Message from the Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, Dr Blade Nzimande, on the occasion of the launch of the Science Diplomacy Capital Initiative: CSIR, Tshwane
Dr Thulani Dlamini, CEO of the CSIR
Your Excellencies, representatives of the diplomatic corps Distinguished guests
Friends and partners in science diplomacy
I am delighted to speak to you on the launch, by our Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, with the support of the Department of Science and Innovation, of the Science Diplomacy Capital for Africa initiative. If I am not able to be present with you today at the CSIR International Convention Centre, it is because I am on science diplomacy mission for our country. Today marks the official launch of the International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development, and I have the privilege to speak during a special event hosted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in Paris.
It is an important assignment, as science diplomacy, including ensuring the international community supports the basic sciences in developing countries, is an integral part of South Africa’s new Decadal Plan for Science, Technology and Innovation. The Science Diplomacy Capital for Africa initiative will also be a valuable instrument to enhance South Africa’s contributions to advancing the Pan-African agenda for science and innovation, which is also one of the strategic objectives of the Decadal Plan. The success of the Decadal Plan will depend on partnerships, and I am therefore encouraged that the primary vision of the initiative is to create a platform for partnerships, international, public-private and inter- institutional.
Indeed, one of the South African leitmotivs is that we are stronger together, if we cooperate in solidarity. I would therefore like to applaud the many partners, including the City of Tshwane, the Black Business Council, different institutions of our National System of Innovation, and of course the diplomatic community hosted in Tshwane, including the African Union Development Agency – NEPAD and the United Nations Development Programme, which have already pledged their support for our initiative. My special thanks
especially go to the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China and the High Commission of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland for their contributions to today’s programme.
I am convinced that the Science Diplomacy Capital for Africa initiative can make three key contributions to help us to better harness science as an instrument at the service of society and to advance the achievement of the global public good, to which we are committed to in the Sustainable Development Goals.
Firstly, the initiative will ensure the very best of South African and African scientific input and advice is harnessed to enrich diplomacy’s response to the key societal challenges we face, whether pandemic disease, energy security or climate change, and most critically of all
the triple challenge of poverty, unemployment and inequality. We will achieve this objective through enhanced networking between the Tshwane diplomatic community and African scientific expertise. In this regard, I am delighted that today’s programme include a
presentation on South Africa’s Hydrogen Society Roadmap.
Secondly, the initiative will promote and assist the formation of enhanced science diplomacy partnerships. We look forward to the initiative providing a platform to leverage the expertise and resources of our international partners to conceptualize and initiate new cooperation programmes, which will deliver real impact. I would like to set the Science Diplomacy Capital partners an important challenge, and that is to work to ensure that international cooperation partnerships are truly inclusive, with the active participation of historically disadvantaged institutions and individuals.
Thirdly and not least importantly, I am convinced the initiative, will unleash the tremendous soft power of science, which knows no borders, and which unites and not divides, to reinforce global solidarity and a commitment to multilateralism. Cooperation in science depends on people, relations between countries depends on people, and our mission should therefore be to bring people together – inspired by the philosophy of Ubuntu and our common humanity. Let us be encouraged by the words of former President Nelson
Mandela, “that it always seem impossible, until it is done.”
I wish the Science Diplomacy Capital for Africa much success, in its mission to ensure science plays an optimal role in diplomacy, with its goal to encourage diplomacy to support science, and with its responsibility to put science and the service of diplomacy, and above all the well-being of society.
I thank you
