Ghana Is Going Nowhere Without Engineers: the Corresponding Responsibilities of Engineers

GHANA IS GOING NOWHERE WITHOUT ENGINEERS: THE CORRESPONDING RESPONSIBILITIES OF ENGINEERS

47th Inaugural Address: by Ing. Dr. Kwame Agyeman Boakye, FGhIE 1. INTRODUCTION This address lays out the vision and plans for my tenure as president of the Ghana Institution of Engineers (GhIE) and how I would like my performance to be judged. At the outset, I would like to declare that the theme that will drive all my activities is premised on the notion that: "Ghana is going nowhere without Engineers and therefore the GhIE has a special responsibility to the country." No country ever developed without technology and in the more successful recently developed countries, engineers have been at the forefront of leadership.

1 I will, therefore, briefly outline the role of engineering in national life and what the responsibilities of the engineering community, specifically, the GhIE, ought to be to the nation. That naturally links to what the leadership of the engineering community should be aiming to achieve and in particular, what I would like my contribution to be. The address ends with some concluding remarks.

2. ENGINEERING IN NATIONAL LIFE 2.1 What is Engineering? According to the Engineering Council Act, 2011 (Act 819), Engineering is defined as the science and the art of applying scientific and mathematical principles, judgment and common sense to create, maintain, sustain, develop and apply technology for the needs and desires of society.

Note that while science focuses on the pure pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, be it useful or not, technology results when that knowledge is transformed into application. Engineering, then, is the art of optimally using technology to solve practical problems for the benefit of society. It is primarily concerned with how to direct the scientific discoveries to useful, economical and practical ends. Engineering requires the creative imagination to innovatively apply technology. It seeks technologies that are newer, more cost effective, more easily accessible, etc., in effect, better, to solve problems that meet the needs and desires of society.

2.2 Engineering in Our Daily Lives Let us sketch a day in the life of a Ghanaian, probably in an urban or suburban setting. You get up in the morning, turn on the lights and turn on the tap for water or obtain water from a container filled with water fetched from an external tap, to wash the face. The WC may be flushed. Next comes a shave with a razor, then a bath or shower and dressing up to be ready for work. Perhaps, the radio or TV will be turned on to catch up on the news and quite likely, there will be breakfast warmed with an electric or gas stove or microwave oven. There may be waste to dispose of. Then 2 comes a ride in the car or a walk to the tro-tro station to take a bus to work. The private car or bus will ride on various kinds of roads, some acceptable, others pot-hole infested. Upon arrival at work, if an office worker, the computer will be turned on, there will be access to the Internet, telephone conversations and documents may be prepared and exchanged. For non- office worker, such as a shop owner, lights will be turned on, there will be conversation on the cell phone with suppliers and customers, some kind of adding machine may be used in aiding accounting and goods may be moved by taxi or other types of vehicles. At the end of the day, the office or shop will be locked up. The trip home will be similar to the one in the morning. Upon arriving at home, dinner will be prepared, once again using the electric or gas stove or microwave oven. After dinner, some time may be spent watching TV and some parents may review the homework of their wards under lights provided by the electric power company. There may be another bath or shower before turning off the lights and retiring for the day.

At each step of the daily routine is the work of the engineer: be it the provision of lights, delivery of water, the water sink, the WC, the shaving stick, the radio or TV, the cell phone, the electric or gas stove or microwave oven, the waste disposal, the automobile, the road, the computer or adding machine, etc. The modern life cannot exist without engineering! However, rarely do we think of the engineer except when these amenities are not provided such as when the water does not flow or there is Dumsor, flooding, etc. And that, perhaps, is as it should be since it is the expectation of the consumers that upon meeting their obligation of paying for a service, these unsung heroes -- the engineers -- will continuously and consistently ensure that the amenities they have come to take for granted will be delivered.

2.3 Engineering and National Development National development refers to the ability of a nation to improve the lives of its citizens. Measures of improvement may be material, such as an increase in the gross domestic product, or social, such as literacy rates and availability of healthcare. Many organizations, 3 including the United Nations, have developed extensive ways to measure it. Nevertheless, at the core of concepts like the eight UN Millennium Development Goals which have recently been transitioned to the seventeen UN Sustainable Development Goals is a desire to improve the quality of life for all. It is about poverty elimination and making access to the basics in life -- food, shelter, healthcare, education -- a matter of course.

No matter what metrics are developed to measure impact, science and technology are key drivers to development, because technological and scientific transformations underpin socio- economic advances, be they improvements in health systems, education or infrastructure. As Professor Freeman J. Dyson, a brilliant mathematical physicist said “Technology is a gift of God. After the gift of life, it is perhaps the greatest of God’s gifts. It is the mother of civilization of arts, and of the sciences."

Of great interest to the development agenda is the set of technologies that give rise to a set of capabilities collectively referred to as Information and Communications Technology (ICT). These underlying technologies include the Internet, algorithm and software development, computer architecture and computing, microelectronics and hardware, firmware and operating systems, wireless, optics, network design, etc. ICT is particularly important because of its catalytic effect to provide an enabling environment for other technologies as well as being a focused area of opportunity in itself.

A World Bank report observed that: "Science and Technology are critical inputs for economic development and poverty alleviation. Advances in scientific and technological knowledge made possible the significant reductions of poverty and improvements in the quality of life in both developed and developing countries throughout the 20th century. In the future, the ability of countries to access, comprehend, select, adapt, and use scientific and technological knowledge will increasingly be the determinant of material well-being and quality of life." 4 Developments in science and technology -- delivered through engineering -- are fundamentally altering the way people live, connect, communicate and transact business, with profound effects on economic development. Engineering has been and continues to be the backbone for the development and progress of any country. But for engineering where would we be today? Indeed, there would be no civilization. The Pyramids of Egypt, the Taj Mahal of India, the Great Wall of China, etc., of yesteryear as well as the tunnels and bridges, the provision of easy access to potable water, the control of flooding, the space exploration, the cell phone and easy access to information, to name a few, are all products of engineering. Engineers are the key people in building and sustaining civilization.

It is therefore, not surprising that there is a correlation between the number of engineers in a country and its level of development. Engineers conceptualize, plan, design, build and maintain the platforms -- systems, processes, structures and devices -- upon which development rests. The newly developed and emerging economies such as South Korea, Malaysia, China, India and Brazil have exploited this to full advantage. Korea Republic, for example, as a matter of deliberate policy, developed her engineering capability in key cutting edge areas including semiconductor electronics, telecommunications engineering, computer hardware and software engineering, as well as genetic engineering. The results tell what that has meant for a country that essentially had to start from scratch after the Korean War in the 1950s. Now, a world 'knowledge and innovation power', per capita income has risen from US$67 in 1953 to over US$30,000 today. It has moved itself from a beggar aid recipient nation to a donor country. The story is the same in Singapore and other Asian Tigers.

In Ghana, on the other hand, while our Vision 2020 document put together by the National Development Planning Commission, in my opinion, correctly recognized the fact that "the only means by which the country's resources can be used efficiently to achieve rapid 5 economic growth while maintaining the integrity of the environment hinges on the integration of Science and Technology in the various programs," we seem to have lost sight of the importance of that basic principle in the course of arguing over whether middle income status would be achieved in 2020, 2015 or 2012.

It is also noteworthy that engineers, by their training, make good leaders in the development effort. According to Stephen Covey, the author of: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, there are four imperatives for leaders: they must inspire trust, clarify purpose, align systems and unleash talent. Clarity of purpose and system alignment are driven into engineers on Day 1 of their training, and the other two skills can be taught. Beyond these, engineers possess several other qualities that define a good leader. They are detail-oriented and analytical. While they are meticulous, they still take risks, but calculated ones. They identify the root cause of a problem and provide an economical solution. They tend to have a very realistic outlook on situations and don’t add fluff. They keep it simple. Finally, engineers understand how things fit together and work.

On the other hand, there are reasons why engineers tend not to actively pursue leadership roles. Mainly, they don’t actively promote themselves. The tendency to place great emphasis on data and accomplishments gets in the way of selling oneself, as needed if one is to be able to project those accomplishments in the best possible light. Engineers tend to shy away from self-promotion because they are reluctant to embellish and stray from factual information.

The newly developed and emerging economies, in addition to embracing science and technology, have deployed technical people, especially, engineers in leadership position. China is most noteworthy for this practice. At one point, 8 of the 9 top Chinese government officials were scientists or engineers with the same sort of ratio found at all levels of the Chinese government. President Xi Jinping studied Chemical engineering, President Hu Jintao was trained as a hydraulic engineer, Premier Wen Jiabao, is a geo-mechanical engineer, 6 Yu Zhengsheng, the chairman of the Communist Party graduated from Harbin’s Military Engineering Institute specializing in the design of Automated Missiles, and the Foreign Affairs Minister, Wang Yi, is a Military and Civil Construction Engineer. Scientists and Engineers are the most admired and respected people in China, and to become a politician you better have a degree in science or engineering, and prove that you have a highly disciplined mind.

The Chinese government has placed emphasis through funding, reform, and societal status on science and technology as a fundamental part of the socio-economic development of the country as well as for national prestige.

The emphasis on engineers and scientists as leaders was a deliberate policy consciously borrowed from Singapore, Korea, Malaysia and Taiwan.

Perhaps, Ghana could take a lesson from that. Ironically, our first president, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah attempted such a policy of placing emphasis on science and technology through funding, reform and societal status, but we seem to have reduced it to the usual rhetoric.

Most of our development problems are essentially engineering problems. We can succeed in our war against poverty, disease, illiteracy and environmental degradation only if we make use of science, technology and engineering. For example, the effective way to eliminate many of the diseases we face in Ghana is not through medicine but rather through engineering. The provision of potable water, the absence of which encourages the spread of all water-borne diseases is an engineering problem. The provision of suitable drainage in communities to eliminate the fertile breeding grounds for mosquitoes that transmit the malaria parasite and prevent destructive flooding is an engineering problem. Needless to say, Dumsor is an engineering problem. A large part of the solution to the problem of food insufficiency lies in mechanization of agriculture, proper management of watersheds and the application of science and engineering to agro processing. In this connection, let me express my exasperation that 59 years after the passage of the Gold 7 Coast to Ghana, the hoe and cutlass continue to be the prevalent tools for farming in our dear nation.

Without a doubt, Engineering is one of the principal weapons we need to fight poverty, disease, illiteracy and environmental degradation. As Engr. Ademola Isaac Olorunfemi of the Nigeria Society of Engineers observed in his presidential inaugural address in 2014, "... [in the] quest for much desired economic emancipation, the logical pathway is first through technological emancipation. [The nation] must first seek engineering conquest in order to gain technological emancipation, upon which economic prosperity shall be made manifest.”

3. RESPONSIBILITY OF THE GHANA INSTITUTION OF ENGINEERS 3.1 Overview If engineering capacity of a nation is one of the most important factors necessary for achieving socio-economic development, then the engineering community bears a special responsibility.

The GhIE seeks to promote and advance the science and practice of engineering to the benefit of society in Ghana and Africa, and globally. To achieve the objective, the Institution will collaborate with the relevant statutory bodies, in particular, the Engineering Council -- the government regulatory entity for engineering practice that has recently been inaugurated -- to undertake the following.

4. Registration and Regulation 5. Maintaining Professional Standards 6. Providing Civic Service 7. Promoting and Recognizing Excellence

These inter-related functions provide the framework for the GhIE to help move Ghana's socio-economic development forward. My predecessors, the 46 previous presidents have in various ways -- through inauguration

8 speeches, presidential addresses, etc. -- expanded on the GhIE role. I will, therefore, liberally make reference to and build on their ideas.

7.1 Registration and Regulation The GhIE must work with the various government agencies to ensure that the nation has the requisite engineering resources for its development and that those who practice engineering do so legally and competently. It needs to strengthen its existing base, develop a sustainable pipeline for future engineers and expand to become the umbrella for the practice of engineering and technology profession in Ghana. This implies satisfying the existing membership while preparing the young for an engineering career and sustaining their interest. It also implies mobilizing all Ghanaian engineering resources both within and outside Ghana. The Institution took a major step toward this goal when it brought the Ghana Armed Forces engineers into the fold. The success of this year's conference is a testimony.

With respect to the young, GhIE must develop programs that will generate interest in engineering at the basic level, especially in High Schools. For this to be a reality, students must develop interest in science and mathematics. However, it is recognized that there is a deficit in the teaching and learning of these subjects at the lower educational levels. The GhIE must, therefore, collaborate with the Ministry of Education, the Ghana Education Service and other entities such as Ghana Science Association to address the issue. Beyond that, the Institution needs to evangelize and expose these young minds to the prospects of an engineering career through visits to the schools. There must be a special emphasis to attract girls to the profession.

We must, in addition, ensure that the next generation of our professionals are trained and mentored to keep pace with the growth and complexity of the profession and our infrastructural development. The experienced professionals could help in the development of younger ones and effect knowledge transfer in the course of national development.

9 We also find that there are many engineering practitioners who are not yet members of the Institution. We need to make them aware of the regulatory implications and facilitate their membership into the GhIE. We need to develop a database of engineering practitioners in the country and develop ways to bring them into the fold.

Finally, the Institution must undertake to bring into its fold the Ghanaian diaspora and set up branches around the world. We already have cooperative arrangements with international professional bodies, some of which already have Ghanaian members. We can encourage these members to become the GhIE branch in those countries.

7.2 Maintaining Professional Standards The credibility of the GhIE rests largely on the integrity of engineering practitioners and how well they perform their tasks.

Toward that end, the Institution should monitor, evaluate and take corrective actions on the performance of Members and Registered Entities; recognize programs of education relevant to engineering practice; prescribe, uphold and enforce professional engineering standards, conduct and ethics of Members and Registered Entities; exercise disciplinary powers over Members in respect of the practice of engineering and Registered Entities in respect of engineering services and engineering training; and promote the welfare of Members and Registered Entities.

Poor workmanship, use of cheap and inferior materials, wrong interpretation of building design, inadequate supervision, non adherence to due process in building construction, lack of maintenance culture, abuse of plans and the activity of quacks are some of the reasons for bad reputation of engineers. Recently, there have been a number of negative developments such as building collapses and flooding. These tend to mar the reputation of the profession. We need to partner with all stakeholders to address these. Indeed, we need to deal with the notion sometimes

10 expressed that "there are no bad contractors, just bad engineers." While this may be an unpleasant indictment of the profession we need to understand that we are ultimately responsible since works cannot be accepted without an engineer's signature.

7.3 Providing Civic Service The GhIE must advise the Government and the public on engineering matters; undertake activities, especially of engineering nature, that promote the welfare of society; encourage the Members and Registered Entities of the Institution to participate in activities that promote the welfare of society; and undertake other activities that promote the impact of science and technology in the society.

As part of the engineering evangelism, the Institution needs to actively promote public awareness of the need for engineering and technology in all aspects of national activity and in particular to promote the active use of engineering and technology professionals at the local (District, Municipal, etc.) level. It also needs to become a much stronger voice and an active participant in the technological development of the nation and be a conscience of the nation in matters relating to science and technology. On this score, the institution should strive to get engineers into the leadership of the country, just as China and the other successful developing countries have done. Perhaps, it is not amiss to set targets for engineers in the Cabinet, Parliament, Municipal and District Assemblies. Younger engineers should be encouraged to become part of the political process. Regardless of political affiliation, engineers will make good leaders!

7.4 Promoting and Recognizing Excellence The GhIE must undertake activities to facilitate and promote the operation and growth of engineering and engineering practice; recognize and promote outstanding contribution to, and excellence in the practice of engineering; and recognize and promote the civic responsibility activities of Members and Registered Entities of the

11 Institution. In particular, we need to focus on bringing increased productivity to agriculture, the mainstay of the economy. We should strive to develop the "children" of the hoe and cutlass.

8. AGENDA 2016-2017

8.1 Overview I will now briefly outline the focus of activities for the 2016-2017 Council year. As indicated before, my predecessors advocated or initiated projects that are in various stages of completion. I will continue with these as well as the on-going Council business and initiatives. Together with the new initiatives, my thrust will be classified into two broad areas: Externally Oriented Initiatives which aim to impact the society at large and Internally Oriented Initiatives aimed at strengthening the GhIE to enable it operate more efficiently and effectively.

8.2 Externally Oriented Initiatives Initiatives aimed at moving the country's development are as follows: 1. The development of Policy Deployment Tools comprising: a. An Engineering Master Plan aimed at developing a blueprint for the development of engineering capacity. It will address issues such as the number of engineers and types needed, how they should be deployed, the training of engineers, etc. b. The Infrastructure Score Card consisting of a baseline for Ghana's infrastructure, periodic assessment of the state of the infrastructure to determine whether or not there has been progress, assessment of the investment required to bring the infrastructure to an acceptable level and a blueprint for Ghana's infrastructure.

The Engineering Master Plan was mooted but has not advanced significantly and needs to be brought to fruition. The Infrastructure Score Card has been initiated with joint funding from internal sources and BUSAC.

12 2. Engineering Evangelism: This comprises a. Actively promote public awareness of the need for engineering and technology in all aspects of national activity, the active use of engineering and technology professionals in the leadership of the country and at the local level, and become a much stronger voice and an active participant in the technological development of the nation. b. Work with the Ministry of Education, the Ghana Education Service, Ghana Science Association and other stakeholders to address the issue of deficit in Science and Mathematics at the lower levels of the educational cycle and set up a program to educate high and junior high schools -- with special emphasis for girls -- about engineering in order to get them interested in pursuing an engineering career. 3. National Engineering Advisory and Review Group: Set up an expert group of Past Presidents and eminent members of the Institution to review major engineering projects in the country and provide advice to Government and the public. 4. Engineering excellence and innovation: Undertake a special initiative to develop the "child(ren)" of the hoe and cutlass in order to increase the productivity of our farmers.

These Externally Oriented initiatives would greatly benefit from a healthy relationship with government and other professional groups. I would, therefore recommend the setting up of a Government and External Affairs Directorate at the Secretariat of the Institution to focus on our interactions with the various branches of government, with special emphasis on Parliament, and other partners.

The projects may require external funding in addition to internal funding. We will, therefore, undertake to identify external partners.

8.3 Internally Oriented Initiatives To improve our execution, we will undertake the following initiatives.

13 1. Administrative Reform: a. Continue the reforms at the secretariat to more effectively execute with special emphasis on the support of the Committees. b. Finalize the constitutional amendment intended to adapt the GhIE to meet present challenges as well as position it for the future. 2. Expand to become the Umbrella for Engineering Practice in Ghana: First, there will be a membership drive for the many domestic engineering practitioners who are not yet members of the Institution. Then, as part of the effort to increase the engineering capacity for the country as well as strengthen the Institution we will undertake to bring the Ghanaian diaspora engineering practitioners into GhIE. We will identify the concentration of Ghanaian engineering talent and develop workable models to make them members of the Institution. 3. Professional Practice and Ethics: We will undertake a campaign to make professional practice and ethics a hallmark of GhIE and undertake to clean our house. We must help to orient members toward excellence and discipline those who refuse to abide by our Code of Conduct. 4. Model for use of ICT in the country: We will undertake a concerted effort to use ICT to connect with members and give them easy access to information at the Institution. The thrust will also be aimed at empowering the regional branches to allow them to more effectively and economically participate in the activities of the Institution. Among others, the web site and portals will be brought to best-in-class and electronic conferencing must become a way of life.

9. Conclusion In conclusion, we reiterate the belief that Ghana is going nowhere without engineers since many of our development problems are essentially engineering problems. However, we could learn from the newly developed countries and make a deliberate effort to infuse the leadership of the country with engineers who will help to bring clarity and focus to our development problems. Perhaps, all the political parties should actively be recruiting engineers!

14 However, if the nation is to take advantage of engineering and engineers, the engineering community needs to step up to its responsibility. We can no longer be shy about expressing professional opinions. Our relevance comes from being a key agent in the national development effort. The Ghanaian people must be assisted to know whether or not we are indeed making progress in the development exercise and whether or not we are getting value for the investments in the supporting engineering projects. By mobilizing all the Ghanaian engineering resources, both at home and abroad, by demonstrating professionalism, integrity and strong ethical behavior, and organizing ourselves to operate efficiently and effectively, we will position ourselves well for the task ahead.

As the 47th President and with the support of the Past Presidents and the Council and your prayers, I pledge to do all in my power to help achieve this goal of non-linear progress for Ghana.

To those of you here present who came to grace this occasion, I thank you for coming. God bless you all as we set out to continue the journey of engineering excellence to make Ghana the great nation it ought to be. Good night.