IREN AT 20 YEARS
RE-PURPOSING AFRICA’S INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL FOR
A NEW DAWN OF DEVELOPMENT
Digital Competencies Needed To Adapt To The Changing And
Emerging Technological Landscapes.
AN ESSAY BY
CHRISTOPHER KEGODE LAVATSA
ABSTRACT
Artificial intelligence, in-vitro meat, robotics, blockchain, biotechnology, and many more
emerging technologies have proven to be quite promising and could soon be used to alleviate
a lot of problems we face in this continent. Technology will always exist and it changes, but
the challenge is to make effective use of these technologies.
Taking advantage of these technologies and implementing them to drive change and
development requires capital, both financial and intellectual. Africa has a very unique Populus,
which means a very different approach to its problems is sufficient. We cannot approach our
developmental issues like developed countries because of our differences in socio-economic
and cultural status. We require to devise our way of approaching development for our solutions
to take deep root and impact lives on a colossal scale, and not merely duplicate approaches and
business models.
This current generation needs an intellectual rejuvenation, to bring about technological
revolutions and convergences that will work to realize the new developmental dawn that this
generation aspires to be. Of course, many arguments argue against the use of these
technologies, but also many believe that with certain controls and legislation in place, I believe
Africa will be the new technological frontier, given the intellectual capital she has, to inspire
revolutionary solutions to her developmental challenges.
INTRODUCTION
Whilst we seek to re-purpose our Intellectual Capital for development, We have to look at what
the future holds. What we must face and overcome and what we must learn and unlearn. Africa
is the second most populous continent, with more than 1.34 billion inhabitants (2019). Almost
60% of Africa’s population (2019) is under the age of 25, making Africa the world’s youngest
continent. According to the UN’s demographic projections, the median age in Africa is 19.8
(2020). From an intellectual capital point of view, this presents great challenges, but also a high
potential for growth, innovation, and entrepreneurship in many areas: valorizing traditional
knowledge, innovating in digital financial instruments, developing sustainable energy
applications and water management, innovating in Intellectual Property Rights, developing
new approaches to deal with inter-generational problems
A recent World Bank report establishes that managing the disruptions and opportunities that
digital technologies may create in the labor market requires the adoption of policies that build
strong foundational cognitive and socioemotional skills and promote basic digital skills and
lifelong learning (World Bank 2016). This fact corresponds to a later World Development
Report 2019 (WDR 2019), confirming that indeed technological advances are disrupting the
nature of work. It emphasizes Five elements that mark this change:
1. Technology is disruptive, that the nature of firms such that Ecommerce businesses like
Alibaba, Jumia, Amazon, Airbnb outcompete traditional companies such as retail stores and
hotels. Such eCommerce companies create a network effect connecting customers, producers,
and providers.
2. Technology is reshaping the skills needed for work. Demand for advanced cognitive, sociobehavioral, and adaptable skills is rising. Whilst the demand for less advanced skills is
declining
3. Threats of job losses to technology are exaggerated and not uniform across income groups.
In Kenya, Although rapid adoption of mobile payments such as M-Pesa led to the loss of
roughly 6,000 bank jobs between 2014 and 2017 in Kenya, the number of mobile payment
agents increased by almost 70,000, resulting in a direct net positive job effect.
4. Technology, especially social media, affects perceptions of rising inequality that are often
not corroborated by the data on income inequality.
To Re-purpose Africa’s Intellectual Capital for a New Dawn of Development, it comes out
quite clearly that to fully that we have to look at the majority of the population and use it to
attain this new dawn of development. The best way is to ensure that this young generation
develops the digital competencies needed to adapt to the changing and emerging technological
landscapes.
While COVID-19 has dominated the headlines throughout 2020 and 2021, the consistent
development and deployment of information and communication technology (ICT)
infrastructure and its auxiliary services has meant a continued trend towards digital
transformation for societies, businesses, and governments alike. The pandemic has forced a
greater demand for digital reliance globally, and this outcome is likely to be here to stay in the
“new normal”, this trend has and will continue influencing how entrepreneurs, policy-makers,
and professionals make decisions. However, the pandemic is just one driver of this trend.
Climate change, continued economic development, mobile phone and internet penetration, and
social well-being are also among the key drivers.
These technological advances observed in recent years, particularly driven by the rapid
development of ICTs, together with a young population with a propensity for technology, offers
great potential to transform economies and improve the living standards of many people.
Artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, cloud computing, distributed ledger technology,
precision medicine, digital trade, autonomous mobility, and more evolving technologies will
shape the future of the world, including Africa. Africa has the opportunity to set an example
for the world in how to use emerging technologies within targeted local contexts including in
the area of digital payments(MPESA), precision farming(Crop Insurance), predictive
health(Insurance), and many more, to address some of its most pressing challenges such as
harnessing Africa's youth dividend effectively towards sustainable development and inclusive
growth.
Estimates indicate that 85–90 percent of future jobs will require ICT skills by 2020 (EU Science
Hub). In Africa, it is expected that about 11 million young Africans will join the labor market
every year for the next decade (WDR, 2016). This stresses the need for policymakers and
educators to adapt educational curricula to changing labor markets demands.
Consequently, the effects of technology arent limited to jobs but also social and cultural
participation in our societal setup. Digital competencies enhance people’s quality of life and
the effectiveness of their work. Therefore, digital competencies and skills are essential to
ensure effective participation in the current and future world as well as to benefit from existing
and emerging technologies (United Nations Economic and Social Council).
Digital Competencies.
Digital competence engirdles the knowledge and skills required for an individual to be able to
use ICT to accomplish goals in his or her personal or professional life. Not only are they
concerned with technical skills, but more focused on cognitive, social, and emotional aspects
of working and living in a digital environment (Alkalai, 2004). Meaning the ability to
understand media, the search and use for information, and communication with others using
digital tools and applications.
Several types of digital competencies are needed to adapt to the changing technological
landscape. Six major drivers are among those relevant for the work skills and digital
competencies of the future:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Globalization
Longevity
Workplace Automation
Fast diffusion of sensors and data processing power
ICT-enabled communication tools and media
Unprecedented reorganization of work
(Institute for the Future, 2011 )
Several organizations and initiatives have carried through efforts to identify and categorize the
digital skills and competencies needed for the future. Table 1 presents examples of selected
categorizations of such skills and competencies.
Table 1: Different categorizations of digital skills
Job-ready digital skills for decent jobs
(International Labour Organization
and International Telecommunication
Union(ITU))
Work-related skills
(World Economic
Forum)
Future of work
(OECD)
Advanced digital skills (coding and other algorithmic knowledge)
Basic digital skills (related to the use of technologies)
Soft skills (such as communication and leadership)
Digital entrepreneurship (online market research and using financial
platforms)
Abilities (cognitive and physical)
Basic skills (content and processing skills)
Cross-functional skills (social systems, complex problem solving,
resource management and technical skills)
Technical and professional skills (specific and often industryspecificskills such as installation and operation of robots)
Generic ICT skills (skills needed to understand, use and
adapttechnologies;
life-learning ability to adapt to technology changes)
Complementary ICT soft skills (creativity, communication
skills,critical and logical thinking, teamwork, digital
entrepreneurship)
Source: ITU, 2018, ILO-ITU Digital Skills for Decent Jobs for Youth Campaign to train 5 million youth with
job-ready digital skills; OECD, 2016, Skills for a digital world, Policy Brief on the Future of Work; World
Economic Forum, 2016
Four levels of digital skills are needed during the process of adoption, use, and
domestication of technologies:
1. Those required to adopt technologies,
2. Those needed in the basic use of technologies,
3. Those necessary for the creative use and adaptation of technologies,
4. Those are essential for the creation of new technologies.
Levels Of Digital Skills
1.
Adoption
Basic education and literacy
Familiarity with technology devices and services
2.
Basic or
generic use
Basic understanding of technologies, software, and applications.
Knowledge of digital rights, privacy, security, and permanence of data.
Ability to make use of information and data, ranging from basic issues of data
storage, management, and organization to construct calculations and answer
questions.
Ability to using digital technologies to collaborate, communicate and create.
3.
Creative use
and
adaptations
Basic computing skills
Familiarity with basic algorithms
4.
Creation of
new
technologies
Sophisticated programming skills; knowledge of complex algorithms
Digital competencies for ICT professionals: Adaptation and creation of technologies
Two types of digital skills are required for ICT professionals:
•
•
Skills to adapt and creatively use available technologies.
Skills to innovate based on adapted technologies.
Skills to adapt and creatively use available technologies are required for individuals or
companies that have already acquired basic computing skills or have hired technical staff that
can modify the software or technologies to meet individualized needs and requirements.
Training in statistics, programming languages, and big data analytics is necessary.
Redesigning or modifying technologies for creative purposes is also the key to localizing
emerging technologies in African countries. Skills to innovate based on adapted technologies
include sophisticated programming skills and knowledge of complex algorithms.
Many of the emerging technologies are designed to be used in contexts where infrastructure
and natural and social resources differ from those in African economies. To maximize the
benefits of new technology, countries and companies in developing countries need to have the
digital skills to introduce modifications to new technologies (Huang and Palvia, 2001).
The creation of new technology is the final and the most advanced level of digital skills.
Individuals with sophisticated programming skills or companies with good knowledge of
complex algorithms such as machine learning have the capabilities to contribute to the creation
of more advanced technologies or the development of technological innovations.
Digital Skills In Education.
Source: https://www.brynmawr.edu/digitalcompetencies/what-are-digital-competencies
The digital competencies articulated here provide a framework intended to help individual
students:
•
•
•
Identify the digital skills and critical perspectives they will need to be 21st-century
leaders.
Seek curricular and co-curricular opportunities to hone those skills and perspectives.
Develop ways of articulating and demonstrating their competencies to various
audiences.
This framework is comprehensive and suggestive, but not a checklist that all students must
complete. First, all students should develop the competencies listed as Digital Survival Skills,
the other four areas of focus (Digital Communication; Data Management and Preservation;
Data Analysis and Presentation; and Critical Design, Making, and Development) may be more
or less relevant to different students, depending on their academic, professional, and personal
interests.
Digital competencies are by nature open-ended and evolving. They change as technologies
change: networking and file management, for example, looked very different fifteen years ago,
before cloud storage options like DropBox, iCloud, or OneDrive were widely available.
Students are to develop these skills and perspectives in different ways and through both
curricular and co-curricular experiences. For example, one student might develop data
management skills while conducting field research for a course project, or might develop them
working an internship for a non-profit. Some students may find in the framework new ideas for
working with or thinking critically about digital technologies and seek opportunities to explore
them. Others will recognize skills they have already developed and find language to describe
them to different audiences. This emphasis on reflection and on finding synergy between
curricular and non-curricular draws inspiration from the aims to promote the energy, creativity,
and initiative of the African thought leaders in reaffirming and promoting the critical role of
intellectual capital required to transform the continent.
Although the audience is primarily students, the framework can also help staff identify existing
curricular and co-curricular opportunities to develop digital competencies, and mindfully
incorporate such opportunities into new courses and programs.
1. Digital Survival Skills
Involves getting set up, troubleshooting, and search. While the other skills are more of a pickand-choose, all students will have to develop their Digital Survival Skills. They include:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Networks and file management
Metacognition and life-long learning
Troubleshooting
Managing digital identity, privacy, and security
Strategic web and database searching
2. Digital Communication
As communication increasingly happens with technology, it's important to be able to convey
information. Students in the arts and humanities may be drawn to digital storytelling or
audiovisual analysis and production, while students in Sciences and social fields will often
engage in digital writing and publishing. Students in all fields will most likely use collaborative
communication as they work together on group projects. Growing digital villages and social
media also requires that students learn to communicate digitally.
Some of these skills include to be developed:
1. Collaborative communication
2. Digital writing and publishing
3. Audiovisual analysis and production
3. Data Management and Preservation
Data is increasingly structuring the way we relate to our world, and students who can collect
and handle data responsibly and view data procedures with a critical eye will have an advantage
in their personal and professional lives. While data management happens particularly
frequently in the sciences and social sciences, all disciplines require students to manipulate
data in some way. Skills to develop in this area:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Electronic data collection
Privacy, security, and preservation
Cleaning, organizing, and managing data
Metadata
5. Data Analysis and Presentation
The second data category involves the same focus on critically and responsibly handling data,
but with an added emphasis on using it. Pulling out useful information, analysis, and
visualization all appear in this category. Data visualization, in particular, is a popular skill with
uses across many different disciplines and fields. Skills to develop:
1. Data queries and reporting
2. Data analysis
3. Critical data visualization
5. Critical Making, Design, and Development
Involves students building things, whether it's code, projects, or digital research. While these
categories are most obviously applicable to many Science fields, many of these skills appear
across the disciplines, and in students' activities, hobbies, and jobs. Skills to develop:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Algorithmic Thinking/Coding
Design thinking
Project management
Digital research and scholarship
Complementary skills
Digital skills in themselves aren't enough to adapt to the changing labor markets demands.
Strengthening those unique human skills that cannot be easily replaced by machines,
computers, and robots is as important now as ever, as they bring the difference between man
and machine. In addition to digital competencies, building and strengthening complementary
skills such as complex problem solving, critical thinking, and creativity, are essential to
creating the flexibility required for the current and future demands for the workforce.
Complimentary soft skills for the future workforce
Type of soft skills
Description
Sensemaking
Ability to determine the deeper meaning or significance of what is being
expressed
Social intelligence
Ability to connect with others deeply and directly, to sense and stimulatereactions
and desired interactions
Computational thinking
Ability to translate vast amounts of data into abstract concepts and to
understand data-based reasoning
Novel and adaptive thinking
Proficiency at thinking and coming up with solutions and responses beyondthat
which is rote or rule-based
Cross-cultural competency
Ability to operate in different cultural settings
New media literacy
Ability to critically assess and develop content that uses new media forms, andto
leverage these media for persuasive communication
Transdisciplinarity
Literacy in the ability to understand concepts across multiple disciplines
Design mindset
Ability to represent and develop tasks and work processes for desired
Source: Institute for theoutcomes
Future, 2011.
Cognitive load management
Ability to discriminate and filter information for importance, and to understand
how to maximize cognitive functioning using a variety of tools and techniques
Virtual collaboration
Ability to work productively, drive engagement, and demonstrate presence asa
member of a virtual team
Importance of an enabling environment to support skills development
The creation of an environment helps to build digital competencies and contributes to leverage
their potential. An enabling environment is promoted through investment in infrastructure,
institution development, and entrepreneurship, among others. Digital competencies, soft skills,
and access to new technologies, however, are not equally distributed among regions and
groups. Therefore, some African countries cannot leverage technology for development. The
rapid pace of technological development requires constant adaptation and flexibility in the
types of competencies required. This stresses the need for African countries alike to put
competence building at the forefront of their development strategies.
Investment in digital infrastructure
A fundamental element of the digital capacity of any country is its digital infrastructure. Only
those that are connected and that have the required capabilities will be able to take advantage
of the development opportunities offered by current changes in technology. Therefore, in
addition to investing in capacity-building, it is essential to reduce the digital divide. This can
be achieved by investing in infrastructure.
Estimates show that almost 4 billion people – more than half the world’s population – do not
have Internet access (ITU, 2017). The gender dimension of the digital divide is particularly
noteworthy. Although the gap has narrowed in terms of using the Internet (currently 12
percent), it has widened in Africa (25 percent) and in the least developed countries, where only
one out of seven women use the Internet, compared with one out of five men. In this regard,
international financial institutions and development partners have an important role to play,
alongside private sector businesses and Governments.
Policy and institutional development
To build digital competencies, it is essential to have appropriate institutions set rules creating
incentives that motivate workers, management, firms, universities, and other entities to adopt
and develop the necessary skills. These institutions include laws and regulations, organizations
such as vocational schools and community schools that support professional training and
lifelong learning, university departments and centers that conduct research and develop digital
technologies and their applications, non-governmental organizations and social organizations
that provide support to the wider society for digitalization, adoption, and use.
Suggestions for Re-purposing Africa’s Intellectual Capital to develop Digital
•
Implement initiatives and programs that encourage and facilitate investment and labor
participation in the digital economy. These include training online platforms,
community activities, financial incentives, funding for small and medium-sized
•
•
•
•
•
enterprises engaged in digital technology, promotion of e-business and
entrepreneurship, and automation or digitalization of existing businesses.
Implement policies aimed at establishing adequate ICT infrastructure. These include
promoting investment in infrastructure and data resource capabilities, including
facilities for data collection, storage, and transmission.
Incorporate the provision of digital competencies and complimentary soft skills,
including entrepreneurship, informal education curricula, and lifelong learning
initiatives. This should take into consideration best practices, local contexts and needs,
and ensure that education is technology-neutral.
Promote the study of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, particularly
among female students, while also recognizing the importance of studies that
incorporate the arts within traditional technical subjects.
Support firms and other stakeholders in the provision of training of broad digital
competencies for the workplace and in wider social life, lifelong learning capabilities,
and entrepreneurship skills. Special attention should be devoted to policies and
partnerships that target the creation and strengthening of digital competencies and skills
in youth and women.
Implement support mechanisms to identify trends in ICT development and skills needs,
such as foresight, that help workers meet current and emerging demands for
competence and help workers and enterprises adapt to change.
In conclusion, Our great motherland is on the verge of a Technological revolution, with innovation
fueled by our scarcity that makes solutions very much effective at tackling development issues.
For all this to happen, we need to leverage our most vital human resource, that is our youth, and
equip them with skills that will propel us to a new dawn of development.
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