Science and technology in Cabo Verde
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Science and technology in Cape Verde examines government policies designed to foster a national innovation system and the impact of these policies.


Socio-economic context


Governance

Cape Verde , national_anthem = () , official_languages = Portuguese , national_languages = Cape Verdean Creole , capital = Praia , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , demonym ...
remains a model for political rights and civil liberties in Africa, according to a 2014 country study by the
African Development Bank The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) or (BAD) is a multilateral development finance institution headquartered in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, since September 2014. The AfDB is a financial provider to African governments and private companies i ...
. In 2021, it ranked 4th on the Ibrahim Index of African Governance, which assesses 54 countries. On the
Human Development Index The Human Development Index (HDI) is a statistic composite index of life expectancy, education (mean years of schooling completed and expected years of schooling upon entering the education system), and per capita income indicators, whi ...
, it is ranked 128th. Life expectancy was 76.9 years in 2023, the second-highest in Africa after Algeria.


Economic performance

The economy of Cape Verde is oriented towards services (75% of GDP in 2012), with agriculture contributing a further 8% and industry 17% of GDP. In 2012, the country's main export products were
mackerel Mackerel is a common name applied to a number of different species of pelagic fish, mostly from the family Scombridae. They are found in both temperate and tropical seas, mostly living along the coast or offshore in the oceanic environment. ...
(16.5%), skipjack or stripebellied bonito (15.4%), and
yellowfin tuna The yellowfin tuna (''Thunnus albacares'') is a species of tuna found in pelagic waters of tropical and subtropical oceans worldwide. Yellowfin is often marketed as ahi, from the Hawaiian language, Hawaiian , a name also used there for the closel ...
s (14.2%). GDP per capita rose from $5,338 to $6,416 (in purchasing power parity) between 2007 and 2013. Between 2002 and 2008, Cape Verde experienced strong annual growth of over 4% which even peaked at 15% in 2007, according to the
World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...
. After a brief recession in 2009, the economy bounced back to 4% growth in 2011, 0.8% in 2013, and 1.5% in 2015. Thanks to its sustained economic performance, this isolated and fragmented territory with a dry
Sahelian The Sahel (; ar, ساحل ' , "coast, shore") is a region in North Africa. It is defined as the ecoclimatic and biogeographic realm of transition between the Sahara to the north and the Sudanian savanna to the south. Having a hot semi-arid cli ...
climate and scarce natural resources acceded to the World Bank's middle-income category in 2011. Only four other West African countries have obtained the same status:
Côte d'Ivoire Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is ...
,
Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...
,
Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...
and
Senegal Senegal,; Wolof: ''Senegaal''; Pulaar: 𞤅𞤫𞤲𞤫𞤺𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭 (Senegaali); Arabic: السنغال ''As-Sinighal'') officially the Republic of Senegal,; Wolof: ''Réewum Senegaal''; Pulaar : 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 ðž ...
. In order to maintain the momentum, the government has devised its third ''Growth and Poverty Strategy P'',''aper'' covering the period 2012–2016. Expanding the coverage of health service delivery and human capital development have been designated priority areas to ensure
inclusive growth Inclusive growth is economic growth that raises standards of livings for broad swaths of a population. Proponents for inclusive growth warn that inequitable growth may have adverse political outcomes. The definition of inclusive growth implies dire ...
, with an emphasis on technical and vocational training.


Education

In 2013, Cape Verde invested 5% of its GDP in education. Although this is down from 7.5% in 2004, it remains high. Cape Verde's literacy rate is the highest in West Africa: 98% of young people between the ages of 15 and 24 were literate in 2012. The same year, 93% of children attended secondary school in Cape Verde (up from 85% in 2009), compared to an average of 46% for West Africa as a whole. Cape Verde spent 0.79% of GDP on higher education in 2013; this value increased to 0.9% in 2017. Cape Verde raised its tertiary enrolment rate from 15% in 2009 to 21% in 2012. The average gross enrolment rate for tertiary education in West Africa was 9.2% in 2012. The same year, there were 10 PhD students, 11,210 were studying for a bachelor's or master's degree ,and 580 were enrolled in non-degree post-secondary education. In total, there were 11,800 tertiary students, compared to 4,567 in 2006. In 2011, 59% of tertiary students were women. Cabo Verde stands out in West Africa for the inclusiveness of its higher education system. Women make up one-third of students but two-thirds of graduates. One in four young people attend university and one-third of students opt for STEM fields.


A 'cyber island'

Cape Verde Telecom linked all the islands by fibre optic cable in 2000. In December 2010, it joined the West African Cable System project to provide residents with an alternative access route to high-speed internet. Thanks to this, internet penetration more than doubled between 2008 and 2013 to 37.5% of the population. As the cost remains high, the government provides centres where people can surf the internet free of charge. In 2015, the government was planning to build a ‘cyber-island’ which would develop and offer services that include software development, computer maintenance and back office operations. Approved in 2013, the
Praia Praia (, Portuguese language, Portuguese for "beach") is the capital and largest city of Cape Verde.
Technology Park is a step in this direction. Financed by the
African Development Bank The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) or (BAD) is a multilateral development finance institution headquartered in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, since September 2014. The AfDB is a financial provider to African governments and private companies i ...
, the park opened in June 2023. The first phase of this digitalization project was completed in 2014 with the construction of a national data Centre and an upgrade of the telecommunications network, the government systems network platform and the island interconnection platform. By 2018, 57% of the population had access to Internet. According to the 2017 International Telecommunication Union Report, Cabo Verde ranks fourth in Africa in the ICT Development Index. The government launched the Mundu Novu project in 2009 to modernize education. The project is introducing the concept of interactive education into teaching and mainstreaming informatics into curricula at different levels. Some 150 000 computers are being distributed to public schools. By early 2015, the Mundu Novu education plan had equipped 18 schools and training centres with internet access, installed the Wimax antenna network across the country, produced teaching kits on ICTs for 433 classrooms in 29 pilot schools (94% of all classrooms), given university students access to digital libraries and introduced courses in information technology, in addition to implementing an Integrated Management and Monitoring System for university students.


Research trends


Financial investment

So far, the research sector has had little impact in West Africa, owing to a lack of national research and innovation strategies, low investment in research and development, little private-sector involvement and little intraregional collaboration among West African researchers. The government remains by far the biggest source of research funding in all countries. In 2011, Cape Verde devoted just 0.07% of GDP to research and development, among the lowest rates in West Africa. The Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Culture plans to strengthen the research and academic sectors by placing emphasis on greater mobility, through exchange programmes and international co-operation agreements. As part of this strategy, Cape Verde is participating in the Ibero-American academic mobility programme that expects to mobilize 200 000 academics between 2015 and 2020. Cape Verde was ranked 91st in the
Global Innovation Index The Global Innovation Index is an annual ranking of countries by their capacity for, and success in, innovation, published by the World Intellectual Property Organization. It was started in 2007 by INSEAD and ''World Business'', a British maga ...
in 2023.


Researchers

Cape Verde counted 25 researchers in 2011, a researcher density of 51 per million inhabitants. The world average was 1,083 per million in 2013. All 25 researchers were working in the government sector in 2011. There was no research being conducted in either medical or agricultural sciences. One in three researchers were women (36%) in 2011. Of the eight engineers involved in research and development, one was a woman. Three of the five researchers working in natural sciences were women, as were three of the six social scientists and two of the five researchers from the humanities. Table: Researchers in Cape Verde by volume and sector of employment, 2011 ''Other countries are given for comparison'' Note: The sum of the breakdown by field of science may not correspond to the total because of fields not elsewhere classified. Source: ''UNESCO Science Report: towards 2030'' (2015), Table 18.5 Table: Researchers in Cape Verde by field of science, 2011 ''Other countries are given for comparison'' Source: ''UNESCO Science Report: towards 2030'' (2015), Table 18.5


Research output

Cape Verde published a single article in an internationally catalogued journal in 2005 and 25 articles in 2014, according to Thomson Reuters' Web of Science (Science Citation Index Expanded). In 2014, Cape Verde had the second-highest publication intensity (65 articles per million inhabitants) in West Africa after
Gambia The Gambia,, ff, Gammbi, ar, غامبيا officially the Republic of The Gambia, is a country in West Africa. It is the smallest country within mainland AfricaHoare, Ben. (2002) ''The Kingfisher A-Z Encyclopedia'', Kingfisher Publicatio ...
(65 articles per million inhabitants), another country with a small population. The average for sub-Saharan Africa in 2014 was 20 articles per million inhabitants in the Web of Science (Science Citation Index Expanded). Scientists from Cape Verde published most in geosciences between 2008 and 2014: 33 out of 78 articles (42% of output). Over this seven-year period, there were just 3 articles from this country focusing on agricultural sciences and seven on medical sciences. This is no doubt related to the fact that there were no researchers specializing in these two fields in 2011. In the great majority of
ECOWAS The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS; also known as in French and Portuguese) is a regional political and economic union of fifteen countries located in West Africa. Collectively, these countries comprise an area of , and in ...
countries, more than eight out of ten scientific articles catalogued in the Web of Science (Science Citation Index Expanded) between 2008 and 2014 had foreign partners. In the case of Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau and Liberia, this was even the case for the totality of articles, a situation which also correlates with a low output. The main collaborators of researchers from Cape Verde between 2008 and 2014 were Portuguese (42 articles), Spanish (23), British (15 ), American (11) and German (8) scientists.


Regional science and technology policy

Cape Verde is a member of the
Economic Community of West African States The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS; also known as in French and Portuguese) is a regional political union, political and economic union of fifteen countries located in West Africa. Collectively, these countries comprise an ...
(ECOWAS). In 2011, ECOWAS adopted a Policy on Science and Technology (ECOPOST). ECOPOST is an integral part of the subregion's development blueprint to 2020, entitled ''Vision 2020''. ''Vision 2020'' proposes a road map for improving governance, accelerating economic and monetary integration and fostering public–private partnerships. It endorses the planned harmonization of investment laws in West Africa and suggests pursuing ‘with vigour’ the creation of a regional investment promotion agency. Countries are urged to promote efficient, viable small and medium-sized enterprises and to expose traditional agriculture to modern technology, entrepreneurship and innovation, in order to improve productivity. ECOPOST provides a framework for member states wishing to improve – or elaborate for the first time – their own national policies and action plans for science, technology and innovation. Importantly, ECOPOST includes a mechanism for monitoring and evaluating the policy's implementation, an aspect often overlooked. ECOPOST advocates the development of a science culture in all sectors of society, including through science popularization, the dissemination of research results in local and international journals, the commercialization of research results, greater technology transfer, intellectual property protection, stronger university–industry ties and the enhancement of traditional knowledge.


Regional research centres

Two regional research centres have been set up in the city of Praia, the capital of Cape Verde, since 2010.


Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency

The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) established the ECOWAS Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ECREEE) in Praia in 2010. The centre has been established within the United Nations' Sustainable Energy for All programme. The mission of the centre is to create favorable framework conditions for renewable energy and
energy efficiency Energy efficiency may refer to: * Energy efficiency (physics), the ratio between the useful output and input of an energy conversion process ** Electrical efficiency, useful power output per electrical power consumed ** Mechanical efficiency, a ra ...
markets in the 15 member states of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Since its founding, there has been growing external demand for its services. Cabo Verde plans to lead by example by becoming entirely reliant on renewable energy sources by 2025. Two other centres in sub-Saharan Africa will seek to replicate the ECREEE model. One will be established by
UNIDO The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) (French: Organisation des Nations unies pour le développement industriel; French/Spanish acronym: ONUDI) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that assists countries in e ...
and the
East African Community The East African Community (EAC) is an intergovernmental organisation composed of seven countries in the Great Lakes region of East Africa: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the United Republic of Tanzania, the Republics of Kenya, Burundi, ...
to serve Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. A second will serve the 15 Member States of the
Southern Africa Development Community The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is an inter-governmental organization headquartered in Gaborone, Botswana. Its goal is to further regional socio-economic cooperation and integration as well as political and security coopera ...
. Both centres should be fully operational by 2014. Other centres are being established within the same network in the Caribbean and Pacific.


West Africa Institute

The West Africa Institute was established in Praia in 2010 to provide the missing link between policy and research in the regional integration process. The institute is a service provider, conducting research for regional and national public institutions, the private sector, civil society and the media. The think tank also organizes political and scientific dialogues between policy-makers, regional institutions and members of civil society. There are ten research themes: * the historical and cultural bases of regional integration; * citizenship; * governance; * regional security; * economic challenges to market integration in West Africa; * new information and communication technologies; * education; * the problem of shared resources (land, water, minerals, coastal and maritime security); * funding of non-governmental organizations in West Africa; and * migration. The idea for the West Africa Institute emerged from 15 research workshops on the theme of regional integration organized in the ECOWAS member states by UNESCO's Management of Social Transformations programme. In 2008, the Summit of Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) unanimously endorsed the idea to create the West Africa Institute In 2009, UNESCO's General Conference established the West Africa Institute as one of its category 2 institutes, which means that it functions under the auspices of UNESCO. A year later, the Government of Cape Verde passed a law establishing the institute in the capital. The institute is the fruit of a public–private partnership involving ECOWAS, the
West African Economic and Monetary Union The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS; also known as in French and Portuguese) is a regional political and economic union of fifteen countries located in West Africa. Collectively, these countries comprise an area of , and in ...
, UNESCO, the pan-African Ecobank and the Government of Cape Verde.


Sources

* {{Free-content attribution , title = UNESCO Science Report: the Race Against Time for Smarter Development. , author = Schneegans, S., T. Straza and J. Lewis (eds) , publisher = UNESCO , page numbers = , source = , documentURL = https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000377433/PDF/377433eng.pdf.multi , license statement URL = , license = C-BY-SA 3.0 IGO


References