The lady (based in Luwero District) operating the LOG`EL SOLAR solution. Apart from providing an alternative energy source, she generates continuous revenue hence, realizing her entrepreneurial dream

In a typical Ugandan setting, women play the roles of digging, fetching water, doing household work, cooking, hosting visitors and, above all, bearing children i.e. they are movers of the “caring economy” which however, carries no definite rewards except that they benefit from occasional “thank you” expressions from their husbands, children, visiting neighbours, relatives, and community members. To-date however, these roles are shifting very fast, thanks to the onset of Information Communication Technologies and technology in general.

As can be attested by the attached photograph, the lady seen operating this solution is rural based and apart from providing an alternative energy source, she generates continuous revenue hence, realizing her entrepreneurial dream; with this revenue she is empowered to pay school fees for her children, supplement the budget to support food and other key needs for her household,

She also plays the role of providing the rural farming communities with a constant energy source that enables them to use their phones uninterrupted thus, leading them to access and benefit from information that addresses their personal, farming and community needs. Furthermore, the photograph is a testimony of the combined role of women and youth in developing, producing and applying ICTs for transforming especially rural communities i.e. the LOG`EL Commercial, solar phone-charger is produced and disseminated by the  LOG`EL team (mainly comprising the youth) and it is being commercially utilized by a female operator.

This technology solution has the potential for replication in other countries for, apart from being an alternative source of affordable energy, it has viable prospects for reducing poverty, managing climate change, reducing environmental degradation and uplifting the convenience for humanity in general.

5 Phone solar charger

YOUTH DESIGNED SOLAR PHONE CHARGER

To-date, Uganda faces a barrage of disasters (natural and man-made) like many other countries worldwide; apparently, these include persistent challenges of poverty and climate change hazards.  For poverty, high unemployment rates especially among the youth (comprising over 60% of Uganda’s population) while Climate change hazards result from widespread deforestation, destruction of wetlands, charcoal burning, unsustainable brick-making and, use of wood fuel without replacing of trees utilized for these activities.

Furthermore, the situation is compounded by the challenge of unstable supply of hydro energy electricity  in most rural and a good number of urban areas in Uganda. Consequently,  citizens in these areas and the environs, are  vulnerable to unmanageable budgets, interrupted information flow, unstable  energy-flow and,  environmental degradation, resulting  into, unreliable weather patterns, draughts, food insecurity, floods, recurrent mental and general  ill-health and, low productivity.

Fortunately, Ugandans are a resilient society, with a booming informal sector rated at about 90% of non-agricultural businesses.  As a result, the LOG`EL Commercial, Solar  Phone-Charger (produced and disseminated by the LOG`EL team) which has attracted many youth (female and male alike) to acquire and use it either for  starting new phone-charging businesses  or simply adding such services to their existing businesses.

Apparently, this solar solution has been developed and activated by the youth through LOG`EL‘s Entrepreneurship programme which aims at inculcating the culture of entrepreneurship into the mind-sets of young people, leading to the creation of a rich combination of young peoples’ capacities in creative, business, scientific, technological, agricultural and production operations.

10 Phone Solar Charger

INVITATION

The  LOG`EL team gladly invites all parties who access this article and photos to  share their response in the form of enriching knowledge, experiences, lessons, good practices, linkage to likeminded opportunities and equally important, expression of interest to collaborate – in promoting such alternative energy solutions for community empowerment  through reducing climate change challenges.

Once again, enquiries for collaboration and any key, relevant interactions are most welcome.

Prepared and Shared by:

Wanakwakwa Job – Research & Innovations Counsellor  LOG`EL PROJECT, Email: wjob@logelproject.org

LOG`EL PROJECT youth Member aligning the solar panels

The article seeks to underscore the dismal performance of agriculture in Uganda despite the sector having the critical potential to leverage and power the development process of the country today.  This notion is backed by the fact that during the 1950s up to the early 1970s, Uganda’s socio-economic landscape was a shining model of development within East Africa particular and Africa as a whole.

Apart from the introduction therefore, the other aspects to be covered herein include, background, Situation Analysis of Agriculture and Rural Development in Uganda, Prospects for ICT-led Interventions to boost Agriculture in Contemporary Uganda and in the Southern Societies and, recommendations.  Hopefully, the details that will come out about these aspects will provide a clear direction as to how best to harness ICT applications so as to transform the agricultural sector and the hence, leap-frog Uganda’s entire development process from its current “trend of survival” to that of  sustainable prosperity

BACKGROUND

As a matter of fact in the current millennium, ICT-led science, Technology and Innovations are increasingly becoming critical drivers of our lives; these factors hold the key to an everlasting source of economic development and important inputs for poverty reduction.  Advances in ICT-led scientific and technological knowledge and more so skills, will make significant reduction of poverty and improvement in the quality of life in contemporary societies and posterity.

Now is the time to combine our efforts in promoting the advancement of ICTs, science, technology and innovations as a means of improving living standards in communities, countries, regions, continents and, amongst humanity worldwide.  More specifically, time is ripe for embedding ICTs applications in the operation of agro-based activities in Uganda – with the prospects for replicating any lessons of success learnt, in the other southern countries – where agriculture is seen and proven to be the economic mainstay of these societies.

Situation Analysis of Agriculture and Rural Development in Uganda

In the 1960s, Uganda’s economy was at its best whereby in 1965 it realized a GDP of US$500 million thereby equaling that of South Korea.  The main economic activity during this period was agriculture, with coffee being the leading crop in terms of income; other key cash-crops included cotton, tea and tobacco.  Agriculture was thus supplemented by tourism; that apart, the Ugandan population was self-sufficient in a variety of food crops such as bananas, maize, millet, cassava, sweet potatoes, Irish potatoes green vegetables and domestic animals.

Furthermore, these agro-based activities were strengthened by a strong co-operative movement whose network spanned from the village-based co-operative societies and district Co-operative Unions to the national, Uganda Co-operative alliance which served as their umbrella organization.  Besides, the mainstream co-operative movement, there was the vibrant, Young Farmers’ Associations network which actively sought to interest and enable young Ugandans to embrace and practice farming.  In so doing, many youngsters became and remained active and gainfully productive farmers who provided a succession arrangement that sustained a lucrative and rewarding agricultural base.  Apart from being effective in checking rural-urban migration process during then, this base also ensured a balanced rural-urban trend of interdependence within the Ugandan population.

However, during the early 1970s to the late 1980s, agriculture sunk so low mainly due to the political instabilities that prevailed during that era.  As a result, speculative trade/transactions succeeded agriculture thereby leading to unsustainable, socio-economic activities such as smuggling, fraud and forgery-based transactions code-named, “Hot Air Deals” and, other forms of speculative transactions.

Unfortunately, speculative transactions continue to linger around within the Ugandan economy in particular and society as a whole – to the disadvantage of agriculture.  Efforts are now being made towards uplifting agriculture in Uganda but these are in most cases, frustrated by the rampant diversion of resources thereby resulting into  poor infrastructure, insufficient supply of inputs, low quality planting and stocking materials; limited access to markets, inadequate post-harvest support systems, limited provision and utilization  of modern farming skills, methods and practices.

All these inadequacies are compounded by the limited availability and supply of agro-based information that could otherwise empower especially the average farmer – youth, women and others – who is largely based in the rural areas, to become self-reliant instead of him/her rushing to the urban areas where he/she becomes a helpless victim of the widespread, socio-economic challenges that result from the unplanned and uncoordinated, town life.

Prospects for ICT led Interventions to Boost Agriculture in Africa

Arising from the above given brief analysis, enhancing and promoting the initiative, “Prospects for ICT-Led Interventions to Boost Agriculture and Rural Development in the Southern Societies” becomes imperative.

SETTING THE GROUND FOR THE INTERVENTIONS

Before highlighting the initiative’s interventions, it is important to put in place, a critical ground which essentially comprises goals and strategies.

To this end, there is the need to target the achievement of hall-marks such as, enhancement of ICT-led agriculture for rural development, awareness raising about the importance of ICT-led agriculture among key decision-makers and farmers, enhancing the capacities of young farmers to become gainful operators through ICT-led applications, accessing the targeted farmers to gainful opportunities through ICT-led networks, advocacy and lobbying;  and, periodic monitoring and evaluation of the initiative for sustainability.

ACTUAL INTERVENTIONS TO BOOST AGRICULTURE IN UGANDA THROUGH ICT-LED APPLICATIONS

By actual interventions, the initiative would have to put in place, several tasks that are to be implemented and accomplished.  Among others, such tasks include, engaging and involving the targeted farmers in needs assessment of their needs and capacities, mobilizing them to participate in ICT-led farming, sensitizing them about the benefits ICT-led farming, developing and operationalizing ICT-led farming tools, and training them in ICT-led farming skills.

Furthermore, other tasks are to include, linking the targeted farmers to key networks related to ICT-led farming, empowering them to utilize a customized web portal for gainful farming, conducting periodic, participator monitoring and evaluation of the initiative and, developing, producing and disseminating reports about the progress made by the initiative.

Types of ICTs for the farming initiative

To-date, a host of ICTs have been developed to support and transform agriculture into a gainful and lucrative sector.  Among others, these include,

• Geographic Information systems (GIS) solutions:  These serve as agro-analysis tools – to ensure desired farm profitability, conducive farm environment, effective resource control and management and, using data for timely updates and profiling of land sites, crops and pests.
• Solar phone solutions:  To provide the much needed alternative energy source for farmers especially in rural areas where supply of hydro electricity is rated at 5% in Uganda. This source is best place to provide reliable energy supply for lighting, charging of phones and equipment such as computers and others.
• Mobile phones:  To receive and share agro-based information regarding prices, markets, quality equipment, materials, impliments, pests management, weather patterns control, latest tips on farming practices and methods.
• Community radios:  To provide opportunities to farmers to access and benefit from agro-based information especially for those farmers who may not possess mobile phones, computers and TVs.
• Computer:  To serve as a platform for enabling farmers to access and benefit from agro-based information that is available on-line and in a timely manner
• Participatory Video Media (PVM):  To empower the targeted farmers to access information from agro-based documentaries, films and clips.  PVM also presents the opportunity for farmers to translate such information into local languages.
• Localized and Home-grown Digital Libraries/Media:  To serve as sources of print and electronic media that farmers could borrow or buy for their desired use. Such media could also be translated into local languages.

Recommendations

For anybody who is interested in promoting ICT-Led agriculture in order to transform the lives of farmers in the Southern societies, it is recommended that one should endeavour to:

• Start by gathering as much information as possible about ICT-led agriculture,
• Move on to effectively plan for initiating the process for supporting and empowering the targeted youth farmers,
• Identify the farmer-groups (women, youth, gender-mixed) for mobilization
• Mobilize the identified farmer-groups to participate in such initiatives
• Assess the needs and capacities of the targeted farmer-groups
• Enhance and upgrade the capacities of the targeted farmer-groups in the skills of ICT-led farming
• Link the targeted farmer-groups to key networks, for support and promotion of ICT-led farming
• Provide a workable farmer-friendly-and-involving sustainability strategy

Writer: Herbert Lwanga, herbert@logelproject.org

YoBloCo Awards

This blog competition aims to:

• Put into limelight issues, successes and challenges faced by youth engaged in: agriculture in urban and rural areas;
• Encourage the production of information and the use of new information technologies by young farmers’ groups and organizations interested in the “youth in agriculture” question;
• Promote the sharing of information on the issues of agriculture and rural development in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries.

This competition is also being launched in the framework of the commemoration of  the United Nations International Year of Youth.

Read more

Partcipants at the 2011 Youth Science, Technology and Innovation Contest (23-24 September 2011, Golf Course Hotel-Kampala )

Millennium Science Initiative funding has produced an impressive range of projects in Uganda. The government is wrong to bring it to an end.

For the past five years, winds of change have been blowing through Ugandan science. Funded largely by a US$30-million loan from the World Bank under its Millennium Science Initiative (MSI), a large number of projects have taken place aimed at boosting the country’s capacity to use science and technology in agriculture and industry to meet its development needs.

Their diversity is impressive. They range from research on methods for farming the Nile perch and processing bananas — both important sources of protein — to the development of a malaria vaccine, and from renovating facilities for industrial research to funding university research groups, doctoral students and undergraduate courses.

Sadly, the momentum that has built up is now under threat. According to the 2012 budget proposed by the government and passed by parliament in June — and despite invitations from the World Bank — Uganda is not seeking further funds when the current phase of the initiative finishes at the end of this year.

The government’s justification for the move has some plausibility. It claims to be reluctant to depend on international donors for funding projects that should, it says, be a national responsibility.

But with little indication that domestic funding will become available, the Ugandan scientific community is concerned that the decision reflects a new apathy towards science, and that ongoing research initiatives will lose their lifeline.

This could be disastrous for the country at a time when many of its neighbours, such as Rwanda and Tanzania, are moving in the opposite direction, keen to embrace the social and economic benefits of a thriving knowledge economy.

“A dream come true”

When the World Bank’s loan to Uganda was announced in 2006 — supplemented by a further US$3.3 million from the Ugandan government itself — it represented a radical new approach to funding science through the MSI.

Previous loans under the MSI banner, in particular to Chile and other countries in Latin America, had sought to build scientific capacity primarily through establishing centres of research excellence. The hope was that such centres would have a wider positive impact on other scientific activities by, for example, discouraging brain drain.

Uganda’s MSI loan uses a different approach. It was structured to support all aspects of the country’s innovation system, from training for research to supporting mechanisms for injecting research findings into the marketplace, for example by providing a US$4-million upgrade for the Uganda Industrial Research Institute (UIRI).

This approach has won support both inside and outside Uganda’s research community (and, at least initially, even from President Museveni himself). Describing the impact of the MSI-funded upgrade on the UIRI’s work, its executive director, Charles Kwesiga, said it was “a dream come true”. [1]

Dismay

Unsurprisingly, Uganda’s scientific community has expressed dismay at the government’s decision not to seek renewed funding.

The Uganda National Council for Science and Technology (UNCST), the government-funded agency responsible for handling the funds, is putting a brave face on the decision, saying it does not necessarily reflect a move to reduce funding for science but is merely a political decision about where the funds should come from.

Others have been less charitable. Writing last year in one of Uganda’s leading newspapers, the Daily Monitor, Thomas Egwang, director of Med Biotech Laboratories in Kampala and a recipient of MSI funding for his work on a potential malaria vaccine, warned of the impact of the imminent decision.

According to Egwang, the government’s attitude towards science reflected apathy within the Department of Finance, which has direct control over the science budget, as there is no science ministry.

Calling for the creation of a science and technology ministry, he described the current situation as “a death knell for science in Uganda”.

A tragic waste

It would certainly be tragic for the country’s development if the gains made through MSI funding in recent years are allowed to go to waste.

In the past, certain World Bank-funded projects, such as large dams, have been criticised for destroying local communities and habitats without either meeting local needs or fulfilling their promise.

But Uganda’s MSI initiative has been different. From the start, both its designers and those responsible for implementing it have tried to ensure that local needs were at the core of every activity financed. And progress reports over the past five years indicate that it has met its goals, even if at a slightly slower rate than planned.

Successful projects range from an investigation into the causes of cassava brown streak disease, which is caused by a virus that causes the roots to rot and costs the central African region an estimated US$100 million a year, to an outreach programme to support community wireless networks based at telecentres in cities and rural areas.

The MSI has also shown the merits of a comprehensive funding strategy to support research and its applications, rather than a strategy focused on funding isolated projects without considering the need to develop markets for their results.

Commentators on science projects in Africa have pointed out that the continent is littered with the carcasses of donor-funded initiatives that have been left to die through a lack of sustained funding once the initial donor support dried up.

In the case of Uganda’s MSI initiative, the problem is (unusually) not money, but a lack of political will. The government should reconsider its decision, in the interests of the country and its future, before the MSI funding runs out at the end of the year.

Source:
David Dickson
Editor, SciDev.Net

The Youth Science, Technology and Innovation Contest was a 2 day activity which was organized and held by LOG`EL Project in conjunction with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE), Uganda National Council for Science and Technology (UNCST), Research in Africa and African Technology Policy Studies Network (ATPS), with the principal aim of improving the scientific, technological and entrepreneurial qualities of the youth. The contest was held at the Golf Course Hotel, Kampala on 23^rd – 24th September 2011 and was open to students in higher institutions during which they were expected to test out their innovative ideas and hypotheses, and, to make detailed and scientifically verifiable observations.

Event objectives

1. To develop the youth ability to solve problems in a scientific manner.
2. Promote youth entrepreneurship through harnessing science, technology and innovation.
3. To connect youth with Uganda’s leading researchers, entrepreneurs and technologists.
4. Improve the scientific and technological qualities of the youth and encourage outstanding talent to spring up.
5. Enable students connect classroom science to science and technology in the broader community.

At the contest senior STI officials including engineers, industrialists key decision makers, mentors and practitioners from all aspects of the sector seized the opportunity to engage with students where they gave talks and took an active part in the contest. The activity also provided a platform for young people to demonstrate their skills whilst creating an opportunity for the sector to find and select solutions for local problems.

As planned the contest started with arrivals and registrations on the morning of 23^rd September, 2011. The key event participants (comprising innovators with applications to showcase) included students from Kyambogo University, Nkumba University, Kampala International University and Makerere University. They were also joined by several other stakeholders who included industrialists and entrepreneurs.

Contest event

The contest event consisted of inventions, technical creations produced in scientific and technological practice and in exploring study and the fruits of applying engineering and information technology.  This was on the first day of the event where judicators (composing of entrepreneurs, educators and technologists) judged students’ technology projects.  This event was open to only students and judges. Participants presented their innovations which included several   categories namely, electrical and electronics, software applications, steel fabrication and agriculture.

Display event

This activity was on the second day of the YSTIC event and here students displayed their projects/ innovations to the entire public.  It is on day that best projects were announced and prizes together with certificates awarded to all participants.

The contest was organized, facilitated and supported by various organizations which mainly included, LOG`EL PROJECT, Uganda National Council for Science and Technology (UNCST), Research in Africa, African Technology Policy Studies Network and IEEE.

Officiating at the YSTIC event, the Executive Director Enterprise Uganda Chairman, Mr Charles Ocici (Guest of honor) stressed the importance of inculcating an entrepreneurial mind set and problem skills into the young people at an early stage. “As you strive to make your innovations/ enterprises succeed, these are the steps you will have to go through;

1. Stand up and try out your invention
2.  Be ready for failures. Most enterprises do not work out the 1^st time
3. Learn from mistakes
4. Continue to do your research
5. Do not stop at one point, continue to another”  Said Mr. Charles Ocici

The contest ended with the award and certificate giving ceremony as awarded to the participants by the Guest of honor.

The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) Agency and the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA) have joined forces in celebrating NEPAD’s 10th Anniversary. The two institutions are jointly organising within this framework two competitions:

• An essay competition on the theme “Looking at ICTs and entrepreneurship in agriculture and rural development through the eyes of women and the youth”. The competition is open to young African people, between 18 and 35 years. Students, journalists, and young entrepreneurs, are particularly encouraged to participate. Each winner will win EUR 1000 and participate in the celebration of NEPAD’s 10th Anniversary! For more information, read the announcement of the essay competition here.
• A photo competition on the theme: “Looking at ICTs, agriculture and climate change in Africa through the eyes of women and the youth”. This competition is open to amateur and professional African photographers. The winners will receive a prize trophy of EUR 800 and have the opportunity to join the NEPAD’s 10th Anniversary! More information are available on the announcement of the photo competition here.

Entries will be submitted in English or French. The Awards recognize excellence across a number of categories (one targeting particularly women). The competitions aim notably to contribute to reflecting over the advancement of  the African development agenda and to recognize young talents.

NB: Download the announcements in pdf directly here:

• Photo competition
• Essay competition

I do not think there is much sense in splitting a course. For example, teaching procurement as a full course at a time when Bcom( Bachelor of commerce) students have the option of specialising in the same field gives Bcom students an upper hand to outcompete procurement graduates in the job market. This implies that in a few years, we will have these procurement graduates either underemployed or unemployed.

Do we need Information technology and computer science as independent courses? This is because a computer science graduate does all an information technology graduate does in the field. Why not merge the two after realising such? Dons may give all reasons to justify such splitting, but every Ugandan can see that this is wastage of resources and it is likely to accelerate unemployment.

Students go for such duplicated courses ignorantly. They do not know of the narrowed scope of employment opportunities once in the field. They come to realise this after finishing university. This thus puts the duty of protecting us upon the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE).

Several leaders have hinted on this issue, with President Yoweri Museveni inclusive, but we do not see any changes. I insist, this is the substantial cause for the overwhelming under and unemployment.

NHCE should seriously look into the matter.

Allan Bariyo

Researcher – LOG`EL Project

Developing countries will benefit from creating more opportunities that allow women to make full use of their scientific capabilities.

One reason frequently cited for the low level of scientific activity in the developing world is a lack of resources. Yet there is a readily available resource that, for a complex web of social and cultural reasons, is still too often neglected in these regions: the brainpower of their women.

The picture is not uniformly bleak. Women play a significant role in the research community in Latin America and the Caribbean, for example, where they make up almost half (45.0 per cent) of the scientific workforce, well above the 33.9 per cent European average.

Indeed, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Institute of Statistics estimates that several countries — Venezuela and Uruguay in Latin America, for example, Lesotho in Southern Africa, and both the Philippines and Thailand in South-East Asia — have more women scientists than men. In Myanmar, the figure is reported to be as high as 85.5 per cent.

Elsewhere, however, the record is poor. In both Mexico and Chile, male scientists outnumber their female colleagues by more than two to one, and the same is true for most countries in Africa. Only 14.8 per cent of researchers in India are women.

Countries cannot afford to ignore growing evidence that women’s increased participation in science can spur economic and social development. Both policy- and decision-makers need to be made aware of the correlation, and take active steps to overcome the many barriers that prevent women’s involvement in science.

A background article by Jeanne Therese H. Andres presents the facts and figures about women’s under-representation in the natural sciences, highlighting gaps in gender-specific statistics and revealing an invisible web of barriers that begin early in life and continue long after women have attained advanced degrees.

This is complemented by a feature article in which SciDev.Net journalists report on how women scientists in five developing countries have fought to get to the top of their field. Their stories reveal both the challenges they faced, and what helped them succeed.

In the first of five opinion articles, Emily Ngubia Kuria, a neuroscientist at Charité University Hospital in Berlin, Germany, challenges misconceptions about women’s aptitude for science that persist even in academic institutions. The belief that the gender gap begins in primary school is misguided, she argues — secondary school is where girls drop out.

Naledi Pandor, South Africa’s Minister of Science and Technology, says increasing women’s access to scientific knowledge is vital for economic growth. And although gender equality may take time, countries can take practical steps to correct the situation.

Women themselves can take an active role in bridging the gap by teaching science, says Minella Alarcon, former senior programme specialist at UNESCO. Science teachers are in short supply, and teaching methods are out-dated. She argues that government funding to train the next generation of women scientists can make a difference.

Mentoring is another way to encourage female students to stick with the natural sciences, and Tineke Willemsen, social psychologist at Tilburg University, the Netherlands, lays down the ground rules. She explains how women can benefit from a mentoring relationship to help each other meet the challenges they face.

Finally, Mary Ann Mason, from the University of California at Berkeley, US, says that universities can be part of the force for change. She describes how child-friendly institutional policies can nurture a culture that puts men and women on an equal footing in their careers.

Firstly, improving girls’ access to basic and secondary education — especially in science — is crucial. But access alone is not enough: without encouragement in the classroom and up-to-date teaching methods, girls may still turn away from scientific fields.

In the long term, educating girls can re-shape traditional beliefs, bring down cultural obstacles and gender stereotypes, and help transform girls into economic contributors. This socio-cultural transformation needs to begin at the household level and extend into the wider community.

For women scientists who reach higher education and launch their careers, institutional policies such as mentoring, childcare and funding can influence whether they advance or fall behind male colleagues.

On a national level, gender-specific data need to be collected to inform policy, and such statistics should be comparable between countries. With reliable data, specific priority areas in science and gender can be targeted for intervention, and progress in reducing the gender gap (or a failure to do so) can be documented.

To achieve development goals, more support and incentives should be provided to encourage girls and women to become scientists and innovators. Both countries and institutions need to consider gender issues in science as an integral part of their research policy, not just as an optional extra.

David Dickson, Director, SciDev.Net
Jeanne Therese H. Andres, Spotlight consultant

To make an impact, science and technology must embrace Africa’s informal system of making and trading, argues Steve Daniels.

For half a century, science and technology (S&T) have promised to bring prosperity to Sub-Saharan Africa, but little progress has been made. This is in part because the African way of making and trading is largely informal, and Western industrialisation has failed to respect informality.

The word ‘informal’ may conjure images of illicit black market activity or harmful ritualistic practice — the darker, rarer side of informality.

But the informal economy — legal businesses that are largely unregistered and unprotected — comprises a much broader spectrum of activity, from piecing together scrap materials in makeshift workshops to extending credit to loyal customers.

Most products are simple goods like furniture and kitchenware but a select group of advanced craftsmen has developed complex agricultural and tooling machines.

In Kenya, the latest survey of microenterprises, published by the National Bureau of Statistics in 1999, suggests that over three-quarters of non-agricultural employment occurs in the informal economy. If technological interventions are to have impact, they must adapt to this informal mode of making and trading.

Resourcefulness, relationships and reason

The informal spirit, known in Kenya as jua kali, has produced clusters of economic activity throughout Africa’s cities and rural market centres. Producers and traders set up shop in close proximity, attracting competitors, labour, customers and support services such as credit providers.

This positive feedback loop has bred some of the largest manufacturing clusters in the world — Gikomba in Nairobi, Kenya, for example, and Suame Magazine in Kumasi, Ghana. These flourish due to three elements: the resourcefulness, relationships and reason (or knowledge) of the entrepreneurs.

Resourceful engineers make treasure out of trash — from oil lamps made of soup cans to grass cutting machines made of scrap sheet metal — and at the end of their useful life, these items are fed back into the web of production by scrap pickers, closing the cycle.

In the absence of formal institutions, relationships take the place of contracts. Yet entrepreneurs manage to pool machines, labour and savings without lawyers, cutting out the middleman.

An understanding of the local context is deeply embedded in informal business. Engineers continuously adapt production methods to available materials and product quality to customers’ wallets — precisely the flexibility needed to thrive in that context, however frowned upon by regulators.

But despite the promise of informal clusters, little innovation has emerged in terms of new products that meet local demand — tools that boost agricultural production, for example.

Leveraging the informal

Western science and economics can drive technological advances in the developing world but work better in a system where processes are formalised. What happens, for example, when governments or multilateral institutions introduce factories and corporate parks?

Not much. A factory might employ a dozen skilled workers, but the investment rarely trickles down to the ‘indigenous’ economy. And enterprises may only import raw materials and export the resulting goods, creating a closed loop with no links to domestic industry.

But we can leverage rather than fight the informal economy. The main barrier to innovation and growth for entrepreneurs is risk — they must ensure that every investment yields a return.

We can reduce this risk by improving access to resources like credit, tools and skills. And we can increase the willingness to take risks by promoting a culture of innovation by using market intelligence, working with customers to co-create products and improving the design process.

But simply reducing risk is not enough: in Kenya, a UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) project provided power and equipment to rural jua kali business owners only to find that they used the new tools to make the same products at the same quantities.

Maker Faire Africa, a festival for craftsmen, has sparked a social movement around informal innovation by rewarding those who demonstrate inventiveness and risk-taking. This movement has incubated new technologies for local consumption, such as a machine for making rope and a tea maker activated remotely by SMS messages.

Bridging the formal

Though resourceful on its own, the informal economy is inextricably linked with the formal economy. For example, factory waste provides materials, and the most reliable commissions are subcontracted from formal enterprises.

And formal systems can have a broader impact. The explosion of access to mobile devices and cloud computing is making a difference in Africa — allowing small businesses to make payments more easily and securely using Safaricom’s M-PESA, for example, to contact large groups using technologies such as Kiwanja.net’s FrontlineSMS, and maintain virtual homepages using IBM’s Spoken Web.

Vast potential remains to use formal technology to empower entrepreneurs in a way that respects decentralised, informal enterprise.

Scientific institutions too are finding value in informal economy research. For example, researchers at the University of Nairobi have formulated surveys and censuses for the sector. And a number of engineering schools are piloting co-creation workshops with local jua kali.

Yet much more can be done to expand these programs and bridge the gap between the formal and the informal. Though the informal economy on its own may not yield prosperity for Africa, technological and scientific interventions that leverage informality will be more likely to succeed.

Steve Daniels is the author of Making Do: Innovation in Kenya’s Informal Economy, an exploration of systems of indigenous innovation in Africa, and a researcher in IBM’s Social Computing Group, focused on ICT for development.

‘Hard’ data are rare in Africa, and journalists mostly have to make do with rough estimates and half-empty spreadsheets. So we should pore over fresh new data sets when they appear, shouldn’t we?

It seems not. Last month, the African Union finally launched the first African Innovation Outlook — a survey of African research, development and innovation activity. It may contain research and development (R&D) figures for only 13 of Africa’s 50 or so countries, but it’s the most detailed picture yet of what the continent spends on science.

But coverage so far in the media has been disappointing, which is all the more surprising because it really is a treasure trove of information.

Among the more startling findings is that three countries — South Africa, Uganda and Malawi — spent more than 1 per cent of their GDP on R&D in 2007. Malawi claims to have spent an eye-popping 1.6 per cent of its GDP — a figure that demands deeper investigation.

That only 72 of Kenya’s nearly 7,000 R&D personnel have PhDs — less than a quarter as many as Tanzania and less than half of Uganda’s total of PhDs — is also surprising, and likely to raise some questions in Kenyan science and technology circles.

Did anyone pick up on these statistics?

Nationals miss the numbers

The report did get a decent amount of coverage in certain outlets. Dedicated science and university news sites such as Nature, University World News, Cape Town-based Research Africa and SciDev.Net all covered the report in detail.

It is encouraging that the survey also got a smattering of coverage in mainstream African newspapers. The Citizen, for example, a Tanzanian broadsheet, carried a short article, as did Ghana’s Accra Mail and the press agencies of Senegal and Angola — and that’s just the number of stories that appear on a Google news search.

But many of these articles make disappointing reading. Most focus on the launch of the report rather than the data presented in it. And none delve into the data from a national perspective.

It is astounding that the only number appearing in the story run by The Citizen is 136 — the number of pages in the report. And the most cited number in all stories in the national media is 19 — the number of countries that participated in the survey.

Where are the stories asking why Malawi scored so highly? And where is the story questioning Kenya’s low PhD rates?

As if that wasn’t enough, most mainstream press stories have also focused on the announcement of the second phase of the African Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators (ASTII) initiative — which is behind the report — with the message that ‘more investment’ is needed in science and technology.

This is tedious and woolly information that does no justice to the concrete data presented in the report — if journalists took time to look at it.

Beyond the press releases

So why did these articles gloss over the real news?

One reason is probably that most of the national articles were based on coverage by the Pan African News Agency (PanaPress) and on press releases from the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). Indeed, much of the coverage repeats these sources verbatim.

Neither PanaPress nor NEPAD refer much to the findings of the report, which also explains the dearth of data in the national coverage.

But why didn’t at least one of the journalists look at the press releases, or the PanaPress story, and ask themselves, “Well, what does the report say?”.

Stories on science and innovation indicators are probably a low priority for most African newsdesks. But now that R&D capacity is often used as a proxy for economic competitiveness, similar reports on other continents would set the business and technology presses humming.

Second, since such data sources are so scarce on the continent, perhaps most journalists don’t understand what a goldmine they can be.

It is also rare that reports — even executive summaries — are published online at launch, so few journalists may have thought to look on the NEPAD website, where the summary has been posted.

Overcoming the data phobia

Christina Scott, editor of Research Africa and a stalwart of African science journalism, thinks a lack of numeracy among journalists is also a factor.

“There’s a huge fear of numbers among journalists. That is why we see stories, even in South Africa, that report that ‘so and so attended a meeting’ or ‘so and so objected to something’. They don’t report on the data, and might not even find numbers very interesting,” she says.

This lack of numeracy among journalists is not restricted to Africa. It can be found in most UK newsrooms, for example. Journalism graduates often have degrees in English or politics, not science. And most journalists anywhere have to learn to overcome their fear of numbers in the newsroom — often from a seasoned colleague showing them the ropes.

Given African governments’ poor record of producing and sharing data, it is not surprising that the continent’s journalists don’t appreciate that figures, when they do appear, can be a foundation for independent, investigative journalism. Better training in science journalism could help African newsrooms recognise this.

With the data drought coming to an end, and as some governments make data available online, this neglect must also come to an end.

The African Innovation Outlook, as a benchmark of R&D investment for a continent striving for development, certainly deserves better.