Story: Mary Ankrah
A TWO-DAY stakeholder conference to improve the use of science, technology and innovative (STI) ways of enhancing the living standards of people on the continent has opened in Accra.
Policy makers, financial and legal experts, African Diasporan organisations, organisations of returnees, government agencies and research scientists are participating in the conference with their European counterparts.
The platform is to enable the experts to enrich and strengthen the Africa-Europe STI cooperation by exchanging opinions and mutual learning on the role of research infrastructure (RI) in scientific and technological co-operation between the two continents.
Organised by the Promoting African European Research Infrastructure Partnerships (PAERIP) project, the conference is aimed at promoting research infrastructure partnerships between Europe and Africa in supporting the PAERIP project.
The PAERIP project, funded under FP7 (Infrastructures), is expected to explore opportunities for co-operation between the two continents in developing new research infrastructures.
Speaking at the opening ceremony in Accra yesterday, the Minister of Environment, Science and Technology, Ms Sherry Ayittey, underscored the need to ensure that development research in Africa was backed by adequate personnel with appropriate knowledge, skills and infrastructure.
She said it was imperative to invest more resources in creating conditions for strong knowledge in society to promote science, technology and innovation.
She observed that there was a significant gap in research capacity between European countries and Africa because many African countries lacked appropriate self-sustained research capacities in terms of adequate trained researchers and institutional capacities.
She said although many African countries had developed policies and programmes to guide the development of STI, it needed to be backed by adequate capacity and resources to ensure successful implementation.
Ms Ayittey noted that domestic mobilisation of resources was inadequate for many African countries and, therefore, called on Africa’s development partners, such as the European Union (EU), to support key research and development programmes by providing research infrastructure in Africa.
“We invest public money in science, not just for science’s sake but because we expect it to lift our socio-economic performance,” she said.
She also called on African governments to focus on building and sustaining excellent science and technology by helping the youth develop skills relevant to sustained employment and promote science and technology-based innovation and economic development.
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