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Letter of the President
4 May , 2007
All success to our National Science Week!
A few weeks ago, at the invitation of Minister Mosibudi Mangena, I was privileged to meet a cross-section of our national leadership in the field of Science and Technology. During this process we visited the National Research Foundation (NRF), the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the Innovation Hub.
This interaction with our compatriots who are leading our country in Science, Technology and Innovation brought sharply to the fore the challenge we face to pay greater and sustained attention to this critically important area of human activity.
In 2005, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) published an important report entitled "UNESCO Science Report 2005". Among other things the Report says: "Africa is a rich continent; rich in biodiversity, rich in mineral resources, rich in precious stones. It is also a continent rich in traditional knowledge, especially knowledge associated with indigenous and medicinal plants. But Africa is also a poor continent...
"What accounts for Africa's impoverished state? There are many political, socio-economic and environmental factors: centuries of colonialism followed by decades of home-grown authoritarian governments...However, there is another factor that may not be as visible or dramatic as those mentioned above but may nevertheless play a central role in the continent's inability to participate at the global economic level, protect its environment and devise sustainable strategies for economic growth. That factor is Africa's woeful shortcoming in science and technology...
"Recent assessments of African scientific research communities have detailed (the) prevailing dismal conditions time and again. Universities that once served as beacons of hope, including the universities of Ibadan in Nigeria, Dakar in Senegal, Dar-es-Salaam in the United Republic of Tanzania and Khartoum in Sudan, have been turned into shells of their former selves.
"Buildings are poorly maintained, modern laboratory equipment is rarely available, and faculty and staff go under-appreciated and sometimes unpaid. Meanwhile, external funding for science and joint research initiatives with universities and research institutes in other nations have often declined. Given such circumstances, it should come as no surprise that the continent's best scientific talent continues to leave in large numbers, creating a chronic 'brain drain' problem."
The real impact of this dismal situation on our continent and its ability to achieve its renaissance is underlined by what the UNESCO Report says about the role of science, technology and innovation in the development of human society. In this regard the Report says:
"It is now customary to affirm that knowledge, education, science, technology and innovation have become the prime drivers of progress that is itself targeting that most cherished of goals, the knowledge society. Although a much-abused incantation, the concept of the knowledge society carries a very real and practical meaning. It is thus worthwhile to clarify its meaning.
"Borrowing economists' parlance, we might say that societies produce goods, services and quality of life - the latter being actually a special category of services. These services result in such highly valued benefits as a sustainable environment, good healthcare and different forms of cultural expression. Government policy underlies the services produced by government. Producing these goods and services requires land, capital goods, human capital, information and knowledge capital, and institutions. These are all termed 'production factors'...
"The pervasive impact of science is now often quantifiable. And gradual as the process may be, it is now so far advanced in many parts of the world that being part of the globalised world and nourishing corresponding ambitions leaves us no choice but to develop and use production factors 'transfused with knowledge'. Education (and more general learning by individuals and organisations), research and innovation are the key words for this process of 'transfusion'...
"The situation in Africa is even bleaker (than other regions of the world). The Gross Expenditure on Research and Development as a proportion of GDP (GERD/GDP ratio)...is already low, for both the sub-Saharan countries and the Arab states of Africa, at 0.3% and 0.2% respectively, but even that paints a picture that is rosier than reality: South Africa is responsible for 90% of GERD in sub-Saharan Africa and...Egypt and to a lesser extent Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria carry out practically all R&D [research and development] in the Arab states of Africa."
Throughout the years of our democracy we have identified our central objectives as achieving a better life for all, building a people-centred society and creating a winning nation. Given what UNESCO has said, it is clear that we cannot realise the objectives without paying the closest attention to science, technology and innovation (STI).
However, given the multiple tasks posed by the democratic transition, we must admit that we have not paid as much attention to STI as we should have. This is reflected for instance in the fact that it was only in 2004 that we created two separate Ministries of Science & Technology and Arts & Culture, having combined these under one Minister for 10 years.
By 2004 it was clear that whatever the challenges we face, we had to pay more attention and devote more resources to the important area of STI. To assist us in this regard, our Minister of Science and Technology requested the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), to undertake a "Review of South Africa's Innovation Policy".
The OECD has completed the review and issued its report. Our government has begun considering the Review, preparatory to taking all necessary and possible steps to respond to the recommendations contained in the Review. The government will approach this work bearing in mind the various observations reflected in the UNESCO Science Report 2005, including the sections we quoted earlier in this Letter.
In the Introduction to the Review, the OECD says: "The purpose of this OECD report is to review the current level of innovation capabilities in South Africa, and to help the government determine how such capabilities could be increased. The review was tasked with:
In the same Introduction, the OECD makes the following encouraging observations:
"South Africa in the 1990s implemented radical change in the political and economic framing conditions for its innovation system. In contrast to the experience of other countries having gone through revolutionary political changes in the last two decades, this did not lead to a collapse of the system, since many of its basic 'building blocks' remained in place (eg. strong universities, research institutes and innovative business enterprises) while being subject to strong pressures for accelerated changes to reflect new economic and social conditions.
"Although these have been restructured, re-scaled and re-oriented, with new elements being added, the key story since the early 1990s has been about reshaping a relatively strong innovative system serving one set of social, economic, and political goals towards another strong system serving a very different set of goals. Transformations are both furthered and constrained by the legacy of the past: not only the inherited building blocks of the system, but also their wider context of social, economic, bureaucratic and political structures and relationships.
"The way in which these interconnected transformations are being made inevitably raises questions about the tensions between (i) continuity to secure economic efficiency in the short run and consolidate gradually broad and sustainable social consensus and (ii) change to secure political acceptance in the short run and economic efficiency in the longer run (eg. by removing key human resource bottlenecks). Managing such tension is a challenge in all countries, which is however magnified at South Africa's present historical conjuncture.
"OECD countries can thus derive useful lessons from South Africa's unprecedented endeavour. At the same time South Africa can learn from OECD countries how to incorporate universal good policy practices in building a socially inclusive and economically efficient national innovation system."
Later, the Review says: "As in any other country, the overriding objective of South Africa's innovation policy should be to encourage creative responses by the public and private sectors to many social aspirations: increased wealth through job-creation and sustainable economic growth, improved health, security and environment, enriched cultural life, etc."
Within this context, the Review makes a number of important recommendations. We will report only some of these. Among others, the Review says: "This report focuses on the economic aspects of such a broad and deep innovation agenda. From this narrower perspective, the major task of the South African government is to stimulate, channel and empower the forms of creativity and entrepreneurship which can contribute directly to:
Having made the observation that "the business sector funds 45% of formal R&D and performs 58% of it", the Review says our innovation policy should:
"bring business enterprises ('shorthand' for all kinds of producers of goods and services) much more centrally into the 'map' of the innovation system -both as generators and implementers of innovation and as creators of human resources for innovation. In this regard the envisaged R&D tax incentive could send a powerful signal that reaches deep into the system, including SMEs as well as R&D intensive multinational companies, and induce additional privately financed R&D effort, provided it is designed taking due account of the rich international experience in this field."
The Review also addresses the critically important issue of human capital for STI and says: "Considerable efforts are already being made to strengthen and expand the whole chain of education and training from primary school to PhD, and within that to strengthen in particular the development of knowledge and skills in mathematics, technology and science. The Review team can only endorse the recognised urgency and magnitude of this challenge and suggest that it may be appropriate to review at the highest level in government the appropriateness of the balance currently being struck between increased public investment in physical and human capital. At a more detailed level:
The Review team consider the STI issue so important that they also recommend that we "establish a body at Cabinet level to provide a holistic overview of (i) strategies, policies and budgets for the development of the system, and (ii) the balance between departmental initiatives that pose competing claims on the system's real resources - especially its human resources. (The relevance to South Africa of the different forms of such arrangement in several OECD countries might usefully be assessed.)"
The above are only some of the recommendations in the OECD Review. They indicate the seriousness with which the OECD team approached its work and the challenge our country faces to adopt and implement what the Review describes as "good policy practices in building a socially inclusive and economically efficient national innovation system". We sincerely thank the OECD team for the work they did, which will undoubtedly help us to evolve good policy practices.
It is very fitting that immediately after the publication of the OECD Review we hold our annual National Science Week (NSW). Minister Mangena will launch NSW in Phuthaditjhaba, Free State, on 7 May. Among others NSW aims to promote career awareness among the youth, parents and educators, especially those from among the previously oppressed, in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, as well as help to identify talented young people and facilitate their entry into these fields.
This communicates the unequivocal message that all of us must adopt this as one of our most important national tasks, to inspire our youth and educators at all levels to ensure that we respond with all necessary determination to the challenge to ensure that we develop the successful science, technology and innovation system we need to achieve our objective to build a winning nation.
This page was last updated on Friday May 4, 2007