OPENING STATEMENT

K. Y. Amoako
United Nations Under-Secretary General and Executive Secretary of ECA

Distinguished Honourable Ministers,

It is my pleasure to welcome you all to this First Executive Dialogue of Ministers on Science and Technology for Africa's Development. I am aware of your very tight schedules and wish to place on record my deep appreciation of your effort to attend this important meeting.

Your presence here today confirms your support and commitment to the science and technology strategy of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) which is to assist member States to utilise the fruits of Science and Technology (S&T) in promoting rapid development of our societies. The great speed at which a great number of countries considered backward three decades ago have leap-frogged the developmental gap, particularly in the 20th Century, while Africa stagnates, makes it more important for the ECA to re-examine its S&T strategy as we approach the new millennium.

 Honourable Ministers,

It took a long time to prove empirically, but there is now a consensus that science and technology is central to the development process. Two apparently unrelated events have put the issue of technology's centrality beyond all doubts. The first is the dramatic emergence of countries of South and East Asia from the state of poverty and underdevelopment to that of industrialised States. These achievements are particularly significant for their speed and regional spread. While it took the United States of America forty seven years and the United Kingdom fifty-eight years, China, and South Korea doubled their per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) within a decade. Whereas income disparity in the 18th Century between the richest and the poorest countries was a mere 2:1 ratio, today it is more than 100:1. The second major event is the advent of generic technologies namely: Information and Telecommunication Technologies (ICT), biotechnology and genetic engineering and new materials. ICT in particular has the status of a technological paradigm, changing in significant ways, the way we do business, and the way we order our lives and societies. It is now common to compare the impact of ICT on this century to what the steam engine did to an earlier epoch. The new generic technologies have altered rather markedly, the nature of competition among nations, the structure of employment, and the character of manufacturing and trade. The orthodox comparative advantages of poor countries, such as commodities are being supplanted with high level technical manpower. Concommitantly, the shrinking of distance, the unprecedented integration of national economies with that of the rest of the world, and rapid technological changes in products, processes and services, have all combined to bring about a new techno-economic paradigm, globalisation.

Honourable Ministers,

It is in response to these phenomenal changes that, I believe, the African Conference of Ministers at its twenty-second meeting held in May 1996 assigned to the Commission a number of challenging tasks for the promotion of science and technology in the region. The specific tasks given to the Commission were as follows (i) foster subregional cooperation and integration in science and technology by formulating subregional policies on the basis of members' competitive advantage; (ii) design and implement subregional science and technology projects; and (iii) search for funds for the execution of science and technology-related activities. The Conference in addition to the above, gave ECA some specific activities to implement. These include the design of sample legislation for implementing science and technology policies, entrepreneurial capacity building in science and technology use, popularisation of science and technology activities, and the delivery of science and technology services to member States.

In order to meet the challenges inherent in the tasks assigned by the Conference of Ministers, the Commission embarked on critical appraisal of its past efforts and came out with new proposals and a renewed science and technology mandate to meet both the uncompleted assignments of the past and the new challenges of the 21st Century. In the last few months, the Commission has taken the following steps (i) formation of an Advisory Board on Science and Technology for Africa's Development; itself a product of an ad-hoc group of experts meeting held earlier in the year. The Board met recently to prioritize the tasks of the Commission on Science and Technology; (ii) the launching of an ECA Science and Technology Network (ESTNET), an important avenue for exchange of ideas, information and particularly for the dissemination of science and technology best practices among member States on the one hand and between the Commission, member States and development partners on the other; (iii) preparation of a compendia of best practices on food security and sustainable development that highlight successful cases of science and technology research and application in member States; the compendia will be produced in paper and electronic formats and would be accessed on ECA website and in future, at proposed websites in member States; (iv) preparation of a document titled "Science and Technology in the Renewed ECA" which outlines the vision, mission and activities of the ECA in the area of S&T; (v) preparation of a Policy Brief titled "Science and Technology for Sustainable Development"; and (vi) a framework for ECA intervention in science and technology.

The Advisory Board on S&T at its recent meeting aided the Commission by providing it with a new list of priority activities which are (i) preparation of compendia of best practices phase II; (ii) continuation of the ESTNET activities; (iii) preparation of the S&T profiles of member States; (iv) implementing out of a practical intervention project on human resources development for vocational and intermediate levels; (v) conducting research and practical projects on research institutions - industry linkages; (vi) examining issues relating to biodiversity, biotechnology and patents; and (vii) giving support to the development of an African Regional Science and Technology Strategy and other regional and subregional activities in pursuance of the identification of needs of the member States, and the subregions.

 Honourable Ministers,

You will agree with me that our continent has much to do to meet the basic aspirations of our peoples, and science and technology provides important instruments to meet these needs. Yet, the tasks are daunting and the Commission can only succeed with active partnership and critical support from member States. It is for this reason that I solicit your support in the implementation of the above tasks. For instance in drawing up the S&T profiles of member States, the Commission will require your critical data inputs and we indeed will be grateful for all the logistic and material supports that member States can provide.

 Your Excellencies,

This dialogue avails the Commission two important advantages. First, the opportunity to unveil to your good selves, the programmes to achieve the tasks set for it by member States; and second, the opportunity to receive useful feedbacks from you. In addition, we shall be reviewing with you some of the current issues on S&T development as they affect member States and should welcome your own perspectives on these global trends and their possible impact on Africa.

We have also invited important private sector participants who represent important agents in the new development paradigm of liberalisation, globalisation and a technology-driven development process. We hope their inputs will enrich the policy making process in member State and assist ECA in making informed intervention.

In specific terms, the Commission expects the following outcomes from your dialogue:

1. The Honourable Ministers' perspectives on recent changes in ECA S&T strategy;

2. The Honourable Ministers' perception on the impact of social and economic policies on S&T;

3. An assessment of the private sector's concerns on how global trends and national policies have affected technology development in the private sector;

4. Promotion of dialogue between Honourable Ministers and leaders of private sector industries;

5. A direction from you all on activities that need to be undertaken by the Commission to address the perceived needs of member States;

6. The Honourable Ministers perceptions on other issues that affect S&T development in general; and

7. The Honourable Ministers support for ECA's activities.

 Your Excellencies,

I am highly delighted and encouraged by your commitment to the ideals of science and technology-driven development process for our region. The Commission will continue to promote the use of science and technology as an important agent for the achievement of food security and sustainable development. This involves noting the negative interdependencies and negative synergies existing between agricultural productivity, the growth of population and the state of the environment and, therefore, moving from low to high productivity agriculture, from high growth to low population growth, and from poor to better stewardship of the environment. Beyond this however, we want to employ the instrumentality of S&T to achieve shifts away from agriculture to industrial production, in which Africa processes a large proportion of its raw materials into high value added products; shifts away from traditional low productive techniques to production structures underpinned by progressively more complex techniques; and shifts away from production structures that promote commodity trade to structures that promote export of manufactures. These have been the touchstone of countries that have achieved rapid modernisation based on technological innovations. This is the strategic focus of ECA's Science and Technology programmes.

I am confident that you are endowed with the requisite knowledge, commitment and the will to support these progressive goals. I am persuaded that at the end of this dialogue, the Commission will be better informed of your concerns and aspirations and even more importantly, better educated by your collective wisdom.

 Your Excellencies,

I shall conclude by expressing my profound gratitude and appreciation for the honour done to the Commission by your participation. I wish you a very fruitful dialogue. I now declare open the First Executive Dialogue of Ministers of Science and Technology for Africa's Development.