Let’s harness light-based technologies for Africa’s development

Daily Graphic Sep - 30 - 2015 , 05:26

Representatives from Mexico, Sweden, Senegal, Algeria, cameroun, Egypt, among other countries converged on the International Conference Centre from September 14 - 16 to celebrate 2015 as the International Year of Light and light-based technologies. We publish below a communique issued at the end of their deliberations.

A. Background

The proclamation of the International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies 2015 by the United Nations was initiated in UNESCO circles by the Government of Ghana with the support of the Mexico and Russia Federation delegations at the 190th Session of the UNESCO Executive Board. The International Year of Light is a global initiative with various partners with multidisciplinary interests including the African Physical Society, the European Physical Society and other scientific unions.

The celebration of the Year creates a common platform to open up science and technology for sustainable development and to find solutions to global challenges in education, health, energy, communication, environment and agriculture in fulfillment of the post-2015 agenda.

The Africa Regional Conference sought to promote interactions and dialogue among academics, professionals, policy-makers, industrialists, entrepreneurs, young minds, innovators and other stakeholders to highlight the relevance of light in the sciences, the arts, culture and the humanities. It also served to promote the central role of light in enhancing many opportunities in light-based technologies for the welfare of humankind. It was attended by representatives from Mexico, Sweden, Senegal, Algeria, Cameroun, Egypt, and other countries.

B. The Conference and Exhibition:

In recognition of the overarching influence of light on the sciences, the arts, and engineering in the twenty-first century, and the contribution of ancient African civilisation to science in general and the science of light in particular, more than 4500 years ago, the Conference and Exhibition were organised on the theme: Harnessing Light and Light-Based Technologies for Africa’s Development with the objectives to:

• Create greater awareness of the potential of light-based technologies for solving many of the challenges facing the continent;

• Promote interaction and dialogue among relevant stakeholders with the view to developing strategies towards socio-economic advancement and sustainable development;

• Attract young minds and innovators to come out with new ideas and inventions in the application of light-based technologies for the benefit of humankind.

The key issues that emanated from the presentations and subsequent discussions were as follows:

Energy:

• Crucial challenges in areas of energy storage, efficiency, and finance;

• Gaps in power generation and distribution vis-à-vis energy demand and supply;

• Need for efficient lamps and well-designed luminaires to limit light pollution and save energy;

• Need for increasing use of renewable sources in the energy mix to diversify and reduce risk.

Communications:

• Poor internet connectivity and network in the sub-Saharan African region;

• Lack of digital literacy and technological know-how;

• Inadequate infrastructure for telecommunication expansion;

• Inadequate local participation and ownership in the telecommunications space.

Medicine:

• Inadequate manpower to meet the many emerging health sector challenges such as increasing incidence of cancer, antibiotic resistance, and life-style related diseases;

• Lack of access to technological breakthroughs to address emerging problems in medicine;

• Lack of rapid and effective diagnoses of diseases such as malaria and various cancers.

Education and research:

• Need for review of the physics syllabus to meet the rapid transformations in emerging societal needs;

• Need for expansion of existing institutions and creation of new training institutions to meet growing demand in medicine, energy, communication, space science and astronomy;

• Need for increasing the translation of research into technological solutions that leverage the science of light and light-based technologies;

• Need for national research foundations to support research in light and light-based technologies.

Arts and Culture:

• Need for preservation of cultural heritage with the aid of light-based technology;

• Need to strengthen the use of light in the development of architecture;

• Need for promoting the appreciation of cultural heritage through light;

• Need to use light to retrieve lost cultural heritage.

Development:

• Need for protecting the environment from various forms of pollutants;

• Inadequate development of lasers and other photonic devices for socio-economic transformation;

• Need for reduction in light poverty;

• Need for creating awareness of and popularizing light in multidisciplinary contexts.

C. Recommendations

Based on the issues enumerated above, we, the participants of the Africa Regional Conference to celebrate the International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies, 2015 do hereby resolve as follows:

• Effective institutions need to be built to bring efficiency in the energy sector to diversify the energy mix, reduce risk and conserve energy with relevant technologies;

• Effective research needs to be undertaken in solar and other renewable energy technologies to reduce cost, increase efficiency, and build capacity;

• Development of both software and hardware technologies at tertiary institutions to enhance digital literacy and create high speed networks needs to be undertaken;

• Proven photonic technologies need to be adequately deployed for effective healthcare delivery, agriculture, and environmental monitoring;

• Light-based technologies that improve energy efficiency and enhance artistic value of cultural artefacts need to be employed in architectural designs and preservation of cultural heritage;

• There needs to be a commitment to setting up national research foundations to support research to address our socio-economic development such as setting aside a fraction of national revenues to fund research;

• The field of photonics should be introduced into the curriculum of medical schools;

• Multi-disciplinary work should be facilitated—let medical doctors listen to and meet scientists for initiating cross-disciplinary research;

• Government of Ghana should take leadership in bringing the issues from the Conference to a larger forum that brings together all regional stakeholders at the highest level of the African Union for further deliberation and implementation across the continent of Africa;

• Government of Ghana should further spearhead the organisation of a series of regional conferences to address each of the themes of the IYL, 2015 and the issues emanating from the Conference.

D. Concretising the Expected Outcomes:

As a means of leaving an important legacy with the celebration of the International Year of Light for the African continent that would commemorate the strengthening of collaborations among the cross-cutting fields of the natural sciences, the social sciences and the arts to reinforce the objectives of the Africa Science and Technology Consolidated Plan of Action and the United Nations post-2015 Development Agenda for the continent, the Africa Regional Conference and Exhibition will work towards the achievement of the under-listed key deliverables:

- The upgrading of the Laser and Fibre Optics Centre (LAFOC) of the University of Cape Coast into a full-fledged Institute for capacity-building and research in lasers and fibre optic communications;

- The establishment of a Solar Technology Research Centre to enhance the study and promotion of solar science and the use of alternative energy;

- The establishment of a sub-regional Laser Medical Application Laboratory (LMAL) for training medical practitioners and other professionals;

- The establishment of a Museum of Light and Light-Based Technologies as part of solutions to emerging needs in the post-2015 UN Development Agenda.