Science, Technology, Development

STD - ISSN 2752-6879 - © ISTE Ltd

Journal issues

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Recent articles

Clusters in sub -Saharan Africa and the role of public interventions: theoretical approach and analysis method

As geographic concentrations of businesses and related institutions around a single sector, clusters have become promising drivers of economic transformation and innovation. Inspired by successes observed in developed countries, numerous initiatives have sought to understand their specificities in different contexts. In sub-Saharan Africa, however, more pronounced structural, economic, and institutional challenges raise questions about the impact of these particularities on cluster development and competitiveness. Based on a literature review, our study analyzes the specificities of sub-Saharan clusters by examining agglomeration effects, resource allocation challenges, and the crucial role of public intervention. While informal clusters are flexible, they face limits in competitiveness and international market integration, largely due to a lack of formal governance and connections with research and financial institutions. The study thus highlights the importance of stable and continuous public policies to maximize their potential, while also proposing directions for future research on intervention models suited to African contexts.

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The Responsible University: Definition, Missions, Challenges in the Global South, and a Focus on Africa

The latest IPCC report highlights the irreversible environmental damage caused by human activity, emphasizing regional disparities and the increased vulnerability of countries in the Global South. This alarming context of the sustainability crisis urgently calls on universities to provide relevant knowledge and solutions. By integrating responsibility into their teaching, research, and research valorization missions, responsible universities play a crucial role in training decision-makers committed to SDGs, conducting research relevant to societal challenges, and developing responsible innovations. This article seeks to examine how universities in the Global South contribute to the formulation and implementation of solutions to address sustainability challenges in their regions. It highlights that the concept of a responsible university is especially significant for the Global South due to the disproportionate impacts of climate change, which exacerbates socio-economic inequalities.

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Ethnographic survey and evolution of practices in the health sector in rural areas in Burkina Faso

This text describes and analyzes the influence of an ethnographic survey experience on the reconfiguration of micro perceptions and practices in the register of health and illness in rural Burkina Faso. This study aims to see how the relationship with the people surveyed made possible by the use of the ethnographic method has, over the course of the data collection stay, contributed to influencing the adoption of modern healthcare recourse practices by users. health care services, offered in formal health centers in the locality. The methodology is based on an ethnographic field approach carried out over more than ten (10) months of in situ presence in the Hauts Bassins region. During this investigation period, more than one hundred (100) free interviews and as many semi-structured interviews were carried out with a theoretical sample of community actors (people in households and other social places on the site of the study), health workers, informal therapists. However, only around ten semi-structured interviews were used to support the argument of this text. From the results of the study, it appears that the relationship between the researcher and the people surveyed leads to an evolution in therapeutic choice practices. Several people interviewed make more systematic use of modern health services, which was not the case despite the existence of health centers. Ultimately, it therefore follows that ethnography as an activity included in the process of scientific data collection can, through the positioning of the researcher, contribute to improving the use of formal modern health services.

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Dynamism of growth of Avicennia marina for the restoration of zone damaged in the new area protected Bombetoka Belemboka, case of Morahariva and Amboanio Mahajanga Madagascar

Madagascar is one of the countries richest in biodiversity. The mangrove swamp is part of this biologic diversity of which the West part of Madagascar possesses the majority of it. Threats as the climatic changes and the pressures anthropic weigh on the mangrove swamps. Our objective fundamental of this survey aims to promote the restoration of the mangrove swamp on the dynamism of growth of Avicennia marina in Bombetoka Belemboka Mahajanga. Two hypotheses have been proposed, on the one hand the restoration of the mangrove swamp on the dynamism of growth of Avicennia marina, and on the other hand the creation of a livable habitat to the species associated to the profit fairness of the riparian populations. Of this fact, some investigations ethnobotaniquec has been done by the local population and also a follow-up of culture on the 4 substrata. The data are treated statistically on Anova and Kruskal - Wallis. The gotten results showed that the rate of germination is better in the A1 substratum (94%), A2 (87%), and A3 (86%) on the other hand in the A4 substratum (71%) the death rate is observed strongly. For the growth of the Avicennia marina species, there is a meaningful difference between the different substrata via the length, the width, the number of the leaves and the height, the diameter of the young plantations. The restoration and the management will be necessary to consider the perpetuation and the survival of the rest of our inshore resources for the future.

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The Impact of Cognitive Absorption Dimensions on the Appropriation of ICTs among students of Public Universities in the Casablanca-Settat region, Morocco

Over the past two decades, the use of Internet and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the classroom as part of the learning environment has grown considerably. The value of the ICT in education (ICTE) is now widely recognized and accepted. The promptness of development in the digital has put forth pressure on organizations, particularly higher education institutions, to integrate ICT in teaching activities as well as in the entire university environment. These pressures have involved all the actors in higher education, who are increasingly improving the quality of their services. Within the same vein, teachers and learners are currently taking courses in a hybrid mode, to be acquainted with the new learning strategies. Previous research has focused heavily on studying the educational performance of students with regard to the use of ICT independently of the contribution of cognition and appropriation of ICT in student performance. Accordingly, this research explores the impact of the dimensions of cognitive absorption (CA), inspired by the flow theory (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990), on the appropriation of ICT. We conducted a quantitative study among students of Moroccan public universities in the Casablanca-Settat region, and used the structural equation method (SEM), through the SMART PLS 4.0 software. The study used data collected from a sample of 184 students. In our study, the structural equation modeling revealed that CA has a significant and positive impact on ICT appropriation among public higher education students. The findings indicate that an exploration of CA in the Moroccan higher education environment is important to understand students’ learning needs for better educational performance.

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The protection of intellectual property rights and technology transfer through licensing in African countries: An empirical analysis of panel data

This paper examines the relationship between the protection of intellectual property rights (IPR) and technology transfer through licensing in African countries. We ask the question: In these countries, does the introduction of IPR protection encourage technology transfers through licensing? We use panel data for a sample of 12 African countries, three from North Africa and nine from Sub-Saharan Africa over the period 1995 to 2020. The empirical results show that IPR protection has a positive impact on technology transfer through licensing in these countries. The enforcement of IPR protection laws in African countries increases the incentive for technology transfer. Furthermore, empirical results reveal that the level of economic development, remittances and the demographic size of the country are all key factors in this type of technology transfer. However, education has no impact on technology transfer in these countries.

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Psychosociological determinants of the innovative propensity of cashew producers in Benin

Several research studies have shown the importance of observable factors in triggering the propensity to innovate, but only a few in the agricultural sector consider the unobservable but determining factors in the innovation process. This article analyzes the effects of psychosociological factors on the propensity of cashew producers to innovate through capacity building. The theories of planned behavior and self-determination have mainly been mobilized. Thanks to a structured interview, we sent a questionnaire to 214 cashew producers and organized focus groups using an interview guide. Results obtained from an analysis of the data using the structural equation model suggest that capacity building influences cognitive capital and learning capacity. These variables, in turn, influence the producers’ propensity for innovation through opportunistic thinking, feelings of self-confidence, social autonomy and competence. Finally, in the decision-making process about whether or not to adopt an innovation, propensity is very important.

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Consequences of Economic Activities in the East Region of Madagascar

The extraction of wood for daily domestic use (mainly for coal and construction) is one of the pressures on forests, even if restoration is carried out. Its consequences are considerably increased in the eastern region of Madagascar, due to the unregulated and disproportionate economic activities that operate mainly due to unemployment. Our objective is to highlight the consequences of economic activities in the target sites. Socio-economic surveys were carried out, followed by data analysis using econometric models. Questionnaires queried the reasons for logging and/or forest conversion in relation to the activities of the inhabitants, the species of trees exploited in the forest restoration area for the manufacture of coal, the amount of trees felled, their diameter and the consequences on forest degradation. Variances and standard deviations were calculated for the results obtained. Thus, the consequences of economic activities are significant. The use of fast-growing indigenous species for forest restoration and the promotion of the use of efficient stoves or “fatana mitsitsy” have been recommended.

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Design of a vehicle speed control system for road surveillance: Applied to the city of Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo

This study proposes a system to reduce the number of accidents related to speeding, and aims to facilitate the apprehension of those not complying with speed limits within the city of Lubumbashi. The goal is to create a database and propose a management model for road surveillance by focusing on speeding, in order to significantly reduce the risk of traffic accidents. We limited ourselves to controlling the speed of vehicles within specific areas of Lubumbashi which were presented to us as the places where the highest amount of speed-related accidents occur. We created a database with MYSQL, using specifically the MYSQL Workbench tool, and realized a system management program with MATLAB. This management system allowed us to program the database and to manipulate the data with four functions: writing, display, addition and deletion. Thus, we have chosen a network for transmitting information to the control center via fiber optics. The detector allows us to compare the speed of vehicles to fixed thresholds, which vary from 30 to 70 km/h depending on the area’s speed limits, which are in compliance with the Democratic Republic of Congo’s road traffic laws. The control center would be located at the central office of the Lubumbashi traffic police, where speeding tickets would be generated, to which would be attached all evidence of the offence.

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Institutional governance of genome-edited plants: The case of rice in Madagascar

New breeding techniques (NBT) are today at the centre of a new governance of varietal innovation that is reigniting the debates around the technological promises of GMO varieties. Similar to GMOs, they are controversial due to their ecological, agronomic and socio-economic risks. By examining an experimental case study on genome editing techniques used to develop rice varieties in Madagascar, we explore how the interactions between the different societal stakeholders renew the governance of biotechnology-based varietal innovation. The results suggest that initial experimentation should be reconfigured by strengthening skills to detect genetic modifications in new varieties, as well as by considering societal risks. They highlight the inadequacy of institutional frameworks for biosafety risk assessment in low-income countries. The results also inform us on how to strengthen these frameworks through targeted stakeholder involvement. They suggest that more cooperative approaches will aid in defining the models and objectives of varietal innovations.