Human factor engineering and the political economy of African Development.

For many decades, most African countries have tried rather hard to develop. However, their continuing efforts have not yielded any significant results. A careful and detailed study and evaluation of the present African condition brings into one's mind many pertinent questions: What has gone wrong with Africa's development program? What has development and technical assistance failed to perceive in the past and at present? What happened to the millions of dollars of foreign aid in its many forms? If mainstream development theory is correct and its practice appropriate, why has it failed to help achieve significant positive results in Africa? Why have all the domestic and external resources that have been channeled into human resources development not produced the type of labor force required for Africa's development program? Are educational policies and programs in Africa being faced with any difficulties that they cannot as yet overcome? Can the actual problems be identified and dealt with appropriately? What has the international community glossed over in its attempt to help African countries develop? This list of questions can be extended ad infinitum. The authors in this book believe that in the past, most programs designed to help African countries develop failed to correctly identify Africa's pertinent problem - human factor (HF) decay and/or underdevelopment.