Remarks by the Minister of Science and Technology (South Africa), Naledi Pandor MP, at the National Press Club Science Seminar, Washington
Ladies and Gentlemen.
It's a great pleasure for me to address you on the subject of science and technology capacity-building in Africa.
African countries have made a determined effort to increase Research Development and Innovation (RDI). The past 15 years have witnessed focused interventions in higher education in science councils, academies and in universities.
Many countries have begun to budget for STI and most of them have targeted 1 percent of GDP as their future contribution to research funding. In South Africa we have agreed to increase Public Sector funding to 1.5 percent of GDP in the next five years.
While there has been a significant positive shift in RDI, we have not yet begun to generate the levels of success we agreed when we developed our first Africa STI Plan of Action. This year we adopted our second Africa STI Plan and we are currently developing action plans.The new strategy prioritises the use of research to drive economic and social development across the continent. It commits signatory countries to six goals, including tackling hunger, disease and unemployment, and will set up structures to pursue them.
Africa is confronted by many global challenges, such as climate change, pandemic disease or energy security. In order to address these, enhanced global science and innovation partnerships are required. To realise the potential of cooperation, a key objective should be well designed science and technology capacity-building in Africa. We need to unleash Africa’s enormous potential to contribute to global knowledge generation. Specific focus areas should be human capital development and support for research infrastructures. The goal should be to build new but also to further develop existing capacities.
It's important that science and technology cooperation between Africa and other countries is not restricted to the traditional areas of cooperation such as agriculture, health and environment research. Cooperation should include a comprehensive series of engagements covering the entire research and innovation value chain, from fundamental and frontier research to the translation and commercialization of the results of our research partnerships.
There are several ongoing Africa-America science cooperation initiatives (Pepfar specifically for South Africa, but others like the Global Innovation Initiative that exclude South Africa) but there is potential to launch many more. It's however, important to guard against fragmentation of efforts. It may be useful to identify specific flagship initiatives in order to mobilize resources. Such large-scale initiatives have the potential to transform the landscape of Africa-America science and technology cooperation, but also to deliver maximum impact for society. They should be aligned with our existing continental frameworks and priorities.
African research and innovation programmes are progressing in a number of disciplines. A new cooperation opportunity for America lies in the establishment of the African Network for Drugs and Diagnostics Innovation (ANDI). By establishing networks of centres of excellence in health innovation in Africa, ANDI is playing a critical role in helping us to ensure better coordination of and efficiency in our investments harnessing science and technology to fight disease in Africa. These centres focus on drug and vaccine development, diagnostics as well as medical devices and technologies. With targeted interventions across the full innovation value chain, the goal is also to boost Africa’s indigenous pharmaceutical capacity for optimal impact on society.
In the astronomy sciences we have made important investments, both with regard to infrastructure and human capital, to position Africa as an international partner of choice. A decade of investment in this area of comparative advantage has given us many economic opportunities. Engineers, astrophysicists, ICT specialists and several other professions have been able to participate in our initiatives. Some of our telescopes are located in remote rural areas –we have had to build roads, ensure energy supply and connectivity for all our projects. All this astronomy work has brought economic opportunity to vulnerable communities and supported the development of science and mathematics at local schools. The astronomy sciences have given life to a re-invigorated science focus in South Africa and several African countries.
We are immensely proud of winning the bid to host SKA, which is global recognition of the progress of African science and technology. For the first time, Africa will host one of the world’s major large-scale research infrastructures. America is not a key partner in the SKA. But there is still a special case to be made for a focused radio astronomy partnership between Africa and America.
Radio astronomy investment in recent years has raised both the supply of and demand for a skilled, science, technology and engineering workforce. Because of this increase of human capital in African economies, it has contributed to the creation and growth of a high-knowledge skill-base across the African continent. With its potential to advance our fundamental understanding of the universe, radio astronomy has captured the imagination of young people and increased the number of students studying astronomy and space-related sciences at universities.
MeerKAT, the South African SKA precursor, is already contributing to the development of astronomical and engineering skills across Africa. Since technologies being developed for these telescopes will be commercialised in the next 10-20 years, young Africans currently working on the project will be in high demand around the world. Embedded in the wider international perspective of the SKA, the building, commissioning and operation will significantly enhance their science and engineering experience.
Radio astronomy is a powerful driver for innovation in domains such as information and communication technologies, including high-speed networks and super-computing, advanced materials and manufacturing and renewable energy. The outlook for Africa-America science cooperation is changing in an exciting and for some, perhaps even surprising manner, with much greater potential for mutually beneficial partnerships.
I would now like to share with you some thoughts on how best to harness our cooperation for economic development. Four key interventions are required. First, we need to broaden the range of actors involved in our science partnerships. Second, at the policy level we need to ensure an enabling environment for innovation partnerships is in place. Third, we should work to ensure access to innovative funding instruments, which can boost innovation. Fourth, science and technology cooperation should be mainstreamed across the different thematic focus areas of Africa-America cooperation.
With regard to the first point, it is safe to say that universities and public research organisations dominate the Africa-America science and technology cooperation landscape. We will maximise economic benefit by ensuring a greater involvement of industry, both as funders and performer, but also users of research. Specific attention should be paid to the role of small and medium enterprises –engines for growth in both Africa and America.
African-American cooperation in innovation will, however, only flourish if the enabling policy environment is in place. We need an innovation policy dialogue between our two continents, which can identify potential barriers to cooperation, initiate actions to eliminate them and launch initiatives to put innovation at the heart of our partnership.
There are several important issues to consider. For example, our different rules regarding intellectual property management –do they encourage or discourage cooperation?
We should also learn from each other. What are the best practices to, for example, use public procurement as a driver for innovation? Is there scope for partnerships with America as we seek through technology localisation programmes to reinforce African capacities to participate in large industrial and infrastructure programmes?
Of course, as we get closer to market, competition between African and American economic interests may occur and is not necessarily unhealthy. Opportunities for cooperation will, however, still be there for mutual benefit and we must find and exploit them. Joint Africa-America training programmes to develop the skills of our young entrepreneurs or programmes providing incubation support for start-up companies could, for example, strengthen African-American alliances to join forces in key sectors in the competitive technology global marketplace.
Funding is of course central to any effort to promote cooperation in innovation. We should interrogate whether the current funding instruments for Africa-America science partnerships are the most appropriate ones to ensure economic benefit is leveraged from our cooperation.
We should look beyond the traditional funding instruments. What can we do to encourage support from venture capital for African and American science entrepreneurs? The World Bank, the African Development Bank, other financial institutions –surely they have a crucial role to play, as we expand the ambition of our cooperation.
Coming to my last point, I would like to advocate for greater support to science and technology capacity-building in Africa. The best investment in Africa’s long-term sustainable development is an investment in the continent’s indigenous research and innovation capacities.
I have made some suggestions for a more strategic, concerted approach to realising the exciting opportunities on offer.
I believe there is now a golden opportunity to develop new, strategic and mutually beneficial African-American science partnerships. These are partnerships that will not only enrich the global scientific knowledge base but also transform scientific disciplines to the benefit of our societies.
I thank you.
