Transcript Promoting S&T cooperation in the Southern Africa Region

SADC Protocol on Science,
Technology, and Innovation
Thomas Auf der Heyde
Briefing to Portfolio Committee
21 July 2010
History of SADC
Protocol on STI
 2006: SADC Declaration on Science, Technology
and Innovation (STI) drafted by SADC senior officials
and adopted by Ministers in Pretoria
 2007: SADC senior officials drafted SADC Protocol
on Science, Technology and Innovation in Durban
 2007: Ministers approved SADC Protocol in Pretoria
 2008: SADC Protocol on STI approved by the SADC
Heads of States and Government during the SADC
Summit in Johannesburg
Status of ratification
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Cab Memo drafted
Presented to ARC and ICTS meetings
Presented to Cabinet
Tabled at Parliament for presentation and
consideration
 To be presented at Portfolio Committee
meeting
Key objectives of the
Protocol
 Provide a base for development of institutional
mechanisms for regional cooperation and
coordination of STI
 Ensure proper coordination of resources for
regional STI programmes as identified in the
RISDP and CPA
 Promote development and harmonisation of STI
policies in the region
 Maximise public and private investment in R&D
in the region
Regional STI
interventions
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SADC Policy Training
SADC SET WEEK
SADC Women in Science
SADC STI Strategy
SADC IPR
SADC IKS
SADC Climate Change
SADC Blue Gene
SADC policy training
• Build capacity on S&T policy for Senior Officials in
SADC
• Ongoing discussions with UNESCO for a possible
training programme in September 2010
• Manchester University Business School identified as
possible service provider
• Australian Government donated R1.5m to the project
• South Africa will provide additional seed funding of
R1.5m
SADC SET week
• Aim of the programme is popularization of science
and technology in the SADC Region
• SADC SET Week was launched in Mauritius in 2009
• South Africa and Mauritius will develop a draft
framework for future SADC SET Week programmes
to be hosted annually
SADC Women-in-Science
• First SADC Women-in-Science workshop (Durban,
April 2010) discussed establishment of a regional
platform (aligned to SADC Gender Protocol and
Policy)
• Baseline report on SADC WiS in the region was
developed prior to the workshop
• Outcome of the workshop was establishment of a
Working Group (DRC, SA, Namibia, Zimbabwe &
Mozambique) to develop the WiS Plan of Action to
implement workshop recommendations
SADC STI Strategy
• Ministers mandated Senior Officials to develop a
SADC Strategy on STI
• Working Group was established comprising of SA,
DRC, Namibia, Tanzania and Lesotho
• Working Group meetings hosted by different
countries (South Africa, Namibia and Tanzania)
• Draft strategy will be presented at the next SADC
Ministerial Meeting in DRC July 2010
SADC Intellectual
Property Rights (IPR)
• First SADC IPR Workshop hosted in SA in August
2009
• Following this workshop, Japan has shown interest
to support IP training in SADC
SADC Indigenous
Knowledge Systems (IKS)
• Meetings in Zambia (2007), Seychelles (2009),
Namibia (2010)
• Projects: BSc (IKS), Databank, IKS Policy
development
• There is a lot of interest at a bilateral level for IKS
cooperation
SADC Climate change
• SADC Climate change – workshop will take place in
Namibia on 10-11 August 2010
• Initiative agreed on during the SADC senior officials
meeting in 2009
• Expected outcome of the workshop is a draft SADC
STI plan on climate change
• R1.5m support leveraged from Australian
Government to support the regional workshops
SADC Blue Gene
• Concept of Blue Gene Initiative (supercomputing)
presented at the SADC Senior Officials’ meeting in
2009
• Supercomputer donated by IBM to SA (CSIR) to host
the supercomputer for Africa
• Member States agreed to host workshop and share
how SADC can benefit from this initiative
• Workshop is planned for October/ November 2010
Summary
 Ratification of SADC Protocol is a technical
requirement
 Considerable progress being made in
developing regional interventions; SADC the
leading REC
 Interest in key development partners to support
regional initiatives
BUT
 SADC STI Desk weak and under-resourced
 Development partners reluctant to support STI
Desk