Ethiopian Review

By Groum Abate | Capital Ethiopia

African governments must strongly support the development of new technologies to spur sustainable development and shield the continent from the global economic crisis, a senior United Nations official said on Thursday.
“As a coping mechanism and a shield against the global financial crisis, many countries are responding by investing in science and technology,” Josué Dioné, Director of the Food Security and Sustainable Development Division of the Economic Commission for African (ECA).
Speaking on behalf of Mr. Abdoulie Janneh, the Executive Secretary of ECA, Dioné cited India and China as examples, as he addressed over 600 scientists from the world over at the opening in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia of the First Session of the Committee on Development Information, Science and Technology (CODIST-1).
“These examples should not be lost on Africa, and I hope the deliberations of the next three days will address how African countries can use STI not only to shield themselves from the current crisis but also to prepare their economies to become more competitive for growth,” he said.
The theme of the three-day meeting, “Scientific Development, Innovation and the Knowledge Economy” had been chosen to underscore the key role of science, technology and innovation in helping Africa countries to cope with the global financial and economic crisis, as well as the food, energy and climate change challenges that they face, he said.
A central event on the conference agenda is the Technology in Government Award, an initiative of ECA and the Canada Fund for Africa that recognizes the work of African governments in the effective use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for public services delivery.
Over 30 applications were short-listed from Angola, Botswana, Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa, Sudan, The Gambia, Tunisia and Zambia.
Twelve innovative projects selected from these country submissions also received awards on Friday, April 30 at the Sheraton Addis.
Ms Aida Opoku-Mensah, Director of ICT, Science and Technology Division, said the first CODIST was designed to examine Africa’s innovation performance and lay the groundwork for the development of the ECA’s two-year programme on ICT, Science & Technology for Development.
She said the meeting would examine Africa’s performance against such key pillars of the knowledge economy as education and capacity building, ICT infrastructure, regulatory and economic and institutional regimes.
The conference, which is organized in collaboration with L’Organisation International e de la Franccophonie, UNCTAD, OSISA, ECA and a host of other partners, has two sub-themes on “the Enabling Environment for Innovation” and “Innovation and Economic Growth.”