Kibaki urges attention to research and development

Business

By Peter Orengo

President Kibaki has called on African governments, academic and research institutions to put in place infrastructure for research and development to attract and retain top-notch scientists.

The President said unlike Europe and Asia, Africa continues to lose its best scientists and researchers due to lack of resources and relevant institutions.

"We need a new strategy to urgently reverse the massive brain drain out of the continent. These bright sons and daughters of Africa are working in foreign nations for a reason," he said when he opened the first African Forum in Science, Technology and Innovation taking place in Nairobi.

President Kibaki receives Unesco Director-General Irina Bokova at his Harambee House Office in Nairobi on Tuesday. [Photo: PPS]

Forum

The three-day forum, whose agenda is to promote youth employment, human capital development and incisive growth, is being attended by top African scientist and over 60 Higher Education ministers from the continent.

Kibaki said Kenya’s ability to achieve rapid development and have capacity to compete globally will depend on its ability to utilise science and technology.

"In order to compete effectively in the global market we must be able to develop technologies that will set off Africa’s industrial revolution," he added.

Higher Education Minister Margaret Kamar said Kenya’s ability to utilise relevant scientific innovation will enable it confront the challenges of development, unemployment, and inadequacies in human capital development.

Finance

She called on President Kibaki and other heads of African governments to prevail upon finance ministers to allocate one per cent of Gross Domestic Product to Science, Technology and Innovation, as agreed by the African Union last month in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The minister said although Kenya leads the region in scientific innovation, it should focus more on its long term development blueprint of vision 2030 as the key economic foundation.

On the challenge of brain drain, she said Kenya and other African countries are tackling the root cause of the problem by raising the salaries of academics and providing incentives.

According to the Unesco Science Report 2010 a growing number of African countries are enhancing their capacity for science and technology to alleviate poverty. But their efforts are hampered by low GDP per capita.

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