Promoting Sustainable Development Through Engineering and Technology Capacity Building in Africa: The Role of DTCA

To achieve meaningful and sustainable development of Africa, the continent must of necessity look inwards particularly in the areas of Science, Engineering, technology capacity building; and this is in view of the growing trends in globalization. There must be an active collaboration and networking between research and industry on the one hand and between researchers across the nations of Africa. This will promote technical cooperation which is sine qua non to the development of the continent. A survey project on viable technological invention and innovation in Engineering Research and Development (R&D) in Nigeria and their impact on industry development by the Directorate of Technical Cooperation in Africa (DTCA) indicates that: (a) though quite some achievements have been recorded in this sector, most of the inventions and innovations are still at the level of incubation: (b) funding is a critical factor limiting development of the Engineering Research and Development (R&D) sector: (c) there is minimum linkage and collaboration among researchers, as well as between Research and industry, (d) the engineering base remains small, fragmented and operating below the thresholds that would enable it make any meaningful impact on industrial development: (e) brain drain is a key challenge as some of the best and brightest engineers migrate to greener pastures mainly in the western countries. This paper review the result of this project and argues for concerted efforts by all relevant stakeholders to promotes full development and commercialization of viable inventions and innovations towards the rapid development of Africa. The role of the DTCA in this is also highlighted.