Do we wonder why only South Africa is industrialized or near so? African countries tested political independence over six decades ago and none of them is nearing industrialization. Of course, some may claim that Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Mauritius and Kenya are exporting processed goods therefore are nearing manufacturing.
But, it’s infinitesimal and far from industrialization. While claims of transforming their nations are abound, they’re often baseless and only political.While sixty years have been decades of lost opportunities for most African nations, amid explosive claims of transforming their nations, in developing Asia, including Viet Nam which was almost obliterated from earth by war, there’s visible demonstration of real economic transformation. Today,for example, Viet Nam has overtaken the African continent in global exports of manufactured goods while China has overtaken the United States in the same sector.
No matter how much they try, African nations, in particular rentier states like Zambia, Botswana,Namibia, Angola and others will not industrialize under current circumstances. Economies are not growing. Infrastructure is unavailable while technology is absent.
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More importantly, it’s not a question of PhDs. Nigeria and Ghana invested well and better. Yet, they remain rentier states without any sign of industrial progress.
PhDs are one thing. But what makes China industrialize and beat America in many dynamic products are not PhDs. In China, young people are taking responsibility over criticalthinking and creativity.
China and other Asian nations are investing in cognitive function. That’s the kind of human capita that’s essential for industrialization. It’s the creation of new Chinese citizens, Asian citizens that have sprang up in the last few decades to industrialize the region.
They’re not ordinary. It’s not universities that have created them. They were created long before.Most of us missed the “Early Child Development (ECD)” train.
Between ages 1-4, the essential period of ECD, our parents were unable to appreciate. They simply sent us to primary school, then secondary and university. Which is what every one goes through.
But there’s something more important. During this period in China and other Asian countries, children are helped to acquire critical thinking and other relevant skills. They’re not found in the primary schools that we went to.
Experts, including Helpful Professor.com will tell you that cognitive functions refer to the mental processes that allow us to carry out any task. They include perception or the ability to detect, interpret and respond to stimuli from our environment; memory or the process of storing, retaining and recalling information and experiences, and attention or the capacity to focus on specific stimuli or tasks while ignoring others. No wonder many of us missed the train.
ECD is not cheap. One of its prerequisites is balanced diet for young children. It requires spending on relevant food, including vegetables for essential vitamins and antioxidants, grains, fruits, meat, eggs, beans, nuts, dairy products.
Unfortunately, all these essential foods are out of reach of many African children. To develop a new African, driven by cognitive function requires children who eat well in order to nourish their young brains. When some parts of the cognitive function fail to perform for various reasons, including due to absence of the right cognitive skills, because we missed the ECD train, hence cognitive deficits become unavoidable, one consequence is attention lapses.
Allan Cheney explains them as, “Failures of sustained attention.” This’s more prevalent in Africa than other parts of the world. We would care less about them if they simply stood alone, aloof. But, ‘n0.’ They’re significant deficits because they affect our daily lives.
You see their effect in offices, streets, leadership, meetings, business activities.If Africa’s marginalization in world trade is entirely due to the slow growth of African economies, as Dani Rodrik correctly states, cognitive function deficits, in particular attention lapses as an example too are. They’re not problems that we can simply shake off. Universities will not help.
That’s why African leaders cannot simply continue to invest in self-approbation of acquiring many degrees,accounting qualifications, law degrees, etc. They cannot replace cognitive function. I’m no expert.
But UNICEF, a United Nations organization based in most African countries is doing some important work on ECD. Most African governments seem to have understood the importance of ECD and are investing in ECD policies. I have talked to experts in government and learnt that even Zambia is working on this policy.
But what’s needed is more than policy. It’s massive financial investment and a new mindset. That’s why, my view is that African nations should borrow from the world for ECD, not fixing economic symptoms like macroeconomic ones.
We’ve borrowed before since independence, and IMF or World Bank have never showcased a successful African nation, developed out of borrowing. It’s always,“Restructuring, macroeconomic stability” without industrialization.That’s why I also think that the African Union budget should include ECD. That’s why I think that the Ibrahim Mo Prize for rewarding former African leaders for good governance and development should cease and redirect funding to ECD instead of rewarding people who did leave any significant development mark in Africa.We can engage in a conversation for more details. And thats not likely for many many years to comeAlso this grz is making divisions even wider I feel
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