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HP, WFEO and CWIT: Building Engineering Capacity in Africa

Abstract

Engineering, including Information and Communication Technology (ICT), catalyzes economic growth for developing as well as developed countries. Engineering education and capacity building help build knowledge-based economies and alleviate poverty. This paper describes the role that HP University Relations, the World Federation of Engineering Organizations (WFEO) and the Center for Women and IT and its associated International Taskforce on Women and ICT are playing in Africa, leveraging and adapting a model developed by HP, WFEO and partners in Latin America. The paper describes specific activities to recruit and align HP internal stakeholders, to recruit government, university and industry stakeholders, to develop an African beachhead and a prototype for regional capacity building, to build in gender equity at each stage of the process, and to design for scaling throughout Africa, based on stakeholder engagement. The innovation for engineering education consists of building and leveraging multi-stakeholder megacommunities focused on building sustainable capacity through engineering education through strategic co-leadership by the private sector. .

I. Introduction – on capacity building, technology infrastructure and innovation

The process of capacity building and the role of technology infrastructure and innovation is discussed more thoroughly in “HP University Relations: helping build engineering capacity in Latin America.” In her paper Morell presents the multistakeholder model developed in Latin America, which the African program leverages, and which this paper complements.

The World Bank recommends that nations which wish to develop knowledge-based economies concentrate their efforts on four major areas: education and training, communication and information infrastructures, economic incentives and institutional regime, and innovation systems.1 Knowledge has become a primary factor of production – many economists would argue the most important component - in addition to capital, labor and land. For a small, natural resource poor, landlocked emerging economy, knowledge may be the only factor of production.2 Most globalization experts agree that technology is critical for meaningful economic development across the globe. Many engineering educators argue further that engineering education is therefore a critical key to capacity building for the knowledge economy. Economic studies conducted before the information-technology revolution show that as much as 85 percent of measured growth in U.S. income per capita was due to technological change3. Economic miracles in Ireland, Finland and Singapore bear out the significance of technology and engineering education.4 5

II. HP University Relations and Engineering for the Americas (EftA)

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Waugh, B., & Morrell, C., & Jones, R., & Hafkin, N. (2007, June), Hp, Wfeo And Cwit: Building Engineering Capacity In Africa Paper presented at 2007 Annual Conference & Exposition, Honolulu, Hawaii. 10.18260/1-2--1557