Speakers
Dr Aida Opoku-Mensah
Special Advisor: Post-2015 Development Agenda, Financing for Development Focal Person, UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Ethiopia
Biography
Dr. Opoku-Mensah is currently working for the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia as Special Advisor to the ECA Executive Secretary on Post-2015 Development Agenda – now known as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) & Agenda 2030, and her responsibilities include the coordination of activities at the continental and global levels, working with key partners. She was also the Focal Person for the Third International Conference on Financing for Development (a successor conference to Monterrey & Doha) held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in July 2015. Her previous roles in the same organization include serving as Director, ICT, Science & Technology Division, where she managed ECA’s programme on Harnessing Information, Science and Technology for Africa’s Development, which included the Knowledge, Library and Information Services programme. As Director of that division, she specifically led and implemented impressive initiatives such as UNECA's African Information Society Initiative (AISI) a continental digital agenda supporting African countries to develop and implement national ICT4D policies and strategies, Technology in Government in Africa Awards (TIGA) to encourage African Governments' use of technology for development, and was one of the co-architects of the Innovation Prize for Africa (IPA) – an initiative to encourage African innovators and inventors to enhance their roles in the African development process. Dr Opoku-Mensah's career spans academia, as well as the public and international sectors, and in philanthropy, working for the Ford Foundation's West Africa office in Lagos, Nigeria. She established the Panos Southern Africa regional office based in Lusaka, Zambia, and served as its first director and lectured at London's City University on communication policy, among other assignments. She has a PhD from University of Leeds, MA from London's City University and BA from the University of Ghana, and sits on a number international and regional advisory panels and boards. In 2012, she received the Geospatial World Leadership Award for 'Making a difference in promoting geospatial technology in Africa' and made the ‘African Female Diplomat of the Year’ from BEN TV (UK) in their 2012 Diplomatic Awards category.
Presentation Abstract
The Mega-trends of Industrialization and the Knowledge Economy in Africa: The Book industry in Perspective
The current development narrative in Africa focuses on economic transformation and the urgent need for industrialization on the continent. Furthermore, with technological innovations taking place as a result of ICTs within societies and economies throughout the world, there is now an acknowledgement of the Knowledge Economy even on the African continent. These trends withstanding, there are serious challenges for African publishing. One key observation is that if the continent has to industrialize it must do so based on beefing up its knowledge production infrastructure to support its industrialization quest and the ability to properly become part of the global Knowledge Economy. Despite the impact of ICTs in many spheres of industrial life and in an era of unprecedented digital opportunities, a part of the African industry that is not significantly transforming itself is the book publishing industry. This is surprising given the rich and diversified culture and cultural heritage in Africa. Nevertheless, publishing, is critical to the cultural, scientific and educational life of nations, including having an important economic role. While countries can import machinery or even mobile phones, the production of books, however reflect the culture, history and concerns of a nation or people cannot be left to others. This paper interrogates the social and cultural importance of book publishing within a national context and why it deserves a special place in building an industrialized Africa as well as managing the advent of the Knowledge Economy. In its basic form, the publishing industry generates knowledge and is the anchor for building a Knowledge Economy. In addition, an African industrialization agenda should encompass the industrialization of the creative industrial sector, especially the book publishing industry.