Technology can be considered as all the processes that are adopted in transforming inputs into finished products. Various processes can be used to transform the same type of inputs into finished products.
It is often argued that the development process is constrained by the lack of modern science and technology. Africa is characterised by technological backwardness in the sense that the technologies in use are relatively ancient, as compared to other continents. The lack of modern technologies in Africa explains the lack of development.
In the traditional sectors of African economies, the technologies that are used have been handed over from generation to generation, with few modifications. These technologies are not based on modern science, but rather on tradition. Consequently such technologies are less-suited to meet the challenges of modern society.
Production is slow and inadequate. The production process is inefficient, and designed to cater for a single family or village. However, the challenges of modern society are much more wider, and the demands for development are much more challenging. The traditional sector is, therefore, an obstacle to the entire process through its resistance to modern technologies. Some scholars argue that the process of development is essentially a systematic destruction of the traditional sector, and an erection in its stead is a modern sector that is able to assimilate new technologies.
In the modern sector of African economies, the prevalent nature of the technologies used is that they are imported from developed countries through technology transfer; the international movement of technology from one society where it is developed to another one.
Certain issues arise from technological transfer that may explain the failure of imported technologies in developing countries. Technologies are designed within a particular socio-cultural system from which it draws its tenets.
Technology, therefore, reflects the values, culture, economy, etc of the society in which they are developed. Technologies are thus designed to solve problems that are particular to a society in which they are developed.
If through technology transfer these technologies are uprooted from the society in which they were designed to Africa, several problems are anticipated. These technologies would clash with the social values, culture and economic characteristics of Africa. There is a direct conflict between the design of the technology and the environment of African society. Accordingly, these technologies are not expected to be as efficient as they are in developed countries because of the differences in social, economic and cultural characteristics. This explains why western technology does not perform impressively in developing countries. After a long experience of technology transfer from developed countries to Africa, very little progress is made towards domestic technology capacity-building.
Much of imported technologies are capital-intensive or labour-saving in nature. That is, they are designed to use more capital than labour, and save on labour. This is reflective of the economic characteristics of developed societies where these technologies are developed. In developed societies, there is plentiful supply of capital and a relative shortage of labour. As a result, capital is relatively cheaper when compared to labour. This occurrence stems from the law of supply and demand. If a factor of production is in plentiful supply, it will tend to be cheaper than the factor that is in relative scarcity. Since capital in developed countries is in relative plentiful supply, it is cheaper than labour that is in scarcity. Accordingly, in order to be efficient, technologies in developed societies tend to be capital-intensive in order to exploit the advantage of the cheaper factor of production. Technology that uses labour would be inefficient because labour is the expensive factor of production. In developed countries, therefore, capital-intensive technologies are more efficient, considering the factor endowments.
However, in developing countries, the factor endowments do not reflect those found in developed countries. In developing countries, labour is in more plentiful supply than capital. Consequently, labour is much cheaper than capital.
Logically then, efficient technologies in developing countries are those that use more labour than capital. However, since the technologies in use are mostly imported and capital-intensive, these technologies tend to be inefficient in developing countries. They tend to be costly to operate because capital has to be continuously sourced to keep them in operation. Given the scarcity of capital, this is costly to acquire and puts increasing pressure on the scarce capital resources. The result often is that after a few months, these technologies are abandoned because there is no capital to operate them. Spare parts can’t be acquired due to a shortage of capital, etc. These technologies, therefore, go to waste before they even pay the cost of their purchase.
Imported technologies tend to be skill-intensive in the sense that they require specialised training to operate. This tendency is also a reflection of the highly-skilled labour available in developed countries. The labour is suitable for operating highly complex technological processes. However, in Africa, highly-trained manpower is not readily available. There is a relative shortage of skills in specialised areas. The consequence of this skills shortage is that the imported technologies are not readily accessible to the majority of the population. The technology remains in the enclaves of a few privileged people in urban areas. Commercial farmers, for instance, have the skills to manage high- yielding hybrid crop varieties, while peasant farmers do not. As a consequence, peasant farmers are being bypassed by this technological innovation. Appropriate technologies within most African societies should be commensurate with the skills’ availability of the majority of the population. The technology must require the type of skills that are available.
Technology should be seen as an important tool of enhancing economic development, if put in the right context. Technologies designed in other societies would tend to be inappropriate if transferred to another society in which they were not designed. Within the African context, the technologies should be labour-intensive, relatively less skill-intensive, and less expensive to acquire and to manage. These technologies must be small-scale in nature so that they are able to be distributed sparsely among the population. They should be rural-based in order to be accessible to the rural areas in which the majority of the population lives. Furthermore, these technologies should utilise local raw materials as inputs in the production process to lessen the need for importing inputs. Appropriate technology in the African context should also be linked to the type of the product that is being produced. Emphasis should be on the production of products that are of direct relevance to the majority of the population. For instance, there is no much sense in spending vast amounts of resources to import a technology to assemble cars when children do not even have school shoes.
Reverend Jan A Scholtz is the former chairperson of the //Kharas Regional Council and former !Nami#nus constituency councillor. He is a holder of a Diploma in Theology, B-Theo (SA), a Diploma in Youth Work and Development from the University of Zambia (UNZA), Diploma in Education III (KOK), and BA (HED) from UNISA.