The Development Equation

The Development Equation is the application of this theoretical model to development, it is ICTA2K4D in action.

If a university can increase it's research capacity, it can further the research capacity of it's nation, and further development. On a global scale, if the research capacity of the South where the majority of the world live is accelerated, the research capacity of the globe can reach it's potential. Whereas global development is more dependent on the progress of the global South than the 'developed' North, the DEq is central to development.

The research capacity of the universities of the South cannot develop without access to research literature. Access to literature can no longer rely on print publication, and print publication would be a less efficient means of acquiring the needed access to literature. Digital access to literature is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for development of research capacity for research institutions in the South in the 21st Century. However there are two barriers to access to literature.

The first barrier is the digital divide, in order to have access to online literature, one must have access to the internet. Therefore ICT development at the university is one pillar of the development equation.

The second barrier to access to literature is the price barrier. Closed-access online literature is cost-prohibitive to Southern universities. Open access literature is free. There also exist concession programs through the UN and several publishers, and the eIFL and INASP country-level bargaining and INASP-Perii document delivery system. At the basic level access to knowledge (A2K) looks to digital opportunities for open access to basic research, with the article as the basic unit of research communication and access to basic research as the core requisite for developing teaching and research at the university. Apart from access itself, accessibility is an issue where articles available go unused for lack of awareness and a coherent system of search and retrieval, or where bandwith is an issue and only large files are available. Language and disability barriers are also an issue. The patent system also presents cost and legal barriers to access to other forms of knowledge. The layering of barriers obstructs the development of research capacity, and reduces the contributions of knowledge by the South. The lack of ability to contribute feeds back into the reduction of quality in education through loss of relevance and representation, and reduces the transformative capacity of academic communities. Finally, the access to knowledge divide isolates students, faculty and researchers from wider networks, reducing their opportunity and again feeding back into inertia on the development of knowledge and quality of research and teaching. Access to knowledge represents the second pillar of the DEq.

Knowledge for development is the third pillar of the DEq, often termed K4D as with the World Bank. The World Bank considers the research capacity and higher education of students as critical to development in the global knowledge economy, recognizing that human capital together with technology and innovation represents enormous value as compared with economies heavily dependent on commodities and unskilled labour. The WB has developed the Knowledge Assessment Methodology, with many indicators that will be used in the DEq. In our formulation, we want to focus more heavily (though not ignored by the Bank altogether), on the non-commercial aspects - in health and education, civil society and governance - but also in terms of knowledge development itself. This development is not only critical to those development issues framed currently, but in terms of self-determination in development. Secondly, for us in the North, the contributions we can make in partnership see returns for us. We have goals to interanationalize our curriculum and for that we need to have a better understanding of the world. That is not achieved by the status quo of looking through the lens of the North at the majority world. It is achieved by communicating with the majority world. The universities of the South provide the bridge by which this communication can occur. Finally, knowledge development for the majority world represents for the entire world a far better hope for managing the layers of global crisis and challenge we face to day. More diverse perspectives, and much larger group from which the best ideas can reach across the world.