IT IS GENERALLY understood that the good deployment and management of technology could create value added that could make the economy develop.
However, it is also generally understood that more often than not, it would be difficult to deploy technology if there is no policy framework that could support it.
Of course, we all know that without the needed advocacy work, it would also be difficult to push for the formulation of policy.
Having said all these, it would be correct to say that these four elements would and should form a value chain that would altogether work towards the creation of more value added.
Although I am very sure about the supposed interplay of technology and policy, I also know for a fact that a technology could just be market driven, in which case it could have a life of its own and be able to move on even without a policy framework or in other words, even without government intervention.
How I wish that that reality could apply to all technologies, but whether we like it or not, there really are a lot of technologies that could not move on without a policy framework, meaning to say that the intervention of government is imperative. It would be very easy to say that, but in reality it is not that easy to make government catch up with an emerging technology, or much less to become aware of it.
It is an obvious reality that nothing much will happen much to an advocacy not unless money is made available to support it. In that sense, there is really no point in advocating a technology if it could not be funded.
That is, however, a double edged sword, because it should really be part of any advocacy to make funds available for it, or else nothing much will happen in terms of our technological advancement.
Having said that, it would now become relevant to ask the question of how and why a government agency should become involved in promoting an advocacy in the first place.
While it is normal for a government agency to promote an advocacy within the broader bureaucracy, it would sometimes look ironic if the government as a whole would not, and could not listen to itself while talking to itself. (To be continued)/PN
