The African Biomedical Engineering Consortium (ABEC)

ABEC SWOT ANALYSIS

Weaknesses

Incomplete legalization process (need more documentation: TIN etc)

Independent address

Lack of Sustainable financing mechanism

Dedicated Human Resource

Lack of liaison offices in different countries

Narrow social media publicity

Low general publicity (conferences, meetings...) Minimal alumni involvement

Low research activity

Minimal follow up & support of beneficiaries (innovators & graduates)

Limited linkage with country engineering associations Weak coordination among key stakeholders including university coordinators.

Lack of harmonized BME education

Industry-Academia mismatch in education & skills needs for graduates.

Limited national recognition of BME education

Public mistrust of locally developed and produced MedTech Weak IP laws

Weak clinician-biomedical engineering relationship

Weak regulatory landscape for medical device research in different countries

Low knowledge and skills in research and clinical trials for medical devices among innovators

Threats

Unemployment of BME graduates

Less engagement in entrepreneurship

Political instability

Migration & Brain drain

Low National prioritization of BME

Procurement policies that promote importation of BME devices

High manufacturing taxes for locally produced devices

Local acceptability of locally developed and produced MedTech

Unreliable amenities (electricity, internet)

Unaccredited and unregulated BME programs in universities

Disharmonized BME education

Rapidly evolving technologies

Emerging competing global priorities (climate change, wars)

Disintegrated actions by different stakeholders involved in the BME space.

Strength

Legal entity

Have Offices and core management team at Uganda office.

Pioneer promoter of BME education and innovation in Africa

Wider network through ABEC and its spin-offs (ABEM and UBORA consortiums)

Experience and infrastructure for:

Implementation of design competitions and Innovators summer schools (for supplemental education)

Implementing and management of Student and Staff mobility programs across institutions (ABEM)

Grant applications and management across member institutions (Capacity-building EU grants __ ABEM and UBORA)

Open-source co-design of new solutions to face the current and future global healthcare challenges (UBORA platform)

Management of capacity building programs (ABEM)

Information dissemination and mobilization channels

3 websites (ABEC, ABEM and UBORA)

3 social media networks (ABEC: 2.1K followers, ABEM: 1.6K followers and UBORA)

Program evaluation processes (through collaboration with Soar Research Foundation)

Database of our beneficiaries (to enable future follow-up for long term impact assessment)

Wide network and contact with beneficiaries through social media platforms.

Created a network of academics within the consortium (enabling faster and easy research collaborations)

Lessons from our challenges including effects of COVID-19 pandemic.

Opportunities

More players in BME innovation promotion and funding

Prioritization of research and innovation in Africa (Vision2063)

Increased health sector budgets

Increased awareness of the need of biomedical engineers

More universities implementing BME programs & more graduates.

Room for expansion to other African countries and institutions

More African biomedical engineering role models and mentors

More innovation infrastructures in Africa (innovation hubs, accelerators, incubators, CoE, skill labs)

Availability of facilitating technologies (internet, mobile connectivity, applications)

Advancement in technology (AI, IoT)

New priority areas (One Health, Climate, Global health equity)

Africa’s young population

Growth in social media penetration

More openness to South-to-South collaboration

Fast-growing MedTech market in Africa

Growing buying middle class

More funding for health system strengthening.

Pandemic and growing non-communicable diseases.

Strong focus on preventive medicine

Supplementary BME Education to meet with rapidly evolving technology

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