Diversity Indices of Technical Capability of 14 African Countries Working Paper No. 2005(1), Preliminary & Incomplete Draft 3 [January 31] Voxi Heinrich Amavilah REEPS PO Box 38061 Phoenix, AZ 85069-8061 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Abstract - I outline four, and calculate two, broad indices of the diversity of technical capability of 14 African countries based on nine common descriptors of technical capability. I find technical capability to be heterogenous, and conclude that performance policies that ignore technical diversity of capability are potentially misleading, ineffective, and perhaps even damaging. Keywords: diversity indices, technical capability, diversity technical capability JEL Code: O55, O49, C63, C65, P52 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Is it so obvious that Nature is regular? I find myself tormented by its irregularities, by the occurrence of something unexpected .... The hope of progress lies in abandoning methods which require the law of universal causation (Arthur Balfour, 1914, quoted in TA Cook’s The Curves of Life, 1979, p.430).