Draft Concept Note: PDF Version

Context

As African countries seek to develop their national S&T policies and R&D capacity, the international community can provide support in helping countries build STI capacity which has become a major priority for G8 countries.  At the 2005 G8 summit in Gleneagles, leaders agreed to substantial increases in support for research and development, and at the recent G8 summit in Germany, there were calls for those commitments to be reiterated.  In 2006 the World Bank announced a $30 million loan to support scientific development in Uganda.  The project is the latest effort from the Millennium Science Initiative, which promotes the development of world-class scientific talent in developing nations.  The credit will help increase the number and quality of scientists produced by Uganda's universities and research centres, and will boost the country's scientific and technological productivity in industrial, agricultural and other sectors. And in the coming years, the UK’s Department for International Development (DfID) is doubling its support to African research and development.

In parallel to the international attention, there is an ongoing debate within the African S&T community itself of the role of S&T, the constraints, the priority areas and the key issues to be addressed, in addition to calls for Africa to increasingly invest in R&D.  In 2006, the African Union (AU) and NEPAD published the Consolidated Plan of Action (CPA) for Science and Technology, and the 2007 African Union (AU) meeting of Heads of State in Addis Ababa dedicated a large part of its agenda to S&T capacity in Africa.  This is just one of many on-going pan-Africa, regional and national initiatives that aim to build Africa’s indigenous S&T capacity.  On-line forums too, such as the Discussion List on Science, Technology and Innovation for Development in Africa (sti4d), and the Innovation Policy group are informal yet powerful forums that are uniting the African S&T community with the Diaspora for wide ranging discussions that stimulate creativity and action.

There is a widely held perception that Africa’s needs are not being fully addressed by the education sector.  One of the symptoms is a severe skills shortage, and the reasons cited are multiple, ranging from inadequate capacity in the classroom to the predominance of a sustainable development and northern research agenda driven by donors that fails to take account of Africa’s domestic requirements.

As Uganda seeks to accelerate its economic growth and social-well being, the central role of science and technology in this process is being emphasised.  This comes at a time of greatly heightened attention by the global community to the role of science, technology and innovation (STI) in economic and social development.  The Commission for Africa report and the UN Millennium Development Goals report are just two of the more prominent international calls to action, both arguing that building STI capacity should be an essential element of every country’s strategy for poverty reduction, for achieving the MDGs and producing a more knowledge-intensive economy.

A recent international forum on STI for development held in Washington responded to the calls for action in the CfA and UN MDG reports and one of the outcomes of that forum included a call for regional forums of a similar nature.  The present symposium is a response to that call for Uganda, and for the immediate region.

CHOGM

The next Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) takes place in Kampala, Uganda from 23-25 November 2007 with the theme of ‘Transforming Commonwealth societies to achieve political, economic and human development’. In preparation for CHOGM, the Commonwealth Foundation is organising the Commonwealth People’s Forum (CPF), from 19 to 22 November, 2007, with the theme “Realising People’s Potential”. This forum will provide civil society and all non-state actors with an opportunity to debate issues relating to the CHOGM theme, and to present statements to Commonwealth Foreign Ministers and Heads of Government.  Recognising the need to extend opportunities for peoples’ participation beyond Kampala, a series of local and regional meetings on substantive subjects is underway.  A successful workshop on the impacts of climate change in Uganda took place on 10 November 2006.  This same framework provides an excellent opportunity for Uganda to showcase its engagement in promoting scientific and technological capacity to Commonwealth leaders.

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