Policy options of agricultural biotechnology R&D in Sub-Saharan Africa: key issues and aspects

This paper reviews the status of Agricultural Biotechnology in Sub-Saharan Africa. It addresses the potential economic benefits to Sub-Saharan Africa and the effect biotechnology policies may have on growth, production and poverty reduction. The extent to which agricultural biotechnology will compound or mitigate the constraints faced by smallholders/subsistence farmers is also discussed. The status of crop biotechnology research worldwide is reviewed and the influence of intellectual property rights (IPRs) and market concentration on the development and diffusion of biotechnology in Sub-Saharan Africa is analyzed. The paper also explores the potential of public-private partnerships and recommends policy measures and investments that could focus more biotechnology research on the problems of the poor and alleviate some of the concerns about the impacts of biotechnology.Policy Options; Intellectual Property; Biotechnology; Sub-Saharan Africa; Technology Diffusion

Management of technology in Ghana – problems & prospects

Despite the immense progress that has been made throughout the world in improving the quality of life through applications of technology, large proportions of the peoples of Africa still leave on less than $1.00 per day income. The seven most industrialised democracies of the world, without major resources, except in few cases, import minerals and other industrial and agricultural raw materials and process them through well managed technologies to produce virtually everything around us. On the other hand, Africa, with the largest mineral reserves, in many cases, and the largest biomass potential but without any significant knowledge in how to manage technology, contributes less than 2% of world industrial output and generates very poor gross domestic products. To reverse this trend, African countries must build innovation-based economies using well-managed technologies. This will stimulate industrialization and increase wealth. Proper Management of Technology presents both practical and policy challenges. This paper describes the Ghanaian experience and illustrates the key elements necessary for proper management of Technology in the third world. It also describes the essentials needed for integrating technology into society in an effective, sustainable way so that peoples of Africa can put technology to use to improve their lives.Africa, Ghana, Policy, Innovation, CSIR, Management of Technology

The strategic role of the Food Research Institute in productivity enhancement and the private sector development in Ghana

The Private Sector Development Project (PSDP) was a culmination of the renewed commitment of the Government of Ghana to accelerate the pace of development of Ghana’s private sector. The project was also a direct result of the Business Community’s own assessment of Lingering issues which impeded growth of the private sector. The key policy objective of the project was to adequately develop the private sector to become the effective engine of growth for the country. The Food Research Institute’s component of the PSDP was initiated with a clear objective of re-orienting the Food Research Institute (FRI) from a subvention-oriented institute to a partly self-financing organisation able to operate and survive in a commercial setting and to support the growth of the private sector. After a decade of implementation, what are the experiences? This paper looks at the management of the commercialisation process. The implementation process, the attitude of research scientists towards the change and the impact of the commercialisation process on the socio-economic development of Ghana are discussed. The constraint of commercialisation including inadequate uptake of research, which is a reflection of inappropriate monitoring and evaluation, is discussed. The paper seeks to review among others the background of the PSDP, the original tasks targeted at project initiation, and the successes and failures of the project. An attempt has been made to review a number of relevant conceptual and practical issues of private sector development in Ghana in an evolutionary perspective. Against this backdrop, the paper seeks to define, in a focused manner, the management framework of the Food Research Institute: From “Strategic Planning” to “Strategic Learning”.Strategic learning; Performance management; Productivity; Private sector

The ecological system of innovation: A new architectural framework for a functional evidence-based platform for science and innovation policy

Models on innovation, for the most part, do not include a comprehensive and end-to-end view. Most innovation policy attention seems to be focused on the capacity to innovate and on input factors such as R&D investment, scientific institutions, human resources and capital. Such inputs frequently serve as proxies for innovativeness and are correlated with intermediate outputs such as patent counts and outcomes such as GDP per capita. While this kind of analysis is generally indicative of innovative behaviour, it is less useful in terms of discriminating causality and what drives successful strategy or public policy interventions. This situation has led to the developing of new frameworks for the innovation system led by National Science and Technology Policy Centres across the globe. These new models of innovation are variously referred to as the National Innovation Ecosystem. There is, however, a fundamental question that needs to be answered: what elements should an innovation policy include, and how should such policies be implemented? This paper attempts to answer this question.Innovation; Delphi Method; Balanced Scorecard; Quadruple Helix Theory; Analytic Hierarchy Process; Ecological System of Innovation, Framework, Systems Dynamics

The lived experience of an American expatriate in Ghana: A rhetorical analysis of facebook postings to understand a cross-cultural behavior

Using rhetorical analyses of the Facebook updates and postings, the lived experience of an American Expatriate in Ghana is told through the lenses of a Ghanaian living in the United States. The study reviews the contemporary understanding and importance of expatriation to organizations and provides detailed description and analysis of different models with theoretical base from cognitive and social psychology and sociology including models developed by Fons Trompenaars, Geert Hofstede, Harry Triandis, and E.T. Hall to understand the thinking and behavior of this expatriate as revealed through postings on his Facebook page. The paper concludes by re-affirming the importance of pre-departure cultural sensitivity training and the significant role of HRD professionals even in non-typical HRD –related organizations.Cross-Cultural; facebook; expatriation; social psychology

Ethics of conducting qualitative social science research in the emerging field of nanotechnology

In educational research, qualitative studies have varied meanings. This short paper reviews the conceptual underpinnings of ethics in qualitative social science research and its importance to the emerging field of nanotechnology. The paper is aimed at showing a pathway by which the researcher might tackle ethics in a more effective way to achieve the desired results and whether different ethical values are needed in qualitative social science research of nanotechnology.Ethics, Philosophy, Nanoscale, Humanists, Societal implications

Technology commercialisation and intellectual property rights in Ghana

By an Act of Parliament of the Republic of Ghana, CSIR Act 521 of 1996, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, CSIR, Ghana’s main R&D Organisation was re-established with a new mandate to conduct market-oriented, demand-driven research and also to commercialise the research results & technologies developed. The CSIR was tasked to recover three-quarters of its annual operating expenses through contract research and services. Over five years of implementation, what are the experiences? This paper looks at the implementation process, the attitude of research scientists towards the change and the impact of the commercialisation process on the socio-economic development of Ghana. The constraint of commercialisation including inadequate intellectual property laws is discussed. The intellectual property rights protection from the perspective of a developing country is also discussed. Intellectual property-related laws cannot remain static in a world where economic development is becoming increasingly technology-based. Intellectual property laws are going to be more stringent and stricter in the days to come, offering more opportunities and challenges.Intellectual Property Protection; Commercialization; Tripps; Ghana

A stakeholder approach to investigating public perception and attitudes towards agricultural biotechnology in Ghana

A stakeholder survey was conducted in Ghana to assess the level of public perceptions and acceptance of agricultural biotechnologies. A total of 100 respondents drawn from academia, Non-governmental organizations, business community, government and other stakeholders were interviewed on their views on self-protection attitudes, health and economic benefits, skepticism and optimism about agricultural biotechnologies as well as the level of confidence in existing government regulatory systems to protect society against any negative effects of biotechnological issues. Although half of the sample interviewed did not accept biotechnologies in general and GM foods in particular, there was rather high approval of some specific health and economic benefits. About 80 percent of the sample interviewed lack confidence in existing government regulatory systems probably due to inadequate capacity. Upgrading of the existing regulatory system with adequate capacity to regulate the ethical and moral issues associated with biotechnologies and GM foods was recommendedBiotechnology, Stakeholder, Acceptance, GM Foods

Acceptance of biotechnology and social-cultural implications in Ghana

Despite major scientific progress in the application of biotechnology in agriculture, public attitudes towards biotechnology in general and genetically modified food (GM food) products in particular remain mixed in Africa. Examining responses on acceptance of GM food through a stakeholder survey in Ghana, it was established that half of the 100 people sample interviewed were not in favor of GM foods. To this group acceptance of GM foods would make farmers loose focus on the traditional ways of cultivation, putting the whole nation at the mercy of profit driven foreign companies who produce GM foods. In order to have clear and unbiased attitudes towards agricultural biotechnology in Africa, there is the need to substitute dominant ideologies in the way biotechnology research and dissemination are conducted in developed countries with tailor-made methodologies in developing countries. This paper emphasizes the social dynamic force of food focusing on the need for social shaping of biotechnologies to reflect local and regional needs. Respondents’ perceptions of GM foods suggest that food is seen as not just a commodity to be consumed but food has both cultural and national identities. Generally, people are identified by their consumption and nutrition lifestyles and therefore take pride in what they eat. A proposal is made to set biotechnology research agenda in the context of social choices; social scientific coalition of biotechnology with endogenous development pathways’ as opposed to ‘exogenous biotechnology research’. Also there is the need for adequate capacity building of the existing regulatory institutions to handle ethical and moral issues associated with biotechnology research since survey findings showed lacked of public confidence in them.Biotechnology; survey; acceptability; social shaping; Ghana

Institutionalising Performance Management in R&D Organisations: Key Concepts and Aspects

In an era in which accountability, cost effectiveness and impact orientation are at premium, Research and Technological Organisations are under pressure not only to improve their performance but also to be able to demonstrate this improvement. This pressure is particularly hard-felt by agricultural research organisations, where funders’ perceptions of a lack of evidence for the uptake and impact of products and services are raising questions about their efficacy and existence. Such pressures can be traced back to several factors, including changes in management trends and the growing scarcity of donor funding in the face of proliferation of Non-Governmental Organisations. These pressures have focussed R&D Organisations attention on the need to develop monitoring and evaluation systems that are capable of ensuring and demonstrating improved performance. In recognising that the developmental impact of research is notoriously difficult to assess, the paper is predicated on the belief that indicators of organisational uptake can provide reliable proxies, or ‘leading’ indicators of development impact. The background to this paper is a DFID-funded pilot action research project that ran between September 2001 and December 2002. The project aimed to adapt and test a novel approach to performance management within three agricultural research and development agencies. The key concepts and aspects of this novel approach and similar work done are discussed.Performance Management; Impact; Evaluation; DFID