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Smart Social Development Key for Smart African Cities

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Smart Economy in Smart African Cities

Part of the book series: Advances in 21st Century Human Settlements ((ACHS))

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the Social Development dimensions of smart cities, composed of elements of health and education. Healthy workers are more productive, and bring greater income to families and higher levels of economic growth for nations, and, in turn, enhance smart economy. First the chapter focuses on health considering that a healthy population is critical to realizing any social and economic development. Then the chapter concentrates on Education, which is critical to meeting the challenges of smart city, as it connects people to new approaches, solutions and technologies that enable them to identify, clarify and tackle local and global problems. When education and health are combined, undoubtedly they contribute significantly to human development. In both these critical dimensions, African cities have made significant progress during these past twenty years, and continue to do so as we progress through the 21st century.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    African Union and ECA, COM2013 (2013).

  2. 2.

    UN population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2018. World Urbanization Prospects: The 2018 Revision. New York (USA).

  3. 3.

    UN-HABITAT (2010).

  4. 4.

    Republic of Kenya et al. (2015).

  5. 5.

    Republic of Nigeria et al. (2014).

  6. 6.

    UN-Habitat, 2012. Global Urban Observatory Database 2012.

  7. 7.

    Mboup (2011).

  8. 8.

    See Footnote 7. For more details, UNECA et al. (2015).

  9. 9.

    See Footnote 7.

  10. 10.

    See Footnote 8.

  11. 11.

    Mboup (2017).

  12. 12.

    UN-Habitat (2010).

  13. 13.

    Corvalán et al. (1999).

  14. 14.

    United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) (2002). Nweke and Sanders III (2009).

  15. 15.

    United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) (2004).

  16. 16.

    Bruce et al. (2000). Potential harm is the greatest for children under one year, since their lungs and immune system are not yet fully formed. Household use of biomass fuels has been found to significantly increase the risk of acute respiratory infections, which annually kill millions of children under age five. See also Smith et al. (2000).

  17. 17.

    Smith et al. (2000), Bruce et al. (2002).

  18. 18.

    Engel et al. (1998), Bruce et al. (2002).

  19. 19.

    Potential harm is great for children under one year, since their lungs and immune system are not yet fully formed. Household use of biomass fuels has been found to significantly increase the risk of acute respiratory infections, which annually kill millions of children under age five. See Smith et al. (2000).

  20. 20.

    Smith et al. (2000).

  21. 21.

    Staton and Harding (2001). Staton et al. noted that the United Nations Environment Programme/World Health Organization Global Environment Monitoring System (GEMS) has confirmed that the worst overall air pollution conditions and the largest indoor pollutant concentrations and exposures are found in both rural and urban areas of the developing world. See also Global Environment Monitoring System. Assessment of Urban Air Quality. United Nations Environment Programme/World Health Organization, 1998. (Unpublished document cited in Chen et al. 1990).

  22. 22.

    See Chap. 8 “Urban Accessibility and Mobility” and Chap. 9 “Air Quality in African Cities”.

  23. 23.

    WHO (2016).

  24. 24.

    UN-Habitat (2010), Mboup (2011, 2013).

  25. 25.

    Sen (1999).

  26. 26.

    At 58th session in May 2005, the World Health Assembly (WHA) adopted a resolution WHA 58.25 establishing eHealth strategy for WHO promoting the use ICTs in the health sector and services for all (citizens, patients, healthcare professionals, healthcare providers, as well as policy makers).

  27. 27.

    http://www.oecd.org/sti/ieconomy/ict-and-the-health-sector.htm. ICTs and the Health Sector: Towards Smarter Health and Wellness Models. OECD, 2013.

  28. 28.

    http://www.who.int/ehealth/en/. Global diffusion of eHealth: Making universal health coverage achievable. WHO (2016).

  29. 29.

    Rudowski (2005), WHO (2016).

  30. 30.

    Bastawrous cited by WHO (2016). See also Bastawrous et al. (2015).

  31. 31.

    WHO (2016).

  32. 32.

    WHO (2015), Aranda-Jan et al. (2014).

  33. 33.

    WHO (2015).

  34. 34.

    WHO (2015). The European Space Agency (ESA) also supported the publication of four linked studies whose objective it was to explore the challenges and opportunities of a satellite-enhanced e-health and telemedicine infrastructure for sub-Saharan Africa.

  35. 35.

    WHO (2015).

  36. 36.

    World Bank (2015b).

  37. 37.

    The Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989 and the World Declaration on Education for All (EFA) in 1990 in Jomtien, Thailand, reaffirmed education as a human right and heralded a new environment of international cooperation.

  38. 38.

    UN-Habitat (2010).

  39. 39.

    The Dakar Framework comprised two key elements: 6 goals, and associated targets, to be achieved by 2015, and 12 strategies to which all stakeholders would contribute. UNESCO (2000).

  40. 40.

    Mboup (2017).

  41. 41.

    The Demographic Health Surveys (DHS) are representative household surveys collecting information on education along with amenities and health variables. DHS is an international programme funded by USAID and implemented by Macro International since 1984.

  42. 42.

    Fehrler et al. (2009), based on 22 Sub-Saharan countries study, found that textbook investment are cost-effective, customizable and useful. They suggest that LSM, and textbooks in particular, are effective inputs to learning. See also Milligan et al. (2017).

  43. 43.

    Republic of Niger (2007).

  44. 44.

    See Footnote 38.

  45. 45.

    UNESCO (2000).

  46. 46.

    See Footnote 45.

  47. 47.

    See Footnote 45.

  48. 48.

    See Footnote 40.

  49. 49.

    Villalon and Bodian (2012).

  50. 50.

    UNESCO Statistical Institute.

  51. 51.

    Frolich and Michaelowa (2011), Fredriksen et al. (2015).

  52. 52.

    UNESCO Statistical Institute.

  53. 53.

    See Footnote 38.

  54. 54.

    See Footnote 38.

  55. 55.

    See Footnote 38.

  56. 56.

    See Footnote 2.

  57. 57.

    See Footnote 40.

  58. 58.

    World Bank (2015a).

  59. 59.

    World Bank (2015a, b); Many of FHI 360’s education projects use ICT as a tool to enhance the quality of teaching and learning, encourage community participation in education and increase school access.

  60. 60.

    http://www.educationinnovations.org/program/education-de-base-edb-program.

  61. 61.

    http://www.rti.org/page.cfm?obj=47AABCEA-0568-4553-9C15C11C07ECA651.

  62. 62.

    https://www.changemakers.com/isese/entries/improving-quality-and-relevance-middle-school-senegal.

  63. 63.

    Flannery et al. (2013) ScratchJr, is an application aimed at teaching algorithm thinking and coding principles to kids at young age (5–7 years) using a simple drag and drop interface.

  64. 64.

    http://blog.laptop.org/tag/africa/#.W6JxK2Qzb-Y; https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/5e26/8802991dd59c3d07a160d43277990a1d326b.pdf

  65. 65.

    Ho et al. (2015).

  66. 66.

    Escher et al. (2014).

  67. 67.

    Mboup (2017). The number of world-class universities committed to this digital innovation is steadily growing, as is the number of students—one MOOCs provider, Coursera, has seen the number of students almost double from 7 million in April 2014 to 12 million today.

  68. 68.

    Regarding investment in research and innovation in general, according to Bloom (2006), responsibility for this relative neglect of higher education lies partly at the door of the international development community, which in the past failed to encourage African governments to prioritize higher education.

  69. 69.

    http://www.ernwaca.org/panaf/spip.php?article1143—Senegal—ICT in education: Serving quality training and learning.

  70. 70.

    http://ela-newsportal.com/elearning-africa-interview-with-dr-mor-seck-director-senegal-dlc-senegal/.

  71. 71.

    http://www.osiris.sn/.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. UNICEF Office of Research–Innocenti, Florence, Italy

    Priscilla Idele

  2. GORA Corp, New York, USA

    Gora Mboup

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  1. Priscilla Idele
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  2. Gora Mboup
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Correspondence to Gora Mboup .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Global Observatory linking Research to Action (GORA) Corp., New York, NY, USA

    Gora Mboup

  2. United Nations University-MERIT, Maastricht, The Netherlands

    Banji Oyelaran-Oyeyinka

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Idele, P., Mboup, G. (2019). Smart Social Development Key for Smart African Cities. In: Mboup, G., Oyelaran-Oyeyinka, B. (eds) Smart Economy in Smart African Cities. Advances in 21st Century Human Settlements. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3471-9_13

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