Leaders told to replicate Africa’s successes in science

African leaders, scientists and academic experts are looking forward to building a more prosperous, just and sustainable future with increased investments and knowledge in science, technology and innovation on the continent.

They called for concerted efforts and determination by the different stakeholders to achieve these results at the end of the Sixth African Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) Forum held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, this month.

Science, innovation and technology, are “critical to the transformation of the continent in agriculture, industry and poverty eradication”, according to a statement the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) released on 21 April 2024.

Held ahead of the African Regional Forum on Sustainable Development, the STI Forum is a pre-event organised by the ECA in collaboration with the African Union (AU) and other partners under the theme, ‘Effective delivery of innovative science and technology solutions to reinforce the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Agenda 2063 and eradicate poverty in Africa’, according to the release.

In an opening statement during the forum, Antonio Pedro, executive deputy secretary for programme support at ECA, said that leaders and experts want African students to be at the forefront of technological innovation like their peers in Europe and Asia.

“Our aspirations are also to see our students and researchers become developers of the next generation of processors, storage disks and algorithms that are needed to unleash the full potential of artificial intelligence, as their peers are doing,” Pedro said.

Human capital development

Africa, he said, must invest in human capital development, research and development, or R&D, and in learning how to produce, sell and use emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and genomics that are transforming every aspect of life. “Science and technology should advance the well-being of the millions of households, farmers, fishermen, and many others that still use basic tools to lift themselves out of extreme poverty.”

He recalled that, during the 3rd STI Forum, ECA and Rwanda launched the STEM-Africa Centre to build a solid foundation in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and social science from primary to tertiary education.

“As ECA, it is our hope that all countries on the continent embrace and drive scientific, technological and industrial development across society, especially among youths and women. To trigger transformational change, we must replicate these examples again and again across the continent,” Pedro said.

Replicating the example of Rwanda requires the governments in Africa to create the enabling environment, working closely with scientists and researchers to foster innovation in areas like agriculture, clean energy and healthcare, to create more jobs for many unemployed graduates and other youths, improve livelihoods, and lift millions out of poverty on the continent, according to the news statement.

African countries have equally been called upon to adapt their science and technology policies to the changing times, and invest in technology and science to give youths and women the opportunity to drive the economy of their countries forward.

The statement quotes the Ethiopian Minister of Innovation and Technology, Belete Molla, as saying, “By encouraging policies that promote science and innovation, African societies can empower youths and women to become the drivers, not only of economic growth and job creation, but also of solutions to pressing environmental challenges.”

He said Ethiopia recently amended its science and technology policy, placing a strong emphasis on fostering innovation and harnessing the potential of emerging technologies. The country, he said, has also enacted a national digital transformation strategy named ‘Digital Ethiopia 2025’.

According to Molla, these initiatives include providing improved seeds and fertilisers to farmers. Modernising farming skills needs the direct contribution of researchers, scientists and academics working hand in glove with governments and the population.

The STI Forum was designed with the aim of fostering collaboration, exchanging different experts’ experiences, and scaling up policy and operational efforts to accelerate the contribution of science, technology and innovation to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, the release states.

“The forum has, over the years, grown to become a premier platform for addressing the opportunities and challenges that science, technology and innovation offer for fostering strategic partnerships and implementation of scalable and innovative solutions.”

STEM education

According to the ECA, in 2022, the forum launched the Alliance for Entrepreneurial Universities in Africa. The alliance has since stimulated universities and their 19 million students in Africa to nurture start-ups aimed at creating 100 million jobs and generating US$200 billion in revenue by 2033.

Lidia Arthur Brito, assistant director-general for natural sciences at UNESCO, emphasised the need for local initiatives and business angels to provide seed capital to drive socio-economic development, according to the statement. “When research is linked to society, to local communities, it deploys its full potential for socio-economic development.”

She underscored the critical challenge of financial sustainability which, she said, impacts on many African tech hubs. “They are reliant on grants from development partners and international donors to survive, in the near absence of local business angels and seed capital.”

The leaders and experts also highlighted the importance of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and called for increasing efforts to encourage women and girls to embrace equality in STEM.

Pedro said the ECA’s coding camps for girls and women are an example of how young women can be empowered to become the next tech entrepreneurs and innovators. “We have trained 2,000 young girls and women so far. However, to trigger transformational change, we must replicate these examples again and again across the continent,” she said.

“STEM is the key to driving creative solutions and innovations we need in Africa across a range of fields like environment, climate change, health, food production, basic infrastructure, environment and so forth,” Dr Linus Mofor of the African Climate Policy Centre and ECA, a participant in the forum, told University World News.

Commenting on the forum’s sentiments, Dr Nick Ngwanyam, the CEO of St Louis University Institute of Health and Biomedical Sciences, Cameroon, told University World News: “Our universities must address the problem of unemployment through inclusive STEM training, developing innovation hubs and incubators that will facilitate transition from school into the labour market and provide students the opportunity to practise what they have learned with entrepreneurial skills.”

Statistics, according to a news report in the Women in Science newsletter, which forms part of the African Scientists Directory, show an encouraging increase in women graduates in STEM in Africa. It shows that 47% of African universities’ science, technology, engineering and mathematics graduates, undergraduates and postgraduates are women.

“This means Africa now has highest proportion of female STEM graduates. However, women remain outnumbered at student and academic staff level,” the news report says.

A recent article in University Word News (see related articles) also reported on statistics from UNESCO which show that women represent just 33% of scientific researchers globally, thus the need to “encourage women scientists to take the lead in ground-breaking research across the world”.

In the article, Cameroon’s award-winning female scientist, Professor Rose Leke, highlighted the need for equal opportunity in STEM training.

“Africa has the human resource potential. We have to encourage equal training opportunities for both female and male scientists to get the results we want,” Leke told University World News.