Date:
Location:
Hosted by:
Organised by:
22-24 February 2006
SAICE, Midrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
South African Institution of Civil Engineering
UNESCO - United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organisation
South African Institution of Civil Engineering - SAICE
Engineering Council of South Africa - ECSA
Ordem dos Engenheiros de Moçambique

The “International Forum: Engineering and Technology for Poverty Reduction”, took place on 22-24 February, 2006, at the South African Institution of Civil Engineering
(SAICE), Midrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. The Forum was hosted by SAICE and organised by UNESCO, SAICE, the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) and
Ordemo dos Engenheiros de Mozambique.
This report presents an overview of the Forum, as well as conclusions, recommendations, calls for action and plans of action.
Further information as well as the Forum report and attendance list is included as annexes to the report. A record of the Forum and Papers are available on the
UNESCO and SAICE websites.
Background to and Goals for the Forum
The Forum followed a preparatory “Focus on Engineering and Technology for Poverty
Eradication”, held in Washington in March 2004.
This Forum had the immediate goal of discussing, developing, promoting and initiating a programme of action promoting the role, contribution and awareness of the importance of engineering and technology to poverty eradication. The overall challenge is to improve the access of people living in poverty to the technology that will help change their lives and livelihoods.
The causes of poverty can primarily be ascribed to:
1. Limited access for poverty stricken people and communities to the knowledge and resources with which to address their basic human needs and livelihood
2. Development of people living in such areas of need, include information about and access to appropriate water supply, sanitation, food production and processing, housing, energy, transportation, communication, income generation opportunities and employment creation.
Technology is a powerful tool to empower the poor and enhance their access to knowledge. Technology is therefore a central component of a rights-based approach to poverty eradication.
Addressing basic needs in these areas essentially demands the application and knowledge of technology to create tools and skills, appropriate in the context of poor people to change the social, economic, education and knowledge situations of the poor.
The UN Millennium Development Goals are particularly dependent on engineering and technology as the building blocks in addressing basic needs, poverty reduction, emergency and post-conflict relief and reconstruction.
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The Millennium Development Goals focus on:
1. Eradication of extreme poverty and hunger
2. Achieving universal primary education
3. Promote of gender equality and empowerment of women
4. Reduction of child mortality
5. Improvement of maternal health
6. Combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
7. Ensuring environmental sustainability
8. Development of global partnerships for development
Activities in engineering, technology and poverty reduction include human and institutional capacity building, applied research, information and advocacy, technology choice, transfer, adaptation, development, innovation and dissemination of the information.
The main conclusions, recommendations and call for action focused on a number of areas that could be addressed within the Africa Engineers Forum framework and included the need to:
 Promote the application of engineering and technology to poverty reduction

Produce and disseminate information, learning and teaching materials on engineering and technology for poverty reduction
 Develop a networking, on-line database, virtual library and portal promoting engineering and technology applications for poverty reduction
 Understand and address the decline of young people going into engineering at university and becoming professional engineers
 Understand and address the brain drain of engineers
 Study human resources capacity needs and capacity building in the engineering professions as an urgent priority

Promote capacity building in engineering and technology
It was suggested that these activities be conducted with the African Engineers’
Forum
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The opening session of the Forum was attended by 70 people including guests.
An average of 50 participants was recorded including the core group of 30 participants from 13 countries in sub-Saharan Africa including substantial representation from the signatories of the African Engineers Forum Protocol.
The participants included policy makers and planners, commentators as well as specialists in engineering and technology, economic and social development and specific areas such as gender dimensions of poverty and poverty eradication. The individuals who were invited are employed by both governments and the public sector, intergovernmental organisations, NGO’s, academia, the private sector and potential sponsors from around the world.
The Forum featured sessions on infrastructure, policy and planning, information and communication, capacity building and perspectives on technology for poverty reduction.
The opening session of the Forum began with welcoming comments and the showing of the video: “Small is Working: Technology for Poverty Reduction” as per attached programme.
Three keynote addresses examined the theme Poverty reduction and the role of engineering and technology in terms of rural and urban, needs, barriers and challenges, gender issues, advocacy, information, communication, policy, planning and advocacy.
The programme continued with two workshop sessions discussing infrastructure in the form of water supply, sanitation, housing, energy, transport, communication, and enterprise development, micro-finance and small and medi um enterprises or SME’s, income generation and manufacturing.
The programme on the second day started with a panel discussion on policy and planning, information and communication, with particular reference to engineering, technology and the Poverty Reduc tion Strategy papers or PRSP’s. A workshop session on human and institutional capacity building in engineering and technology for poverty reduction followed.
The afternoon programme consisted of a workshop field trip to the Gauteng Province
Education and Training department’s new “Sci-Bono” science and technology discovery centre which is currently attracting 40 000 school learners per annum.
The facility is still developed further and is one element of one of the Gauteng
Province Blue IQ projects which are specifically aimed at alleviating poverty by creating employment and enhancing the already impressive development taking place in this economic heartland of South Africa. A presentation on the innovative cultural
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precinct project Illustrated to the Workshop delegates how inner city re-vitalization was making a contribution to upliftment of the poor communities in South Africa. The
Sci- Bono facility is also used for the National Finals of the SAICE annual Bridge building competition for learners as well as for the finals of the Rand Water SAICE
Centenary Water competition finals.
The third and final day started with a panel discussion on perspective on technology for poverty reduction by government, intergovernmental organisations and NGOs, and needs and challenges for engineering and technology, networking of universities and related institutions and promotion of activities in engineering and technology for poverty reduction.
The proceedings were concluded by a session to discuss and formulate the conclusions, recommendations and plans of action.
In their deliberations the Forum recognized the recommendations of other international forums and the challenge for regarding the effective application of engineering to reduce poverty, address the Millennium Development Goals and promote social and economic development around the world, especially in the developing and least developed countries, and of the need for sufficient capacity and capacity building in engineering and technology to facilitate this.
The substantial challenge regarding the need for adequate capacity in engineering and technology for development, and the problems of brain drain from under developed poorer countries to developed richer countries, has recently received increasing emphasis in reports from the UN Millennium Project Task Force on
Science, Technology and Innovation, the Africa Commission, the Inter-Academy
Council, the World Bank, G8 and similar bodies. Such calls were also made at the
World Conference on Sc ience in 1999 and the World Engineers’ Conventions in 2000 and 2004.
The challenge for capacity and capacity building is underlined by the fact that many countries around the world are reporting a decline of interest and enrolment of young people in:
 The subjects of Science and mathematics at secondary school levels
 Engineering and technology courses at tertiary level
If these challenges were not acknowledged and urgently addressed, the prospects for development around the world, especially in developing and least developed countries, will be severely constrained.
It is recognized that UNESCO has a unique mandate among UN agencies in the sciences, which include engineering, and this challenge for the utilization of engineering and technology in poverty reduction and development, relates particularly to UNESCO.
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The Forum recognized and confirmed:
1. That poverty relates primarily to the limited access of poor people to the knowledge and resources with which to address their basic needs, promote sustainable livelihoods and development
2. That basic needs relate particularly to water supply, sanitation, food security, housing, energy, transportation, communication, income generation, employment and wealth creation, emergencies and disasters
3. That addressing these areas of need, and other UN Millennium
Development Goals, consisted particularly of the application of knowledge, skills and tools in engineering and technology infrastructure, enterprise and capacity development for people living in poverty
4. That technology transfer and applications which recognise the social, economic and knowledge context of poor people empowers the poor and helps the poor help themselves, are central components of a rights-based approach to poverty eradication
5. That failure to address needs of poor communities contributes to the marginalisation, exclusion and alienation of poor people and associated issues of security and governance
The Forum furthermore specifically emphasised:
1. The need to develop awareness and advocacy regarding the role of engineering, technology and innovation for poverty reduction to governmental, intergovernmental and non-governmental agencies, organizations, the private sector and industry
2. The need for effective engineering applications and more efficient technology transfer to development and poverty eradication, to address basic needs, income generation and employment creation at the local level
3. The need for a more holistic approach to poverty eradication, including greater recognition of the gender dimension of poverty and role of women in the provision of basic needs, greater recognition of gender issues in engineering and need to include women in engineering and technology for poverty eradication
4. The need for technology applications to be appropriate to context in terms of being locally chosen, affordable, operable, maintainable and locally researched
5. The need for human and institutional capacity building in engineering and technology, including reform of engineering curricula and research capacity, to address the challenge of the declining numbers of young people going into engineering around the world
6. The need to involve engineers in all stages of project activity relating to poverty reduction, and to include this activity in engineering
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curricula and research priorities to help promote capacity building as an integral part of such activity.
The Forum made the recommendations and calls for action with reference to international and national engineering, science and technology policy, development policy and related policy initiatives, and in the context of the PRSP frameworks, UN
MDGs, NEPAD and related documents and initiatives.
The Forum furthermore addressed these calls for action to international agencies and organizations, including UNESCO, to governments and government ministries and agencies in developed and developing countries, and to NGOs, especially those active in engineering, technology and development.
The following issues were used as a basis for formulating the recommendations:
1. The development of awareness, public understanding, advocacy, guidelines, codes of practice, policy instruments and advice regarding the role of engineering and technology for poverty reduction, in partnership with relevant groups and other sectoral interests
2. The enhanced application of engineering and technology to addressing basic needs and poverty reduction, building upon local knowledge systems to effectively transfer technology, share good practice and associated entrepreneurial skills
3. A enhanced holistic approach to poverty reduction, including better inclusion of the role, concerns and needs of women, and the inclusion of women in engineering and technology for poverty reduction, and associated information and advocacy
4. The effective application of engineering and technology that is appropriate according to local social, economic and cultural conditions, building upon local knowledge and research, with enhanced micro-financial support to promote technology for small business application, production, marketing and distribution;
5. The development of capacity building, engineering education and research, and associated curricula reform and research priorities, with a more interdisciplinary approach and reference to poverty reduction and development, making engineering more attractive to women and young people;
6. The greater involvement of engineers in poverty reduction and related project and development activities, and the sharing, dissemination and inclusion of such innovative approaches into engineering curricula and research priorities to promote advocacy and capacity building.
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In recognizing the emphasis and the importance of technology and engineering in poverty eradication, the over-arching recommendations of the Forum were:
1. That a renewed international effort and initiative to promote and apply technology and engineering for poverty eradication be embarked upon
2. That in order to achieve this, the Forum called for the development of a programme of action to promote the role, contribution, awareness and application of engineering and technology for poverty eradication, with the overall challenge of assisting poor people to become more closely involved in and in touch with technology to address their basic needs
3. That this programme of action should focus on international cooperation and partnership between individuals and institutions in developing and developed countries
4. That this programme should include methods to achieve enhanced international action on the part of governmental, intergovernmental and non-governmental agencies and organizations .
To facilitate the recommendations and calls for action, the Forum recommended that
Plans of Action should focus on the following specific activities:
1. The production, dissemination and sharing of information for awareness raising and advocacy promoting the understanding of engineering and technology for poverty reduction to the public and young people
2. The production, dissemination and sharing of learning and teaching materials, with specific reference engineering and appropriate technological applications for poverty reduction, to promote curricula development and capacity building in engineering;
3. The organisation of a study in sub-Saharan Africa of capacity and capacity building in engineering and technology to examine issues of enrolment and brain-drain in engineering, as the first phase of a wider international study
4. The development of an on-line database, virtual library and portal to promote the sharing of information, experience, appropriate applications and applied research on engineering and technology for poverty reduction;
5. The development and support of a “network of excellence” of universities and related institutions in engineering and technology to promote the sharing of information, experience and applied research for poverty reduction;
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6. The enhanced inclusion of gender and women’s concerns, needs, knowledge and role in engineering and technology information, applications, research and advocacy for poverty eradication;
7. The development, promotion and support of project activities in engineering and technology for poverty eradication, and inclusion of project activity into engineering curricula by relevant partners, including the African Engineers Forum.
Following the Forum in South Africa, discussions are taking place regarding the organisation of a study of capacity and capacity building in engineering and technology in sub-Saharan Africa.
Continued partnership with Forum participants and other relevant institutions, agencies and organisations is required in the development and implementation of this activity and the other recommendations and plan of action of the Forum.
Tony Marjoram, Basic and Engineering Sciences, Natural Sciences Sector, UNESCO tel: +331 456 84178; fax:+331 456 85821/85820, email: t.marjoram@unesco.org
David Botha, Executive Director, South African Institution of Civil Engineering
(SAICE)
Tel: + 27 (0) 11 805 5947; fax: + 27 (0) 11 805 5971; email: dbotha@saice.org.za
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Programme
List of Participants
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