Heads of state meeting on 29-30 January at
the African Union's annual summit in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) have sworn to boost research spending and develop science
education on the continent.
The year 2007 is designated a year for championing science, technology and innovation in Africa. It gets off to
a flying start with the establishment of a Pan-African Intellectual Property Organization to protect endogenous
innovation.
In the final Declaration on Science,
Technology and Scientific Research for Development, the Heads of State commited themselves to 'increas[ing] funding
for national, regional and continental programmes for science and technology (S&T) and support[ing] the
establishment of national and regional centres of excellence in S&T.'
Regional, South-South and North-South
cooperation in S&T are to be enhanced. To this end, the Summit backed a proposal by African foreign ministers to
equip scientists with diplomatic passports to foster research collaboration by making it easier for them to move
around the continent. The first passports may be issued to scientists as early as May, once the AU Commission has
consulted individual countries on which scientists to target for the scheme.
Member States are 'strongly urged' to
allocate at least 1% of GDP to research and development (R&D) by 2010, a target UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro
Matsuura hailed at the Summit as 'an important step' towards placing African countries in the driver's seat of their
socio-economic development.
'Is this not too little too late?'
challenged Rwandan president Paul Kagame in his own address. He announced to his peers that Rwanda would be spending
1.6% of GDP on S&T in the current fiscal year and planned 'to increase it to 3% in the next five years.' Rwanda had
begun implementing a national policy on science, technology and innovation, he said, that included the goal of
increasing the number of science students in tertiary institutions to 70% of the student population.
Member States vowed to revitalize
African universities and scientific research institutions so that 'they can play an effective role as loci of
science, technology and engineering education and development and also contribute to public understanding of
science and technology.' Member States were invited 'to pay special attention to the teaching of science and
technology' and undertook to 'encourage more African youth to take up studies in science, technology and
engineering.' In this spirit, the Summit approved a Mwalimu Julius Nyerere African Union Scholarship Scheme. The
50 initial scholarships will target Bachelor students and cover tuition fees at the African university of the
student's choice, as well as the costs of accommodation and a return flight home.
An African Education Fund is to be
established for implementation of the Plan of Action for 2006-2015 adopted by Ministers of Education in Maputo
(Mozambique) last September.
‘Concerned’ that 27% of the African population is undernourished and ‘determined’ to
reduce the continent's annual expenditure of US$20 billion on agricultural imports,' governments reaffirmed their
commitment in Addis Ababa to allocating at least 10% of national budgets to agriculture and endorsed the African
Seed and Biotechnology Programme.
The Summit endorsed a 20-year
Biotechnology Strategy backed by science ministers in Cairo (Egypt) last November. The Strategy is articulated
around Pan-African cooperation based on regional strengths. The online journal SciDev.net reports that eastern and
northern Africa will draw on expertise from southern Africa to improve control measures for malaria and HIV/AIDS,
North Africa will advise other regions on drug manufacture, eastern Africa will share its knowledge of livestock
research technology, West Africa will contribute its own expertise in agricultural biotechnology and central Africa
its knowledge of biodiversity. 'Countries will be grouped under regional economic bodies to implement goals outlined
in the strategy and will report to the African Union on their progress,' notes SciDev.net.
The Summit also launched the Green
Wall for the Sahara Initiative, a proposal born on the margins of last December's Abuja Summit on Food Security.
The initiative is intended to help Africa adapt to climate variability and change. Other long-term goals for the
more than 20 beneficiary countries are to arrest soil degradation, slow the advance of the desert frontier, reduce
poverty, conserve biodiversity and increase both land productivity and food production.
One of the rare proposals for
science not endorsed by leaders was that for an African Science Technology Fund. The Fund was originally mooted as
a means of accelerating implementation of Africa's Science and Technology Consolidated Plan of Action to 2010. Wary
that such a Fund might generate unnecessary administrative costs, the Summit decided to mandate an expert panel
with more in-depth studies. One solution might be to entrust the Fund to the African Development Bank.
In the Declaration, Heads of State
'recognize the support in S&T by international organizations such as UNESCO' and 'call on UNESCO and other bilateral
and multilateral organizations to support the Member States, Regional Economic Communities and the African Union to
implement the Summit decision on Science and Technology.'
Read Science in Africa on UNESCO's
contribution to Africa's Science and Technology Consolidated Plan of Action to 2010.
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