Science and Technology Team

The Problem

Achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and sustainable development in Africa constitute major challenges. Indeed, meeting the various development challenges in the area of poverty reduction, food security, health, water and sanitation, productivity and international competitiveness, requires strengthened scientific, technological and innovation capabilities on the African continent. These are monumental challenges given the fact that the continent is still largely failing to learn from the experiences of the Newly Industrialized Countries (NICs) and from the experiences of developing countries that have achieved a Green Revolution (GR). Africa has to address properly the key issues that have shaped the development paradigms in these countries. The problem is that science, technology and innovation are not making the contributions that are necessary for achieving a GR, for accelerating industrialization and for the effective development of the continent.

Goal

A new technological regime is needed to meet the challenges mentioned above. Indeed, the underlying principles of the sustainable development paradigm, which underpins development goals and strategies, command policies that are, among other things, pro-environment, pro-poor and pro-innovative. Progressing simultaneously in many areas of science, technology and innovation policies in order to achieve sustainability and competitiveness appears to be the most viable strategy available to African policy makers at this particular juncture.

The goal of the team is to assist member States in building an endogenous scientific, technological and innovation capability to address the challenges mentioned above, and more specifically to address the challenges of the emerging African GR.

Strategy

In order to meet the challenges of sustainability and competitivity the STI Team is actively assisting member States in the promotion of an enabling policy environment in the area of science, technology and innovation. This is done by:

  • Collaborating intensively with NEPAD’s Science and Technology Cluster, UNCSTD and the MDG Task Force on Science, Technology and Innovation;
  • Promoting critical science and technology platforms for Africa’s sustainable development, with a focus on the technological trajectories of African GR technologies;
  • Encouraging the exchange of information, expertise and experiences through a variety of means, including a network on science and technology for sustainable development: (ESTNET);
  • Raising awareness as to the potential contribution of science and technology for solving Africa’s pressing problems;
  • Supporting regional dialogues through expert meetings, seminars and meetings of the Committee on Sustainable Development (CSD) in order to arrive at a consensus on policies and strategies;
  • Carrying out policy analysis, studies and developing analytical tools for formulating effective science, technology and innovation policies, with a focus on GR indicators and design;
  • Offering advisory services and technical assistance to member states and regional institutions on various science, technology and innovation management issues; and
  • Implementing a capacity building field project on science, technology and innovation for triggering a GR in Africa.

Policy orientations and advocacy

In implementing this strategy the STI Team is advocating effective policy orientations with an emphasis on promoting critical technologies and innovations for the African GR. These policy orientations include:

  • Improved institutional policy-making, implementation and monitoring capacities, and enhanced political leadership for a better integration of science and technology and innovation policies with other development policies, which can be facilitated by the setting up or strengthening of Parliamentary Committees on Science and Technology (PCST), by the appointment of high profile and highly credible and respected science and technology advisors (STA) and by the creation of Interdepartmental Science and Technology Forums (ISTF);
  • A substantial increase in investments (African agriculture is highly undercapitalized) in the development, acquisition, adaptation, application and diffusion of technology, both traditional and advanced, through strengthened savings capacity, enlarged budgetary allocations, venture capital funds, foreign investments, fiscal incentives, micro-credit, technology funds, research grants, scholarships, voluntary work, development aids and through other means;
  • A greater participation of African countries in the world trading system in order to take full advantage of larger and more dynamic technology markets, through outward-oriented and market friendly policies, increased competition, alliances, cheaper imports, larger export markets and expertise of expatriates;
  • A greater priority to promising emerging technologies, such as ICT and biotechnology, which must be part of the technological portfolio of African countries and which constitute important resources for meeting the challenges of sustainable development, and increased managerial, entrepreneurial and innovation capacities, which are crucial for finding effective solutions to Africa’s particular problems, including the management of intellectual and genetic resources, which are governed by a number of complex international agreements;
  • Special attention to the "popularization", "democratization" and "domestication" of science and technology, involving all stakeholders – particularly the farmers, through participation in the policy formulation and implementation process, so as to transcend policies that tend to be too narrowly focused on a few number of isolated, ill-equipped and underpaid researchers and academicians, using various means such as radio programs, media training for scientists, public libraries, booklets and other printed materials, schools science days, inter-schools science competitions, public lectures, science fairs, associations, adult education, demonstration centers, national merit awards, science quizzes, science newsletters, exhibitions, science clubs, science festivals, etc.;
  • Strengthened partnerships and regional and international cooperation by liaising, networking, partnering and collaborating with industrialized, industrializing and developing countries, by sharing subregional markets and scientific and technological assets, including in the areas of training, research and demonstration, which cannot always be viable at national levels, and by radically reconfiguring the CGIAR system in order to serve Africa better, particularly as regard supporting the African GR.

 
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