We review in this note many reports and studies that investigated the level and type of STI in Tunisia (and Africa overall) compared to other countries. Many indicators have been used to assess this construct such as Technology Achievement Index (TAI), UNIDO Competitive Industrial Performance Index (CIP), the Global Competitive Index (GCI) and the Knowledge Economy Index (KEI). All indicators correlate and highlight that African countries are far below other countries.
TAI is a composite index including the creation of technology, diffusion of recent innovations, diffusion of old innovations and human skills. One of our previous TCW focused on one sub-dimension “exports/imports” of R&D which is part of the diffusion of recent innovations. However, in this note we will assess, from a broader perspective, STI level and nature in Tunisia.
According to TAI (world average = 0.40), four segments of countries are grouped as follows:
- Leaders (TAI > 0.5): the top 5 in this group are sequentially Finland, US, Sweden, Japan then South Korea. These countries have cutting-edge STI and are self-sustainable in terms of innovation and technology.
- Potential Leaders (0.35 < TAI < 0.49): the top 5 in this group are sequentially Spain, Italy, Czech Republic, Slovenia then Hungary. Most of these countries invested highly in human skills and diffused old technologies rather than new innovations.
- Dynamic Adopters (0.20 < TAI < 0.34): the top 5 countries are sequentially Uruguay, Thailand, South Africa, Trinidad & Tobago and Panama. Tunisia comes number 12 (TAI = 0.26) and is at the same level as Jamaica and Iran. Many countries have high-tech industries but the diffusion of old innovations is slow and they have significantly higher human skills compared to the last group.
- Marginalized (TAI < 0.20): the top 5 countries are sequentially Nicaragua, Pakistan, Senegal, Ghana then Kenya. These countries are lacking in terms of technology diffusion (even old ones) and human skills. Most African countries are in this group.
*Index developed for the Human Development Report 2001, Making New Technologies Work for Human Development.
Knowing that the best educated often choose to leave the continent to the West or Persian Gulf explain in part the low indicators for African countries. Also, statistics about doctorate graduates in Africa are far below other regions (e.g., doctorates for Science and Engineering in 2006 are close to 80.000 in Europe, 40.000 in Americas, 50.000 in Asia, and below 5.000 in Africa and Oceania). Besides, African countries continue to focus mainly on raw materials: oil, agricultural and mineral commodities while STI development is lacking. This could result in what some economists call “scourge of raw materials” leading to tensions and wars. Ultimately, the STI level has a direct implication on the GDP and consequently on the quality of life of these countries’ inhabitants and their economic growth.
*GERD: gross expenditures (domestic) on R&D; All data are for 2007 except Patents 2006 and Publications 2008.
A number of recommendations are suggested for policy-makers:
- Provide an infrastructure and industrial policies that attract skilled people to come back and participate in enhancing their STI development and leapfrogging (e.g., investment in elite engineering and management schools, promoting high-value added industries such as biotechnology and solar-energy, outsourcing service industries, supporting R&D in pharmaceuticals, tax incentives to invest in STI, protecting intellectual properties, etc.).
- Impose to companies that would like to exploit their reserves to invest in STI projects (e.g., scholarships, funds to mineralogy department in universities, etc.) as African countries rank first or second in terms of world minerals reserves.
- Learn from China using a traditional labor-intensive export strategy and India using knowledge-intensive service export strategy (e.g., China is developing an enterprise-centered national innovation system with the vision of making China an innovation-driven nation by 2020).
- Attract multinational corporations and support their R&D centers by providing human skills which ultimately enhance the learning process of domestic scientists and engineers.
- Establish a culture based on sustainable knowledge economy and avoid the trap of false optimism by selling commodities and natural resources.
- Restore political stability and institute political leadership that provides favorable circumstances to technology and innovation growth and execute selective interventions to high-added value sectors (for instance Marine biotechnology is of high importance to Tunisia especially if combined with aquaculture and thermal/health tourism).
- Develop an educational system centered on scientific foundations to produce knowledge entrepreneurs, better teachers, and proficient decision-makers (e.g., awareness about scientific issues at the primary level, learning of investigative approach at the secondary level, developing science and engineering basis at the higher education level, encouraging postdoctoral education to improve quality of teaching).
- Provide central institutional unit that helps collect reliable and up-to-date statistical information on human resources and research budgets.
- Evaluate accurately national R&D investments as many private institutions (NGOs) are providing support to research programs and entrepreneurial projects (for instance as of 2009, Tunisia receives funds for GERD up to 20% from business enterprise, 15% from foreign sources and around 65% from the government).
- Create a database of highly qualified human resources living abroad and organize “remote mobilization” to benefit the home country.
- Design surveys to produce descriptors and narratives beyond statistical indicators that could shed additional light on STI issues.
Study prepared by Nawel Amrouche, PhD
References:
Francis Gudyanga (2011) Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) in supporting Africa’s industrial Development.
UNESCO Science Report (2010) The Current Status of Science around the World; UNESCO Publishing; ISBN: 978-92-3-104132-7.
National Science Board (2010) Science and Engineering Indicators 2010. Arlington, VA; National Science Foundation(NSB 10-01).
JACQUES GAILLARD (2010) Measuring Research and Development in Developing Countries: Main Characteristics and Implications for the Frascati Manual. Science, Technology & Society 15:1, 77–111.
UNESCO Institute for Statistics (July 2011).
Global Investments in R&D UIS Fact Sheet (August 2011) No. 15.
Laura Onofri and Frederic Briand (2013) Blue Biotechnology Potential in Tunisia- A Preliminary Study of National Stackeholders’ Involvement in Setting Priorities. CIESM The Mediterranean Science Commission with the support of MARCOM+
Desai, M., Fukuda-Parr, S., Johansson, C. and Sagasti, F. (UNDP 2001) Measuring Technology Achievement of Nations and the Capacity to Participate in the Network Age.