II. 2 HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
A. The Problem
112. Human capacities consist of the skills, knowledge and attitudes which enable society to create capital and technology; sustainably transform and add value to natural resources for the greater use of the people; create, strengthen and effectively utilize social, political, economic and cultural institutions; maintain an environment conducive to promoting productivity and healthy social interactions; and build and constantly develop systems and mechanisms for promoting the growth of knowledge and the strengthening of social norms and values.
113. In Africa, the human beings who are to embody these capacities are deficient in these attributes: education and skill levels are still too low and their range too narrow among the African population; productivity is severely depressed because of inadequate mastery and application of science and technology, rudimentary production skills, high morbidity among the workforce and inadequate production infrastructure; the health status of the population which remains unsatisfactory is further compounded by malnutrition, poor sanitation and water supply and sub-standard housing.
114. One cannot treat the question of human capacity building in Africa without addressing the issue of poverty. It has been demonstrated that Africa is the only region of the world where poverty is growing. All indications are that the situation will continue to worsen well into the twenty-first century. Poverty is a state of relative deprivation and of an incomplete satisfaction of all of man's basic needs. It entails low incomes, malnutrition, poor education and low skills, and inadequate health status. In Africa, it is more prevalent among the rural population, and therefore has obvious impl ications for rural development - a set of
measures that would increase productivity and incomes, improve health, expand knowledge and skills, generally empower rural communities and result in a real and sustainable build up of human capacities. Whether in the rural or urban areas, however, poverty has a female face in Africa. Feminization of poverty has continued unabated in the last two decades and has grave implications for the family as well.
B. Formulating Effective Population Policies
115. The very basis of a vibrant and efficient system for building and utilizing human capacities is a realistic, comprehensive and effective population policy. Such a policy would reflect the inter-relatedness of education, health (including maternal and reproductive health) incomes and population policies. It would also recognize that population growth rates are a function of the educational and income levels prevailing in society and would strive to rapidly and continuously have these increased. A manageable population size would be one that is able to sustainably live off the natural resource base and carry a relatively light dependency burden. The Dakar/Ngor Declaration on Population, Family and Sustainable Development has recommended a set of measures which African countries should pursue. Governments would do well to strive to implement them.
116. Africa's population remains one of the continent's greatest development drawbacks. A major challenge in the coming decade will be how to turn this constraint into an advantage and ensure that human capacities are solidly built to catalyze the socio-economic development process. To this end, African countries should endeavour to translate their commitments to human development and human resources development into realistic, concrete
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measures.
117. To be effective as an integral part of overall national development plan, a population policy should foster the harmonization of population and economic growtb rates.
Towards the latter end (i) the measures of such a policy should be based on empirically-derived population/development interrelationship per sector; (ii) the sectoral development objectives should address the interrelationships thus determined; and (iii) the policies and programmes should be formulated pursuant to the identified sectoral objectives.
118. African countries are at varying points of this integration continuum. Whereas a number of these countries are yet to initiate activities leading to comprehensive population policies, a few have put in place action plans (strategies) to implement their population policies. Between botb extremes, there are countries that (i) have initiated such activities, and (ii) have put in place an explicit population policy with clearly defined goals, objectives and targets.
119. In many African countries, improved health conditions, leading to reduced mortality, are the major cause of high population growth.
As health conditions and the mortality situation continue to improve, tbere would be greater need for African countries to increase access to family life education using the school system and the mass media, and to family planning programmes as well, in order to stabilize tbe region's population growtb. Increasing the participation of women in the labour force is desirable for reasons of economic productivity at least. In the modern economy, female labour force participants tend to have fewer children.
C. Strengthening African Education Systems
120. A strong human resources development system has at its root, a solid and realistic structure of education through which issues of
access, relevance and quality can be addressed effectively. This structure also has an effect on enrolment levels and trends. In many African countries tbe structure of tbe education system is such as to be too restrictive of access at all levels, and so to defeat one important objective of education which is to increase knowledge and skills within the population. Appropriate measures have to be taken to broaden the structure of Africa's education systems at the base so that alternatives are increased for access to general, technical and vocational education for all children. Education, particularly at the primary level, should be made compulsory and free so as to reduce all financial constraints that users may face.
121. Non-formal and distance education (educational broadcasting, correspondence education) are an important supplement to formal education and an effective strategy for increasing access to education in situations of resource shortage, particularly in remote areas and among disadvantaged groups such as rural communities. African countries have as yet to fully exploit the potentialities of these cheaper delivery systems to reach a very wide range of learners across the continent.
122. Adult and functional literacy programmes have to be increased in African countries in order to arrest the spread of illiteracy and begin pushing up the literacy rate. Non-formal and distance education programmes are an effective means of attacking tbe problem of illiteracy in resource-strapped countries. But expanding enrolment rates in primary and basic education should be tbe preferred strategy for reducing illiteracy. African governments have committed tbemselves to the spread of literacy and basic education in Africa, with the support of the international community and within the context of the Jomtien strategies on Education for All.
Governments of the region should doggedly pursue tbese strategies which should lead to tbe attainment of tbe targets set in this regard.
123. As progress is made towards achieving universal primary education, efforts should be intensified to significantly increase enrolment at the second level of education. At present, secondary school enrolment is a mere 50% of the relevant age group and needs to be significantly increased if the continent's middle and high level manpower base is to be rapidly reinforced. Secondary education curricula should incorporate important elements of governance, modern science and technology, culture, etc., to increase their relevance to present day needs.
124. The central importance of the region's tertiary education system to Africa's socio-economic development cannot be gainsaid.
However, a persistent constraint facing third level education has been one of quality and relevance, caused in part by the serious drops in resource allocation to that sector. The immediate challenge is one of charting strategies for removing these constraints so that tertiary education in Africa functions less as a producer of educated unemployed young men and women, and more effectively as the continent's provider of middle- and high-level scientific, technical and managerial manpower.
Programmes of teaching, research and service to the community must strive for greater relevance to the region's current and future socio-economic development needs.
125. While striving for relevance and excellence, one should also seek a quantitative expansion of third level education, both in terms of numbers of students and range of programmes. The latter should be given serious attention in view of the rapid strides being made globally in knowledge, technology and informatics and the imperative for Africa to be carried along with these changes.
126. It is at the third level of education that there are to be found the greatest potentials for regional, sub-regional, and multi-country cooperation. A number of common educational,
training and research institutions currently exist but are not optimally utilized. These are great possibilities for sharing the use of institutions among countries on the basis of specialization and creation of centres of excellence.
127. Physical access to education among the population is an obvious requirement for the development of human resources. In many instances, while there may be easy physical access to an educational institution, the elements that make for a conducive learning atmosphere which would guarantee an education of high quality, do not exist. Class sizes are too large for learning to be effective, there is insufficient access to text books, libraries, etc., and the quality of the teaching staff, especially in the rural areas, often leaves much to be desired.
Greater attention would have to be paid to some of these constraints on quality of education in Africa. Measures such as improving teacher training, curriculum development and the local production of teaching and learning resources would have to be implemented on a much larger scale by African countries.
128. In most African countries, the private sector participates actively in the pre-primary, primary and secondary systems. It should be encouraged to branch out more into post-secondary and tertiary education, particularly into vocational and technical education and teacher training. Also, activities such as the production of instructional materials and teaching texts hold much promise for private sector involvement.
129. The importance of improving the quality of teaching cannot be overemphasised.
Opportunities have to be increased for significantly more people to undertake certificate, diploma, degree and post-graduate certificate courses in education and mechanisms have to be established for constantly upgrading their skills. Inspection services should also be strengthened to ensure that quality of instruction is maintained. It must however be recognized
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that quality of the teaching staff is a necessary, but not a sufficient condition to ensure quality of the education being dispensed. The incentives systems and the provisions made to keep teachers highly motivated are also extremely important factors in ensuring that quality of instruction is maintained.