Mr Jakaya M.
Kikwete
Knownledge - A Tool of
Development for the South
Your Royal Highness Prince El
Hassan bin Talal,
Your Excellency President Martti Ahtisaari,
Distinguished Participants,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Allow me at the outset, to thank
you, Your Highness in a very special way, for inviting me as one
of the main speakers to this extremely important conference. Let
me also thank the government and people of Finland for the warm
reception accorded to my delegation and me since our arrival.
Chairperson,
I am pleased and delighted to be here today to share with you my
views on knowledge as a tool to development; the key
theme of my statement today. Knowledge has always been a
critical factor for development. For any society, knowledge is
prosperity. Human development is the process of enlarging
people's choices so that they can live long and healthy, be
educated, have access to resources for a decent standard living,
enjoy political, economic, social, and cultural freedoms, as
well as human rights, self esteem and opportunities for being
creative and productive. The South whose main defining feature
is its underdevelopment is also lagging behind in knowledge
creation, consumption and dissemination - the right recipes for
further underdevelopment.
So, what kind of the South would
we want to see?
Chairperson,
The present world has four types of societies. First are
Agricultural societies that are highly unskilled labour
intensive in their production processes. Their final products
are consumed or traded in their first or raw stage, without
going through much processing or without adding much value. The
living standards are very low due to low productivity.
The second and more advanced
society is industrial. Here management of technological capital
and labour provides the competitive advantage. Industrial
products dominate and the percentage of the population engaged
in agriculture is significantly low due to mechanisation. Much
of the agricultural output is processed for final consumption
and trading.
As production increases, so is
knowledge, leading to innovations that give rise to the third
type of society - Information society. Critical here is
knowledge, through networks, be they telephone, Internet or any
other form of networking. An excellent example of the
information society is the Finish society. In Finland it is
estimated that each person has a website, there is 100 percent
internet access, the largest diffusion of computer power and
mobile telephone industry.
Finally, there is the knowledge
society. At present this is the most highly developed society.
Here knowledge, rather than labour and capital, is the primary
factor of production. Efficient utilization of knowledge creates
immense wealth for the nation, leading to better health,
education, infrastructure, etc. for improving quality life.
Ability to create and maintain knowledge structures and their
effective utilization are key factors in the development of
mankind. In the knowledge society education facilitates
creativity. In this way society adapts quickly to newer
technologies and; management style emphasizes delegation than
command.
Chairperson,
The South, despite concerted efforts of more than four decades,
is still fixed in the pigeonhole of agricultural society. More
than 75 percent of the population is engaged in agriculture and;
even this population is unable to feed itself, let alone feeding
the entire population. Agriculture is still highly dependent on
natural conditions with very little attempt for mechanization.
The opposite is the case in the North where about 2 percent of
the population engaged in agricultural production can feed the
entire population. In fact the political concern in the North is
how to deal with excess production from agriculture.
The report of the World
Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization entitled
"A Fair Globalization: Creating Opportunities for All" has
rightly pointed out that education is vital for poverty
reduction and for enhancing the capabilities of the people to
benefit from globalization. Yet the level of investment in
education is grossly inadequate in the South. One major factor
for this seemingly lack of priority to education is the debt
obligations that have to be honored. In some countries, these
obligations demand up to 40 percent of the national budget. As a
result, of the 680 million children of primary school age
present in the South, 115 million are not enrolled, 65 million
of them being girls. Of the children who start primary education
only 50 percent complete it. Clearly the future of these
societies is doomed.
The Way Forward
Chairperson,
It should be noted that there have been efforts to address the
problems of the South. The efforts to equip people with
knowledge as a tool for development date back to the time when
most of these countries gained their political independence. Of
course, we have experienced disappointments at times. We recall
how the state-led development endeavors failed to sustain
themselves. While some countries in the South, such as Tanzania,
embarked on Universal Primary Education (UPE) economic hardships
and faulty planning hit hard and took their toll.
In trying to chart out the way
forward for the South in September 2000, 189 Heads of States and
Governments committed their countries - rich and poor - to meet
a set of time-bound and measurable goals by 2015. These are the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that aimed at:
- Eradicating extreme poverty
and hunger
- Achieving universal primary
education
- Promoting gender equality
and empower women
- Reducing child mortality
- Improving maternal health
- Combating HIV/ AIDS, malaria
and other diseases
- Developing a global
partnership for development.
So, in the context of the MDG,
what should the South do? I would like to suggest three things,
as a matter of priority.
Research and Development
Chairperson,
It is clear that Research and Development is critical to the
development of the South. Research centres have to be
established and funded to investigate and identify problems and
seek appropriate solutions for the relevant sectors. In the
South where as much as 80 percent of the people are engaged in
agriculture it was imperative to establish agricultural research
centers to carry out basic research in this area. These centres
should investigate suitable crops and livestock for specific
localities and offer extension services to peasants and farmers.
They should develop superior breeds that are more resistant to
disease and weather vagaries. But more importantly, they should
link effectively with farmers and peasants. However, in order
for this linkage to be possible, the farming population must be
educated.
In Tanzania, the government has
recently embarked on an ambitious primary education development
programme that will ensure opportunity for primary school for
all children free of charge. They aim to achieve universal
primary education. This is the first step towards the long term
programme aimed at increasing the knowledge level that is
essential for transforming the country into an industrial
society. This is, in turn necessary increased productivity in
agriculture.
Technical Cooperation for
Development
Chairperson,
It would reflect a lack of understanding of the global reality
to think that the South will make any remarkable strides in its
march to a knowledge society without cooperation from the North.
This seems to be clear to all; we need not spend time to
understand its relevance. What is not clear however is the
importance of South-South cooperation as a complementary factor.
A careful audit of the potential capabilities of the South
suggests that the South is not homogeneous. Once the internal
technological and knowledge capacities of Southern States have
been established, it will become easy to establish networks of
constructive cooperation for the development of the South.
An illustration is in order here.
China is known to have made great strides in agricultural
development; India is undisputed in ICT; Cuba has performed very
well in the health sector. This being the case it would be
expedient for African countries to establish networks with India
concerning training in development and use of ICT and; with Cuba
on technical assistance in the areas of health. Here the
advantages are many and mutual.
Chairperson,
Regional cooperation and integration for the South are critical
for the development of the South, in the rapidly globalizing
world. Through regional cooperation and integration the South
will be able to mobilize resources for developing its knowledge
level, in a number of ways. Firstly, regional cooperation and
integration will help to mobilize the capabilities needed to
take advantage of global opportunities. Investment in skills,
infrastructure research, technology and support for innovation
often require a critical mass of efforts more readily achieved
at regional level. Secondly, regional cooperation and
integration can improve conditions under which people live. It
enhances common strategies for fighting difficult situations
such as drug trafficking and HIV/AIDS. In this way, each country
of the South has something to contribute to the development of
the bloc. This is neither a mere myth nor a political wish.
Experience from other parts of the world has clearly proved this
to be the case; the European Union is the case in point. The
South only needs to open its eyes.
Information and Communication
Technology
Chairperson,
While the South is predominantly an agricultural society, the
North is at the highest level of information society.
Technological development was the key for this success.
Education played a central role for knowledge creation and
innovation. In these countries, everything is now electronically
driven. Most of the society is organized through e-governance;
trade is done via e-commerce, education through e-learning and
so on. Every transaction - government and business - is possible
through electronic system. However, contrary to the North, the
South has remained behind in this area. It has maintained the
lowest ratio of computer per capita. Most of the rural is left
out of the information technology as only pockets of urban
centres are well served by such amenities like the Internet and
mobile phones.
Since development is a function
of access to, and utilization of, information technology,
failure to access basic information automatically leads to
retarded development. In Tanzania we have many times experienced
unfortunate situations where harvests have been wasted for lack
of access to markets while some parts go hungry for lack of the
same product. Naturally if ICT would be improved the peasants
would sell their surplus products and improve their lives while
other parts of the country would not face food shortage.
The challenge for the governments
of the South is to commit more resources to education and
technology. The utility of information technology for
development cannot be over emphasized. It is a necessity. In
practice more efforts will have to be directed to rural
settings. The difficulty here is that many of these areas lack
electricity, a basic prerequisite for ICT. This makes the entire
programme expensive and complex, calling for a careful analysis
of the situation and available options, also within the context
of regional cooperation and integration.
Your Highness,
Mr. President,
Dear Participants,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
In, conclusion, I have discussed
the importance of knowledge as a tool of development for the
South. Education as the engine of knowledge creation is greatly
underfunded in the South. In today's globalized world the need
for transforming the South into an information society cannot be
overemphasized. Cooperation within the South and with the North
will facilitate knowledge creation, and utilization in the
South. Moreover, the South has to recognize that the largest
impact in development can be realized by focusing attention in
sectors that employ the bulk of its population. At the moment,
this is the agricultural sector.
I thank you for your kind
attention. |