Engineering ethics education for systemic change: a case for Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Unlike in the West, engineering practice in Sub-Saharan Africa remains mired in corruption, ethical malpractice, poor ethics governance and lack of effective leadership. This situation has, and continues to, negatively impact national infrastructure, health, education, and economies across Sub-Saharan African countries. Non-ethical engineering practices continue to occur despite the existence of national ethics legislation in Sub–Saharan African countries, and despite codes of ethics underpinning business operations in most public and private sector organisations that employ engineers. This is also despite the existence of codes of conduct and ethics prescribing professional engineering practice that have been developed, and are policed, by national engineering institutions and regulators. Increasingly, engineering education providers have incorporated engineering ethics education in their curricula. However, despite this, Sub-Saharan African engineering graduates transitioning into employment still face significant difficulties in dealing with the myriads of ethical dilemmas they meet in their professional practice. In this study we set out to establish the current state of engineering ethics education in Sub-Saharan Africa, and to assess the thoughts of engineering educators and researchers in the region on how engineering ethics education can be improved.