The NUFU-programme and its impact on policy, communities and institutions

Distinguished participants!

Many thanks to Norad and SIU for the invitation and not least for organizing this important conference addressing the important topic of the NUFU-programme and its impact on policy, communities and institution.

First let me elaborate on some current global trends
The global research investments have more than doubled during the last 10 years. This increase originates both from public sources as well as from industry and private sources. The reason is of course that such investments are viewed as crucial to stimulate sustained social development and reducing poverty, for securing economic competitiveness and productivity, and to lay the foundation for welfare and democracy.

Several developing countries are becoming regional hubs for technology development and science and attract large amounts of foreign investments in research, for instance in China, India, Brazil to mention some. And today more than 30 per cent of global research investments are made in Asia, a doubling over the last 10 years.

As many other countries, Norway has set itself a goal to increase investments in research in relation to GDP to 3 per cent within 2010. Norway is currently struggling to reach that goal, due to the fact that our industry is not sufficiently research based. This sheds light on the fact that public policy and investments in research need to go hand in hand with investments in the private sector. Also in Norway we discuss how to retain and establish knowledge based production and our competitive edge in the world economy, as well as securing our future welfare state.

Many developing countries are lagging far behind in the race for knowledge and have fared weakly in growth and development, not least because higher education and research have been severely underfunded. The effect is a growing global scientific and technological divide between countries, or knowledge gap.

While developed countries have more than 3300 scientists per million inhabitants, the figure for the least developed countries are 4, 5 scientists per million inhabitants. The least developed countries have 0, 01 per cent of the global research investments.

To further aggravate this, the brain drain yearly draws more than 20.000 higher educated persons out of Africa. More highly trained leave the continent, than the continent manages to educate. Career opportunities elsewhere are often the reason behind this brain-drain. It is expected that international migration will increase in the coming years to more than 3 per cent of the world’s population. Migration may have positive effects for some countries, but for the poorest countries there are clearly more losers than winners in this game.

Recent data show that higher education enrollment in Sub-Saharan Africa remains well under 5%, while for many high income countries it is well over 60%.

For instance in Tanzania only 1, 2 per cent of the age cohort finishes technical or higher education.

If we compare Ghana and South-Korea, the two countries had the same level of GDP per capita in the 1960s. Now almost 80 per cent of young South-Koreans enroll in a technical or higher education and the country is among the top 10 economies of the world.

Although enrollment rates in higher education in many developing countries are relatively low, the unemployment rates among university graduates are rather high. This is one of the reasons behind the career-driven brain-drain, and clearly shows that the education system needs to be tailored to national economic needs and local demands.

Let me continue with some trends concerning the financing of tertiary education and research.

From the 1950s and through the 1970s there was a period of intense nation-building in many developing countries. Prominent of the time was the notion of universities as a symbol of independence and as a cornerstone for nation-building, and a lot of new universities were established.

During the mid 1980s and the 1990s there was a marked change. Structural adjustment programmes aimed at reducing public expenditure, and this also affected institutions for higher education and research. Studies undertaken in that period concluded that investments in basic education had a higher rate of return than investments in other parts of the education system. Later research has proved that these calculations may have been too simplistic. Anyhow, this contributed to a reduced will to finance higher education among many donors and countries in the South. For instance from 1985 until 1999 the World Bank investments in higher education were reduced from 17 to 7 per cent.

This also affected investments in many developing countries. For instance in Uganda, where investments in higher education from 1995 to 2002 decreased from 28 to 11 per cent of the education budget.

The emphasis of Education for All and the focus on primary education has had many positive results. Enrollment in primary education is increasing rapidly in many countries. However  – I will say – an unintended consequence of the focus on primary education and not on other parts of the education system, has been that many countries – and donors  – have not emphasized the role of higher education and research sufficiently. This happens at the same time as enrollment in primary education is increasing rapidly, and the pressure on secondary and tertiary education is immense.

Today there are signs that the tide is turning. There seems to be a more widespread understanding that all parts of the education system needs to be addressed by public policies and donors, including the need for research-based universities embedded in national plans and strategies.

The African Union, for instance, at their Summit for Heads of States this January urged all African countries to increase their investments in research and technology.

Norwegian support
Since many of you here today are representing Norwegian institutions for higher education and research, please let me confirm that higher education and research are still highly important areas in Norwegian development cooperation, and not least that Norwegian universities. colleges and research institutes still play an important  role in Norwegian development cooperation.

Norway has a long tradition in supporting higher education and research. In total around 4 per cent of the Norwegian bilateral development cooperation goes to higher education and research. This percentage has been rather stable for the last years, but in absolute terms this accounts for an increase as the aid budget has been nearly doubled during the same period
Norwegian support to capacity building in research is made up of several complementary programs and assistance is given through a variety of channels.

The Norwegian development policy strongly underlines the need for synergy between the various instruments used and coordination with other donors.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ strategy from 1999 pointed out some challenges, which are still  relevant

- That there is a need to improve  coordination between the Norwegian instruments for support to higher education and research,
- that when it comes to developing knowledge at the country level this must be based on the needs of that particular country,
- that a strengthening of the role of the universities is crucial
- that south-south cooperation between institutions and scientists is important
- that support to international research organizations and multilateral organizations are important to contribute to the development, dissemination and use of research
- and finally that there is a need for more synergies between the different support programs aiming at strengthening competence and capacity in the South while increasing Norwegian knowledge about developing countries.

Norway has been providing support for higher education and research, for instance to the NUFU-programme and to Norad`s fellowship programme, since 1991. These programmes are  joint ventures between the universities and their collaborative partners in the South, and also receive substantial funding from the developing cooperation budget. NUFU has resulted in almost 700 master and PhD-candidates in the South. The projects are located in around 18 developing countries. These are impressive results indeed.

Other programmes are the NOMA (Norad’s Master Programme) as well as the Teacher Education Program South-North.  Furthermore, we are now at the start of implementing a new capacity-building program in Sudan.

Several of our embassies provide substantial funding for higher education and research at  country level,  for instance in Uganda, Tanzania and South Africa. In Uganda, Norway gives direct support to the University of Makerere, in Tanzania we provide direct support to three universities and in South-Africa we are funding a joint South-Africa/ Norway Research Programme. These are also among the countries that  receive most NUFU-project funding.

A recent initiative I would like to mention is a research fund established in Nepal with funding from the Norwegian  embassy in Katmandu. The fund has two components; the first is to fund research on Social Inclusion and Nation-building in Nepal, and the second is to establish institutional cooperation between Norwegian and Nepalese institutions. The background for this is that civil society in Nepal is largely fragmented and have little power and influence, especially organizations working for excluded groups for instance women and those with no or low caste. Social exclusion is thus an important source for conflict in the society.

Support for higher education and research also come through sector programmes and multilateral organizations. In several countries development assistance is channeled through general budget support. There is a clear need to also include in the dialogue with the recipient countries, aspects of national capacity building, including support for education and research.
In many countries the risk factors for achieving agreed goals in development assistance are the weak capacity in public administration.

We are currently looking into whether the level of funding for higher education and research in Norwegian development cooperation is at a sufficient level, and I have put down a Working Party which will come up with recommendations in August.

Challenges
The world is changing, so development cooperation has to  change as well.
The Paris Declaration has become the most important guiding principles for management of international development assistance internationally. All donor countries are now obliged to adhere to this. These principles mean that to an even larger extent, we must be guided by development strategies and priorities that are established by partner countries in all areas of bilateral and multilateral cooperation.

A challenge in that respect is of course that not all Poverty Reduction Plans made by the developing partners include the need for higher education and research.

In view of globalization no countries today can afford not to invest in higher education and research.

The globalization process now sets the stage for tertiary institutions in the South as it does in the North. In this context, ensuring a critical mass of human resources in science, management, administration and policy-making is more important than ever before, and it requires a good and sustainable tertiary education system. The challenge is also to sustain this critical mass. Without more and better tertiary education, developing countries will find it increasingly difficult to benefit from the knowledge based economy. 

Nevertheless, a fundamental challenge remains: Several of Norway’s partner countries simply do not have policies or strategies for higher education and research that are based on a thorough analysis of the needs of their own societies. Therefore, supporting capacities for developing national policies needs to be paid particular attention to.

There is a need for continued work to make development cooperation   - as well as other policies - more research-based. There is also a need to link research and policy, as also is the aim of this conference today.

This link is not always easy to establish. Politicians are not always good at looking far into the future, but sometimes go for too short term priorities – such as the coming elections! And support for higher education and research obviously needs to be long-term and stable to achieve sufficient quality and impact.  On the other hand, researchers are not always good at looking at the broader needs of society and providing operational advice within a short deadline. This is a challenge here in Norway as well as in developing countries. There is a need for meeting venues where scientists and decision-makers may share views, perspectives and knowledge. And one such venue is the current conference.

Conclusions

• Norway should put tertiary education and research firmly on the international donor coordination agenda and strengthen joint bilateral development cooperation in this area.
• Our Government will continue to be firm supporters of higher education and research in Norwegian development cooperation in the coming years
• Closer cooperation with industry and private sector is a rather unexplored venue for Norway’s traditional higher education and research activities in a development assistance context. There is a need for dialogue, reflections and innovative ideas for this kind of collaboration.
• Before I conclude my intervention, I would like to highlight the gender issue as a cross cutting issue in all Norwegian development assistance in general as well as in support through higher education and research. We know that education continues to be a distant dream for the 55 million girls around the world who still do not have access to education. There are still large challenges ahead in making education in general – and not least academic degrees and careers – available for girls and women.

A final conclusion; As I have pointed out,  efficient and effective institutions of higher education and research are crucial for achieving sustained economic and social development, and Norway will continue to be a reliable partner in providing such collaboration and support also in the years to come.

Thank you for your attention! I wish you a fruitful conference!