The African Ministerial Council on Science and Technology (AMCOST) was established in November 2003 under the auspices of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and the African Union (AU).

It is a high-level platform for developing policies and setting priorities on science, technology and innovation for African development. AMCOST provides both political and policy leadership for the implementation of Africa’s Science and Technology Consolidated Plan of Action (CPA).

A plan of action
This plan of action consolidates science and technology programmes of the AU Commission and NEPAD. “In order for African economies to grow, the continent’s political leadership has to play a crucial and pivotal role,” explains Professor Aggrey Ambali, Coordinator of Biosciences and the Science and Technology Division of NEPAD. “The role entails taking science and technology seriously as drivers of economic development. It is for this reason that Ministers of Science and Technology from various African countries met in Johannesburg in 2003, and adopted an outline of a plan of action for science and technology for the continent. This plan also gives practical meaning to the decision of Second Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the AU held in July 2003 in Maputo, Mozambique to integrate the NEPAD Programme into AU structures and processes.”

The vision of the CPA is that of an Africa that is well integrated into the global economy and free of poverty.
The overall goals of this consolidated plan are:

• To enable Africa harness and apply science, technology and related innovations in order to eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable development;
• To ensure that Africa contributes to the global pool of scientific knowledge and technological innovations.

According to Ambali, the CPA involves three areas, namely research and development (R&D); a programme for improving policy conditions and building innovation mechanisms; and implementation, governance and funding. Today there are 13 programme areas within research and development, after the Minister approved an extra programme in 2003. One such programme, NEPAD / African Biosciences Initiative, (NEPAD / ABI) is a cluster of three flagship programmes in the CPA, namely conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, safe development and application of biotechnology, and securing and using Africa’s indigenous knowledge base.

NEPAD / ABI is being implemented through regional networks of institutions throughout the continent, and four regional networks have been established, namely: Southern African Network for Biosciences (SANBio);

• Biosciences eastern and central Africa (BecANet);
•  West African Network for Biosciences (WABNet); and
•  North African Network for Biosciences (NABNet).

“The government has several networks that were set-up out of the CPA,” notes Ambali. “The key areas are therefore to produce knowledge, to be innovative in terms of research on products and to build on capacity. We also have programmes to improve 19 countries in Africa, and we are establishing systems to measure the support and training in various states. We have a programme running that assists countries in developing their own systems i.e. we need to support those countries to strengthen their systems.”

Capacity building
Speaking on capacity building, Ambali says their sector supports 7 100 scientists throughout the continent who are pursuing their Masters Degrees. “Some of our facilitators have deliberately invested in facilities such as the R20-million funding facility erected in Nairobi at a greatly reduced cost,” he continues. “Another facility we have turned our attention to is that of the Congo, and how we can contribute. We are looking at areas in biotechnology that we can use to contribute to the Congo basing.”

He goes on to say that his sector also aims to be practical at all times. “We have a programme on how to empower women living in arid areas by looking at where their resources are limited, and then enabling them to develop on smaller scales,” he notes. “We are also investigating whether there is any scientific evidence behind traditional leaders’ approach to treating infections. Currently, our people are investigating traditional medicines. Consequently, scientific validation of traditional medicine is currently ongoing at the CSIR.”

Ambali highlights that his office is responsible for reeling in other sectors and identifying science and technology activities within other sectors in order to bring them on board. “For example, there was recently an energy sector conference on bio-fuel oils and bio-energy, so we want to bring that knowledge into our sector and use it in our programmes to address strategic areas,” he says. Reflecting on the achievements of NEPAD and the CPA, Ambali enthuses that the CSIR is a wonderful facility that unites scientists from other countries to meet and work with each other, thereby opening up avenues for scientists to breach out to other parts of the region. “We have managed to break down bureaucracy,” he adds with a pleased grin. “We are also the largest sector with 30 employees and five offices in various provinces.”

Ambali concludes by reinforcing that the CPA will continue to help African economies transform by strengthening scientific and technological capacities, which will reduce the unnecessary dependence on natural resources and raw materials. “And lastly, the CPA will make the economies knowledge-based to boost investments,” he says. “This will improve productivity in agriculture, industry and services. The African citizen should take a pivotal role in the implementation of this scientific and technological development.”