Hon. Khiddu Makubuya

Minister of Education and Sports
Chairman, Uganda National Commission for UNESCO.

 

The current UNESCO Unifying theme of contributing to peace and human development in the era of globalization through its areas of competence clearly summarises the challenges facing Africa. This region has been described as “the last frontier in the fight against poverty”.
Indicators of development continue to register a ‘marked gap’ between the North and Africa. As such the opening years of the new millennium are also a testing period for the African intelligentsia. Their strategies and contribution have been called to question and a need for ‘rethinking development’ has arisen.

Are the African Intellectuals capable of analysing and producing locally formulated solutions to the many problems facing Africa?

The world has become a global village with a set of basic minimum standards expected of all nations. This was the driving force behind the Millennium Development Goals declared by the United Nations in 2000 to which Uganda is committed. The new generation of educated Africans have to quickly master the art of steering the continent beyond this basic global agenda, which was drawn up for all developing countries.

Educated systems have to be modified to make them relevant to the needs of our development paradigm. Technological capability must be nurtured and developed so as to come to grips with the natural calamities, which afflict the continent like drought, famine and floods.

The above challenges for the continent are real and urgent. A pragmatic operationalization of the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) is mandatory.

This is the only African solution, which has been formulated for achieving sustainable development in the 21st century for the continent. UNESCO has also endorsed NEPAD. The NEPAD document should be at the centre stage of African intellectual debates. At this point in time, how many Universities in Africa have held public debates on NEPAD or how many meetings have been held to review the progress of NEPAD on the continent?

African intellectuals must take the lead to galvanise their governments into action. In the nineteen sixties and early seventies, African Universities and intellectuals were at the forefront of the campaign for African liberation from colonialism. The current generation of African Intellectuals should take up the call to champion African Economic empowerment and development.