Moves to enhance low research capacity in Africa
Several years of research work in African universities have not yielded the relevant policies for development.
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Falling educational standards, the dearth of lecturers and the unwillingness of politicians to use research for development initiatives have all resulted in the dearth of quality research to guide decision making.
In a bid to redress this, the Economics Department of the University of Ghana, in collaboration with the United Nations University-World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER) has organised a day’s capacity building workshop on effective higher education in Ghana.
Welcoming participants, which included students from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), and other tertiary institutions, the Head of Department of the Economics Department, Prof. Peter Quartey, said he was upbeat about the collaboration between the institutions.
He mentioned that with funding from the USAID, five MPhil and PhD students were being sponsored in research studies.
He said that initiative had attracted the attention of the Bank of Ghana and the Ministry of Finance and expressed the hope that the Ministry of Education would also become interested and join the effort to train skilled professionals for the country’s development aspirations.
Prof. Quartey was of the view that such partnerships could be extended and merged for their sustainability.
Support
The Director of UNU-WIDER, Mr Wisdom Akpalu, said his institution was supporting with $1 million for the students to complete a PhD in Development Economics.
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In addition to the funding, the students would have the opportunity to visit Finland, where the UNU-WIDER was headquartered to develop research proposals.
The students, he added, were required to return and conduct their research in the country for the award of the doctoral degree.
Mr Akpalu said although the collaboration was in just the second year, the UNU-WIDER was happy about the relationship so far and was looking forward to a lasting collaboration.
He said when the initiative began, only males had applied, but the partners had been able to include some females, which was a positive sign.
Relevant research
The Director of the UNU-INRI, Dr Elias Ayuk, in his presentation, said his institute’s focus was to ensure the relevant research that would be the basis of good policies for natural resource management and development.
He said enhancing the low research capacity in Africa was key to development efforts.
The National Coordinator of the Partnership in Action on Greening Economy (PAGE), Mr Samuel Dotse, outlined new challenges with climate change conditions and the opportunities they offered for study and research.
A research fellow of the Institute for Statistical Social and Economic Research, Dr Fred Dzanku, in his presentation on sustaining high academic standards in Ghana, emphasised that quality human capital was important to development.
He, however, expressed disappointment that students currently sublet the writing of thesis to others and outlined some reasons, including the low student/lecturer ratios in public universities.
The resident representative of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Ghana, Ms Natalia Kolianda, said the IMF was also interested in building the capacity of member countries.