Engineering & Africa

Very interesting question - I believe that many of the efforts to create 'solutions' for different areas of the African continent and apply engineering solutions from the 'west' have failed to properly apply the 'problem scoping' principals we've been learning about in our ENGR 131 course. Part of problem scoping is really learning about your stakeholders and the criteria for success before rushing to a solution that is technically sound and logical. In africa, the peoples and cultures seem to be much more diverse and individualised (as communities in relation to eachother), and this has a HUGE impact on what works and doesn't work there - solutions though logical from a technical standpoint can only work if they are catered to the specific populations.