Building Africa’s Science and Technology Capacity for Economic Growth

1. Building Africa’s Science and Technology Capacity for Economic Growth Proposed continental initiative to enhance the role of STI in Africa’s economic growth Emmanuel Okalany Technical Specialist – Development and Partnerships 21st -March-2019

2. Some drivers of knowledge based economic growth Accelerated, enhanced and sustainable contribution will be possible through Science, Technology and Innovation

3. Some challenges in building the required STI capacity to support Agenda 2063 • Lack of implementation capacity. Most African countries have a strategy for the promotion of STI but are poorly implemented • Disjoint between the outputs of the African higher education institutions and Africa’s development vision/Agenda. • Inactive role of the private sector – Government institutions are major players • Brain drain or mass migration of African skilled scientists and other experts • Excessive reliance of African countries on external funding for research and development (R&D) drives continued poor investment in STI capacity building • Higher cost of education in the sciences and engineering - the high costs of science and engineering training excludes talented but disadvantaged students. (UNESCO 2015 Science Report and ACR 2017)

4. Africa’s Science, Technology and Innovation Capacity(ACBF-ACR – 2017)

5. Annual Targets until 2063 (ACR, 2017)

6. The Building Africa’s Science and Technology Capacity for Economic Growth (BASTIC) Initiative Why the BASTIC Initiative • Inspired by the aspirations of Agenda 2063 and Science, Technology and Innovation (STISA 2024) and AUC-C10 declaration and Action Plan • Human, institutional and policy gaps in African STI revealed in ACR 2017 and 2015 UNESCO Science Report • Declaration of the African Ministers of Higher Education, Science and Technology (Cape Town, 2016) – call for the BASTIC initiative • Call for institutional and human capacity development by the Cairo declaration of the 3rd STI Forum, Cairo, Egypt • Consultation with Governments of Uganda, Sudan, Senegal, and Mozambique

7. Objectives of the BASTIC Initiative Overall objective: • Develop relevant STI capacity for deployment for deployment across sectors in African countries Specific objectives • Establish Regional Centres of Leadership in STI across African • Support regionally coordinated capacity-building activities to increase collaboration in higher education and STI and enhance inter-cultural and linguistic cooperation among institutions in African countries • Establish a regional coordinating and facilitating unit to support the programme implementation and management

8. Programme approach • Focus in building capacity of individuals, institutions and national STI systems for today and tomorrow • Harnessing the diversity in Africa (language, culture, educational and research systems, leadership structures) across the continent • Engagement of national governments of participating countries • Increasing the pool of women scientists • Inclusion of disadvantaged students such as refugees, disabled students • Phased implementation of 5 years, first phase on agriculture and environment

9. Regional Centres of Leadership in STI and Agri-food systems • Building model institutional architecture, infrastructure and STI leadership • Technologies and innovations • Partnerships among HEIs and with private sector, policy and other research institutions • Teaching and research facilities at universities • Masters and PhD as future STI leaders Programme approach Strengthened STI capacity in African countries accelerating attainment of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Africa Agenda 2063 • Coordination and Facilitation mechanism • Coordinating and providing implementation oversight • Undertaking M&E, fiduciary and safeguards • Hosting STI data hub • Supporting networking and knowledge sharing • Intra continental capacity-building cooperation activities • Regional Academic Mobility (RAM) for students and staff in agriculture, ICT, Science Education, engineering, science education, statistics and big data and policy • Staff capacities in African Universities by increasing the pool of PhD trained staff • Strengthening higher education and research institutional human inadequacies • Continental coverage including selected STI CoL and fragile states in Africa

10. Thematic areas of intervention • Science education (mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology etc.) • Engineering and renewable energy • Agriculture and food systems • Statistics, data management and foresight • ICT for all sectors of development • Agriculture markets, trade and policies

11. Expected outputs for the first 5 years • Regional Centres of Leadership in STI and Agri-food systems • 5 STI Centers of Leadership • 5 Technology and Business Parks • 50 Technologies and innovations • 200 Masters • 100 PhDs Strengthened STI capacity in African countries accelerating attainment of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Africa Agenda 2063 • Coordination and Facilitation mechanism • A framework for coordination of STI capacity development in Africa • STI capacity data hup • 5 Knowledge sharing and networking events • Intra continental capacity-building cooperation activities • 10 Regional Academic Mobility Projects • 300 Masters • 200 PhD students • 50 staff exchanges • 5 Trainings on research leadership and institutional management • 5 Trainings on resources mobilization

12. Partnerships and collaboration to implement RUFORUM Seeks for partnerships, collaboration and suggestions to make the design and implementation of this programme a success

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