIDS or related HIV in Africa. In Kenya, Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Nigeria and Ghana HIV/AIDS is destroying a growing percentage of skilled labour force. Malaria is known to be responsible for at least 75 percent of rural deaths in tropical Africa. At least half of the region's one-year olds have not been immunized against polio, measles and tetanus. Such simple life-saving therapies as rehydration are not used in more than 50% of diarrhoea cases in Africa.
On the whole, Africa is sustaining a deep crisis: increasing poverty, worsening environmental problems, dismal industrial productivity, growing food insecurity and a deteriorating public health. These problems have led to a variety of policy responses, ranging from structural adjustment to the ongoing efforts at formulating poverty reduction strategies. Emphasis is largely on focused on getting macroeconomic conditions right. While sound macroeconomic management is crucial for achieving economic growth, it is the ability of African countries to generate and manage technological change that ultimately determines its success in fighting poverty and enlarging competitiveness in the world market. Growth is the most powerful weapon in the fight against poverty. But accelerating and achieving it will require policies that deliberately promote endogenous scientific and technological development. This is the point that many of those responsible for development policy and planning for African countries often fail to grasp or sometimes lack the necessary analytical tools to engage with.
More than 90% of technologies-products and processes-used by African countries are produced elsewhere: in Asia, the United States of America, and Europe. Technological dependence undermines efforts of African countries to transform their economies and meet needs of the majority of the population. It does so in a number of ways. First, it undermines the autonomy of the developing countries to determine their technological needs. Most of these countries tend to react to global technological trends without identifying and articulating their economic needs. Secondly, it inhibits processes of local technological learning essential for development. It also tends to devalue the activities of local scientific and technology institutions.
Emerging Technological Opportunities
Recent great strides in technological development, particularly in biotechnology and information technology, present enormous new opportunities for solving problems of poor and low agricultural production, health insecurity and environmental degradation. Biotechnology "provides potential to produce new, improved, safer, and less expensive products and processes. Pharmaceuticals and diagnostics for humans and animals, seeds, entire plants, animals, fertilizers, food additives, industrial enzymes, and oil-eating and other pollution degrading microbes are just a few of the things than can be created or enhanced through the use of biotechnology."
In agriculture, at least 70 genetically modified (transgenic) varieties of crops were registered for commercial cultivation worldwide in 1999. These include new varieties of cotton, potato, tobacco, tomato and clove. More than 15,000 field trials have been undertaken globally. New genetic modifications of more than 100 plant species are growing in laboratories, greenhouses, or in the field, providing farmers with new agronomic traits, particularly herbicide tolerance and pest resistance. In 2000 the global area under genetically improved crops was 44 million hectares mainly of maize, soya bean, cotton, canola (rappelled) and potatoes. Eighty five percent of this area is in North America (USA and Canada) and the remaining fifteen percent in developing countries notably Argentina, China, Mexico and South Africa.
In the pharmaceutical sector there are currently more than 100 biotechnology drugs and vaccines approved by the FDA and more than 350 in the pipeline. By 1996 there were at least 220 diagnostic kits using monoclonal antibodies and 8 using DNA probes on the market. Total sales for MAb products were projected at US$ 3,800 in 1998 and US$ 720 million for DNA diagnostics by 2000. The first gene therapy was approved in 1990 to treat Severe Combined Immune Deficiency. Gene therapy techniques for cystic fibrosis have also been approved.
Advances in information and communications technology are creating faster ways of acquiring, storing and disseminating information. They are breaking barriers to knowledge and integration into the global economy. For example, the Internet is boosting efficiency and enhancing the ability of some developing countries to integrate better into the world economy. For countries such as Brazil it has raised productivity of both public and private institutions in very profound ways. In Latin America Internet use is growing by at least 30% a year. Some of the region's countries are tapping the technological opportunities to improve their agriculture, health and education sectors.
The rapid technological developments are creating public expectations, anxiety and uncertainty. While in the industrialized world households' expectations revolve around new and higher quality gadgets, services and foods-essentially an enlarged range of choices, in Africa expectations focus on having basic (sometimes lower range) technologies to respond to immediate and urgent basic needs. The current Europe-United States debate over genetically modified crops ignores the concerns and needs of Africa. European and American households are faced with anxiety and uncertainty associated with many food choices, and many better and better drugs, while those in Africa are faced with food shortages and increasing malnutrition. Discussions of anticipated and largely perceived of technology risks should not erode prospects of feeding the poor and treating HIV/AIDS in Africa. However, Africa should not ignore anticipated risks. Its challenge is to establish policies, laws and institutions that will enable it to manage the risks while at the same time using the technologies to fight poverty. This challenge cannot be left to scientists and policy analysts. It is a political one requiring the full engagement of African political leadership. But policy analysis will be required to guide technology choice and management.
Enter here for Part Two.
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