Democratic Developmental States of Africa: Geospatial Technology - Development Nexus

Abstract

Developmental States in Africa pioneered by Nkrumah’s Pan-Africanism, Nyerere’s Ujamaa, and Kaunda’s Humanism were the first attempts to involve the local African citizenry in the ownership of the means of production to improve their livelihoods during the post-independence era. However due to a myriad of problems these efforts failed leading to underdevelopment. Democratic developmental states mark a paradigm shift that attempts to ‘brings back politics’ to the majority poor to improve their livelihoods as it believed that democracy and development are self-reinforcing. Technology is fundamental in operationalizing democratic developmental states objectives in Africa if this ideology is to become a reality. Space research and deployment of supporting technologies including remote sensing and Geospatial Information Systems (GIS) remain fundamental to bridge the technological gap between Africa and the rest of the world hence tackling Africa’s biggest challenges. This paper will have a dual structure firstly, analyzing a (SWOT) analysis, the Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats that Africa is facing if it embarks on Geospatial Technology to solve critical challenges. Secondly, the paper will look in detail using Threats, Opportunities, Weaknesses and Strengths (TOWS) analysis that will present action plans using the Strengths/Opportunities, Strengths/Threats, Weaknesses/Opportunities and finally Weaknesses/Threats framework. These linkages will assist in the strategic planning of how GIS can be applied innovatively and thus bridging the technology gap between the African continent and the rest of the world to foster economic development.