Honourable Deputy Minister
Excellencies
The HSRC Board
The CEO of the HSRC
Director-General, Dr Phil Mjwara
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
It’s my pleasure to say a few words.
The launch of the HSRC’s annual report takes place at a time of a significant transition in its governance. It’s the first annual report launch under the new HSRC Act. I’d like to thank the retiring council, under the leadership of Professor Jakes Gerwel, for serving and guiding the HSRC for over a decade.
And I would like to welcome the new board members. I’m sure they will provide support and leadership to the HSRC as it builds on the achievements of the past few years.
It’s important that the HSRC promotes research in the humanities.
Our necessary concern about science, engineering, and technology has led to a perception that the human and social sciences are not important to government. This impression is wrong.
The social sciences have a critical role to play in enabling us to understand our changing country, our continent and the world.
The HSRC is well positioned to cement its reputation as an institution providing research-based evidence for government policies.
Social science research has a potential policy role in a range of fields, from reducing poverty to improving education, from improving gender relations to fighting HIV and AIDS.
How can the HSRC strengthen its role?
First, the manner in which research is published is critical. The publication of books and reports alone are not enough to influence policy. Each area of work should be regarded as a process of change.
Second, the HSRC must be more concerned about the limited intellectual and institutional presence of the social and human sciences in South Africa. There needs to be a more contact between the HSRC and universities. Much more weight should be given to ensuring languages; literature, political science, sociology and history continue to be vibrant disciplines.
Language and literature is at the centre of the humanities. And yet they tend to be neglected in public policy. A major contributor to this neglect is the perception that the humanities are primarily for personal enrichment and lack practical application to real problems and issues of interest to the general public.
In fact, the humanities offer insight into the ways we look at and interpret life's events.
In a nutshell, the purpose of the humanities is to enable us to understand humans in relation to themselves, that is to say, in their inner aspirations and ideals. The humanities have become a focal point for the construction of the imaginative models of experience; and the exploration of the problems of meaning, significance and truth, which are inherent components of language itself.
It’s critically important that the HSRC promotes excellence and high-level research in the humanities. The ability to analyse information and solve problems, the flexibility to cope with change, and the skill to communicate effectively in a culturally diverse workplace has now assumed greater importance than ever before.
The HSRC has an important role to play in advising decision makers.
Government is currently implementing a new electoral mandate based on the core objectives of increasing employment and reducing poverty.
The Medium Term Strategic Framework (MTSF) identifies ten priorities over the next five years and serves as the principal guide to planning and resource allocation across all spheres of government.
The framework emphasises the centrality of a growth path which addresses the economy’s structural constraints, expands the industrial base and creates decent work opportunities on a larger scale. Critically, investment in quality education for all young people and in skills development forms the bedrock of the government’s approach.
Indeed, success in reducing poverty, in eliminating structural unemployment, in implementing a comprehensive social security system, in building social cohesion and in reducing crime will depend to a large measure on the progress made in growing the economy in an equitable manner, underpinned by a growing skills base.
The introduction of two new departments in the Presidency, one for national planning and one for monitoring and evaluation, signals government’s commitment to identifying solutions and action plans that are informed by sound research.
The “human and social dynamics grand challenge” is a conceptual map for the HSRC
The “human and social dynamics grand challenge,” which is the fifth grand challenge of my department’s ten-year innovation plan, is a key conceptual map for guiding the HSRC’s programme of work over the next decade.
The human and social dynamics grand challenge promotes research and innovation to understand the human problems that pose the greatest challenges to society in this new century, and the analysis of psychological and social forces that shape human behaviour and the impact of such forces on all facets of culture.
But social science will also play an important role in the development of the other four grand challenges, in biotechnology and pharmaceuticals; in space science and technology; in energy security; and global change.
By uniquely combining research, based on qualitative and quantitative methods, in human development and public policy, the HSRC will be able to further both scientific discovery and effective practice in understanding and enhancing human lives.
In closing, let me say a word about funding. I am looking forward to the HSRC leadership and Board considering the development of a new model for financing research that does not lead to such extensive burn-out and high turn over among its staff. HSRC researchers spend too much of their time raising funds for their own research projects. It cuts down on the time spent on reflection and makes managing multiple projects with different theoretical assumptions difficult if not impossible to pursue.
Sourcing research funding today is more competitive than it was in the recent past. And there is a difficult balance to be maintained between accountability and freedom of thought and action. This is a difficult balance to maintain in a university and even more so in the HSRC with its mission driven mandate. But it is a balance that government takes seriously. We respect accountability and autonomy.
I congratulate the HSRC on a year of social exploration that contributed to the development of new knowledge in the social sciences and humanities. The reputation of the HSRC has grown tremendously in the last five years. The leadership should draw inspiration from this positive reputation to advance the human and social dynamic grand challenge in the Department of Science and Technology (DST’s) ten-year innovation strategy.
And now it is my pleasure to launch the HSRC's 2008/09 annual report.
Thank you.
Issued by: Department of Science and Technology
12 October 2009
Source: Department of Science and Technology (http://www.dst.gov.za/)
