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Home / Opinion - Importance of research-practice partnerships for economic growth

Opinion - Importance of research-practice partnerships for economic growth

2021-11-30  Staff Reporter

Opinion - Importance of research-practice partnerships for economic growth

Finding solutions to pressing socio-economic challenges societies across the world face is a mammoth task. In Namibia, a middle-income country with a third world economy, solutions to even basic problems lie in the capital cities of developed countries. Why?  Available evidence shows that Namibia spends 0.34% on research and development (R&D). 

Whatever this figure represents in real terms, at an operational level, most public and some private Namibian institutions despise investing in R&D. Interestingly, despite R&D departments being well-established in public sector institutions, accounting officers would rather spend the so-called research budget on entertainment and other personal allowances. 

Why then should the public and private institutions in Namibia promote research? Vision 2030 identifies education, science and technology as the ‘driving forces’ for achieving its development goals. The African Academy of Sciences encourages Namibian institutions to invest in research on several grounds. 

It is only through research that Namibia will transform into a knowledge-based economy, which can help propel the country’s socio-economic growth. Also, investing in research will enable Namibia to develop homegrown solutions to the numerous problems identified in Vision 2030. 

It is disheartening to note that third world African governments including Namibia, more than six decades after achieving political independence do not still believe in homemade solutions to their local problems. Take, for example, the problem of bucket toilets, which today remains a thorn in parts of Namibia. 

Although the elite may argue that a bucket toilet is a form of dry toilet similar to the one proudly used in some countries of the world, the bucket toilet is a dehumanising practise on affected Namibians. 

How then can researchers, policymakers and practitioners solve Namibia’s most pressing socio-economic problems? The answer lies in research. No number of prayers and/or magic events will serve humanity and Namibians from the current and impending environmental crisis. 

In developed countries, estimates show that there are approximately 25 full-time equivalent researchers per 10 000 people. No wonder such countries can produce so many knowledge-intensive products – products that have high technological content, which supports and influence all aspects of human lives, namely agriculture, education, manufacturing, health and so on.   

The Namibian government should therefore research a critical strategy of its governance. However, with a lean national budget against growing national needs, how can Namibia create capacity for research and increase the country’s research output? At a national level, research should be promoted in four main domains. 

The State through research councils and government departments, tertiary education institutions, the private sector and non-governmental organisations, including trade unions should enter into research-practice partnerships (RPPs) as the main strategy to deal with the most pressing socio-economic problems affecting Namibia today. Within such partnerships, team research and research communities should be established, in which social and natural scientists work together to dissect identified socio-economic problems from different perspectives. For instance, multiple researchers may study infant deaths from pneumonia from different perspectives. 

RPPs are defined by longevity, mutual decision-making and compromise and the commitment of both parties to large-scale, systems-level problem solving, rather than a single project or research question. Research-practice partnerships should therefore be promoted because they can (a) foster close collaborations, (b) help policymakers address the big problems at hand, and (c) complete the work fast enough to inform change. 

Certainly, Namibia needs a robust research environment to change the way we do things in nearly every single sector of the economy. For such an environment to exist, the Namibian research policy landscape requires a novel approach, a 360-degree thinking approach and a total shift in how the State and organisations plan, execute and share their research needs. However, such an approach will only happen when government decides through partnerships to promote the development of and investment in research. Concerns of climate change, social policy on education, health and other socio-economic require a multi-dimensional approach, collaboration, long-term commitment and systems thinking.


2021-11-30  Staff Reporter

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