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Failing to compete, technology development and technology systems in Africa
Technovation 23 (2003) 963–964 www.elsevier.com/locate/technovation
Book review Failing to compete, technology development and technology systems in Africa Sanjaya Lall and Carlo Pietrobelli, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, 2002, pp. 268 (incl. index), ISBN 1-84064-6403 (hardcover) Africa has been a punching bag for many years and this book appears to have succeeded in hitting the nail on the head. As far back as 1989, Lall described SubSaharan Africa as “one of the most industrially backward regions of the developing world”1. Today, with Pietrobelli, Lall has come to the conclusion that the main structural problem of African industry appears to be its weak base of technological and managerial capabilities and that the problem may be characterized as one of “technologically weak enterprises coexisting with weak technology support institutions, with little interaction between the two” [p. xvi]. The book has many strengths. The national technology systems approach adopted by the authors does indeed help to focus attention on the environment within which African countries have attempted (and/or failed) to build the technological capabilities required for international competitiveness. The treatment of technology institutions and policy in the wider context of institutional and policy needs for industrial development provides a holistic conceptual framework for the country-level analysis and helps to overcome the shortcomings of other approaches (such as those that dwell solely on political and macro-economic factors). Chapter 2 of the book is a must read. It contains a powerful analytical tool in the form of a technological classification of exports, and strategies for building technological competitiveness in manufacturing. The data presented in the chapter is also very revealing especially in the dramatic way in which comparisons are made between Africa and the rest of the world and among the different case study African countries themselves. A discussion on technology inflows with reference to license payments, foreign direct investment and capital goods imports is very rich indeed with a lot of hard data from the case study countries and others.
1
Lall, S., 1989, “Human Resources Development and Industrialization with Special Reference to Sub-Saharan Africa”, Journal of Development Planning, 19, pp. 129-148.
I have to say that I found a bit of an unfinished symphony in the structure of the book. The usual last chapter on “conclusions and recommendations” is missing, leaving one to wonder whether this was a deliberate attempt at innovation on the part of the authors or they were simply hard pressed for time and hence chose to forget it! So, those of us who like to zoom in and out of a book are forced to go searching for the main ideas/findings put forward by the authors. I normally don’t read the annexes but something about the inclusion of “Boxes” in this Annex made me go looking and thank God I did. Indeed, if anyone has only a few moments to spare, please read Box A.4. I myself am thinking seriously about pulling out that Box into a little wall poster for all my visitors to see and hopefully read for themselves (Lall and Pietrobelli, I hope I have your permission!) I also confess that as an African reading this book, I could not help the feeling to simply throw in the towel. With very poor indicators on every count and a widening gap even with respect to other developing regions of the world, Africa comes out of the book looking very much like a continent that cannot industrialize. Lall and Piterobelli think it would be defeatist to argue along these lines but purely from a resource allocation perspective one would need to take this argument more seriously than many have done in the past. After all, what is the point in arguing otherwise, that Africa must industrialize, when all the evidence so dramatically adduced in Chapter 2 of this book point to the contrary? So, if Lall and Pietrobelli’s “Failing to COMPETE” reads like a post-mortem analysis then what is the prognosis for Africa? Should the Dark Continent (aptly depicted in the book’s cover design) even bother to build the technological capabilities that underpin competitive manufacturing performance? Or should we accept defeat and look elsewhere for more cost-effective drivers of socio-economic development? Can African countries opt to forget manufacturing and focus on the service sectors like education, tourism and culture? These and similar questions will need to be addressed not only by the Lalls and the Pietrobellis of this world but, probably more
964
Book review / Technovation 23 (2003) 963–964
important, the Wangwes, the Mlawas, the Mwamadzingos, the Oyeyinkas and the Ogbus from Africa. Did I hear members of the African Technology Policy Studies Network (ATPS) say “yes, yes…”?!
Abeeku Brew-Hammond, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology/Kumasi Institute of Technology and Environment, Kumasi, Ghana doi:10.1016/S0166-4972(03)00079-8
Book review Failing to compete, technology development and technology systems in Africa Sanjaya Lall and Carlo Pietrobelli, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, 2002, pp. 268 (incl. index), ISBN 1-84064-6403 (hardcover) Africa has been a punching bag for many years and this book appears to have succeeded in hitting the nail on the head. As far back as 1989, Lall described SubSaharan Africa as “one of the most industrially backward regions of the developing world”1. Today, with Pietrobelli, Lall has come to the conclusion that the main structural problem of African industry appears to be its weak base of technological and managerial capabilities and that the problem may be characterized as one of “technologically weak enterprises coexisting with weak technology support institutions, with little interaction between the two” [p. xvi]. The book has many strengths. The national technology systems approach adopted by the authors does indeed help to focus attention on the environment within which African countries have attempted (and/or failed) to build the technological capabilities required for international competitiveness. The treatment of technology institutions and policy in the wider context of institutional and policy needs for industrial development provides a holistic conceptual framework for the country-level analysis and helps to overcome the shortcomings of other approaches (such as those that dwell solely on political and macro-economic factors). Chapter 2 of the book is a must read. It contains a powerful analytical tool in the form of a technological classification of exports, and strategies for building technological competitiveness in manufacturing. The data presented in the chapter is also very revealing especially in the dramatic way in which comparisons are made between Africa and the rest of the world and among the different case study African countries themselves. A discussion on technology inflows with reference to license payments, foreign direct investment and capital goods imports is very rich indeed with a lot of hard data from the case study countries and others.
1
Lall, S., 1989, “Human Resources Development and Industrialization with Special Reference to Sub-Saharan Africa”, Journal of Development Planning, 19, pp. 129-148.
I have to say that I found a bit of an unfinished symphony in the structure of the book. The usual last chapter on “conclusions and recommendations” is missing, leaving one to wonder whether this was a deliberate attempt at innovation on the part of the authors or they were simply hard pressed for time and hence chose to forget it! So, those of us who like to zoom in and out of a book are forced to go searching for the main ideas/findings put forward by the authors. I normally don’t read the annexes but something about the inclusion of “Boxes” in this Annex made me go looking and thank God I did. Indeed, if anyone has only a few moments to spare, please read Box A.4. I myself am thinking seriously about pulling out that Box into a little wall poster for all my visitors to see and hopefully read for themselves (Lall and Pietrobelli, I hope I have your permission!) I also confess that as an African reading this book, I could not help the feeling to simply throw in the towel. With very poor indicators on every count and a widening gap even with respect to other developing regions of the world, Africa comes out of the book looking very much like a continent that cannot industrialize. Lall and Piterobelli think it would be defeatist to argue along these lines but purely from a resource allocation perspective one would need to take this argument more seriously than many have done in the past. After all, what is the point in arguing otherwise, that Africa must industrialize, when all the evidence so dramatically adduced in Chapter 2 of this book point to the contrary? So, if Lall and Pietrobelli’s “Failing to COMPETE” reads like a post-mortem analysis then what is the prognosis for Africa? Should the Dark Continent (aptly depicted in the book’s cover design) even bother to build the technological capabilities that underpin competitive manufacturing performance? Or should we accept defeat and look elsewhere for more cost-effective drivers of socio-economic development? Can African countries opt to forget manufacturing and focus on the service sectors like education, tourism and culture? These and similar questions will need to be addressed not only by the Lalls and the Pietrobellis of this world but, probably more
964
Book review / Technovation 23 (2003) 963–964
important, the Wangwes, the Mlawas, the Mwamadzingos, the Oyeyinkas and the Ogbus from Africa. Did I hear members of the African Technology Policy Studies Network (ATPS) say “yes, yes…”?!
Abeeku Brew-Hammond, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology/Kumasi Institute of Technology and Environment, Kumasi, Ghana doi:10.1016/S0166-4972(03)00079-8