An economic development arm of the African Union (AU), the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad), has said African countries need to align research and innovations to their national development plans.
Nepad Head of Research and Statistics Cluster Mangwende said this during the opening of a regional workshop under the AU Agenda on Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy in Lilongwe on Monday.
Mangwende said most research and innovations in African countries are just shelved because they are not related to the development agenda, yet the idea is to use robust indicators.
“Innovation is real and it does not only mean investing huge sums of money in a problem that you vaguely understand. The idea is to understand the problem. Who is most affected by the problem? If that problem is solved how does it contribute to the national economy?” Mangwende said.
General Manager for Malawi’s National Commission for Science and Technology, Anthony Muyepa-Phiri, said in trying to align its research and innovations to the development plan, the country is carrying out a number of activities including the development of competitive research infrastructures.
“This workshop is one such activity whereby we have brought a number of participants such as institutions of higher learning, the National Statistical Office and Department of Science and Technology to learn a number of issues on how they can manage research but also to share a number of indicators about science and technology,” Muyepa-Phiri said.
The workshop, which ends on Friday, has attracted research experts and innovators from Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
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