Olaopa decries poor policy research in public governance
The Chairman of the Federal Civil Service Commission, Prof. Tunji Olaopa, has decried poor policy research in public governance, saying there is a disconnect between research objectives and policy concerns.
Olaopa made this known at the 6th General Assembly and Conference of the Association of African Public Service Commissions (AAPSCOMS) held in Nairobi, Kenya, from 6 to 8 November.
Speaking on the topic “Defining Issues in Research And Policy Linkages In Country-level Development Management in Africa”, Olaopa explained that the disconnect is evident in the low level of research cost in Africa compared to global total contributions.
“This reality explains why African states cannot design their development agenda on their own terms. It also validates the reigning theory that African policy-makers do not as yet understand what development is all about”, he said.
He added ” African states still focus on the hardware of development namely, how many roads, schools, hospitals, mass housing, etc. are built, in utter disregard for intangible assets that enable sustainable development such as the quality of country’s human capital and education; the strength of institutions, rule of law and constitutional order; the value of social capital of communities, efficient judicial system, property rights, timely and reliable statistics, reformed public service, R&D, data security and privacy, intellectual property, patents, copyright, culture of innovation, knowledge creation, to name just a few”.
“Most African states have indeed not confronted a critical indicator of underdevelopment around the question regarding why talented African professionals or experts in Canada, Germany or Japan are ten times more productive than their counterparts who choose to remain in Africa. The answer is that once they walk into those development enabled places, they step into a capacity context provided by an intangible per capital wealth worth on average over $500,000 compared to those in Africa contending with a paltry of $2,748 per capital”, said Olaopa.
Olaopa noted that when African countries plan development with public policy research, such public policy research is often midwifed by Western countries, adding “The outcomes are public policies which are eventually out of tune with the local needs of Africa”.
