Introduction
The fifth African Science, Technology and Innovation Forum will be held from 26 to 27 February 2023, in a hybrid format, in Niamey, Niger. The Forum is co-organized with UNESCO, the African Union Commission and the Department of Science and Innovation of South Africa. Other key partners include the Technology Bank for the Least Developed Countries, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the African Materials Research Society and the African Biomedical Engineering Consortium. The Forum is designed to fulfil both global and continental mandates.
Theme
The theme of the ASTI Forum is “Accelerating development and diffusion of emerging technologies for a green, inclusive and resilient Africa” with a special focus on the selected Goals (6, 7, 9, 11 and 17). While all the Goals will receive equal attention, the Forum will lay a greater emphasis on Goal 7 affordable and clean energy given that almost half of the continent’s population has no access to electricity and the continent greatly relies on biomass that provides about half of its energy needs.
objective
The overall objective of the fifth African Science, Technology and Innovation Forum is to conduct the regional follow-up and review of progress made, in order to identify potential mechanisms and measures that countries can deploy to scale up actions, facilitate peer learning and advance transformative solutions to accelerate achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and the goals of Agenda 2063.
Expected outputs
The fifth Forum is expected to generate the following key outputs:
- Report of the fifth African Science, Technology and Innovation Forum, which will inform the Africa Regional Forum on Sustainable Development and the multi-stakeholder forum on science, technology and innovation;
- Outcome documents of special sessions and events, such as the youth bootcamp;
- General guide for implementing Origin Research and Innovation Labs and Organizational Arrangements of Entrepreneurial Universities.
Expected outcomes
The fifth African Science, Technology and Innovation Forum is specifically designed to foster collaboration, the diffusion of technology and innovation, and scaling up of policy and operational efforts needed to accelerate the contribution of science, technology and innovation to fulfill the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Click here to read more
