Harnessing The Fourth Industrial Revolution To Advance The Sdgs In Africa

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By Joburg Post

The United Nations Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs), agreed upon in September 2016, provide us with a framework
of 17 goals, with 169 targets, developed in order to bring together global
efforts towards ending poverty within 15 years. The SDGs present us with a
vision for achieving “a better, more equitable world” through sustainable
development – using resources, investing, and developing technologies that will
enable development in such a way as not to compromise the well-being of future
generations.

Not only does the agenda intend to be fully inclusive, and to
“leave no one behind” but also urgent – 2030 in only just around the corner! The
Goals are strongly inter-linked and inter-dependent and they can be grouped in
a number ways. For example, issues of women and gender equality are directly,
and obviously, relevant to Goals 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 10, 16 and 17, which are: no
poverty, zero hunger, good health and well-being, quality education, gender
equality, decent work, clean energy, reduced inequality, peace, justice and
strong institutions and partnerships to achieve the goal, respectively.

Similarly, Goal 2, Zero Hunger, cannot be viewed separately
from the Goals on poverty (1), health (3), education (4), clean water (6),
energy (7), and decent work and economic growth (8), and so on. To achieve the
SDGs, countries will need to bring about major changes in all areas, including
health, education, urban and rural environments, use of resources, and many
others, and they will need to involve support and funding from all sectors –
government, business and community.

Against this complex framework of pressing priorities, the
era of digitalisation, often called the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), is
upon us. The evolution of digital and cyber-technologies is leading to the
rapid re-thinking of processes and new development of machines, to integration
of data from widely

varying sources, and creating networks where artificial
intelligence and data science are enabling new ways of connecting – the Internet
of Things is one expression of this.

For Africa, there is an opportunity to “join the dots”
between the SDGS, the 4IR and our position – this is a key moment where the
advancing wave of digital and cyber technology, with all of the anticipated
intersections, and rapid progress towards greater connectedness, can converge
to position Africa in a unique way. Rather than following the same developmental
pathways that have already been followed elsewhere, we can seek ways to “leapfrog”
forwards by adopting new technologies and adapting them for regional
application. We need to develop the competencies that will enable us to advance
our use of digital technologies.

We need to continue to expand the connectivity that is at
the heart of the digitalisation era – not to reinvent anything, but to
customise it for our needs. In addition, we need coordination. Few African
countries have developed national coordination and implementation strategies to
address the SDGs, nor systems for monitoring progress.

Researchers in Africa are, understandably focussing
deliberately and proactively on the Sustainable Development Goals, as they move
forward with their research agendas for the 21st century. In fact, nowhere is
the research community better linked to the real work of achieving the SDGs than
in Africa. It is understood that research should address societal needs, and
should be developed and conducted collaboratively with contributions from
communities and network partners on the continent. Transdisciplinary approaches
are key and can bring people together to work on sustainable development, and Africa’s
continent-wide networks can provide a mechanism to support this.

The fourth thing we need is skills that will fit with the
jobs that people will do in the future – technological skills to enable the use
of digital technologies, in the creative industries and design as well as ICT;
social skills to provide for future needs in terms of care, education, health
and well-being: and cognitive skills to engender critical and creative
thinking, self-motivation, and the capacity to learn and re-learn. New
activities such as mobile and social computing, gaming, and the use of smart
devices can enable communication, connectedness and, importantly, new ways of
working.

Africans are already entrepreneurial, and many are
“tech-savvy” in a unique way that has grown out of necessity, in a region where
land-based communication has often been lacking or inaccessible. Mobile devices
are more abundant, and are used more creatively, in Africa than many other
regions of the world.

As we move into a 21st century future where 25% of the
world’s under-25-year-old people will be in Africa and seeking a living, the
critical contribution we can make is to educate them for self-driven ways to
work, and provide them with a globally connected continent. ■

Professor Stephanie Burton is the Vice-Principal, Research
and Postgraduate Education at the University of Pretoria.

This article has previously appeared on The Thinker Journal,
its has been republished with permission

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