Harare, 23 May 2017 (ACBF) – In October this year, 10 African heads of state championing Education, Science and Technology (EST) will converge in Lilongwe, Malawi, for a conference with private sector leaders, academia, and other high-level representatives of diverse sectors to stimulate dialogue among key higher education players, which, it is hoped, will set the stage for the continent to commit to deeper training in science and technology – two ingredients vital to the implementation of the African Union Agenda 2063 and the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGS).
The initiative by the 10 heads of state from Chad, Egypt, Gabon, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Tunisia has received the full support of the Association of African Universities and other stakeholders, including the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF), the continent’s leading intergovernmental capacity building institution, which, on its own, has been advancing the development of Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) in recent years.
In its 2017 Africa Capacity Report, released in late March, the ACBF warned that Africa risked being left behind in the race towards inclusive globalization if countries did not build their STI capacities. Therefore, the ACBF urged African countries to honor the pledge they made in 1980 and again in 2005 to commit one per cent of GDP to investment in research and development (R&D), and even take it further to around three per cent of GDP.
Currently, Africa accounts for about 5 per cent of global GDP, but is responsible for only 1.3 per cent of global expenditure on R&D. As such, the continent remains disadvantaged on overall STI effort due to the low investment in STI capacity development. But, according to the ACBF, if the continent should become competitive globally and close the development gap between it and the rest of the world, it will largely depend on its governments plugging the STI investment gap.
This makes the initiative of the 10 heads of state championing Education, Science and Technology ever so crucial to Africa’s development.
Thus, because of its importance, the ACBF has been an active participant in the preparatory meetings and processes leading to the October conference in Lilongwe, where the 10 heads of state are expected to take the dialogue on Education, Science and Technology a notch higher. The last of such preparatory processes was a recent high-level technical meeting hosted in the Malawian capital by the country’s Government and the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM). On behalf of ACBF’s Executive Secretary – Prof. Emmanuel Nnadozie – the Foundation’s Senior Knowledge Management Expert – Dr Robert Nantchouang – assured Malawi’s Minister of Education, Science and Technology, Hon. Emmanuel Fabiano, of the institution’s total commitment for the success of the Heads of State Conference in October, as part of the event’s co-organizers alongside the said Ministry itself and RUFORUM.
The ACBF will co-organize the Lilongwe meeting in collaboration with Malawi’s Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, and the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM).
To the ACBF, STI has become even more critical for Africa after the adoption of Agenda 2063, and the continent’s commitment to the SDGs. Remarkably, Agenda 2063 is underpinned by STI as the engine of sustainable and economic transformation – a fact that led African leaders to adopt a 10-year Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy for Africa (STISA-2024) in June 2014.
Yet, according to the ACBF, Africa is still short of 4.3 million engineers and 1.6 million agricultural scientists and researchers, due largely to the fact that African higher education institutions are not producing enough skilled human resources to meet market demands for skills in science and engineering.
“Very few graduates in Africa gain the skills they need to find work,” says the ACBF. “Low enrollment rates in science, technology, and engineering reflect the low interest in, and limited demand for, STI skills in the labor market as well as the often-high costs of the courses.”
Thus the outcome of the October meeting in Lilongwe is critical as it will point to the shape of things to come.
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For more information, please contact:
Abel Akara Ticha – Senior Communication Officer
The African Capacity Building Foundation
Harare, Zimbabwe
+263 7+263-4 304663, 304622, 332002, 332014; Ext. 279
Email: [email protected]
About the African Capacity Building Foundation
Established in 1991, ACBF builds human and institutional capacity for good governance and economic development in Africa. To date the Foundation has empowered people in governments, parliaments, civil society, private sector and higher education institutions in more than 45 countries and 6 regional economic communities. ACBF supports capacity development across Africa through mobilization and leveraging of resources for capacity development; grants, investments and fund management; knowledge services; promoting innovation in capacity development and capacity development advisory services. The establishment of ACBF was in response to the severity of Africa’s capacity needs, and the challenges of investing in indigenous human capital and institutions in Africa. ACBF interventions are premised on four principles: the centrality of capacity to the development process in Africa; the critical role of a partnership and demand-driven approach in tackling capacity challenges; African ownership and leadership in the capacity development process; and a systematic, sequenced and coordinated approach to the capacity development process that pays attention to capacity retention and utilization. For further information go to: www.acbf-pact.org
