Can the rise of SADC engineers help with the economy of SADC?

Can the rise of SADC engineers help with the economy of SADC?

I. Introduction

The economic problem in the SADC (Southern African Development Community) region is mostly defined by the transition from colonial entities extracting the goods and resources from the land to the Africans struggling on which path to take post-independence. The occupying powers built banking systems to serve the colonial firms. This meant that post-independence; the states would have to build their own national banks from scratch. However, the banking systems created before in the regions by the Europeans were created in a way to exclude Africans from the system, this meant that once the inclusive banks were created, Africans had a lack of trust (African Union, 2025).

It is important for us to find a way on the issues regarding the economy of a region rich in the rare resources that are used for the development of the world. The world gets rare minerals from a region for world development, however the region is visibly going through many struggles in which one of them is their economic crisis, and because of this factor, it is not well respected enough to have at least one representative in the Permanent Five in the UN table due to lack of global power.

A study shows us how the issue is not owning the resources rather it is about knowing how to use them and most importantly, not having a capacity gap. We see a global benchmark in developing nations with 1 engineer in every 200 people. According to UNESCO and Africa Catalyst reports, we see that the statistic for SADC is at 1 engineer in every 6,000 people (UNESCO, 2024). This shows us that the region is highly dependent on external help for infrastructure. In this research, we are going to explore why the increase of engineers in the region is not just a matter of education but needed to claim the regions place in global powers and to end the exploitations.

This work is organized as follows: section II talks about The Architecture of Inequality, and in section III we will be Analyzing the Engineering Scarcity in SADC. We will do a Comparative Analysis of SADC Engineering Metrics in section IV and in section V we will talk about the Sovereignty approach and at last in section VI we have the conclusion.

II. The Architecture of Inequality

Colonial economic systems weren't designed to have a balanced development within the colonized territories; they were built to prioritize the extraction of resources into global markets on unequal terms. As known, they had different sectors in all these countries, so they had the European sector, which was modern with paved roads, electricity and banks, but they existed solely to facilitate the extraction of goods. Whereas African sectors were less developed, they were kept out of the “modern” sector. The distrust Africans had towards the bank systems was not just a feeling but a response to how the law worked. Once they got independence and had possession of their land, the people preferred to keep their wealth instead of depositing it into formal systems due to the lack of investment, the banks had no liquidity and here starts the crash of the economy even post-independence. This history explains why the region relies on 2.1 billion USD in foreign help (Royal Academy of Engineering, 2025) since there was never a financial engine to fund large-scale engineering schools or local construction firms. The rise of SADC engineers is the only way to break this cycle. Once the local engineers run projects, it will rebuild the local trust in the institutions.

III. Analyzing the Engineering Scarcity in SADC

To understand why the engineering ratio in the SADC is 1:6,000, it is important to understand the structural and social filters that make it harder for students to enter and finish the engineering programs. Universities need specialized laboratories and a lot of expensive universal equipment. The public Universities depend on the government for this material, and there is a lack of investment from the government in this sector (UNESCO,2024). It is also seen that when the region does perform well in training a few numbers of engineers, the economy does not see the benefit. This is because when a student overcomes the “trust gap”, the region suffers a loss of its top performers to multinational corporations. This leaves the local infrastructures to be managed by expensive foreign consultants and not only that but once these high performers are bought by international firms, they removed from local ecosystem meaning, there aren't available mentors for the next generation in the section (World Bank, 2026).

IV. Data Review

As mentioned, there is 1 engineer in every 200 people in developing countries, while in SADC that ratio is very different as its found 1 in every 6,000 people. This was a study done by UNESCO and Africa Catalyst. UNESCO did another research in the SADC region which showed that only 9% of the graduates came from the engineering sector and for this reason the region has to not only depend on foreign financial help but also on foreign engineers to get work done. The engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) said there is just over 16,000 qualified engineers registered in South Africa and less than 6% of them are women despite several programmes to encourage women to join the profession (Msiza N, 2025). Study show that closing the gender gap in STEM fields could help increase the GDP, so not only would they have to get more engineers in general, but they must also get more females to join the programmes.

V. Engineering Sovereignty: Catalyzing Industrialization

It is very important to understand that engineering is not just a job, but it is also a tool for national and regional liberation. The rise in SADC engineers can change the power dynamic in the region because indigenous engineering corps act as a primary engine to reclaim autonomy and break colonial path dependency cycle. What is seen now is the region without enough firms is that the regions export raw ore and import the refined materials for double the price of what they exported, so they are at a great loss of financial resources. A good example for this would be Lithium which is abundant is Zimbabwe, Namibia and DRC. To make 1 ton of a lithium battery, about 7.5 tons of raw concentrate is needed, and the price of raw concentrate is $1,150 per ton. So, when SADC exports 7.5 tons of raw concentrate, they get $8,625. After the lithium is refined and the battery is built, they buy the batteries for $200,000 ( South African Department of Mineral Resources, 2025) but if local refineries were built to produce 1 ton of lithium carbonate, the market price would be around $14,000 and the region would gain 62% more. This is just 1 of many examples of how the resources are run because of the lack of capable engineers in the region that could do this work, so the region would not have to spend $2.1 billion USD annually. The reduced financial resources, there would also be a rise in the regions GDP because engineers act as economic multipliers. Not only that, but the engineers also build power grids that allow other businesses to function well.

VI. Conclusion

To conclude, the rise of engineers in the SADC region is not just a benefit but also a necessity to escape economic dependency. For this to happen, the region should focus on closing the gap from a 1:6,000 ratio to a 1:200 ratio as seen in other developing countries. When looking at the facts mentioned before that around $2.1 billion USD is spent annually on external infrastructure, we see that the need to close the ratio gap is very urgent. But how should it be done? The solution begins with the government's investment in this sector. Instead of using resources for external help, they should invest that money in the higher intuitions and build more firms to reduce the “trust gap” and invest a lot in local engineers so more people get into that field ensuring that they are not bought by international firms. The region should also focus on making a safe space for women in the stem areas and remove any barriers that keep women from entering the field so both genders help in the progress of the region helping the region grow and the regions GDP grow as well.