ING. DR. ROBERT ADJAYE

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HUMAN CAPITAL BUILDING FOR ENGINEERING
RENAISSANCE AND NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Presented at the NIGERIAN SOCIETY OF
ENGINEERS International Conference Abuja,
December 2007
ING. DR. ROBERT ADJAYE FGhIE, FIET, MCIQA, Cert
Dip Fin Accounts Past President, Ghana
Institution of Engineers


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• HUMAN CAPITAL BUILDING FOR ENGINEERING
• RENAISSANCE AND NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
• We need to understand
• What is Human Capital
• What is Engineering Renaissance
• What is National Development
• And, what role is to be played by engineering
• professional bodies and engineers?

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• Comparative Historical Analysis
• Malaysia
• Malaysias development plans began in 1950. Since
  then it has had 23 Development Documents, out
  which 11 have been 5 Year Development Plans. The
  9th Malaysia Plan covers the period 2006-2010.
• Each development plan was accompanied by a
  population and housing census that provided
  census data on the level, availability and
  distribution of skilled labour for planning
  purposes.
• Education and skill training were accorded high
  priority to provide a sufficient pool of
  educated, highly skilled and strongly motivated
  labour force.

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• Singapore
• Greatest asset was the trust and confidence of
  the people
• The government played a key role in attracting
  foreign investment by building infrastructure,
  well-planned industrial estates, equity
  participation in industries, fiscal incentives,
  and export promotion.
• Established good labour relations and sound
  macroeconomic policies.

ING. Dr. R. Adjaye
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• South Korea
• South Korea has had a succession of 5 Year
  Development Plans since 1962. Each 5 year plan
  identified specific areas for national
  development, eg.
• Plan Year Emphasis
• 1 1962-1966 Electric power, fertilizers,
  petroleum refinery, cement,
• synthetic fibres
• --------------------------------------------------
  -------------------------------------------
• 7 1992-1996 Microelectronics,
  bioengineering, aerospace, fine chemicals
• They concluded that economic growth and
  competitiveness cannot continue without
  breakthroughs in science and technology.

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• Ghanas Development Plans
• Ghanas Guggisberg Plan of 1919 1926, was
  developed by an Engineer Governor
• Followed by about 10 Development Plans from 1951
  to 2004
• Current Plan is the Growth and Poverty Reduction
  Strategy (GPRS II) 2005-2008
• One of the goals is for development of a
  knowledgeable, well trained, and disciplined
  labour force with the capacity to drive and
  sustain private sector-led growth.

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• Japan
• The whole nation was convinced and determined to
  improve and excel.
• They believed in continuous improvement, training
  and took pride in their work.
• Management was prepared to integrate with the
  general workforce and did not mind rolling up
  their sleeves to make their hands dirty.

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• They embarked on reverse engineering and
  investment in human capital development.
• Workforce demonstrated a high degree of
  solidarity, discipline, intelligence and
  willingness to sacrifice for the nation. They
  embraced, refined and developed the concepts of
  total quality management and continuous
  improvement.

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• Nigeria
• Major pre-independence plan was the 1946-55 Ten
  Year Plan of Development and Welfare, with later
  revisions to 1962.
• Post-independent Nigeria has seen many plans,
  eg.
• - First National Development Plan, 1962 -67
• - Second National Development Plan, 1967-74
• - Third National Development Plan, 1975-80
• There were other plans, including the current Ten
  Year (till 2013) National Economic Empowerment
  and Development Strategy (NEEDS), with the
  overall objective of leading Nigeria to full
  economic recovery by 2013.

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• Convergence of Development Plans and
• Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
• Development Plans
• The objectives of most development plans,
  irrespective of the party or government, are to
  improve access to
• Infrastructure Electricity
• Water
• Transportation
• Sanitation
• Accommodation
• ICT

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• Health Accommodation
• Public health education
• Water and sanitation
• Medical facilities
• Nutrition
• Agriculture Better nutrition
• Improved and efficient farming
• Access to farms
• Governance Dissemination of information
• Education
• Law and order

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• Similarity with objectives of MDGs
• MDG 1 Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger
• Solution Engineering for
• Irrigation
• Mechanised planting and harvesting
• Processing and storage of farm produce
• Transportation and food distribution
• MDG 2 Achieve Universal Education
• Solution Engineering for
• Infrastructure for education facilities
• ICT for distance learning

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• MDG 3 Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women
• Solution Engineering for
• Provision of ICT for training and education
• MDG 4 Reduce Child Mortality
• Solution Engineering for
• Construction of health centres
• Improved transportation
• Refrigeration and storage facilities for
  medicines

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• MDG 5- Improve Maternal Health
• Solution Engineering to improve health and
  reduce death
• by
• Better and accessible health centres
• Education
• Potable water, sanitation, etc
• MDG 6 - Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria, etc
• Solution Engineering for improved
• Communication for health education
• Potable water
• Efficient sanitation and waste management

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• MDG 7- Ensure Environmental Sustainability
• Solution Engineering to promote
• Renewable energy
• Reduce gas flaring
• Derive more benefits from hydrocarbons
• MDG 8 - Develop a Global Partnership for
• Development
• Solution Engineers to work with other
  professionals and
• governments to increase local content of
  projects
• for capacity building, adoption of foreign
• technologies to local conditions, effective
• knowledge and skills transfer, and maintenance
  of
• existing infrastructure.

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• Some Lessons from the Asian Development
  Experience
• First Each country must formulate its
  development plans to suit its particular
  circumstances and needs.
• Second Governments must be facilitators and even
  intervene when necessary, to achieve
  developmental objectives.
• Third High investment in human capital
  development. In India, engineering and business
  schools have been growing at about 20 and 60,
  respectively.

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• Fourth Sustained and rapid economic growth to
  develop the infrastructure, create new business
  opportunities, higher incomes, and increased
  wealth. This requires capable and effective
  management of the macroeconomy and of the private
  sector, and export oriented economic growth.
• Fifth Sustained economic growth requires strong
  governments and leaders committed to national,
  not personal interests, over a sustained period
  of time.
• Sixth The eradication of poverty requires two
  broad types of strategies expansion of the
  economy and government-run affirmative action
  programs targeted to the poor.

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• Engineering, Infrastructure and GDP
• Country Population/Engineer ( approx)
• China 130
• India 157
• Canada 179
• Brazil 227
• Japan 303
• UK 311
• USA 389
• Malaysia 543
• Singapore 1341
• Ghana/Nigeria 12000 - 13000
• Allyson Lawless, Numbers Needs

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• Engineering touches every aspect of our lives
  houses, electricity, telephones,
  fridges/freezers, potable water, music,
  prescriptions from medical doctors, road
  networks, etc. So are we producing enough
  engineers?
• The Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which
  represents the total output of goods and services
  produced in the country per year, is the most
  widely used indicator of the size of the economy.
• The GDP per capita is the most frequently used
  indicator of the standard of living of a country.

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Relationship between GDP/capita growth and change
in the number of years of education. Country
codes include IN India, CN China, TH
Thailand, ES Spain, MY Malaysia, TR Turkey,
KR South Korea.
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• The challenge for developing countries is how to
  quicken development, while at the same time
  minimizing the worst effects of economic
  development.
• The key to the challenge is to maximize economic
  efficiency by using technically literate
  workforce (to run modern technologies), and the
  skills of engineers to develop efficient and
  reliable national infrastructure (water supply,
  transport, energy supply, waste management etc.).
  

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• Towards Engineering Excellence
• Sustained development requires
• Active government intervention and direction
• Investment in human capital development
• Discipline, commitment and time consciousness
• Application of science, engineering and
  technology to develop infrastructure and industry
• Ability to implement policies
• Punishment and/or sanctions for transgression,
  offenders or non-performers.

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• Tertiary Education for Development
• Developing countries need technologically
  educated work force and society.
• This should commence with a solid grounding in
  science and mathematics so that students can make
  informed choices later in their further
  education. There is the need for improved
  technical literacy.
• Engineering curricula should place emphasis on
  subjects like management, project management,
  quality management, costing/finance, basic
  accounting, law, and leadership skills.

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• Science, mathematics and engineering must be
  packaged as fashionable subjects and not
  necessarily perceived as difficult and boring
  subjects to be avoided.
• Reinforce the positive contributions of
  engineering to our daily lives and the world at
  large.
• Demonstrate the challenge, enjoyment and
  satisfaction we derive from implementation of our
  technical solutions to everyday challenges.

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• In Conclusion
• The bases for Building Human Capital for
  Engineering
• Renaissance, Sustainable Growth and Development
  are
• Revise school syllabi using wherever possible
  local and practical examples, to make
  mathematics, science and engineering relevant and
  fashionable.
• Increased investment in human capital with
  emphasis on Science, Engineering and Technology
  to cope with globalisation and its concominant
  technology, and better appreciation of the
  concept of quality, time and space.
• Training of engineers should place as much
  emphasis on development of entrepreneurship,
  managerial and leadership skills as on the normal
  core engineering subjects.

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• Government should support science, engineering
  and technology by introducing tax incentives for
  training of students and graduates, and venture
  capital for commercial exploitation of research
  findings.
• Government can facilitate growth by selecting
  certain key areas and challenging local engineers
  to find solutions.

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• Engineers, should also take a much more proactive
  role in formulating and shaping national
  policies.
• Above all, developing nations should be prepared
  to make the necessary attitudinal change to
  embrace the search for engineering excellence and
  renaissance, our passport to development and
  prosperity. If we don't, our quest for national
  development, achievement of the MDGs and wealth
  creation will forever remain an illusion.

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• THE END