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MEMO/08/602
Brussels, 1st October 2008
EU/AU Joint Statement on "Implementation of
the EU-AU Partnership for Science, Information Society and Space" - Presentation
of the 19 "Lighthouse" Projects
The European Commission (EC) and the African Union
Commission (AUC) agreed on an EU / Africa Strategic Partnership during the EU/
AU Summit in Lisbon in December 2007. 8 thematic partnerships were identified,
the 8th of these being the partnership for Science, ICT, and Space.
In this framework, a book of 19 lighthouse projects have been identified; 6
of them are considered as "early deliverables" and will receive immediate
attention. These are underlined in the list below.
The significance of these projects is that they are:
- identified and designed by the African Union
Commission[1] (AUC) to respond to African needs
and challenges; and
- agreed with the European Commission (EC) as the basis for implementing the
8th Partnership (on Science, ICT and Space) of the Africa-EU Strategic
Partnership.
The 19 projects are split into 3 groups, corresponding
to the 3 Priority Actions included in the Partnership:
- Group 1 - Support for the development of an inclusive information society in
Africa (5 projects).
- Group 2 - Support Science and Technology (S&T) capacity building in
Africa and implement Africa's Science and Technology Consolidated Plan of Action
– CPA (12 projects).
- Group 3 - Enhancing cooperation on Space applications and technology (2
projects).
GROUP 1 - ICTs
- Africa connect
- The African internet Exchange System
- The African Leadership ICT Program
- African Virtual Campus
- Harnessing information & Knowledge for Youth
Development
GROUP 2 - S&T
Capacity Building: EU-AU Africa
research grants
- Popularization of science and
technology and promotion of public participation
- Capacity building in S&T - African level
- Development of a Common African Union Science and Technology Policy
Framework
- Science and technology for the development of African Small Medium
Enterprises (SMEs) and support business incubator networks
- Securing and Using Africa’s Indigenous and Traditional Knowledge
- Pan African intellectual Propriety Organization (PAIPO)
- African Observatory of Science, Technology, and Innovation (AOSTI), and
Policy Development
- Capacity building - Thematic level
- Water and food security in Africa
- Building Africa’s Scientific and Institutional Capacity (BASIC) in
Agriculture and natural Resource Management
- Harnessing Biotechnology for the Advancement of African Agriculture
- African Pole of Excellence on Desertification and Forestry
- African Union Initiative on Climate Change (African Institute on Climate
Change-AICC)
GROUP 3 - SPACE
- Kopernicus - Africa: African global Monitoring for Environment and
Security
- Implementation of the African Reference Frame (AFREF) Capacity building
in the AUC on Geospatial Sciences
GROUP 1 – Summaries
of ICT Projects
Africa Connect ("early deliverable")
The Africa Connect project
will support the development of regional research and education networks in
Sub-Saharan Africa and their interconnection with the European GEANT2
network[2], building on a
similar initiative, EumedConnect implemented in North-Africa (currently
interconnecting around 1,5 Million users across more than 500 research
organisations). The objective will be to contribute integrating the African
research community both at regional and international levels, through
interconnection with the most cost-effective high bandwidth capacity. This
project will contribute to the modernization and development of education and
research in African countries by supporting research networking and internet
connectivity. The target group would be the emerging National Research and
Education Networks in Sub-Saharan countries to ensure digital connection for
their students and researchers in sufficient capacity and on affordable
terms.
African Internet Exchange System (AXIS) ("early deliverable")
This project aims to support the establishment of a continental African
internet infrastructure through national and regional internet exchange points.
Such deployment is considered crucial for the development of the internet in
Africa, generating huge cost savings by keeping local traffic local and offering
better quality of service and new applications opportunities. AXIS activities
will include technical assistance on planning, regulatory/policy issues, and
human training to achieve this objective.
- The African Leadership ICT Programme: a pan-African ICT training programme
for policy-makers and IT professionals;
- African Virtual Campus: extension of the Avicenna e-learning network
(implemented in the Mediterranean Region through the MEDA/EUMEDIS programme) to
Sub-Saharan Africa. This is a flagship UNESCO project for Africa aiming to
interconnect African Universities, provide online training facilities and
develop ICT-related curriculae;
- Harnessing information & Knowledge for Youth Development: a pan-African
programme for youth e-skills development as well as incubation
centres.
The African Leadership ICT Program
This is a pan-African ICT training programme for policy-makers and IT
professionals. It aims to provide management expertise to potential leaders in
African countries to become change agents in the ICT sector. The training will
be delivered in a selective variety of qualified training centres and
institutions in Africa’s five regions.
African Virtual Campus
An extension of the Avicenna e-learning network (implemented in the
Mediterranean Region through the MEDA/EUMEDIS programme) to Sub-Saharan Africa,
this is a flagship UNESCO project for Africa aiming to interconnect African
Universities, provide online training facilities and develop ICT-related
curriculae.
Harnessing information & Knowledge for Youth Development
This is a pan-African programme for youth e-skills development. It will
target the establishment of 35 youth training and information centres as well as
15 community information and multimedia centres in all African sub-regions. It
will also plan the design, setup and disbursement of an ICT Youth Incubation
Fund for selected incubator projects in at least 5 countries.
GROUP 2 – Summaries of S&T Projects
Africa research grants ("early deliverable")
Whilst many African countries are active in national and international
research, their capacity needs strengthening by coordinating, structuring and
integrating their efforts for Africa's development. This project will do that by
setting up a continent-wide research programme focused on developing sustainable
science and technology research responding to Africa's technical, economic and
social development. The challenge for African researchers will be to work
together creating supranational consortia complementing their scientific
competences. Proposals by consortia will be selected via open and competitive
selection procedures. The capacity of the AUC to manage and implement the
programme itself will be developed so that it can launch, implement and monitor
calls for proposals, in different thematic areas related primarily to the earth
and life sciences.
Popularization of science and technology and promotion of public
participation
In Africa, not only is public understanding of R&D weak, but public
opinion is often ignored by the scientists. Application of science and
technology will remain ineffective until politicians and the general public
understand its benefits. Better public understanding of science will also
increase interest of young students in taking up science and technology careers.
The AUC has designed a number of activities for increasing public understanding,
participation and awareness of the role of science and technology as a driving
agent for social and economic progress for Africa and its integration process.
Development of a Common African Union - Science and Technology Policy
Framework
Science and Technology is a development instrument for AU Member States to
achieve the Millennium Development Goals. But several recent reports show that
Science and Technology gaps exist between the African Regions. The AUC has a
mandate to facilitate and support the development and harmonization of Science,
Technology and ICT policies for Africa’s socio-economic development. In
this context the S&T policy programme will create a permanent
inter-governmental structure able to analyse and implement S&T policies. The
project will lead to improved policy approaches for the Socio-economic
development via Science and Technology at African Continent level coordinated by
the AUC[3] and complementing
the work of UNESCO at African Union Member State level.
Science and technology for the development of African Small Medium
Enterprises and support business incubators network
Turning research into results in terms of innovation and products needs more
than support for research organisations. Technology incubators, parks or
innovation clusters help turn ideas into commercially viable products and
services. This project will focus on applying new technologies to helping
existing small medium enterprises create more efficient and sustainable
production activities. It will also enhance the capacities of African industry
to integrate into the global economy. Specific scientific support will be given
to the business incubators by providing inclusive environments that link
innovators and researchers with African industry and business communities.
Securing and Using Africa’s Indigenous and Traditional
Knowledge
The objective of the project is to strengthen Africa’s capacity to
harness and apply as well as protect indigenous knowledge and technologies in
view to solve specific problems and improve the Africa’s economies.
Institutions to valorise the indigenous and traditional knowledge are weak in
most countries. In addition, there are weak links between the formal R&D
institutions and local communities that hold and use the knowledge. This has
denied Africa the opportunity to better understand and use its own indigenous /
traditional knowledge tools techniques. This project will build on the analysis
of UNESCO, which has gathered and made available data on such knowledge, and of
the work of NEPAD in developing framework documents devoted to the protection
and promotion of indigenous knowledge and related technological innovations.
Pan African intellectual Propriety Organization (PAIPO)
Considerable progress has been made under Trade-Related Intellectual Property
Rights (TRIPS) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) that requires a
common policy front by African countries. Growing pressures of globalization
mean that many countries require effective guidance. With the right policy and
institutional framework, African countries can forge ahead in stimulating both
inventiveness and the generation of productive innovations. Africa needs a
continental structure to respond to institutional initiatives at the global
level in order to ensure the protection of innovations and promotion of
inventive activity. The project will provide a broad-based platform for African
Member States to benefit from a coordinated stock of specialized intellectual
property knowledge and services with a view to promoting innovation,
techno-industrial competitiveness, and economic growth in Africa
African Observatory of Science, Technology, and Innovation (AOSTI), and
Policy Development
Africa needs to develop new strategies to confront the myriad of challenges
facing her peoples. Harnessing the forces of science and technology to these
ends has become more urgent than ever before. But this must be done through
practical actions that institutionalise the robust application of scientific and
technological achievements. The process requires the evolution and management of
capacities to map the STI terrain and analyse what is already available, and
what needs to be built over time. The project will provide a comprehensive
survey of capacity in science, technology, and innovation in Africa. Member
States will benefit from a dynamic stock of specialized knowledge that would
provide countries with means to address the gaps in STI capacity. Its ambition
is to facilitate the harnessing of opportunities for knowledge management in
STI, and provide governments with material that would enhance their
policy-making processes in science, technology, and innovation.
Water and food security in Africa ("early deliverable")
The main aim of this project is to strengthen the capacity in science and
technology in order to cope with food security problems while promoting
sustainable management of land and water resources. In this context,
demonstration activities in one or more African river basin, such as the Nile
basin, will be considered to consolidate the research and work methodology.
Agriculture, industry, human health and settlements, environment, and land and
water resources are all affected by climate change. Many studies are
investigating the possible consequences, and suggesting measures to counteract
the undesired outcomes. So far there has been little effort to integrate water
availability and water demand with the on-going demographic changes and
globalization process. They trigger the socio-economic changes at global level
including population migration, urbanization, destabilization of national food
reserves, increase of food and oil prices, etc. The project will analyze the
negative effects of interaction of the abovementioned factors in strategic and
fragile river basins; and it will define the appropriate remedial strategies and
measures.
Building Africa’s Scientific and Institutional Capacity (BASIC) in
Agriculture and natural Resource Management
Raising African agricultural productivity depends on improving the productivity
of land holdings of between 0.5 and 0.7 hectares per person. Appropriate
technologies and policies must be derived locally in the context of
Africa’s unique farming and socio-economic circumstances to cope with poor
soils, tropical pests, plant and animal diseases and inadequate infrastructure.
Africa’s Science and Technology Consolidated Plan of Action (S&T CPA)
actions for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity with a specific
objective to promote the development and diffusion of a range of sustainable use
technologies. The main objective of the project is to reposition African
tertiary agricultural education to produce effective entrepreneurs, change
agents and policy makers and render capacity strengthening more responsive to
the agricultural development agenda.
Harnessing Biotechnology for the Advancement of African
Agriculture
To promote harmonised, efficient and safe use of biotechnology for
smallholder development it is essential to facilitate interactions between
various actors. The Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA)
established the African Biotechnology and Biosafety Policy Platform (ABBPP) to
facilitate biotechnology and biosafety policy dialogue and stakeholder
consensus-building in policy formulation and implementation. Many research and
regulatory bodies exist that are concerned with biotechnology and biosafety at
the continental, sub-regional and national levels. This project will contribute
to the establishment of an enabling policy environment that allows Africa to
take full, but safe advantage of modern biotechnology application in improving
food security and reducing malnutrition among poor African rural and urban
dwellers.
African Pole of Excellence on Desertification and Forestry
The African Pole of Excellence on Desertification and Forestry is identified
as a research establishment of the Pan African University (PAU) on life and
earth Sciences. It advises the AU Member states in the fields of desertification
and forestry and serves as a focal point for Knowledge/technology transfer
between the African Scientists. This project will not start new research so much
as rationalise the existing accumulated knowledge in Africa. Sharing
information, data and methodologies will enhance the capacity of African
scientists and researcher to analyse problems and provide options and solutions
to African decision-makers.
African Union Initiative on Climate Change (African Institute on Climate
Change - AICC)
The African Institute on Climate Change (AICC) is identified as a research
establishment of the Pan African University (PAU) on the thematic priority areas
related to life and earth Sciences. It aims mainly to advise and to guide AU
Member States in the issues related to climate change. The AICC will develop
and/or improve the capacity of African Climate change scientists. I will also be
the focal point for knowledge/technology transfer between the African Scientists
and their counterparts worldwide, and particularly in Europe. Therefore, the
research to be taken under the AICC will help in identifying the potential
impacts and effective adaptation methods for Africa, particularly with regards
to ecological resources, water resources, agriculture and human health.
GROUP 3 – Summaries of Space Projects
Global Monitoring for Environment and Security
(Kopernicus[4] – Africa)
("early deliverable")
The potential role of space science and applications as a means of addressing
development and poverty alleviation was recognised during a meeting held
alongside the EU-AU Summit of December 2007 on "Developing space for developing
countries: the case of GMES and Africa". Kopernicus-Africa is now taking this
view forward by ensuring a wide consultation process involving users and policy
makers within the AUC, its Member States and
RECs[5]. The process will
result in a “Kopernicus - Africa Action Plan” detailing
infrastructure needs, thematic priorities and financial instruments to be
submitted to the third EU-Africa Summit, foreseen early 2010 in Libya.
Implementation of the African Reference Frame (AFREF);
Capacity building in the AUC on Geospatial Sciences ("early
deliverable")
ICTs can now harness the power of geospatial data, leading to new services
capable of estimating crop yields, of monitoring surface water resource location
and availability, of mapping and measuring deforestation and of quantifying land
degradation trends.
Strengthening the capacity for handling and using ICT applications within the
AUC and, in the long-term, ensuring pan-African access to ICT in the geospatial
domain are the goals. In a first phase EC staff seconded to the AUC will examine
modalities for integrating resource management geospatial information systems
developed in the EC into the AUC. Development of the system, databases and
applications on natural resources, food security, crisis management and
renewable energies will continue, and steps will be taken to ensure technology
transfer via training and staff exchanges and the promotion of thematic regional
centres of excellence, building on existing capacities.
[1] Human Resource Science
and Technology Department
[2] GÉANT2 is the
high-bandwidth, academic Internet serving Europe’s research and education
community. Connecting over 30 million researchers with a multi-domain topology
spanning 34 European countries and links to a number of other world regions,
GÉANT2 is at the heart of global research networking.GÉANT2 is
co-funded by the European Commission and Europe's national research and
education networks, and is managed by DANTE. http://www.geant2.net/
[3] AUC Division of Science,
Technology and ICT within the Department of Human Resources Science and
Technology (HRST)
[4] Kopernicus is the new
name for GMES – Global Monitoring for Environment and
Security
[5] The 5 Regional Economic
Communities
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