Africa is rich in land, hydrothermal minerals and other resources, but its economic and social development level is not high. Try to analyze the basic reasons that lead to its backwardness.

Africa is still the poorest region in the world. The root of the problem is various, but the low level of science and technology is undoubtedly one of the important factors.

African economy is highly dependent on the export of low value-added primary products. One of the reasons is that many African countries are backward in science and technology, and their processing capacity is not strong, and the processing ratio and degree of products are not high. For example, because most African native mining enterprises do not have deep processing capacity and export only primary products with low added value, although the export volume of African mineral products is huge, their contribution to the local economy is very limited.

Africa is the region with the lowest level of grain yield per unit area in the world, because of backward grain production technology and primitive production methods. Some experts pointed out that Africa needs biotechnology very much, because biotechnology can improve the yield and nutritional content of African food, thus solving the problems of hunger and malnutrition of Africans.

In the information age, some common communication and information products are still luxuries in sub-Saharan Africa, and some villages are still "isolated". In this area, there are only 31.6 telephones and 9.2 computers per thousand people. Due to the weak infrastructure and lack of hardware and equipment, the internet access cost in this area is much higher than that in other parts of the world, almost 1 times that in the United States. Although Africa put forward an ambitious information society plan in 1996, due to various objective conditions, the development level of information technology in Africa still lags behind other parts of the world.

Brain drain affects the progress of science and technology

There are many reasons for the backwardness of science and technology in Africa, and the serious brain drain and insufficient investment in R&D are two main aspects.

At present, the number of African scientists and engineers accounts for only .36% of the world's total. However, on average, more than 2, college graduates from Africa go to developed countries in Europe and America every year, and many of them "never return". Up to now, more than 6, African technicians have worked in developed countries, including scientists, doctors and engineers, and more than 4, of them have doctorates. Each African scientific and technological talent who immigrated to developed countries in Europe and America took away an average of about $184, in training expenses, which was enough to feed 5 farmers in the least developed countries in Africa for one year. At the same time, in order to make up for the shortage of talents, African countries have to hire foreign experts with high salaries, and the annual expenditure for paying foreign experts is as high as more than 4 billion US dollars, which alone consumes one-third of the foreign aid funds that Africa receives every year.

Low income and insufficient funds for scientific research are the main reasons for brain drain in Africa. The primary task of most African countries is to solve the problem of feeding their citizens, and the funds for scientific and technological development and attracting talents are very limited. The investment in science and technology in Africa except South Africa only accounts for .2% of the gross national product.

Brain drain has weakened Africa's economic development momentum and competitiveness, and African wisdom has not been fully applied to Africa's economic development. Many African researchers are working for European and American pharmaceutical companies, but many people in Africa die every day because of lack of medical care and medicine; While some African countries are racking their brains to design a small hydropower station, Chek Diala, a famous scientist from Mali, West Africa, is already participating in the US Mars exploration program.

Leading Africa out of poverty by science and technology

After reflecting on the current situation that the backwardness of science and technology restricts the pace of economic development in Africa, the leaders of African countries realize that the realization of the goal of poverty alleviation will largely depend on the progress of science and technology. To this end, they suggested that every African country should devote 1% of its GDP to the development of science and technology. In addition, they also suggested setting up a special R&D fund to finance scientific research projects that are valuable for poverty alleviation in Africa.

African leaders also decided to strengthen the training of scientific and technological talents, and set the training target of 2 scientists per million people. Countries will provide special funds for young researchers and reward those who have made important scientific research achievements in basic science and applied science. African countries will establish laboratories that meet international standards, improve scientific research conditions and environment, and reduce brain drain; Encourage young people, especially young women, to learn and master scientific knowledge and reserve follow-up forces for Africa's development; Increase scientific research funds and strengthen the protection of scientific and technological patents.

African leaders call on developed countries to reduce technology transfer fees, strengthen scientific and technological cooperation for sustainable development, and provide technical conditions for poor countries to get rid of poverty. They believe that the bottleneck that restricts African developing countries from adopting advanced technologies from developed countries is the intellectual property policy of developed countries. The high technology transfer fee makes it almost impossible for African developing countries to adopt advanced technologies from western developed countries. Western countries should adjust their technology transfer policies so that science and technology can truly contribute to human development.