 |
Africa Regional Higher Education Summit - Opening Ceremony
October 21 - 24, 2008
Moderator:
Sarah Moten,
Chief, Education Division,
Bureau For Africa, Usaid
Speakers:
The Honorable Daphrose Gahakwa,
Minister Of Education, Republic Of Rwanda
The Honorable Romain Murenzi,
Minister Of Science And Technology, Republic Of Rwanda
Narciso Matos,
Executive Director,
Foundation For Human Development
Abdul Hakim Elwaer,
Director Of Human Resources, Science And Technology,
African Union
Franklin Moore,
Deputy Assistant Administrator, USAID
Friday, October 24, 2008
MR. : (In progress): - tried approach to what I call - and they agreed - we, meaning my colleagues - that we should have a multi-frontal approach to economic development. This approach begins as, according to the construct, this way. I don't have a diagram but we can share it later on because I've drawn the construct to the best of my ability. First, higher education should continue play a pivotal role in economic development. The question is not, what is the role of higher education. The question is, what should the role of higher education be in economic development. Then, we recognize that local and international philanthropic organizations should be part of that partnership with higher education.
We move further down the line on the construct and recognize the role of local and international private sector. Then we recognize the role of government. And when we say government, we have to qualify it some more today. But so often, we think about the national government and we always leave out the local government. Therefore, we want to make sure we are clear about this - that the local and national government would become important players here. And then we move down the construct. We recognize local community. We started off with the world community but we are a community here. But what kind of community are we talking about? We understand that very often, the local community are always considered in a marginalized manner or considered in a peripheral manner. So they need to be part of the economic development construct.
The next thing the group discovered and decided on was the steps; how do we get to where we need to get to, to have a sustainable economic development in sub-Saharan Africa, in partnership with all the stakeholders we've recognized? My colleagues were very, very clear; the first step they would like to take is they would like to have a stakeholder assessment. Very often, we walk into new communities without understanding the stakeholders. Who are they? We will think about stakeholders from a very diverse group that it would include girls and young boys and every other group in there. But it is critical, according to this group, that indigenous stakeholders play a pivotal role in the development and implementation of national economic agenda. The involvement and engagement of stakeholders will have far-reaching impact - and economic development will have far-reaching impact if you involve those stakeholders.
The second steps we recognize should be taken is that there need to be a development of a center for technological transfer and economic entrepreneurship - excuse me. What would be the role of this technological transfer center and entrepreneurship? The role would be this: The center itself will provide technical training. It will create new enterprises. And - very, very important - it will harness indigenous knowledge.
The third step we would like to take is that of curriculum development. Higher education should continue to play a role in developing curriculum. But very often, the curriculum that we - I say here from an academic standard point of view - is some - for the most part is always disconnected from the development realities of some of our societies. So we understand and we would like to underscore that the curriculum development itself much match: one, through development realities of host countries. Second, the curriculum development must be relevant with all sectoral goals and objectives. Very often bad disconnect happens when we do not consider other sectors of the economy. We often theorize but we don't move people, at times, from theory to practice. So it's very critical we do that.
The fourth step that we thought we should move forth with is, what should be the local community involvement. Higher education - and the academy particularly - is a member of a broader community. We need to understand we are a member of a broader community. Therefore, the academy - and most importantly, higher education - must become a relevant partner with the local community and the people. Having said all this and taken all these steps, now we have to build the house. How do you build a house without the necessary implements of development? We thought the first thing we need to do is identify the resources we will use to develop this economic development plan. The first thing my group agreed and concurred with was that first, we need have the political and economic and social will. This political, social and economic will must be purposeful and deliberate towards economic development. We cannot develop if there is no serious commitment, if there is no purposeful commitment and if there is no deliberate commitment towards development and growth.
The other recognition that we acknowledge and concurred on is the use of human resources. Human resources mean that we have a plenitude of resources in Africa, and more importantly here, even sub-Saharan Africa, that are under-utilized. However, what we want to do, what we want to recommend is that there needs to be a better and efficient utilization of human resources. Acknowledging that human resources do exist is one thing. On the other hand, how do we efficiently manage that human resources is critical. Then, the third step is financial resources. There is an acknowledgement that there are financial resources. Nonetheless, given the partnership between the private/public sector and the local community, there needs to be a sound management of the financial resources that do exist and hopefully we can look for those low-hanging fruits, wherever they may be. Nonetheless, we also have to have accountability and accountability of existing resources. We should not expect folks to invest when we cannot account for what we've already received. So it has to be transparent. And that's the things I got from this presentation.
Then the last thing is the indigenous resources itself. It's all around us. Do we harness indigenous resources? We cannot throw away the baby with the bath water. It's right where we need it. We have a plenitude of indigenous resources. We need to bring it to the forefront of development and economic growth. Thank you.
(Applause.)
MS. MOTEN: Thank you very much. As we move on, I'm going to ask the honorable minister of education, Minister Gahakwa, if she would come forward and bring us some remarks. (Applause.) The minister of education will be followed by the Honorable Minister Murenzi, minister of science and technology, will follow her.
THE HONORABLE DAPHROSE GAHAKWA: Good afternoon!
(Chorus of, "Good afternoon.")
MS. GAHAKWA: I'd like to thank you for the conclusions on the thematic discussions you had since yesterday. But first, I would like to thank the USAID for having made this happen. Please join me in thanking USAID - (applause) - for getting these great minds in the same roof - under the same roof and giving them - I don't know how they managed it - incentives to sit and tease out brilliant ideas. You have done that. Now, the challenge is what next. What are the next steps? I know that you have very busy offices. But I also know for us to achieve what these thematic discussions you have had - vote to discuss that with your faculty. And as I was discussing with some of my colleagues presidents, the politicians in Africa know that the faculty are weak. But does the faculty know that? (Laughter.)
So, you've got a challenge because you cannot improve somebody who doesn't believe that they need improvement. You need to build their capacity so that they can change their mindset. I was discussing with somebody at dinner last night and we agreed that actually the doctors and the lawyers have the biggest mindset. So they know it all. They think they know it all. And you, presidents of the universities, have got to convince them that they don't know it all so that you can move in the 21st century and join - join our colleagues across the Atlantic. We don't have to reinvent the wheel. We can leapfrog if we accept that we don't know it all.
So I think this summit, in my own assessment - I may be biased - but I think it has been a huge success. But the success will be measured in the next - the results that will come from the networking, the collaborations that will come from the networking and then the litmus paper will be economic growth because we used to have excuse that higher education was an orphan. It isn't anymore. It is on the agenda; but you have to make the case because it is competing with the primary and the secondary. So you have got to make the case. And fortunately - fortunately for us, you are more trained and you are more sophisticated than the primary and the secondary school head teachers. So please make the case - make it happen. Make higher education contribute to African economic development.
Only last week, we were discussing - (in foreign language) - for the prize, why there was a - green revolution in Africa and how we can make a green revolution happen and what would Africa look like in the next 50 years. Those discussions are very depressing. First, 50 years to come, I will not be there. (Laughter.) So can we make it at least five years? (Laughter.) Sure. You know, the life expectancy in Rwanda is I think 48 years. We have improved. And I have already expired. (Laughter.) So let us - let us work hard - do all that it takes - to make sure that African green revolution happens when we can organize it and be proud of that contribution. Let us use all the new technologies to make the lives of our communities better. If we do that, we can go to meet our creator with our head high. I can't see signals but I think time is out. I would like - (laughter) - I would like to thank you for having traveled to Kigali as your destination. I am very sad to close this seminar because I was getting to like you. (Laughter, applause.) Please come again. Thank you.
(Applause.)
THE HONORABLE ROMAIN MURENZI: Good afternoon again. It is very difficult to compete with my colleague. (Laughter.) Thank you, USAID, for organizing this conference, strengthening Africa's human and institutional capacity for prosperity in global competitiveness. New strategies for international cooperation in Africa - we need to consider major trends such as globalization and regional integration initiatives. Major reforms in the political governance and democracy are taking root in most parts of Africa by challenges such as war; low-level of economic growth remain. One of the most important forces in change and improvement in Africa is the emerging commitment to regional and sub-regional integration accompanied by renewed interest in promoting territories that conserve as engine of growth in specific localities. These efforts will help to expand the domestic market, enable pooling of the government resources and offer opportunities for peaceful coexistence and more members.
They also create economies of scale necessary for rapid diffusion of technological innovation and management skills. In this - (inaudible) - higher education in Africa is going to be very important and we are glad that USAID has made this commitment to link these universities - as we see there are so many universities here and countries that it is a really very good tool. We feel like really we are in one country while we are in this conference.
Science and technology is going to be very important for long-term economic growth - as you know that from the work of Robert Solow. In 1957 he showed that and he gets Nobel Prize for it. Actually, he gave it right away for funding of resources in particular in the United States where - (inaudible) - Bush innovation, main strategy was really - (inaudible) - and some other legislation such as the - (inaudible) - legislation.
It is very important to understand how science and technology, and particular higher education is going to play a role. So the cooperation between Africa's universities and the U.S. university is very important. I hope this conference is a starting point. Major trends in science, technology and innovation for the next decades will include information communication technologies, biotechnology, nanotechnology and formative sciences. Rwanda, in its mission communication technologies - taking the three strategies - being the issue of bandwidth, storage and analysis - we are moving ahead in terms of bandwidth, as I showed yesterday. For the issue of storage and data centers, we hope that with the new power initiative - electricity through methane gas - would be able, very soon, to be able to house data centers in this country as it relate also to the broadband connectivity.
For the issue of analysis of data, examples are numerous, in particular, at the National University of Rwanda, where you have the Center for Remote Sensing and Geo-information, where you can an analyze data - satellite data for agriculture, for mineral exploration, water quality, environmental protection, you name it. For biotechnology, we think that we are working to establish regional biodiversity center for the Albertine Rift. The Albertine Rift has more than 50 percent of the mammals of Africa and a very good percentage of plant species, and also more than 15 percent of the birds of continental Africa. So we think that that center will be able actually to work on our biodiversity and be able to produce new product. The government of Rwanda is working on establishing a biodiversity or biotechnology initiative like the one we did in the information communication.
The third one is nanotechnology. We would like to see cooperation in that area. Countries such as South Africa have advanced. We would like to see some collaboration, but we will be really interested in that with U.S. universities. From cognitive science also, you have a lot to learn in Africa. There is a great possibility for research. Particular country such as Rwanda that has gone through trauma and genocide, we have so many things that you can learn here. So definitely, science and technology is global. Africa has global human resources, all human resource. When they finish here, they go to work abroad. I think it is possible actually to make them stay in Africa so that they can do research in Africa, so they can do innovation in Africa, splendid career in Africa and contribute to, not only to Africa's economic worth but also to global economy. So again, I would like to say thank you, USAID, for organizing this conference in Africa. I hope there are going to be numerous other conferences of this type. I thank you all.
(Applause.)
MS. MOTEN: Thank you, honorable ministers. I would like to have further remarks from Dr. Narciso Matos, who is the executive director of the Foundation for Community Development and Abdul Hakim Elwaer, representing the African Union.
NARCISO MATOS: Thank you, Sarah. Honorable ministers, ladies and gentlemen. In Nigeria, they say - (in foreign language). (Laughter.) Where I come from, you never speak after ministers. (Laughter.) Now I see the wisdom of that. (Laughter.) It's because there's nothing else you can say. (Laughter.) So I am doubly embarrassed because I have to speak after ministers and because I have nothing else to say.
So I suppose I was brought here this time only to speak on behalf of the colleagues from African countries, to say thank you to our brothers and sisters in Rwanda for your hospitality and for providing us the space to do what we could do in these past three weeks. Thank you, Kigali; thank you, Rwanda. I also believe that I was brought here as a representative of the Foundation's thoughts. To thank also Rwanda, to thank USAID for providing the opportunity to share with you what we foundations stand for and our contribution to development. So on behalf of the foundations, thank you to all of you. (Applause.)
And last but not least, and I'll stop there, I want to say from the bottom of my heart that I have learned a lot during this conference and I do hope that we will meet sometime to take stock of how much of our discussion was translated in tons of food and better nutrition to our fellow Africans. Thank you.
(Applause.)
ABDUL HAKIM ELWAER: Hello, good afternoon everyone. And first I would like to apologize for joining this event quite late. I've arrived yesterday afternoon, but before I start on my deliberations, I would like to join my previous speaker on taking the permission from honorable ministers to speak after them. I think this shows how this meeting is so transparent and natural. If you would have a protocol officer here, he would say, no, ministers will speak last and no one will speak after ministers. But again, that brings me back to my maybe previous career as a researcher and as a university professor. Currently, I am the director for human resources, science and technology director of the African Union. On behalf of the committee chairperson, Mr. Erastus Mwencha of the African Union Commission and also the commissioner for human resources, science, technology and on my own behalf, I would like to thank the authorities of the Republic of Rwanda for hosting this meeting and the welcome hospitality effort. Also thanks to the U.S. Agency for International Development for inviting the African Union Commission to contribute and learn from this experience and arranging this very important meeting.
Maybe a few comments from our side. When we first heard the title, it seems that this week is, to me in particular, was an education-focused week. The director actually is in charge at the continental activities of four main sectors: the U.S. development, education, science and technology and ICD. And you can see from these four how vast and huge their responsibilities are. It started last week when I was invited to attend the governing board of ICCPA. IICPA is the I-I-C-P-A, and it's an International Institute for Capacity Building in Africa. It's one of the six UNESCO international institutes, but it's the only one in Africa. And it's focus is teaching development. And they would have been in important contributor to this weekend. IICPA is based in Addis Ababa, and we had a two day's deliberation in Durban, South Africa, on the way forward for IICPA and the strategic plan for the next five years.
While I was there in IICPA, I was called on a mission which is again to do with the heart of education, and it's to DRC, to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kinshasa, to meet with the authorities and discuss the setting of the African Union Observatory on Education. Now this is a very important institution. Following the announcement of the Second Decade of Education for Africa 2006 to 2015 action plan, the action plan itself requested that we develop a mechanism for monitoring an evaluation and reporting continuously to the policy-makers, i.e. the ministers of education on the progress of the implementation of that plan. That can only be done by establishment of an AU-based information statistic center, which would develop indicators and tools to gather information on those indicators, and on a yearly basis would use the education report and its contribution to development.
While I was in Kinshasa, I was told by the deputy-chairperson, you have a very important meeting and you need to go and contribute to the last day of the meeting as the invitation does say from the U.S. Agency on International Development came to the deputation in person. Well I said, let's look at the contents. Do we really need to be there? Maybe we're not needed. And then the title attracted us and actually confused us. Well, from our AU political perspective, when we use Africa, we don't use the word "regional" with Africa unless we really mean regions within Africa. And the title says "African regional," and that's confusing unless we're having a North African, South African, a West African or a Central African, then we say "African region." When you say "African," it's one continent. Of course, from a global perspective, when you say "regional," you mean different continents. But we don't use them together unless we really have a regional setup within the continent. And in this case, it was mean the global regional, and it would have been enough to mention Africa.
But what was the most confusing jargon term here that maybe both sides of the continent use it differently is the word "summit." To us, a summit is anything that involves the heads of states and government. (Laughter.) And I think we were about to call the chairperson of the African Union Commission to come from Japan and attend this meeting. Then when we consulted, we heard, no, the summits will mean the presidents or the chancellors of universities. But yes, we refer to them by their positions, but not the summit, because we have the African Union summit that happens twice a year, and it means the heads of states and governments. Anyway, I think it's clear now, and we understand these jargons very clearly.
We're aware education is a cornerstone to sustainable development, and it is the tool for producing and managing all human resources and for inculcating appropriate values for forging the common bond of humanity in a globalized existence. If the contribution to economic growth of education in general is significant, that of higher education and research is even more remarkable. I think we're all a bit confused sometimes with the MDGs, which now tends to drive every economy. We all know about MDG II, and I was, I had the honor to join the working group on basic and higher education today, which is a very critical issue that has been addressed long ago by the ministers of education of the African Union, because MDG II focused only on primary education.
But definitely, the African ministers has recognized early that there's no way to develop that primary education without investing into the secondary and tertiary education. And when the Second Decade of Education plan was developed, it addressed tertiary education as well as primary education at the same time. In the recent past, the international community was the belief, or was of the belief that Africa did not need higher education, which led to a personality-low investment in this core area of education. Global Initiatives of Education for All and Millennium Development Goals issue the fact that it is impossible to achieve quality education for all and the millennium development goals without higher education.
Ladies and gentlemen, in this regard, I would like to highlight the following challenges with regards to the role of higher education and basic education. Who is going to produce knowledge to be used for education at the pre-primary, primary, secondary, and post-secondary levels? Where do we get our teachers even for basic education? Where would our doctors, engineers, philosophers, scientists, et cetera come from and how do people develop and prosper when they are mere - (in foreign language), peddlers, and consumers of knowledge about Africa and Africans developed elsewhere?
We have a science technology research commission based in Lagos, Nigeria, which is part of our directorate to the African Union, and it's in charge of developing the international property setup for pan-African intellectual property and also the indigenous knowledge policy framework for Africa and the technology transfer strategy. And one of the issues we found - Americans, sorry, African universities and research institutions find difficulty publishing research that to the continent was very unique, but it didn't attract much of the international conscious, because it was addressing local problems, it was addressing local issues. And this is where we have identified the need for some African-based developed journals and research institutions.
It is - okay. I'll just make that issue to conclude for the sake of time. It is obviously at the tertiary level that ideologists and circumstances that wade and seethe and knowledge is produced in order to - to the course of our life. I would like to, without going into much details, to directly go to just one minute on some activities that are very important that the African Union is carrying out, as detailed by the Second Decade of Education action plan. The most important is the Walimu Nyerere African Union Scholarship scheme. And this has been launched last year, and it's a yearly program that offers scholarship to African students to study in different African universities to allow them mobility. We are teaming up with the African Association for Universities to develop the quality rating scheme for African universities, the accreditation system, and to allow again the mobility of different professors and graduates of universities among the African continent.
Last but not least, maybe it's worth noting that one of the major reasons for the weak implementation of the first - there was a previous one, the First Decade of Education for African Action Plan was that partners did not align their initiatives with those of the second or the first decade plan of action, thus creating programs that were either crossing or simply not contributing towards the fulfillment of African education objectives and targets. I therefore wish to encourage our partners to pay more attention to the need to explore and analyze the already-developed African solutions to African problems and invest in partnering with African peers to assist them to improve and implement their home-developed programs and initiatives. And I believe what the USAID is doing now is already addressing that. I thank the organizers again and thank everyone, and I wish you all the success after this meeting. Thank you.
(Applause.)
MS. MOTEN: Thank you very much for the remarks that everyone has extended. At this time, I would like to introduce to some, but as a reminder to others, that Franklin Moore, who is our deputy assistant administrator at USAID is here on behalf of Henrietta Fore, who is the administrator of USAID.
But let me tell you a little bit about Franklin. Franklin is a career member of the senior executive service, was appointed as deputy assistant administrator for USAID Africa Bureau in January, 2008. Previously to this appointment, Mr. Moore served as director of the office of environment and science policy within USAID's bureau for economic growth, agriculture and trade. Additionally, Mr. Moore has served the acting deputy assistant administrator and director for the agencies global center for the environment. At this time I bring to you Mr. Franklin Moore - deputy assistant administrator of for the Africa Bureau of USAID, speaking on behalf of Administrator Fore.
(Applause.)
FRANKLIN MOORE: Before I start, I've asked Sarah not to sit down. (Laughter.) Could I ask the rest of Sarah's team who worked on this - all of Sarah's team who worked on this - to stand up. This table - come on, up. Table in the back - up. (Applause.) Although people have thanked USAID, I wanted you to know exactly who that meant. That is the group that has been working tirelessly for months, driving some of us a little crazy at times - but tirelessly, for months on this conference. And can I say from inside USAID, we very much appreciate it - it has been very successful.
(Applause.)
Ministers, distinguished university directors, vice chancellors, presidents, administrators, professors, ladies and gentlemen. I'm honored to take part in this Africa Regional Higher Education Summit. There's a fitting symmetry between this week's proceedings in Kigali and the dialogue that began last April in Washington at the Higher Education Summit for global development. That event, many will recall, opened with the superb keynote remarks of the president of Rwanda, Paul Kagame. We who had the privilege to hear President Kagame's presentation were impressed with his vision, his eloquence and his realistic ambition to make Rwanda a showcase for educational progress and economic development.
This summit has brought together some of the brightest minds in Africa to engage in a dialogue with leaders from the United States' universities and colleges, the private sector and foundations to work together to discuss the most pressing issues affecting the African continent, including health and human capacity development, economic growth, food security and linking basic and higher education; and to identify innovative ways and the resources necessary for higher education institutions to address these challenges. With worldwide attention and resources devoted to achieving universal primary education, higher education must not be neglected. Enrollment in higher education institutions in Africa has increased significantly. Yet the infrastructure materials - and as we heard this morning, the number of trained faculty - are inadequate to meet this demand.
Meeting this demand for skills and training is an essential element in seeing that the growing youth population of the continent finds meaningful employment to support themselves and their families and to be full and active participants in society. The ideas which each of your groups presented here just recently, are exciting opportunities and we look forward to participation in finding ways to take action on each of them. Whether it is the potential for public/private partnerships, the way research is being improved in both African and American universities through partnership or how new information and communications technologies can provide new educational opportunities, the innovative approaches being discussed at this conference hold great promise. At USAID, Administrator Henrietta Fore is committed to finding these new and innovative ideas through an initiative called the Global Development Commons.
As you know, we want to use new technologies and innovative approaches to open opportunities, to gather data, share knowledge, forge partnerships and make better decisions. As the Rwandan minister for science and technology stated yesterday, a culture of innovation is based on knowledge that is created, acquired and transferred. And further, science, technology and ICT are key enablers for a transformation from an agricultural-based economy to a knowledge-based economy. By connecting people and their ideas, more people can play a part in the creation of prosperity and more people can benefit from these connections. Today I would like to share with you the types of innovation that we are piloting as part of the Global Development Commons.
I share them to give you a sense of the approaches that we believe can help in the transition to the knowledge-based economy and because none of these efforts would be successful without the assistance of those of you in this room. In agriculture, so that we can speed its transformation before some people expire - (laughter) - we recognize the importance of trade corridors identified by African Union's Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Program, or CAADA for realizing the full potential of agricultural and economic growth. Many other donors, foundations and the private sector also recognize their importance. However, all of us want to work in a coordinated way which allows ownership of the development of the corridors by those who use them every day.
We think that a platform built with geographic information systems can enable better information sharing by all participating actors concerning available natural resources, suitability of agro-ecological regions for specific crops, gaps in necessary post-harvest infrastructure, obstacles to trade and more. This information can then be used by universities, governments, companies and civil society, to direct efforts to strengthen and sustain the value chain along trade corridors and ultimately link farmers and salespeople to markets, improving both food security and rural incomes. While eventually we hope to extend this platform to all the different corridors, we think that advances in ITC, which the minister discussed yesterday, make Rwanda one of the great places to start. And, yes, this does include broadband.
We are working to seek out cutting-edge technologies from universities and companies to improve development work. We are, for example, intensely interested in promoting the use of mobile technologies to put information and power in the hands of citizens in developing countries. Last month, while I was at the U.N. General Assembly in New York with Administrator Fore, Hamadoun Touré, the secretary general of the international telecommunications union, noted that half the people of the world now have a mobile phone or device. That's 4 billion subscribers. Compare this penetration rate of 50 percent, with that of 10 percent for personal computers. Mobile forms are the computing platform for the developing world. As a result, mobile devices increasingly are a mainstay for banking transactions and for practical market activities like grain trading or vital services like healthcare. We think there's an enormous potential to improve the ways that these devices are used and to have an even greater impact on development.
On October 13, USAID launched the 2008 USA Development 2.0 Challenge. You'll see that there were pages on the challenge on your table. This challenge ensured - asked innovators from around the world to propose solutions that make use of mobile technology applications to address the development problem. It is the first ever open-source challenge for USAID, meaning that once applications make - applicants make their submissions, they are visible online. Then anyone can join this online community and comment on how to approve any applicant's submission. The applicant can revise and improve their submissions until the revision period closes on December 5th. Then all community members will vote to select 15 finalists, and from these finalists three winners will be selected by USAID. They will each receive a grant of up to $10,000 and have the opportunity to present their winning idea to development and industry officials in Washington.
We look to challenges like this as a powerful way to incentivize and reward innovation in solving development problems. In time, USAID hopes to build a portfolio of different challenges focused on different technologies and sectors to bring the latest innovations in development work. We encourage you to take the USAID Development 2.0 Challenge back to your universities and share it with your students and colleagues to encourage them to enter the challenge by visiting the commons Web site. And become part of the community of online reviewers who are working to make it a success.
In Rwanda, I am pleased that USAID is helping to develop a Rwanda Education Commons. USAID is responding to the government of Rwanda's vision to utilize science, technology and ICT to become a knowledge-based economy by 2020. Rwanda aims to reach this goal in cooperation with donors and other partners, including the Global Education Alliance, a partnership led by the World Economic Forum and involving such participants as Microsoft, Intel, AMD and Cisco. In collaboration with the alliance, USAID is piloting Rwanda Education Commons, combining a partnership-building approach with a demand-driven programmatic intervention aligned with the national education strategy. With an initial focus on improving the quality of primary-school teaching, the Rwanda education commons platform will provide digital learning materials to pre-service and in-service primary teacher training programs.
As discussed by the minister yesterday, Rwanda is rapidly expanding its technological infrastructure and connectivity, working through existing and future Internet access points such as the Rwanda Information Technology Authority tele-centers, the Rwanda Education Commons platform will provide access to online resources, teaching and learning support materials and opportunities for professional development. As access to hardware will likely outpace connectivity, the Rwanda Education Commons will include offline channels for distributing materials, particularly to teacher-training colleges and explore the use of radio, satellite television and of course mobile-phone technology to supplement the Rwanda Education Commons portal. Please join us in the collaborative process of designing the Rwanda Education Commons and its governing structure. The Rwanda Education Commons beta, a provisional trial web for this endeavor, is available through our Web site. We hope that if the Rwanda Education Commons is successful, we will eventually be able to create an African Education Commons which will reach across the continent.
Finally, you can find all the initiatives I've mentioned at the Commons Web site, www.globaldevelopmentcommons.net. Through this Web site, we plan to build a community which is interested in how the latest innovations in information and communications technology can be applied for development results. There you can see discussions on programs which have successfully applied ICT innovations, as well as the newest tools which are available to incorporate into your work. In a connected and ever-changing world, the key to sustaining a competitive edge is cultivating a vibrant community of participants who bring innovation to development work. Let me assure you that the United States will remain committed to the intellectual advancement and spread of transformative technology throughout Africa. This helps to realize the aspirations which we all share: To build and sustain democratic, well-governed states that will respond to the needs of their people. The United States seeks to have others better their own lives and to build their own nations and to transform their own futures. To all of you who participated, presented or supported this conference, thank you. We look forward to our continued work with you.
(Applause.)
MS. MOTEN: Thank you. I didn't warn you that he would have so much to say. Thank you so much, Franklin. That was very powerful, and I know everybody's writing down their notes, and I can't wait to see people on these computers this afternoon checking all of these things out that you directed them to. At this time, I would like to take just a few moments to say a thank you to some participants who put in a little extra effort to help us out, the facilitators of the thematic sessions. And I would like for them to come up, because believe it or not, though Administrator Fore is not here, her signature is on these certificates. So I would like to give them a thank you.
Would Alice Lamptey - (applause) - it says, "In appreciation of participation and partnering in the African Regional Higher Education Summit and in expressing sincere gratitude for your facilitation and advice. Henrietta H. Fore." (Applause.) Pat Scheid from Aga Khan Foundation. (Applause.) Okay, I don't see a plaque. All right. Eric Ogamy (ph)? Is Eric Ogamy here? Okay, no. Trying to be nice, right? (Chuckles.) Ken Shapiro. I thought I saw Ken in here. (Applause.) And Emmanuel Oritsejafor. Emmanuel? (Applause, cheers.) Okay.
Also, I want everybody here who registered to know that everybody's getting a certificate. (Applause.) So all you have to do is, when we complete the closing ceremony here, if you will check at the desk. The young women are there in alphabetical order, and everyone who registered - now, if you didn't register, don't go up there. (Laughter.) Don't even waste your time. But those who registered, everyone will get a certificate signed by our great administrator. There are some special guests that I also would like to say thank you too, and of course, the two ministers. Minister Gahakwa, Minister Murenzi, thank you, thank you both so much for your time and all. (Applause.) Please, thank you.
But I'm going to back up and say, also I said, thank you to your great president, President Kagame, for allowing us to come here. (Applause.) Professor Mohamedbhai, Peter McPherson, Iqbal Noor-Ali and Narciso, Salina Sanou. Also I would like to take just a moment and thank, yes, again, my conference team. Aleta Williams - (applause) -, Fatima Torre (ph), Jamie Oberlander (ph), Sean Wachold (ph), Lisa Ross (ph), Analisa Blunard (ph), Tawny Richards (ph), Mike Solomon (sp), Mike Matthews (sp), Linda Sokmis (ph), Jennifer Mawer (ph), Pat Shay (sp), Renee Thompson (sp), Rockefeller Halis (ph), Gary Bitman (ph) and Melissa Price (sp). Thank you so very much, the conference team.
And guess what, y'all? We wouldn't be here as well if we didn't say thank you, Cheryl Sim as our chargé, who's been so gracious here in our mission here. Cheryl, thank you. Thank you so much, Dennis Weller. (Applause.) Carl Segalif (ph), also Ryan Washburn and Frances (ph), where are you? I've been missing you. Is Frances around? Sure, I've been looking for you all this time. Thank you our mission and post. Thank you most of all to the government of Rwanda. And, Silas, where are you? (Applause.) Silas, thank you for all that you did to help us out. We appreciate it so much.
And as a closing thought, let us not leave here not having met someone new, someone you did not know when we started out on Tuesday night. I hope that everybody met someone knew and that you're leaving here like Dr. van Cook (ph) said to me, she said, you know what, as soon as I get back, I'm going to the president, I'm on my way to Ghana. Make sure that when you leave here that you have met a new person and also that you are ready to cut a deal. (Laughter.) Thank you again so very much. (Applause.)
May you have safe journey, travel home safely and thank your family for allowing you to come. Thank you.
Back to Top ^
|