Events

African Union Heads of State and Government Adopt the Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy for Africa

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 3 July, 2014: The 23rd Ordinary Session of the Assembly of African Union Heads of State and Government held in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea on 27 June 2014 adopted the Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy for Africa -2024 (STISA-2024) amongst others.

STISA-2024 was developed as a result of the review of the Africa Science and Technology Consolidated Plan of Action (CPA), following an inclusive participatory process involving policy-makers, prominent scientists, and researchers at home and in Diaspora; institutions and organizations including the AU Commission and the NEPAD Agency. The 8-member high-level panel which presided over the development of STISA-2024 was co-chaired by Professors Calestous Juma and Ismail Serageldin.

STISA-2024 will address six critical socio-economic priority areas, namely: eradication of hunger and ensure food & nutrition security; disease prevention and control and ensuring well-being; communication; protection of our space; live together – build the community and; wealth creation. These priorities cut across the African Union sectorial strategic frameworks and provide ample opportunity for synergies and complementarities that would be capitalized on during implementation, underscoring the role of STI as a multi-functional tool for Africa’s development.

The STISA-2024 is a decadal continental strategic framework for accelerating Africa’s transition to an innovation-led, knowledge-based economy within the overall framework of the AU Agenda 2063. It takes into cognizance the need to revamp STI infrastructure in Africa, enhance technical and professional competencies, and also provide the enabling environment for STI as prerequisites to achieve its mission. Flagship research programs and actions with estimated budget and funding sources will be elaborated to respond to the challenges along the key priorities’ impact areas by the scientific community and all relevant stakeholders. Both prerequisite actions and flagship programs will take stock of existing initiatives and will build on existing program actions already identified in the Consolidated Plan of Action (CPA).

In their decision, the Heads of State and Government called upon the Member States, Regional Economic Communities and Development Partners to align, connect and use the STISA-2024 as a reference framework in designing and coordinating their STI development agendas and initiatives, to collectively contribute to Africa’s socio-economic development. This calls for a political will and financial commitment from Member States that goes beyond the Khartoum declaration of 1% GDP spending on research and development.

The AU Commission, the NEPAD Agency and their partners will continue to advocate and create awareness, mobilize necessary institutional, human and financial resources and also track, monitor and evaluate the implementation progress of STISA -2024.

For further information please contact:
Mahama Ouedraogo
Head of Division Science and Technology
Human Resources, Science and Technology Department
African Union Commission
Email:OuedraogoM@africa-union.org

PRESS RELEASE
MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING BETWEEN AFRICAN UNION COMMISSION (AUC) AND SPACE TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE GROUP (STSG, FINLAND)

Addis Ababa 5th June 2014 – On Thursday 5th June 2014 in the central focus of the International Conference on Collaboration in Space Technologies, held in Riga Latvia and opened by HE Vaira Vike-Freiberga (Former President of Republic of Latvia), Minister Ina Druviete (Minister, for Science and Education), Dr Abdul Hakim Elwaer (Director, AUC), Dr. Mahama Ouedraogo (Head of Division, AUC) and Professor Marek Banaszkiewicz (Chairman STSG) saw the culmination of bilateral discussions spanning this year to form the pioneering Memorandum of Understanding between the African Union Commission and the Space Technology Science Group Oy. The MoU is aimed at establishing a framework for collaboration between the AUC and STSG with regard to activities in the field of space technology and science with a major focus on building African capabilities and increasing its autonomy to develop and use space derived products and services for sustainable development.

STSG, is a Pan Central European, Nordic and Baltics integrated space Technology group, based in Finland - consisting of industry and research base across its region. This MOU sets out a long-term relationship between the Commission and STSG for collaboration in the field of small satellite design, development, integration and launch.
The MOU also covers collaboration to enhance capability through research, academic and tailored training and development including commercialisation of space science and research in ground stations and integrated applications development.
For more information contact–

Dr Mahama Ouedraogo
Human Resources, Science and Technology Directorate
ouedraogom@africa-union.org

Press Release Nº 99/2014

African Union signs a twenty million euro (EUR 20,000,000) financing agreement with the German Development Bank

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 12th May 2014: The Commission of the African Union has signed a twenty million euro (EUR 20,000,000) financing agreement with the German Development Bank (KfW) Country Manager for EthiopiaMr HelmutSchönein support of the Pan African University (PAU),especially for its Institute of Water and Energy Sciences, including climate Change based at the AbouBakrBelkaïd University of Tlemcenin the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria (PAUWES). The agreement, signedon Monday 12th May 2014, at the headquarters of the African Union (AU) will ensure the continual growth of the PAU and strengthening of the partnership between the Federal Republic of Germany as a lead thematic partner and the African Union Commission.

Speaking during the signing ceremony, Dr. Martial De-Paul Ikounga, AU Commissioner for Human Resources, Science and Technology, stressed that the signing of the financing agreement was anothermilestone to ensuring that the PAU fully grasps its goal of being an institute of excellence.

The Pan African University was conceived as a response to the need to revitalize higher education and research as major tools for ensuring high level human resource and intellectual capital for Africa’s development, while promoting world class yet locally relevant and responsive research, to provide an exemplar for excellence in African higher education and research. The PAU consists of a network of institutes and centres in five thematic areas distributed across the five regions, and administered from a central rectorate. The PAU serves all of Africa, and is supported by all Member States and a number of committed partners.

For further information contact
Directorate of Information and Communication | African Union Commission I E-mail: dinfo@african-union.org I Web Site: www.au.int I Addis Ababa | Ethiopia

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African Union Second Decade for Education in Africa: The AU and ADEA launch publications on skills for Africa’s accelerated and sustainable development

Tunis, May 5 2014. The African Union Commission (AUC) and the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) launched two series of publications in Yaoundé on April 24, 2014. The launch session took place during the Conference of Ministers of Education of the African Union (COMEDAF VI), which was held this week in Yaoundé.

These documents are published at a time when Africa continues to lag behind in development: economic growth has not yet brought decisive social progress and Africa is has yet to successfullyintegrate the globalization process. Much of this lag in development is attributable to the poor performance of African education and training systems.

Two series of publications were launched:

• The African Union Education Outlook 2014 reports, produced by the ADEA Working Group on Education Management and Policy Support (WGEMPS) for the African Union. The reports measure the progress made by Africa as a whole and by its sub-regions in the eight priority areas of the African Union’s Plan of Action of the Second Decade of Education in Africa. The eight areas are as follows: gender and culture; education management information systems (EMIS); teacher development; tertiary education; technical and vocational education and training; curricula and teaching; quality management; and early childhood development.
• ADEA Triennial publications on critical skills for the accelerated, sustainable development of Africa. These publications synthesize and issue recommendations on the critical skills that education and training systems should develop to produce the human capital that Africa needs for accelerated, sustainable development.

Both series of publications can be accessed from ADEA’s Home page at www.adeanet.org

The publications were launched as part of the collaboration between the African Union Commission and ADEA. On April 24, 2014, the two entities renewed the Memorandum of Understanding that unites them.

In his remarks, African Union Commissioner Martial De-Paul Ikounga urged the press to take greater interest in education. “One of Africa’s problems with education is also the insufficient importance attributed to it by the press”, he declared.

Mr. Ikoungaalso emphasized the importance of the collaboration between the AUC and ADEA. “It is a necessity”, he declared. “The African Union Commission and COMEDAF make policy decisions. But we need to translate these decisions into actions. ADEA represents a set of skills that the African Union needs.”

After a brief presentation of the AU’s Second decade of Education Plan of Action made by be
Beatrice Njenga, Head of AUC’s Education Division, Angela Arnott, Coordinator of the WGEMPS, emphasized the main trends outlined in the “African Union Education Outlook 2014” continental report. Access to education remains a problem, since half of all out of school children in the world are African. In eight African countries, fewer than half of children who enroll in school complete the primary level.

Concerning higher education,enrollment rates have tripled over the last 15 years, but universities remain teaching institutions rather than the research centers that Africa so badly needs to be competitive at the global level. Technical and vocational education and training remains inadequate, fragmented, barely recognized and under-funded. It is not growing enough to absorb the many young people who have dropped out of school, and one consequence of this is the alarming unemployment rate (60%) among young Africans.

Hamidou Boukary, Acting Executive Secretary of ADEA, reported that ADEA’s current priority is to help countries to transform their education and training systems, which “must help to produce citizen who participate in the emergence of Africa, its economic growth, its sustainable development and its global competitiveness”. ADEA has produced a Strategic Policy Framework to guide African countries to carry out this transformation, which was adopted by the heads of state of the African Union at the AU Summit in Addis Ababa in January 2013.

The Chair of ADEA recalled the words of Nelson Mandela that “education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”. “But this education must be of good quality”, he stated, adding that mere attendance in school is not enough.

ADEA is hosted by the African Development Bank (AfDB). It is a partnership between African ministries of education and development partners, a forum for dialogue on education and training policies in Africa, a network of policy-makers, practitioners and researchers in education, and a catalyst for educational reforms aimed at the accelerated,sustainable development of Africa. ADEA programs are implemented by the ADEA Secretariat, which is based in the AfDB, and by its working groups, Task Force and inter-country quality nodes, which address specific themes and challenges in the education field.

The AUC, through its Department of Human Resources, Science and Technology, manages education programs designed to formulate and harmonize education policies across Africa by supporting access to education of good quality for all African children and citizens.

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For further information, please contact:

Thanh-HoaDesruelles
Principal Officer, External Relations and Communication, ADEA; E-mail: t.desruelles@afdb.orgg ;
Tel in Yaoundé: +237/ 93 43 65 29; Tel in Tunis: +216/ 21 69 11 46

Esther Azaa Tankou; Senior Editorial Officer, Directorate of Information and Communication, AUC Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; E-mail: yamboue@africa-union.orgg ; Tel: +251911361185