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The rampant spread of the COVID-19 infection poses a grave and formidable challenge to global healthcare, with particular concern to the inhabitants of the African continent. In response to these pressing concerns, different strategies have been employed to combat the emergence of this insidious disease, encompassing crucial measures such as physical distancing, the utilization of face masks, meticulous hand hygiene, and widespread vaccination campaigns. Nevertheless, the economic realities faced by numerous African nations, characterized by their classification as "low-income countries (LICs)", present a formidable barrier to accessing and distributing approved vaccines to their populations. Moreover, it is essential to discuss the hesitancy of the European Union (EU) in releasing intellectual property rights associated with the transfer of vaccine technology to Africa. While the EU has been a key player in global efforts to combat the pandemic, there has been reluctance in sharing valuable knowledge and resources with African countries. This hesitancy raises concerns about equitable vaccine access and the potential for a prolonged health crisis in Africa. This review underscores the urgent imperative and need of establishing localized vaccine development and production facilities within Africa, necessitating the active involvement of governments and collaborative partnerships to achieve this crucial objective. Furthermore, this review advocates for the exploration of viable avenues for the transfer of vaccine technology as a means to facilitate equitable vaccine access across the African continent and also the cruciality and the need for the EU to reconsider its stance and actively engage in transferring vaccine technology to Africa through sharing intellectual property. The EU can contribute to the establishment of localized vaccine production facilities on the continent, which will not only increase vaccine availability but also promote self-sufficiency and resilience in the face of future health emergencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The populations of Afro‐Palearctic migratory landbirds (breeding in Europe and overwintering in Africa) are declining and conservation efforts to halt or reverse their decline have failed to meet their targets. Yet, most studies and conservation measures focus on migratory landbirds' breeding grounds, whereas knowledge about threats, drivers of their decline and conservation actions in their nonbreeding grounds, where they spend most of their annual cycle, is largely limited. Here, we provide a four‐step roadmap to integrate research, policy and actions for conserving Afro‐Palearctic migratory landbirds at a flyway scale: (1) assessing and monitoring population trends and defining priority species accordingly; (2) maximizing tracking data to identify important areas for the conservation of priority species; (3) conducting ground‐based studies on the nonbreeding grounds to identify conservation challenges; (4) implementing conservation measures, for the benefit of both the avifauna and the local human communities. Alongside these steps, international conventions may facilitate new collaborations across range‐states and institutions to engage diverse stakeholders and involve local communities, with particular emphasis on evidence‐based policymaking, law enforcement in addition to capacity strengthening and knowledge transfer of new technologies. This four‐step roadmap provides guidance for future work on Afro‐Palearctic migratory landbirds and will ultimately contribute to their conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The post-war era, particularly from the mid-1980s, can be seen as a turning point for various Asian countries. Japanese success in industrialisation based on technology transfer from the industrialised West and evolution of unique endogenous scientific and technological capacities led scholars to conceptualise 'late industrialisation' and 'catching up' strategies. In a large measure, the 'East Asian Miracle' led to some erroneous misconceptions on science, technology, and innovation (STI) policies. Various writings and commentators from Africa, Asia and Latin America advocated to follow the path of East Asian Dragons. These writings begun to assume that countries can build innovation systems or dynamic technological sectors of economy within their respective countries, without paying much attention to building and strengthening science and technology (S&T) eco-systems. There are now clear STI policy signals which point to the significance of building science and technology systems before fully embarking on innovation policies. Drawing on some exemplary cases, this essay will explore the importance of S&T systems in the context of developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This case study aims to investigate how locally additively manufactured functional parts can make African metrology institutes more sustainable and independent. These institutes provide calibration services, which links the measurement units to industrial and everyday measurements. This traceability is critical to overcome technical barriers to trade and industrialisation. Most African countries have such a designated institute that requires advanced scientific instrumentation. These instruments are custom-built for a specific application, hard to procure or sometimes obsolete. Servicing these instruments or obtaining spare parts are also difficult. The purpose aims to evaluate if three-dimensional (3D) printing can significantly improve this situation, by providing six institutes with a 3D printer and training. Design/methodology/approach: Therefore, a 3D printer pilot project was launched, involving six African metrology institutes, with the aim of developing the basic manufacturing capabilities of these institutes so that they can produce functional parts. The project included training on both digital part modelling and 3D printer usage. This case study reviews the technology selection method, project risks, needs, challenges and results, with the aid of research questions. Findings: The results of the project illustrate how additive manufacturing (AM) has started to enable metrology in Africa and how it can be expanded to the general scientific endeavour on the continent. Social implications: The success of this project can be used to motivate the further adoption of AM in African National Metrology Institutes, as well as other scientific institutes. Originality/value: The project is the first AM project of its kind for African National Metrology Institutes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study seeks to develop a research agenda on why Africa needs new non-conventional partners like Vietnam and the United Arab Emirates in Development Cooperation (DC). Existing studies have focused more on conceptual dissections of strategies towards Africa in the trendy Africa+1 summit binge overlooking the lessons and complementarities that can emerge from reciprocal direct cooperation between African countries and new non-traditional partners. The paper suggests that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Vietnam are offering opportunities for shared learning, technology transfer, information sharing and "learning by doing together" in agriculture transformation and digitalization for intra Africa trade. In proposing this avenue of thought for new nontraditional partners, the paper seeks to recenter the discourse on the specific investment needs of Africa, "putting money where Africa needs it". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Partnerships and collaborations key to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and to prepare for future pandemics. • The inequitable access to COVID-19 vaccines is a failure of humanity and will continue to have significant economic and health consequences if not addressed. • Deliberate actions are required to establish sustainable vaccine manufacturing on the African continent. • Innovative vaccine technologies, regulatory and financing mechanisms are critical to strengthening global health security. The Developing Countries Vaccine Manufacturers Network held its 22nd Annual General Meeting in October 2021. Vaccine manufacturing experts, leaders from global public health organizations and dignitaries from governments and multilateral organizations discussed the challenges and opportunities emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic. Over 350 delegates from 33 countries, representing over 70 organizations partook in the meetings deliberations. The development and scaled-up production of several safe and effective vaccines against COVID-19 resulted in over 12 billion doses being produced by the end of 2021. Unfortunately, this scientific achievement and outstanding industry effort has been overshadowed by the striking inequity in access to COVID-19 vaccines. High and upper middle-income countries have received 75% of the vaccines, while in Africa, less than 5% of the people are fully vaccinated. The inequitable access to vaccines is an issue of national health security, which has stressed the need to establish local vaccine manufacturing capacity in Africa. Key partnerships, initiatives and the deliberate strategies required to achieve sustainable manufacturing on the continent were discussed. The ability to acquire technology, access markets and financing mechanisms, and workforce development were reported as key enablers to achieving a healthy ecosystem. Innovative vaccine technologies, new regulatory approaches, and the importance of voluntary technology transfers in increasing the global supply capacity of both COVID-19 vaccines and traditional vaccines were highlighted. In reviewing the lessons learned from the pandemic, speakers shared a consensus that innovation and partnerships will be central to any solution proposed to mitigate the current pandemic and prepare for future ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Donor funding schemes in water supply mainly focus on constructing centralized water systems. • Donor funding schemes usually entail technology transfer without enhancing local experts' capacity for for maintenance & repair i. • Strong reliance on imported spare parts, experts' knowledge, and engineering services for maintenance & repair. • Reliance on imported technologies enhance export markets for donor countries' technological products. In many African countries, international donor funding schemes contribute significantly to financing water infrastructures, especially for constructing new networks and water plants and upgrading existing ones. However, little is known about how these financial arrangements shape infrastructure maintenance and repair. This article explores the politics of tied water aid to show how international donors' technology transfer schemes and their associated funding conditionalities shape water infrastructure maintenance and repair. Empirically, this study builds on a qualitative study of the cities of Accra (Ghana) and Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), where the maintenance and repair of water infrastructures have been a persistent challenge. The article shows that the compulsory adoption of foreign technologies embedded in donors' funding schemes limits local capacity to properly maintain and repair water infrastructure. As maintenance and repair increasingly depend on imported expert knowledge, spare parts, and engineering services, donors' funding schemes undermine effective maintenance and repair in both cities. We argue that to make transferred water technologies work sustainably in recipient countries, funding schemes need to anticipate maintenance and repair by incorporating local capacity building and knowledge transfer to reduce import dependence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has the potential to reverse progress towards global targets. This study examines the risks that the COVID-19 pandemic poses to equitable access to essential medicines and vaccines (EMV) for universal health coverage in Africa.Methods: We searched medical databases and grey literature up to 2 October 2020 for studies reporting data on prospective pathways and innovative strategies relevant for the assessment and management of the emerging risks in accessibility, safety, quality, and affordability of EMV in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. We used the resulting pool of evidence to support our analysis and to draw policy recommendations to mitigate the emerging risks and improve preparedness for future crises.Results: Of the 310 records screened, 134 were included in the analysis. We found that the disruption of the international system affects more immediately the capability of low- and middle-income countries to acquire the basket of EMV. The COVID-19 pandemic may facilitate dishonesty and fraud, increasing the propensity of patients to take substandard and falsified drugs. Strategic regional cooperation in the form of joint tenders and contract awarding, joint price negotiation and supplier selection, as well as joint market research, monitoring, and evaluation could improve the supply, affordability, quality, and safety of EMV. Sustainable health financing along with international technology transfer and substantial investment in research and development are needed to minimize the vulnerability of African countries arising from their dependence on imported EMV. To ensure equitable access, community-based strategies such as mobile clinics as well as fees exemptions for vulnerable and under-served segments of society might need to be considered. Strategies such as task delegation and telephone triage could help reduce physician workload. This coupled with payments of risk allowance to frontline healthcare workers and health-literate healthcare organization might improve the appropriate use of EMV.Conclusions: Innovative and sustainable strategies informed by comparative risk assessment are increasingly needed to ensure that local economic, social, demographic, and epidemiological risks and potentials are accounted for in the national COVID-19 responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite increased agricultural trade liberalization, high productive inefficiency in agriculture has kept Africa as a net importer of agriculture products. Empirical studies have focused on the trade liberalization–productivity growth nexus and overlooked the efficiency linkage. Also the role of regional trade agreements (RTAs) and institutions in reducing inefficiency in agriculture have been sidelined. We use a stochastic frontier approach and single-stage maximum likelihood estimation of a true fixed-effects panel data model for our analysis. Using maize and rice data, we provide evidence that through technology transfer, agricultural trade statistically improves technical efficiency. Moreover, results suggest that RTAs provide favourable technical efficiency effects, which varies across products and membership. Furthermore, we document that while regulatory quality reduces technical inefficiency, control of corruption increases it. Our findings call for increased role of RTAs in promoting agricultural trade liberalization. This should be complemented by further strengthening of institutions involved in the agriculture value chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to establish the contribution of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) programmes in promoting industrialization. It further seeks to establish the link between industrialization and productivity. The paper uses a gravity model to estimate a cross‐sectional time‐series (panel) dataset for the period 2001–2015. The results indicate that membership to COMESA has created large markets and promoted industrialization among member states. However, results also confirm that COMESA member states still heavily trade in industrial intermediates with non‐members. The study further reveals that the share of foreign total factor productivity (TFP) to COMESA's TFP are weaker than expected, which suggests non‐convergence to international knowledge spillovers. The study concludes that COMESA programmes have positively affected industrialization. We therefore recommend that COMESA should continue implementing strategies, policies and programmes that promote industrialization and technology transfer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Sustainability has become a global concern to deal with complex and unprecedent survival, social, political and peace issues. Higher education institutions play a key role in this transformation. This paper aims to conduct a comparative analysis by continents of innovation and sustainability barriers in universities. The document also offers opportunities and potential actions for universities to create initiatives to minimize barriers and move towards a sustainable future. Design/methodology/approach: To carry out the study, 25 closed questions, composed of a five-point Likert scale, were applied to 283 university representatives (rectors, managers or specialists in the area of innovation and sustainability), to check the degree of application of the questionnaire. Findings: From an exploratory statistical analysis, it was found that the main barriers were lacking of planning and focus, lacking of environmental committee, lacking of applicability and continuity of actions and resistance to changes. Among continents, Africa and Oceania presented the best innovation and sustainability indicators in universities. The main approach of this exploratory study on barriers in universities is as an international research, whose findings showed that several barriers currently prevent universities from getting involved in sustainable development efforts. However, as we debate sustainable development, which is gaining momentum, universities are supposed to move forward to overcome barriers for the sake of implementing goals and initiatives. In addition, universities must seize opportunities to contribute through innovation in teaching, research and initiatives to achieve the 17 sustainable development goals. Research limitations/implications: This study has two main limitations: first, online research has involved professionals working in the field of sustainable development in higher education. Second, there were no interviews conducted to gather personal information with students and servers. However, the broad scope of the study and its strong international base provide important results that enable the design of an adequate profile of sustainability and innovation challenges that are currently found in universities. Practical implications: The study showed that there is lack of knowledge management to connect science, technology, innovation and sustainability, to improve management conditions, innovate, make decisions, support initiatives, create incentives and control mechanisms. Trends suggest that future professional activities involve skills in dealing with complex problems, sometimes in careers and jobs yet to be created. Traditional teaching methods are generally only prepared for routine tasks and for existing jobs, thus requiring the creation of new approaches capable of stimulating creativity and autonomy, which are essential for the present and future demands of innovation and sustainability. Social implications: The exploratory study on barriers in universities brings international research as main approach, which made it possible to check that several barriers currently prevent universities from getting involved in sustainable development efforts. However, as we debate sustainable development, which is gaining momentum, it is important that universities should move forward to overcome the barriers to implementation of goals and initiatives. In addition, universities should take advantage of opportunities to contribute through innovation in teaching, research and action to achieve the 17 sustainable development goals. Originality/value: Developed countries are leaders in promoting sustainability, while developing or underdeveloped countries are laggards. In this approach, the study sought to verify the differences through a comparative analysis across continents. As for originality and innovation, this paper presents an international study in the view of specialists who respond based on the experience of their university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International collaboration with the Western countries has over the years been the main component of research and development in Africa's higher education. However, Africa continues to lag behind in research performance. In the last decade, the rise of China brought on board an additional partnership through the Forum on China-Africa Collaboration initiatives guided by China-Africa policy. In view of the growing scepticism and misgivings over the China approach to collaboration with Africa, assessing patterns of progress by the China-Africa research collaborations cannot be ignored. Using bibliometric analysis of research data from InCites, the study reveals that the partnership is growing progressively in absolute terms though with high levels of relative growth rate. A few of the African countries are more engaged than the others. Fortunately for Africa, the partnership involves the physical sciences where the continent is greatly lacking and high impact is being registered. The study has the implication that while Africa needs to address issues of policy on sciences and funding for research in higher education, China equally needs to go beyond the current locations in Africa and equally engage with the lesser developed players on the continent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the empirical linkages between production risks and the adoption of modern inputs among smallholder farmers in Tanzania and Uganda using household panel LSMS-ISA datasets. Applying a moment-based approach and a Mundlak-Chamberlain IV fixed effects model to control for unobserved heterogeneity and endogeneity, the paper uses a translog production function to estimate the mean, variance, skewness, and kurtosis of production. These estimated moments of production are then included in a multivariate adoption model to assess their effects on input adoption decisions. Results reveal that the first four moments of production significantly explain changes in the probability of adopting chemical fertilizer, improved seeds, and pesticides. While the use of these modern inputs is found to be risk decreasing, estimates suggest that the higher their purchasing costs, the greater the cost of farmers’ private risk bearing. Under the assumption of a moderate risk aversion, the risk premium amounts to 8.7% and 13.7% of the expected production revenues in Tanzania and Uganda, respectively. This willingness-to-pay is largely explained by production volatility and downside risk aversion and to a small extent by kurtosis aversion. The findings underscore the need to account for farmers’ preferences towards higher order moments when designing and implementing modern inputs’ adoption policies in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural training is a potentially effective method to diffuse relevant new technologies to increase productivity and alleviate rural poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). However, since it is prohibitively expensive to provide direct training to all the farmers in SSA, it is critically important to examine the extent to which technologies taught to a small number of farmers disseminate to non-trained farmers. This paper investigates the technology dissemination pathways among smallholder rice producers within a rural irrigation scheme in Tanzania. As an innovative feature, we compare the performance of three categories of farmers: key farmers, who receive intensive pre-season training at a local training center; intermediate farmers, who are trained by the key farmers; and other ordinary farmers. By collecting and analyzing a unique five-year household-level panel data set, we estimate difference-in-differences models to assess how the gap in performance evolve as the technologies spill over from the trained farmers to the ordinary farmers. To disentangle the technology spillover process, we also examine the extent to which social and geographical network with the key and intermediate farmers influences the adoption of technologies by the ordinary farmers, by incorporating social relationship variables into spatial econometric models. We found that the ordinary farmers who were a relative or residential neighbor of a key or intermediate farmer were more likely to adopt new technologies than those who were not. As a result, while the key farmers’ technology adoption rates rose immediately after the training, those of the non-trained ordinary farmers caught up belatedly. As the technologies disseminated, the paddy yield of the key farmers increased from 3.1 to 5.3 tons per hectare, while the yield of the ordinary farmers increased from 2.6 to 3.7 tons per hectare. Our results suggest the effectiveness and practical potential of farmer-to-farmer extension programs for smallholders in SSA as a cost effective alternative to the conventional farmer training approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ten years ago, China and several African countries began to develop agricultural training centres, and opened the door for a cascade of optimism and pessimism on why China is interested in developing agricultural partnerships in Africa. Seldom has the appeal of such partnerships for African countries been explored, hence limiting our capacity to fully understand the dynamics of Sino–African agricultural relations. This article addresses the issue by examining why some African countries are interested in partnering with China in agricultural development. This article is based on 44 interviews that were conducted in 2015 at the Sino–African agricultural training centres in Rwanda and Uganda. I argue that Rwanda and Uganda seek to partner with China, as China can offer intermediary agricultural technologies that enable these respective countries to implement aspects of their domestic agricultural development plans. The article also provides reason to challenge the existing optimistic and pessimistic conventions about Sino–African agricultural affairs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our planet has for long now shown signs that it has reached the exploitation stage where it cannot regenerate itself at the same rate at which it is being consumed. Sub-Saharan Africa now finds itself between two paradigms: the unachievable 'sustainable economic growth' and the Degrowth framework. Crisis always presents the best opportunities and this can be the time for the Global North to help Africa rectify poverty rates and inequalities that imperative growth could not. While growth becomes incompatible with environment protection, Degrowth seems to provide this forced compatibility. Understanding the truth behind 'growth' semantics and income stratification can help address global problems without the need for economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the fight against global climate change, improving energy efficiency and reducing related emissions are critical to mitigating sustainability issues such as global warming. In this regard, technological progress is known to improve energy efficiency and reduce related emissions. However, previous sustainability studies on Africa have paid less attention to energy and emission efficiency convergence among countries, along with the contribution of technological progress to the continent's sustainability. Accordingly, this paper develops a novel framework that assesses energy and emission efficiency convergence, gauges technology inequality, identifies the barriers to technology diffusion, and explores the factors influencing energy and emission efficiency convergence in Africa. The proposed framework incorporates Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), several economic convergence concepts, a K-means clustering model, the concept of efficiency Gini coefficient, and a group-based inequality decomposition method. We empirically covered 39 African countries from 2006 to 2018. The results show that African countries are, on average, 71.1% energy efficient and 65.3% CO 2 emission efficient, leaving more room for energy saving and emissions reduction. Second, there is strong evidence of convergence in energy and emission efficiencies in Africa. Third, despite the observed convergence process, there is significant heterogeneity between two research groups (i.e., low-and high-efficiency groups of countries) in terms of energy and emission efficiencies, with persistent technology inequality suggesting a lower contribution of environmental technological advancements to the continent's sustainability. Furthermore, cross-group inequality is the primary barrier to technology diffusion. Fourth, regional cooperation accelerates the convergence process in the two efficiency indicators. While economic development, industrial structure, and renewable energy consumption (REC) tend to favor energy and emission efficiency growth, rising foreign direct investment (FDI) and energy prices have a negative impact. Meanwhile, the effects of energy prices, FDI, and REC on emission efficiency are insignificant. Based on our findings, we discussed policy implications to promote energy and emission efficiency convergence and narrow environmental technology gaps. • Convergence in Total-factor energy and emission efficiency in Africa is explored. • Technology inequality across African countries is measured. • There is strong evidence of convergence in TFEE and TFCEE in Africa. • A persistent technology inequality is found among African countries. • Cross-group efficiency inequality is the main barrier to technology diffusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the benefits of genetic engineering to small farmers in developing countries. Topics discussed are benefits of genetically modified (GM) seeds in China, India, and South Africa; technology transfer done by African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF), and genetically modified organism (GMO), Bt variety of cotton in Burkina Faso.

A shift towards sustainable agricultural systems would enhance food security without further depleting natural resources. Considering small-scale farming in the cereal-legume systems of Eastern and Southern Africa, we introduce a conceptual framework and apply an econometric model using data from a sample of 2208 households to assess factors limiting technology diffusion. Results show that investment-ready and food-secure small producers are more willing to adopt agricultural technology options, increased access to financial services is needed to enhance farm households' value-chain readiness and policy interventions promoting pluralistic extension service expansion and enhancing access to stable input and output markets are an incentive to adopt. The results from the cross-country comparison have shown that the examined factors have a similar influence on the extent of farm households' adoption of the proposed agricultural innovations. However, the heterogeneous nature of the smallholder farming environment in Eastern and Southern Africa implies that promotions of sustainable agricultural systems should be based on technology packages adapted to the complexity and diversity of smallholders' farming systems. • We consider small-scale farming in the cereal-legume systems of Eastern and Southern Africa. • An econometric model is applied to assess factors limiting the adoption of improved soil and crop management practices. • Findings illustrate common drivers but also differences across countries in agricultural technology adoption. • Access to extension services, land, credit, and input and output markets impacts adoption. • Our results provide evidence to shape sustainable rural development programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the effects of capital inflows on domestic investment in the Economic and Monetary Union of West Africa (WAEMU). The WAEMU countries are Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. Several studies have examined the conditions of attracting foreign capitals and their contributions to economic growth in sub-Saharan economies of WAEMU. However, very few studies have examined the effects of capital on domestic investment in national economies. In this respect, there are three types of foreign capital to be taken into account namely Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), Official development Assistance (ODA) and Migrants Remittances (MR). FDI, ODA and MR are major sources of external capital flows in developing countries. The current empirical study is based on the theoretical model of Agosin and Mayer (2000) to test the hypothesis of crowding-out and crowding-in of domestic investments by different types of foreign capitals considered. The econometric estimates are based on the GMM method of Arellano and Bond (1991) applied to a panel of WAEMU countries over the period 1996-2011. The results of the study show that FDI crowds-out domestic firms in both the short and long term. Similarly, ODA have a lasting crowding-out effects on local investment. As for migrants' remittances, the econometric results show that they do not have a significant effect on domestic investment in the countries of the union. These findings imply that the host countries of the WAEMU should invest more on developing their absorptive capability to attract technology transfer oriented FDI, channel the ODA to develop vital infrastructure for rapid economic development and create conducive environment for the MR to divert towards productive investments to create more crowding-in effects in lieu of the crowding-out effects. Practically, the results of this study show that multinationals have a lasting crowding-out businesses in the WAEMU region. This is mainly due to the low technological absorption capacity of local firms and the lack of complementarity between local enterprises and multinational companies. Several future research on capital flows will better appreciate the impact of foreign investment on the economies of developing countries especially those in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge and technology transfer to African institutes is an important objective to help achieve the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. Plant biotechnology in particular enables innovative advances in agriculture and industry, offering new prospects to promote the integration and dissemination of improved crops and their derivatives from developing countries into local markets and the global economy. There is also the need to broaden our knowledge and understanding of cassava as a staple food crop. Cassava ( Manihot esculenta Crantz) is a vital source of calories for approximately 500 million people living in developing countries. Unfortunately, it is subject to numerous biotic and abiotic stresses that impact on production, consumption, marketability and also local and country economics. To date, improvements to cassava have been led via conventional plant breeding programmes, but with advances in molecular-assisted breeding and plant biotechnology new tools are being developed to hasten the generation of improved farmer-preferred cultivars. In this review, we report on the current constraints to cassava production and knowledge acquisition in Africa, including a case study discussing the opportunities and challenges of a technology transfer programme established between the Mikocheni Agricultural Research Institute in Tanzania and Europe-based researchers. The establishment of cassava biotechnology platform(s) should promote research capabilities in African institutions and allow scientists autonomy to adapt cassava to suit local agro-ecosystems, ultimately serving to develop a sustainable biotechnology infrastructure in African countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers whether trade between China and sub-Saharan Africa results in productivity-enhancing technology transfers to sub-Saharan African manufacturing firms. As trade flows between countries potentially results in interactions that lead to technological improvements in the production of goods and services, we parameterize the level of total factor productivity for African manufacturing firms as a function of foreign direct investment flow, and for the country in which it operates, trade openness with China, and its interaction with foreign direct investment. With micro-level data on manufacturing firms in five sub-Saharan African countries, we estimate the parameters of firm-level production functions between 1992 and 2004. Our parameter estimates reveal that across the firms and countries in our sample, there is no relationship between productivity-enhancing foreign direct investment and trade with China. In addition, increasing trade openness with China has no effect on the growth rate of total factor productivity. To the extent that total factor productivity and its growth is a crucial determinant of economic growth and living standards in the long run, our results suggest that increasing trade openness with China is not a long-run source of higher living standards for sub-Saharan Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an examination of the impact that mobile phones have had on Africa. It explores how African users have adapted mobiles phones to transfer money, monitor elections and spread public health messages. It examines the informal economy that has arisen around mobile phones, discusses how communities have benefited from mobile phones and also explores how access to mobile phones has brought a new dimension to the inequality that exists between men and women and employers and employees.

Roads emerged as an ideal colonial technology in French Equatorial Africa and French Cameroon in the 1920s, not only because they allowed the French to shape landscapes and move around their territory, but also because their inherent technological flexibility enabled administrators to adapt European notions about roads to colonial goals, budgets, and geographies. Desiring motor vehicle-ready roads to link administrative and productive centers, but with little funding or engineering expertise from the metropole, colonial administrators in central Africa deliberately moved away from the quickly evolving cutting edge of road technologies. Instead, over the course of the 1920s they supervised the construction of over 12,000 kilometers of technically simple earthen roads built using hand tools and, especially, forced African labor. Because of the ways they reshaped the region's landscapes and relied on coerced labor from local populations, roads and road work became sites of contestation over colonial rule and order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emigration of experts from Africa to the developed world is often analysed in terms of the reverse transfer of technology (RTT), a process typically described as one in which the skills embedded in an expert become part of a reverse flow of technology from the less developed to the developed world. In the reverse flow or brain gain, the African home country obtains the embedded skills of the returning expert and is able to use them towards national development efforts. The objectives of this paper are to investigate the RTT from the conceptual, empirical, and policy perspectives. At the conceptual level, the objective is to review the insights to the RTT provided in the globalization, the New Diaspora and the New Brain Drain paradigms. Empirically, the paper uses available data to make the case that even though the RTT has been marginalized in recent scholarship, it is a persistent development problem that continues to warrant scholarly and policy attention. Building on this argument, the paper outlines a model of expert migration, termed the reverse and return transfer of technology (RRTT). This model explores the decision-making of migrating experts, especially in terms of source-destination pathways and the choice of locations as either temporary or permanent homes. The policy implications of this reformulation are assessed in terms of the brain drain, the brain gain and remittances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has introduced many changes over the last decades causing a socio-economic evolution based on information acquisition and knowledge dissemination. It helped create an emerging global information-based society with innovative means of communication that can help in increasing competitiveness for individuals, organisations and societies. ICT has helped generate new forms and structures of business, social and economic entities that are no longer bound by geographic or time constraints, but instead depend mainly on being connected all the time. This article addresses the efforts taking place in Africa to minimise the digital gap and actively join the global information society. Many African nations have invested heavily in building their ICT infrastructure to help improve the readiness of their communities and this article provides an overview of some of the projects implemented to build the African information society while demonstrating some the lessons learned and experiences acquired. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jules Siedenburg (in this issue of DPR) has misunderstood the purpose of our 1994 book, which was to differentiate between long-run forces of change and the impact of particular projects. The methodology we adopted is rehearsed in this response, as it authenticates our data. His attack on our use of price data is rebutted. From our data we expanded our original model and derived the policies that had encouraged farmer investment and technology change. Our work can be rebutted if these policies fail, not by the mere existence of continued degradation or failure to adopt particular technical recommendations. We have since tested our model in comparable areas of dryland Africa, and the cited works by others generally support our findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been suggested that the social sciences would benefit if researchers forged a high-level, creative and dynamic interdependence between theory and research, rather than having them remain as relatively separated domains. This has been termed 'adaptive theory', as models, frameworks and conceptual schema are seen as evolving and generative. Adaptive theory asserts that theory construction can be, and should be, subject to continuous improvement - sometimes incremental, sometimes radical. However, few case studies examine how dynamically adapting theory within the research process works in practice. This article describes an attempt to explore adaptive theory through an action research case study of the transfer of a 'soft' technology. The setting for our study is the transfer of a 'soft' technology from a UK university to a mining corporation in Africa. We begin by 'setting the scene', summarizing the evolution of technology transfer and suggesting four dimensions that define technological softness. Then we explore how aspects of a soft technology, continuous improvement (CI), were transferred. Finally, we examine our experience and consider whether we did, in fact, adapt theory or extend understanding of the applicability of extant theories. We conclude that standalone theories were not challenged in a fundamental way but gaps were found and the ways in which theories were configured for use changed markedly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employment of foreign affiliates of multinational enterprises has been shown to promote growth by boosting wages, increasing the transfer of technology and enhancing productivity in host countries. Yet, the factors affecting such multinational employment in Africa have not been studied. Using panel data, this article indicates that – in contrast to natural resource availability – good infrastructure, higher income, openness to trade and an educated labour force have a significant positive impact on employment. In order to realise the employment benefits of FDI, therefore, sub-Saharan Africa needs to attract investments in non-natural resource industries, and host countries need to improve their infrastructure and educate their population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) is currently financing 11 Cleaner Production Centers (CPCs) in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Center design has evolved over time shifting the focus from traditional cleaner production centers (CPCs) focusing on awareness raising, training, information and “good housekeeping” measures towards centers with a stronger focus on transfer of environmentally sound technologies (ESTs) combined with financial services such as those offered by international environmental treaties. A concentration on good housekeeping measures in particular has proven to be commercially non-viable, meeting only partially the needs of enterprises and generating impacts with limited dissemination potential. The more successful centers are business oriented ones working best as independent entities directed by national and international stakeholders. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Critics argue that high-external-input technologies (HEIT) are too costly for African farmers, and that programs to promote them are economically unsustainable. This paper assesses Sasakawa-Global 2000 programs in Ethiopia and Mozambique, using financial and economic analysis, yield models, and subsector analysis. The SG 2000 technology was much more profitable in Ethiopia than in Mozambique, but varied depending on production location, fertilizer and transport costs, domestic and international prices, regional surplus or deficit conditions, and production as import substitute or export. The case studies provide further evidence that high-input technologies can be successfully introduced through well-funded high-profile programs, but not conclusive evidence that such programs can be scaled up and sustained. Five major implications are discussed, concerning (1) prospects for scaling up and sustaining HEIT adoption, (2) the need for expanded profitability analysis, (3) the role of trade prospects and policies, (4) institution-building requirements, and (5) infrastructure investments to reduce marketing costs. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

It is practically difficult to design, implement and manage Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects in Africa without a provision for capacity building that will enable the application of modern technologies and techniques. Existing institutions need strengthening, human capacity needs to be developed and new markets need to be promoted. Patrick Karani, World Bank outlines institutional and market constraints in relation to technology transfer (e.g renewable energy technologies) and development in Africa. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The study investigated the issue of technology transfer in Africa with a focus on global trends. The issues identified as constraints to the realization of the goal of technology transfer in Africa include superstition, conservatism, ethnic jingoism, graft, religious extremism, or sectarian strife, political differences and leadership tussles, etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Africa is predicted to be the region most affected by climate change and water is one of the sectors with anticipated severe impacts. Innovations in this sector are being promoted as part of the adaptation solutions to this problem. In this paper, we use available data on water-related climate change adaptation technological developments to examine the degree to which the vulnerability to climate change in the water sector is motivating these innovations. Using pooled data for African countries between 1990 and 2016, we estimate the relationship between climate-induced vulnerability in the water sector and water-related innovations, controlling for country size and proxies for technology transfer environment, institutional and regulatory quality, knowledge base, and research and development activity. Data on innovative activity shows evidence of over-dispersion; thus we use the negative binomial distribution with robust standard errors for estimation of our model. We find evidence that countries most exposed to water stress are innovating at lower rates. Though counterintuitive, this result is explained by the fact that such vulnerable countries also tend to have little research and development infrastructure needed to develop the kind of high quality innovations that usually necessitate patenting. Our result suggests that African countries experiencing water stress may need to reconsider priorities in the design of water-related adaptation to climate change. We also find that a country's knowledge base and openness to trade are important determinants of adaptation technologies in the water sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

All of Africa's emerging economies are faced with developmental challenges, which can be partly ameliorated using effective University–Industry technology transfer. While technology transfer remains at the infant stage, sparsely documented, and with no complex ongoing processes in many African societies, Universities in Africa are making efforts in University–Industry collaborations aimed at bringing significant improvements to the continent in a bid to drive national innovation and regional economic development. In this paper, we attempt to evaluate the progress made so far by Nigerian Universities in technological innovation transfer, in order to suggest ways for possible future progress. To do this, crucial technology transfer resource factors (inputs), namely, the number of linkage projects funded by the "African Research Council" (ARC), consortium membership of the University's technology transfer office, and the number of doctoral staff at the University's technology transfer office, were checked against a set of performance measures (number of executed licenses, amount of licensing royalty income, number of spin-offs created, and the number of spin-offs created with university equity), using data envelopment analysis and multiple regression, respectively. Results suggest that Universities that possess better resource factors reported higher outputs on most of the performance indicators applied. In addition, it was observed that Universities with greater ability to effectively transfer knowledge had higher technology commercialization performance and financial sustainability. The implication of these results is that Universities in Africa need to develop in line with the technology transfer resource (input) factors suggested within this study, as this is the way to go for better performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]