Professor Mariama Awumbilla, a Professor at the Department of the Geography and Resource Development of the University of Ghana (UG), Legon, has underscored the need for urgent support for the SD Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies (SDD-UBIDS) to develop.
She said as a young university with the potential of contributing significantly to the development of the Upper West Region and Ghana at large, it needed all hands on the deck to develop.
Prof. Awumbilla said this in her keynote address at the second edition of the Research and Development Conference, 2022 of the university while stating the reason for honouring the invitation of the university to the event.
The conference was on the theme: “Leveraging Applied Research in Higher Education to Address Contemporary Development Issues”.
“I think as a young university we should all give you the support that we can, and also particularly to give support to the few women here … I know that at the SD Dombo University we will see the first female Vice Chancellor in the next few years”, he indicated.
The SDD UBIDS was established by Act 1001 of 2019 “To be an internationally acclaimed university that applies evidence from research and knowledge gained to solve the problems of business, national development agencies and non-state actors towards improved development outcomes”.
Prof. Awumbila observed that the health and economic challenges that the country was currently going through could be addressed by research.
She indicated that the Upper West Region has its peculiar development challenges and that higher education inspired by research could help address some of those development deficits in the region and the country by extension.
“It is high time that the government put in more money in research because it is only the data from research that they can use to empower their developmental activities”, she stated.
Pro. Awumbila, who was also at the Centre for Migration Studies at the UG, said research had shown that proper management of migration could be beneficial to the country contrary to the perceived negative effects associated with it.
She explained that government should put in the appropriate policy to maximise migration for national development as exhibited by the Philippines which had used migration to develop.
“Philippines has used migration to develop. If your doctors want to go why do you keep them? Put in place policies, and you can gain from that migrant.
“People want Ghanaian Doctors, train more and let’s see how we can leverage them”, Prof. Awumbila explained.
Prof. Issaka Kanton Osumanu, the Acting Pro Vice Chancellor of the SDD-UBIDS, noted the focus of the conference was to exchange ideas, and for participants to apply the outcome in managing activities in their areas.
“It is my hope that this Conference would be able to achieve its objective of providing an effective forum for academicians, researchers, and practitioners to advance knowledge, research, and development, particularly for northern Ghana. There has always been a gap between peoples and communities who can make effective use of research and those who cannot”, he explained.
On his part, the Director of Research, Innovation, and Consultancy of the SDD-UBIDS, Prof. Maurice Oscar Dassah, emphasized the need for developing countries to sustain research for development, but that they are less committed to research judging by the level of investment.
“Developing countries need more sustained research for development. Paradoxically, they are less committed to research judging by the level of investment”, he said.
Prof. Dassah added that universities have a key role in supporting communities and national development goals by generating new knowledge and being innovative saying, “The potential for UBDS to develop through innovation exists, but there is a need to put together pieces of the jigsaw”.
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