The first New Partnership for Africa`s Development (NEPAD) ministerial conference on science and technology (S&T) held last week in Johannesburg adopted a plan of action for its S&T programme.
The plan, which was a adopted by delegates from 34 African countries, covers three areas of governance of S&T within NEPAD, and finance provision and flagship programmes covering 12 areas identified at the conference, the Department of Science and Technology said in a statement.
The outcome concerning governance was the establishment of a ministerial council comprising NEPAD member states. The council will be chaired by SA for the next two years and will be responsible for formulating policy and overseeing the implementation of the programme.
The flagship programmes will be funded by the respective governments that committed to increasing funding of S&T to at least 1% of their respective GDPs. The member countries also undertook to put into effect several mechanisms to stimulate private sector investment in scientific research and technological development.
The 12 initial areas addressed by the flagship programmes include biotechnology, S&T for manufacturing, energy, information and communications technologies, post-harvest technology and water research.
The department says in each of these areas, networks of centres of excellence and innovation hubs will be created in order to promote and develop innovations that will address the continent`s socio-economic challenges, including the development of human resource capacity.
Last week, the minister of arts, culture, science and technology, Dr Ben Ngubane, signed an S&T co-operation agreement with the Brazilian minister of S&T, Dr Roberto Amaral.
The agreement will act as a tool to mobilise resources and to address development issues through S&T in countries in the Southern Hemisphere. It will also be utilised to redirect the focus of Brazil/South African relations towards the future in support of the objectives of NEPAD and the Southern African Development Community.
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