UN S&T Cluster
for Support of NEPAD 2005 Update
By Alex Tindimubona, UNECA Focal Point
and Vice Convenor, UN S&T Cluster
Background
The objectives of the UN S&T Cluster
are:
Promote coherence and coordination in the
UN system's support for NEPAD's Plan of Action on science
and technology; Promote joint programming, harmonization and
cooperation in African science and technology activities within
the UN system; Promote dynamic and action oriented approaches
for the support of NEPAD S&T activities; Promote interaction
and collaboration with NEPAD, AU, Regional Economic Communities,
academies, knowledge networks, scientific communities and
other stakeholders working on science, technology and innovation
for sustainable development in Africa.
Aside from backstopping the NEPAD S&T
Action Plan, the cluster identified lead thematic areas for
specific focus, namely: engineering education, entrepreneurship
in higher education, the African Green Revolution, biotechnology,
Centers of Excellence and the Brain Drain. For more details
please see http://www.uneca.org/unregionalconsultations/science_and_technology/index.asp
Update/Activities
1. Tracking/Monitoring the NEPAD S&T Plan
of Action. After its 2003 initiation
in which UNECA and UNESCO participated, 2005 saw the update
and elaboration of Africa's Science and Technology Consolidated
Plan of Action, 2006-2010, launched by the African Ministerial
Council on Science and Technology (AMCOST) at its 2nd
meeting, 29-30 September 2005, Dakar, Senegal. The Consolidated
Plan moves the strategic planning process forward towards
implementation of the NEPAD S&T activities.
2. In particular, the Plan details the
flagship programs to be implemented, and the institutional
arrangements to be used. It spells out the roles, relationships
and mechanisms between NEPAD, AU, implementing institutions
and partners in achieving its objectives. While the AU provides
the overall political leadership, policy direction and guidance,
harmonization and advocacy, NEPAD takes a more technical
and operational role in rolling out the Plan. Both do advocacy
and mobilize resources together. An innovative feature of
the Plan is that its final activities on the ground will
be implemented by African Centres of Excellence identified,
accredited and highlighted by NEPAD. Once flagged in this
way, the implementing institutions then attract the resources
to be mobilized by the AU, NEPAD and all the partners. Several
centers of excellence/ implementation institutions have
already taken off, e.g. the Biosciences Facility (biotechnology);
African Institute of Mathematical Sciences (AIMS), and the
African Laser Center. This model appears promising for possible
emulation by other Clusters.
3. Science, Technology and Innovation
Systems. UNECA participated in review/restructuring/update
of the STI systems and policies of Rwanda, South Africa
and Ghana. In Rwanda a meeting to develop a new S&T
policy was held (5-6 May 2005); in South Africa it was a
Conference on Knowledge Production (23-24 June 2005); and
in Ghana it was a data gathering mission (3-7 October 2005)
for a series of Lectures by the UNECA Executive Secretary.
UNECA, UNCTAD, NEPAD and others participated in the 8th
Session of the UN Commission on S&T for Development,
Geneva, 23-27 May 2005. Two Centers of Excellence were visited
- a research/teaching laboratory on tissue culture biotech
at University of Ghana, and a commercial tissue culture
biotech laboratory at Bomarts Farms, Accra, an indigenous
pineapple exporter. Both have been designed by a Ghanaian
scientist, Dr Elizabeth Acheampong.
4. Intellectual Property Rights.
WIPO supported, and UNECA participated in, the National
Conference on the role of invention and innovation in the
national economic development of Ethiopia, organized by
the Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office and the Ethiopian
Intellectual Property Office and the Ethiopian Inventors
Association, Addis Ababa, 9-11 February 2005. An African
center of excellence, Dan Technologies, was visited. Pioneered
and led by an African industrialist, Eng. Daniel Mebrahtu,
it designs and manufactures most of the elevators and traffic
lights of Ethiopia.
5. Engineering Education:
UNECA participated in the UNESCO ANSTI 1st Regional
Conference of Vice Chancellors, Provosts and Deans of Science,
Engineering and Technology, Accra, Ghana, 15-17 November
2005, and the UNESCO ANSTI Governing Council, Accra/Kumasi,
Ghana, 18-21 November 2005. This forum, to be continued
biennially, and the ANSTI governing council are key instruments
for the management of S&T in Africa with big potential
to make a contribution to the development of S&T in
Africa. Strong contacts were made with scientific communities
and with an official of the AU Science and Technology Regional
Centre (STRC) in Lagos, Nigeria.
6. As part of the project on capacity building
for sustainable consumption and production in Africa, UNEP
organized a one week intensive training for university faculty
members and training institutions in the region on Life
Cycle Assessment (LCA) methods and tools. The training was
given from 28 August to 02 September 2005 and was attended
by a total of 32 participants from 22 African countries.
The training was developed and conducted in partnership
with the International Life Cycle Initiative with an Input
from Harvard School of Public Health in the U.S. and the
Royal Melbourne Institute of technology (RMIT) in Australia.
At the end of the workshop the participants established
the African Network on Life Cycle Assessment (ALCANET) with
a purpose of facilitating knowledge sharing amongst the
LCA community in the region.
7. A Regional Workshop on Environmental
Knowledge Sharing in Africa was held from 4-5 October 2005
at the Kumasi University of Science and Technology in Kumassi,
Ghana. The Workship was organized by the United Nations
University in collaboration with the Global Virtual University
in Norway and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
The Workshop deliberated on the potential contribution of
e-learning in facilitating environmental knowledge sharing
and came up with proposals which include the establishment
of an open platform that would facilitate exchange of existing
experiences and course materials.
8. African Green Revolution.
UNECA continued to promote and monitor the African Green
Revolution. The African Green Revolution received the highest
UN Mandate when it was endorsed by the UN Summit of September
2005 (par. 68g). A report "Africa's Green Revolution
: A Call to Action" was published by the MDG Technical
Support Centre. Mr Abdoulie Janneh, then UN Assistant Secretary
General and Director of the UNDP Regional Bureau for Africa
and now Executive Secretary of UNECA, played a pivotal role
in the Report. He led the Way Forward section which commits
stakeholders to develop a 10-year Plan of Action to implement
the African Green Revolution in the decade 2005-2015 as
also called for by the UN Summit. UNECA has a draft Plan
of Action for consideration.
9. A UNECA proposal to the UN Development
Account on "African Green Revolution Network: Sustainable
Modernization of Agriculture and Rural Transformation (SMART)"
was approved, to be implemented in 2006-2008. UNECA hosted
a visit of the Chief Scientific Advisory of UK DFID, centering
on possible collaboration in science, technology and the
African Green Revolution. The UNECA Executive Secretary
was invited to join a Group of Eminent Persons on the African
Green Revolution by H.E. President Olusegun Obasanjo of
Nigeria, current Chair of the African Union and Chair, NEPAD
HSGIC. UNECA made invited keynote presentations on the African
Green Revolution at the meeting of the Advisory Committee
on S&T of the EU-ACP Centre for Technical Cooperation
(CTA), Wageningen, 7-11 November 2005, and at the 7th
Conference of the African Crop Science Society, Entebbe,
Uganda, 5-9 December 2005. The scientific communities and
S&T leaders participating, including from CGIAR and
NEPAD, appreciated the promotional role UNECA is playing
in the African Green Revolution.
10. Biotechnology: UNECA,
UNIDO, WHO, UNCTAD and UNDP continued to consolidate the
Inter-agency Network on Biotechnology, and UN Biotech Africa.
A training workshop on biosafety and IPR was completed in
Dakar.
11. Brain Drain: UNECA
and UNESCO participated in the UNDP-SUSSC/SIG/AAS process
to create the Global Science Corps (Africa component).
Constraints/Recommendations
1. Not all members of the UN S&T Cluster
have fully internalized the meaning of coordination as yet.
At the minimum, there should be more electronic information
exchange about Cluster activities as agreed in our Launch
Document. UNECA will try to lead the way.
2. The upper level program management <Regional
Consultations? Section 11?> could help enhance coordination
by sponsoring one physical cluster-level consultation meeting
during the year (say mid-term between regional consultations),
and/or electronically by reminding clusters to help update
their web pages at least twice a year. The website is stale
and the e-discussion group never took off.
3. On the NEPAD side, UN Cluster leaders,
focal points or other members should be facilitated to attend
high level NEPAD meetings (in S&T case, steering committee
and/or ministerial council) as appropriate. The presence and
technical inputs of UNECA and UNESCO at the 2003 NEPAD meetings
(Nairobi, Johannesburg) were highly appreciated by several
member states. Observer status and/or more seamless formal
arrangements to be negotiated and established between UN and
AU/NEPAD.
Thank you
ART
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Science
and Technology