The African Manifesto
for Science, Technology
and Innovation
Prepared by:
The African Technology Policy Studies Network(ATPS) under the auspices of the Science, Ethics
and Technological Responsibilities in Developingand Emerging Countries (SETDEV) Projecti

Edited by:

Design and layout by:

Kevin Chika Urama,
Osita Ogbu,
Wiebe Bijker,
Alfonso Alfonsi,
Nathalie Gomez,
Nicholas Ozor

Marsden Momanyi

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All other photos are copyright to ATPS © 2010

© 2010 Published by the African Technology Policy Studies
Network (ATPS) P O Box 10081 - 00100 Nairobi, Kenya

ISBN: 9966-7434-5-6

iiContents
PrefaceAcknowledgements
1 Towards Self Rule in Science, Technology and Innovation in Africa
1.1 Why The African Manifesto?
1.2 Where are we coming from?
1.3 Socio-Economic Context
1.4 Political Context

2 The New Vision on Science, Technology and Innovation for Africa’s Development
2.1 Towards Socialisation of Science, Technology and Innovation in Africa
2.1.1 On the Need to Embed African STI in the African Agenda
2.1.2 On the Plurality of Knowledge and the Autonomy of Different Forms of Science and Technology
2.1.3 On Capacity Building and Public Engagement in STI
2.1.4 On the language of STI and the Culture of Science Communication
2.1.5 On Youth and Gender Engagement
2.1.6 On Knowledge Circulation, Valorisation and Appropriation Strategies
2.1.7 On the Nature of Incentives
2.1.8 On Systems Thinking and Collaboration
2.1.9 On Regional Integration
2.1.10 On STI investments
2.1.11 On regulation and Mediation of STI
2.1.12 On Innovation Incubation
2.2 Building sustainable STI infrastructure
2.3 Restoration of confidence in African science, technology and innovation

3 A Call for Self-Rule and Democratic Governance of STI in Africa
3.1 Self Rule of African STI in the Global Scene
3.2 Leadership for a democratic governance of STI

4 Can we achieve this?
4.1 A Call to Coordinated Action
4.2 An open dilogue
4.3 The final word belongs to you!

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“

From the onset,…, we reject the idea that existing international
division of labour in science is adequate for development. It provides
no basis whatsoever for development; amongst other things, the lessdeveloped countries must have an indigenous scientific capacity.
Sussex Manifesto, 1970”

- Preface- Acknowledgements

Preface
This Manifesto is called the African Manifesto for Science,
Technology and Innovation. The Manifesto is a tool forshaping shared visions about science, technology andinnovation (STI) in Africa, for Africans, by Africans, in a
multi-lateral dialogue, with the rest of the world.

for STI in Africa are very important and we would like tohear them, and integrate them into the Manifesto as muchas possible. We invite you to kindly send comments andinputs to further shape the Manifesto to the drafting team,e-mail: AfricanManifesto@atpsnet.org

The production of the Manifesto was led by theAfrican Technology Policy Studies Network (ATPS) in
collaboration with African, Indian and European Partners
and Stakeholders, under the auspices of an European
VII Framework programme project, Science Ethics
and Technological Responsibilities in Developing andEmerging Countries (SETDEV)1.

You can also follow the dialogue on:

The African Manifesto for STI makes a case for Africa’s
sovereignty in science, technology and innovation. It
argues for full socialisation and democratic governance of
STI a pre-requisite for sustainable development in Africa.
The content and vision of the Manifesto were shaped by adynamic multi-lateral dialogue amongst SETDEV partners
and key stakeholders in Africa collated through targeted
focus group discussions, bilateral interviews and high levelmeetings with key officials, policy roundtables, workshops,
international conferences and case studies in selected
countries across the continent.
The Manifesto remains an open document. Your visions

•
•
•
•

1

ATPS blog: http://www.atpsnet.org/blog/index.php
Twitter at http://twitter.com/ATPSNETWORK,
Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/atpsnet?
ref=search&sid=149300024.3173025637..1,
Upload useful video messages and case studies
at http://www.youtube.com/user/atpsnetwork.

1

The SET-DEV project iscoordinated by the Italian
National Research Council(CNR), with 11 participating
institutions from Europe,
India and Africa, with the
African Technology Policy
Studies Network (ATPS),
leading the African processes
within the project, including
the development of theAfrican Manifesto for STI.

Acknowledgements
2

Right: A small scale
vegetable seller withfresh produce - Picture
credit: FARA

The Manifesto is an outcome of the engagement of alarge number of key expertise and diverse experiencesamongst the SET-DEV partners in Africa (the ATPS and
its 25 national chapters spread across the continent;
and IntermediaNCG); in Europe (the University ofMaastricht, the Netherlands; Consiglio Nazionale delle
Ricerche and Laboratorio di Scienze della Cittadinanza,
Italy; Max Delbrück Centrum für Molekulare Medizin,
Germany; Minerva Consulting & Communication Sprl.
Brussels; Lunds Universitet, Sweden; University of Central
Lancastershire Business School, United Kingdom); andUniversity of Hyderabad, and Centre for World Solidarity,
in India; and boundary partners and stakeholders in
America, Canada, Asia and elsewhere.
We thank the core facilitating team which included Kevin
Chika Urama (Chair), Olumuyiwa Alaba (ATPS), Ozor
Nicholas (ATPS), Sheila Ochugboju, (ATPS), Sveva
Avveduto (CNR, Italy), Alfonso Alfonsi (LSC, Italy), Wiebe
Bijker, (Maastricht University, the Netherlands), Nathalie
Gomez, (IntermediaNCG, Kenya), David Otwoma (National
Council for Science and Technology, Kenya), Abel Mayaka(Moi University, Kenya) for the contributions in facilitating
the workshops and roundtables and also for various
submissions of thought pieces and draft contributions to
the Manifesto during the drafting process. Our special
thanks go to Professor Osita Ogbu, Former Economic
Adviser to the President and Minister for National Planning

Commission, Federal Republic of Nigeria, for providing
the synthesis of the Manifesto; Professor Abdul-Razak,
Executive Secretary, National Council for Science andTechnology, Republic of Kenya; and other colleagues who
made substantive inputs to the drafting and reviewing
process. We also thank the ATPS National Chapter
Coordinators and other SETDEV partners in Europe, India
and Africa for their review comments and contributions at
the different stages of the drafting process.

“

By harnessing scienceand technology, Africancountries have a stronger
chance of addressing
poverty, disease andenvironmental destruction
The New African, Vol. 494, p. 19

Self Rule in
1 Towards
Science, Technology andInnovation in Africa”

An African Manifesto for Science, Technology and Innovation

4

Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) underpin
almost every aspect of human existence. Therefore,
optimizing the benefits of STI is an increasing priority forthe governments and the people of Africa. Developing a
STI strategy, which gives due consideration to Africa’s
environment and concerns, is one of the most effective
weapons for winning the struggle towards reduction andeventual elimination of absolute poverty in Africa. In recent
years, African governments, scientists, policy makers,
private sector actors and many important civil society
organisations are beginning to re-discover the importanceof STI in driving technical and economic progress. STI is
key to fostering productivity growth an achieving social
welfare and sustainable development. The vision for asignificant improvement in the physical quality of life,
competitiveness and overall prosperity in Africa can only
be achieved and sustained through a sincere commitment
to STI development.
If we compare traditional societies with those of thepresent, it becomes clear that norms and processes ofcreating a meaningful environment for living are currently
being heavily transfused with science based knowledge. In
the last few decades significant advancements have been
made in the global economy resulting in a departure fromtraditional production processes. The increasing needs ofthe society in the face of limited resources have propelledrenewed thinking towards efficiency. This requires improved

knowledge of science and technology, and of course a
revolution in the entire knowledge system towards a cultureof innovation.

1.1 Why The African Manifesto?
The Manifesto is envisioned by Africans and for theneeds of Africa. It is part of a growing awareness of
the role of STI as the engine of development in Africa.
These realizations have been expressed by many African
leaders. For example, in 2008, Liberian President, EllenJohnson Sirleaf, reminded delegates at the Science inAfrica Summit that: “No country on earth has developed
without deploying, harnessing and utilizing STI, whether
through technology transfer or homegrown solutions”.
President Kagame of Rwanda, on the other hand,stressed that: “We in Africa must either begin to build ourscientific and technological training capabilities or remain
an impoverished appendage to the global economy” (TheNew African, vol. 494, p. 78).
The political statements are anchored in decades ofattempts by the African governments to turn around theirdevelopment fortunes through efforts to mainstream STI
in Africa’s development policies and actions. Some ofthese include: the Monrovia Strategy (1979); the Lagos
Plan of Action,(1980); the Abuja Treaty (1991); and mostrecently, the adoption of Africa’s Science and Technology
Consolidated Plan of Action (CPA) by the African Union

in January 2007. The past two decades have also seen
the formation of dedicated STI Ministries, National
Commissions, National Councils, and State Agencies aswell as pan-African Governmental and Non-Governmental
Institutions committed to STI capacity building and policy
making in Africa.
Despite these efforts, Africa remains the poorest andmost economically marginalized continent in the world.
The politics of globalization, internationalization andregionalization of STI have defined and shaped STI in waysthat effectively exclude the African voice, its knowledge
systems and communities and to a large extent, theAfrican development agenda. In Africa, most of STI related
Ministries and National Government Agencies are yet
to be fully resourced, while most African STI institutions
continue to rely largely on external funding, limiting theirability to respond to Africa’s STI needs proactively andeffectively. Questions regarding how STI agendas areprioritized, how STI knowledge is produced and circulated,monitored and evaluated still remain. On the global scale,the notion that the existing international division of labourin science and technology is adequate for development
remains irrespective of calls for its rejection by the Sussex
Manifesto, 1979. The self doubt which this engendered
and the associated knowledge dependence espousedmonologues and binomial linear relationships between the“global North” and the “global South”; the “Knows” and theKnow Nots”; and the “Haves’ and the “Have Nots” in waysthat hinder innovation in Africa by Africans. African countries
have therefore largely remained a primary exporter of
raw materials and primary products with minimum value
additions and a consumer of STI in the global market. Morerecently, the demans for comprehensive action to redress
the interlinked global challenges of economic recession
in the North, poverty reduction in the South, and climatechange are re-shaping the forms and directions for STI
in the global economy, offering the opportunity for critical
reforms in the global and regional STI agendas.
Conventional forms of STI knowledge generation,
circulation, monitoring and evaluation are now increasingly
questioned as calls for more inclusive approaches grow.
Yet, African STI still remains marginalized, locked in her
rich but complex history. Africans continue to pursue
international excellence in contemporary methodologies
and apply contemporary incentive structures and tools formonitoring and evaluation often based on international
standards, contexts, pedagogies, epistemologies, andneeds.
The Manifesto envisions a new renaissance in Africa, a
new world order in which there is self-rule and democratic
governance of STI in Africa for African development. It sets
out three core actions required to achieve this vision:•
Restoration of confidence in African STI and African

5An African Manifesto for Science, Technology and Innovation

6•

experts by Africans;
Concerted public and private investments in building
sustainable STI infrastructures;
Adoption of proactive policies to fully embed African
STI in African societies.

communication infrastructure are amongst the challenges
Africa will face in meeting these goals.

The Manifesto recognizes a number of critical challenges
that might limit the full operationalization of this vision,
including historically path dependence shaped by Africa’s
colonial experiences, informed “literary studies” rather
than “pure science & technology education” in Africa.

Achievingthevisionwould
therefore
requiretransformational changes in how STI is socially definedand constructed, prioritized and funded, communicated,monitored and evaluated in Africa. A better understandingof the changing forms and directions of STI politics inthe global economy would be required to ensure morebalanced criteria within which African STI is governed andevaluated.

The language of STI also means that the plurality ofknowledge systems and traditional knowledge communities
in Africa are seldom recognised and harnessed fordevelopment. The nature and type of incentives, theinstitutionalization of STI and global STI leadership that
re-inforces the colonial stereotypes also alienates Africa’s
STI from African communities and African problems. The
geopolitics of STI, the globalization and internationalizationof STI and its funding and knowledge support structures
exacerbate the global divide in which STI agenda setting
and prioritisation remain the pre-prerogatives of the global
North. Africa’s STI productivity remains very low (<2% of
the global output); and her investment in STI is even lower
with only South Africa approaching an investment rateof 1% of her GDP on research and development in thewhole of the sub-Saharan Africa. Low capacity and poor

The Manifesto believes, that by, harnessing STI, Africancountries have a greater chance of addressing poverty,
diseases and environmental destruction efficiently andsustainably. It provides a shared vision of a world in which
the unheard voices, the marginalized majority and themarginalized cultures and traditions of STI in Africa can bemobilized for African development. It is a call for diverseand fairly distributed forms of STI as a valid and timely way
to embed STI in African societies. This is a shift towards
greater respect for cultural variety, regional diversity, anddemocratic accountability in STI governance in Africa.
To achieve this vision would require transformationalchanges in the current global STI agenda, the social
inequity it creates, and the knowledge dependence that
has informed and shaped Africa’s exclusion in the global
STI development. It is however the responsibility of Africa•

and “the African” to shape Africa’s own STI agenda,
funding strategies, capacity development programs,
organisational reforms and develop its own rules for
effective but contextualized criteria for monitoring,evaluation and accountability. To be effective, these tools
must be fully embedded in Africa’s societies, cultures andhuman experiences. African governments need to engage
in, and better understand, the geopolitics of science,technological advances and innovation in the global
knowledge economy, and take ownership and effective
leadership of the STI policy processes in Africa for African
development.
The Manifesto recognises the diversity in Africa’s culturaland historical experiences and the heterogeneity in thecurrent levels of scientific and technological advancementsin the continent. With 53 sovereign countries, Africa is thesecond largest continent in the world. She can containwithin her borders, the whole of North America (9.46
million square miles) and the whole of Europe (3.93 million
square miles).Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa,
is composed of more than 250 ethic groups with different
cultures, histories and languages. So, however similarsome of the historical, economic, social, and environmental
features of Africa may seem, it is just too vast a continent
for any generalisations about it to hold. This calls for moredisaggregated and context specific recommendations at
the national, regional and continental levels.

7

An African Manifesto for Science, Technology and Innovation

8

The African Manifesto for STI is a measured call forcollective action at the continental level while providing
templates for disaggregated and democratic governanceof STI at the regional and national scales. Africans muststand together to rebuild confidence in home grown
STI, build sustainable infrastructures for sustainable STIdevelopment to improve its global competitiveness, andtranslate the rhetoric of the past two decades to relevant
actions to regain their sovereignty in the governance of
STI for African development.

800,000 and 600,000 BC. A significant development,
which influenced all later stone tool industry, is the creationof bone tools and black blades in Southern and Eastern
Africa around 90,000 to 60,000 BC. Use of iron in smelting
and forging for tools appeared in West Africa around 1200
BC making it the first birth place of the iron-age. Before
1800, Africa’s methods of extracting iron were employedin Brazil, until more advanced European methods were
instituted, while copper smelting developed independently
in West Africa around 900 AD.

1.2 Where are we coming from?

Investigation into space and time also began in Africa.
“Paleolithic Africans” began a process of stargazing as
far back as 40,000 years ago. The process transformed
into a systematic observational science in the Nilotic landsof Africa between 6,000 and 12,000 years ago. The mostimportant result of the Nilotic stargazing was the inventionof the calendar and the basis for the modern astronomy.
The “proto-technology” of the modern world is traceable
to the iron-ore mining 43,000 years ago in Southern Africa
and the emergence of “proto-mathematics” from theAfrica’s Great Lakes region over 25,000 years ago. Fromthese beginnings, science and technology underwent a
steady development in Africa, with the continent reputed tobe the remotest origin of formal mathematics, astronomy,
engineering, architecture, navigation and map-making. The
recent discovery of the Timbuktu manuscripts rekindled
confidence that Sub-Sahara Africans were studying

Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) in Africa areas old as humanity itself. STI has been an integral partof the pre-historic man and thus integral to Africa andthe evolution of mankind. Documented evidence suggestthat Africa is amongst the most strategic continents in thehistory of STI development, globally.
Some of the most important technological innovations forhuman survival have unique origins in Africa. For instance,development in tool making industry has its root in Africa.
About 2.3 million BC “homo habilis’ residing in East Africa
developed the first tool-making industry called “Olduwan”.
Following this, the Acheulean stone tool industry(characterized by hand axe) emerged in Africa in 1.5
million BC, and spread to Middle-East and Europe aroundmathematics and astronomy at least over 300 years ago.
Other discoveries also record that there were advanced
concepts of modern physics in Mali. From the foregoing,
it could be said that Africa had great beginnings in its
role in shaping global science and technology. However,the current state of STI in Africa raises many questions.
The tide has since tilted to a new world order in whichscientific knowledge and modern technologies are largely
produced in the global North and consumed by the global
South, with Africa’s productivity in STI ranking amongst
the lowest, globally. Investments in STI also follow thesame pattern with only South Africa approaching theAfrican Union recommended target of 1% of GDP in public
expenditure on research and development in the whole of
Sub-Saharan Africa.
The other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa invest less than
0.5% of their GDP on research and development. At 62%,
Sub-Saharan Africa holds the unenviable world record of
the lowest adult literacy rate, followed closely by Southand West Asia. In 2005, poverty levels in Sub-SaharanAfrica stood at 51% followed closely by southern andsouth east Asia at 39% and 19% respectively. In 2008,
the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in tertiary educationin Africa was also amongst the lowest globally with only
Mauritius, Liberia, Cape Verde and Nigeria recording morethan 10% enrolment ratio.

This dismal record should be seen at the backdrop ofcontinued pockets of outstanding contributions to global
STI development by African people and expressed
overtures of political commitment to STI developmentby African governments. Some examples include theSupercomputer invented in the 1980s by the Nigerian,Phillip Emeagwali; the M-PESA (Swahili word for “Mobile
money”) and the USHAHIDI.com technologies (Swahili
word for “testimony”) invented in Kenya and the NigerSat
1 launched by the Nigerian Government, amongst others.
Some argue that Africa’s colonial history is to blame forthe truncation of Africa’s STI development; others blame
current challenges in Africa’s ability to govern itself andproperly harness its STI endowments as an economic
block under the African Union due to continued neo-colonial
influence and widespread corruption; others blame Africancountries for inability to prioritise self rule and nationalsovereignty in their STI governance as low investments
by national governments leave the power to define the
STI agenda in Africa in the hands of development partners
and external donors; others blame the current globalized
knowledge systems in which “traditional” or “indigenous”
practices are deemed inferior and “uncodified” knowledge
systems and technologies are regarded as “unscientific”;
others blame poor STI infrastructure and incentive
structures, which have led to Africa becoming amongst thelargest exporters of scientists and technical experts and9the largest importers of scientific and technical knowlege.
Empirical evidence shows that, in the wake of poor African
leadership, a debilitating STI infrastructure and policy
environments since the 1970s, Africa’s best intellectuals(medical doctors, economists, space scientists, etc.) leave
the shores of the continent in thousands each year to makesignificant contributions to STI development elsewhere.
For STI development in Africa to yield any of the desired
outcomes, Africa must reject from the onset, thesenotions of knowledge dependence, and bilateral binomial
relationships in which the North is the dominant source of
scientific and technological knowledge. Like the Sussex
Manifesto (1979), we must reject the idea that existing
international division of labour in science is adequate fordevelopment. African governments and their development
partners must embrace a culture of supporting, nurturing,celebrating and sustaining African science, technology andinnovations that are fully embedded in African societies.
Amongst other things, Africa must build her own criticalmass of indigenous scientific, technological and innovative
capacity. African science and technology must be driven
by the needs of the African peoples. Institutional and policy
reforms will be required to achieve this.

1.3 Socio-Economic Context
Africa has over 900 million inhabitants speaking over

2,000 languages, and constituting about fourteen percentof the world’s population, living in about twenty percentof the global land coverage. Seventy one percent ofAfricans are youth, aged under- 25 years. Sixty six
percent of the population in Africa depends on agriculture
for livelihood, while about its fifty per cent lives below
poverty line of US$1 per day, if standard GDP measures
are used. However, standard measures such as Gross
Domestic Product and Per Capita Income, which place
Africa amongst the poorest continents of the world, failto account for the large informal/traditional economies
in Africa, hence erroneously orchestrating the “inferiority
complex” and “dependency syndrome” in Africa. Average
life expectancy is 46 in sub-Saharan Africa; 67 in North
Africa, with malaria and HIV/AIDS being the most common
sources of death. Infant Mortality rate (birth to 1 year old)is 102 per 1,000 in sub-Saharan Africa; 33 per 1,000 in
North Africa. Over 15 million are refugees outside theircountries of domicile, while over 12 million are internallydisplaced due to various social/armed conflicts across theregions of Africa.
This Manifesto recognises that Africa is unlikely able tobuild the scientific, technological and innovation capacity
it needs simply by adopting the research training schemes
and technologies developed in the advanced countries
and offered by development cooperation agencies. It
is apparent that if Africa hopes to prosper and if world
leaders expect globalization to foster sustainable

11

Left: Members of acommunity in Orom, Northern
Uganda, carry out routine
maintenance on theircommunity water pump.
Picture credit: AMREF

An African Manifesto for Science, Technology and Innovation

12

development and poverty reduction, building indigenous
Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) capacitiesof African countries is an absolute necessity. In today’s
rapidly changing global economy, the critical economic
development and socio-environmental sustainability
question is no longer whether countries should build STI
capacity but what type of capacity to build and how to buildit, given each country’s socio-economic and bio-physicalconstraints. The case for Africa will not be an exception.

1.4 Political Context
Africa’s political landscapes have undergone many
evolutions in past decades, from the traditional kingdoms
and chiefdoms to modern forms of government. While there
are significant success stories in many African countries
where modern democracy has prevailed, the general
picture is that of a struggle which has hindered scientific,
technological and economic progress since the years of
independence. Africa is seemingly left behind the train of
global development due to huge human, natural, material
and financial resources being lost to wars and recurringsocial unrest. Ethnic and religious diversity and largely
uneducated inhabitants make the continent susceptible tocivil conflicts often instigated by a continued struggle fornatural resources.
Africa’s rich natural endowment in oil deposits, gold,

diamond, fertile soils, water resources, etc. has since
turned the continent into a political land mine with both
external and internal interests shaping the continued
struggle for power. The resultant effect is what development
economists popularly refer to as the “resource curse”.
The struggle for access to and control of African natural
resources is expected to deepen in the coming decades
as the triple global challenges of climate change, poverty
and economic crisis exacerbate the global struggle forsurvival. The African continent, blessed with vast naturaland human resources, and bio-diversity remain a primeand economically viable focus of attention. We have seen
increased external interest in land and water resources
for production of bio-energy crops and other agricultural
products of high demand in the global markets. Unless
Africa wakes from its slumber and learns from it’s past,
the history of industrial revolution is likely to repeat itself
as industrialised countries race to chart new forms ofknowledge economies through scientific, technological andinnovation capacities to de-couple economic growth fromGreen House Gases (GHG) emissions and environmental
pollution. Also past development constraints faced by
Africa could in part, but largely be traced to colonialism
and uneven knowledge-trade relations between Africa andthe rest of the world.
The political divisions that shaped the 53 countries
within Africa were drawn by colonial rulers for their own

”

The political divisions thatshaped the 53 countries
within Africa were drawn by
Colonial Rulers for their own
colonial interests, during
the scramble for Africa.
These lines of divisioncontinue to drive policies,
processes and determine how
Africans see themselves.

colonial interests, during the scramble for Africa. Theselines of division continue to drive policies, processes anddetermine how Africans see themselves. However, current
challenges in Africa are largely attributed to the poor
quality of African leadership; lack of transparency andaccountability now entrenched at all levels of the Africansocial, economic and political experiences; and continued
multi-lateral interests in Africa by multi-national companies
in the globalized world. While Africa cannot stay recluse
from the globalized world, she needs to re-think the rulesof her engagement in the global community. There is needfor transformational and visionary leadership to harness
the wealth of scientific and technological knowledge andskill based in the West, while
encouraging indigenous skill
development and capacity
building on the continent,
guided by the socio-cultural,
economic, environmental andpolitical realities of Africa.
There
are
currently
few
national programs in science,technology and innovation
across Africa that can survive
without development funding.
Yet experience has shownthatdevelopment
fundingalone cannot fully sustain
development in Africa. Concerted collaborative efforts
to build local capacity in STI research and development
and policy processes are critically and urgently needed.
African governments (under the auspices of the African
Union) must develop programs which evolve a pan-African
perspective, which encourage STI knowledge to be owned
and shared across boundaries, and which invest in homegrown STI capacities at the individual and institutional
levels. Building cooperative platforms to harness thesynergies and complementarities amongst existing African
STI institutions and experts will no doubt yield development
dividends more than the current proliferation of institutions
and mushrooming of centers of excellence often driven byexternal interests. The collective capacity for growth far

13

An African Manifesto for Science, Technology and Innovation

14

Right: Young woman
looks out a window:
Picture credit: AMREF

exceeds any individual pockets of success in any area.
Credit must, however, go to the early post-independent
African leaders who saw the need to use science andtechnology to accelerate Africa’s development and madeserious investments in higher education and in someresearch infrastructure. Subsequent leaders succumbedto the neo-liberal ideology of market determinism andfailed to prioritize investments in science and technology,
including investments in higher education within thelimited resources. Most development partners did not help
matters as development aid and donor funding prioritized
technology transfer mechanisms with little effort tosupport indigenous capacity in science, technology andinnovations for development. Science and technology
ministries and African institutions were unlikely recipientsof development investments, and when they were, it wasunder misguided multilateral or bilateral arrangements that
put the donor on the driver’s seat; that did not allow for
Africa’s participation and ownership; and did not recognize
the social and cultural milieu required for STI to thrive. It
is no wonder that in spite of billions of dollars spent on theInternational Agricultural Research Systems, Africa is yet
to witness a sustainable green revolution.
It was against this background that institutions such as theAfrican Technology Policy Studies Network (ATPS), theAfrican Academies of Science (AAS), the African UnionNEPAD platform on Science and Technology, the African
Union (AU) and the United Nations Economic Commission
for Africa (UNECA) Science and Technology divisions
emerged to provide African perspectives on STI and to

widen Africa’s participation in the global STI discourse
and to agitate for Africa’s scientific sovereignty. It has notbeen without serious challenges. These institutions rely
significantly on donor assistance, some of which are yet tobe fully embedded in African realities. In addition, African
leaders continue to treat STI matters as if they were notcritical for development, with Ministries of Science andTechnology treated as third-tier Ministries, often withlimited resources. Only few African countries are known
to invest in Pan-African STI institutions. In some cases,
Science and Technology is housed under another Ministry
without clear mandates and responsibilities.
But there is now a glimmer of hope. Success stories are
beginning to emerge once again. The new environment:
democratization of the political space; increased attention
to the emergence of new and more confident, accountable
leadership; the decline of the market-deterministic dogma;
an emerging new incentive structure for professors andresearchers; refocusing of science for agriculture; anda paradigm shift in the donor-relations and multilateralarrangements with respect to STI for Africa, all provide a
new impetus for advancing the use of STI for development
in a new and significant way. The ongoing global
conventions on climate change represent another positive
incentive for charting new development paradigms for a
low carbon economy.
It is in order to seize the moment and include otherneglected actors and segments of the society in the
dialogue, that the African Manifesto has been written.

“There is one thing developing
countries cannot do without:home grown capacity in scientificresearch and technologicalknow-how. Increasingly anation’s wealth will depend on
the knowledge it accrues andhow it applies it, rather than
the resources it controls. The“have” and the “have-nots”
will be synonymous with the“knows” and the “know-nots”
Serageldin. 2008.

”

New Vision on Science,
2 The
Technology and Innovation
for Africa’s Development

An African Manifesto for Science, Technology and Innovation

16

The African Manifesto is a vision of African visions, a dreamof African dreams and a tool for African development
through self-rule in science, technology and innovation. It
envisions a new renaissance in science, technology andinnovations for Africans, by Africans in Africa and in the
Diaspora in dialogue with the rest of the world. This visioncalls for Africa to generate, master and utilize scientific andtechnological knowledge for the sustainable developmentof Africa. It calls for Africans to take leadership and fullcontrol of that knowledge, technology and innovations
required for African development. This vision builds onthe conviction that if political sovereignty is necessary,scientific sovereignty is even more important in present
day Africa. The development of science, technology andinnovation in its own terms is critical to Africa’s sustainable
development and to its inclusion in the global world order.

various strategies that are needed to root African STI in
African societies. These strategies for what we call the“socialisation of STI” range from connecting the agenda
of African STI to the needs of the African people, torecognizing the relevance of different African knowledge
and technology systems, via developing African stylesof research and scientific production, to African forms ofstimulation, regulation and evaluation of STI.

2.1.1 On the Need to Embed African
STI in the African Agenda

2.1 Towards Socialisation of Science,
Technology and Innovation in Africa

Science, technology and innovation are the key drivers
for economic growth and transformation of any nation
or society. A deliberate investment in STI is, therefore,
seen as one of the most crucial priorities for any country
to realize its short term, medium term and long-term
development objectives (thus stated by UNESCO and theAfrican Union in 2009).

For science, technology and innovation to work, theyneed to be rooted firmly in society. That is equally true
for Africa, Europe and India, as indeed for any society.
It is equally true for sciences and technologies that are
iconic for the modern age, such as nano-science andgenetic engineering, as for sciences and technologies thatare considered ‘traditional’ such as indigenous medicine
and craft pottery making. This Manifesto spells out the

STI indeed underpin every one of the UN Millennium
Development Goals, and is the only option for effective
response to the complex challenges of poverty alleviation,
climate change adaptation and mitigation, and response
to other challenges facing humankind today. Therefore,
Africa can no longer stay recluse and let her STI agenda
be defined externally through donor partnerships andbilateral North-South relationships. Strengthening oureconomic and social development can only be achievedby harnessing the fruits of scientific discoveries andtechnological innovations. How, then, can we formulate an
African agenda for STI? Such an agenda will include twoelements: (1) prioritizing an overall emphasis on science,technology and innovation in development policy planning,and (2) recognizing a variety of knowledge communities
and technology systems, including indigenous knowledge,
science and technology.
The new priority for STI has to include an attention to
design, user involvement, capacity building, grassroots
participation, transparent leadership and STI governance,and process improvement. This is the place to test thepartnership between the researchers, the government,
the civil society, and the private sector (both formal andinformal) as linked in a quadruple helix. This calls forre-orientation of the mindset of academic researchers,
collaboration across disciplines within the academic
sciences and with non-scientists. African development
challenges, social problems and societal goals are multifaceted, so should the research agenda to address them.
This will require an investment in training, re-tooling andre-skilling; in curriculum reform in STI institutions; and in
restructuring the pedagogies, and incentive structures inscience and technology to improve skills in multi-disciplinary
and transdisciplinary research, systems thinking andresponsible innovation. Indigenous African knowledge

and technology systems were effective in sustaining
rural livelihoods for centuries, but they are not sufficient
to secure sustainable development in a globalised world.
Global socio-economic and environmental challenges
including climate change and population growth are
likely to exacerbate international competition for energy,
food, water, land and other materials. Developments
in innovative science and technology can extend andimprove these indigenous knowledge and technology
systems in Africa to enhance factor productivities andvalue addition. Africa’s STI must meet international quality
standards and be fully codified and tested for robustness,reliability, repeatability, and up-scaling. This is necessary
to secure Africa’s competitiveness in the global economy
that is increasingly driven by STI now, more than ever. It isonly by shaping Africa’s STI to address the African agendathat it can address Africa’s development challenges andyield desired development gains.

2.1.2 On the plurality of knowledge
and the autonomy of different formsof science and technology
Both indigenous and global knowledge platforms
provide formidable repositories of scientific and technicalinformation relevant to addressing Africa’s development
challenges. There is, however, a crucial difference
between mere information and living knowledge. Only17

An African Manifesto for Science, Technology and Innovation

18

when information is organized, adapted and adopted foruse within a specific cultural milieu, it can be characterized
as knowledge. Therefore, this Manifesto questions theuniversalistic concept of science and technology andpleads for a socialisation of STI, i.e. embedding STI issocieties that it aims to serve.
For instance, Africa has certain peculiar disease conditions
and some acquired through lifestyle changes that arebecoming pandemic. It is an illusion that the medical andpharmaceutical sciences required to take care of these
diseases can be disconnected from the disease cultures,and dislocated in the global North or West. Why leave thesolution of Africa’s problems to African Centres for Tropical
Medicine in non-African temperate regions? Furthermore,
why leave the solutions to African tropical agriculture incentres and green houses established in the Northernhemisphere with temperate climates? Why leave solutions
to African economies and poverty alleviation research toresearch stations and centres established thousands ofmiles from the poor African communities and researcherswith no experience of poverty and its complex causalities
and ramifications? While Africa can benefit from the global
knowledge systems, it is necessary for a sustainable
development that African governments and African people
proactively engage in creating a STI strategy that is fully
embedded in African history, culture, traditions, and sociopolitical and economic realities.

To achieve this, the plural knowledge systems held in
different indigenous knowledge communities must also be
proactively engaged in the STI dialogues. If we consider
only one system of “modern” STI, then Africa will remain
at the lower rung of the global science and technologicalladder, orchestrating the knowledge dependence
syndrome; if we recognize the value of our indigenous STI
systems as part of a broad spectrum of parallel systemsof knowledge and technology, then Africa can take its fatein its own hands and build a future on original innovations
at the cross roads of these various knowledge systems.
Significant opportunities for leapfrogging development
exist as Africa can learn from the successes andmistakes of the industrialized nations and chart a more
efficient development path with reduced environmental
externalities.
Then African scientists will have the opportunity to be in
the forefront of world research in developing new forms of
STI that effectively contribute to such varied problems asrecurrent droughts causing vast starvation and fatalities,
or recurrent floods leading to numerous deaths anddestruction of property, or low energy use intensity in mostAfrican cities, etc. Also the classic problems of global trade
exploitation can then be addressed: exporting crude oil
and importing refined oil; exporting cocoa and importing
chocolate; exporting cassava and importing starch; having
trees that can produce paper but importing paper; having

land and water but importing food. This is no anti-scienceplea. On the contrary: Africa will continue to learn fromthe developed and emerging countries, because “he whostarted cooking before you, is likely to have more broken
pots”, as a the saying goes. Africa will not seek to re-invent
the wheels of STI or repeat the mistakes of industrial
revolution, but rather learn from these experiences toleapfrog development in African STI by integrating thepositive aspects of the western styles of STI with those of
African indigenous knowledge and technology. As anotheradage goes, “when the frog in front falls into a pit, otherbehind takes caution”.

2.1.3 On Capacity Building, Capacity
Utilization and Public Engagement in STI
The capacity of African institutions to support hard and soft
skill development on STI is not yet adequate to move Africa
into the new mode of control over (self rule in) STI that
this Manifesto calls for. The infrastructural decay in STI
institutions, low innovative capacities of African graduates
to address African development challenges, and massmigration of many STI experts (natural scientists, doctors,
economists, engineers, etc.) to the already industrializedcountries in the northern hemisphere go along to worsen
the hope of realizing a sustainable development in
STI in Africa. Worse still, these industrialised countries
provide active policy incentives that act as effective “pull19“

he who started
cooking before
you, is likely
to have morebroken pots”

Traditional Nigerian Proverb

Africa will not seek to re-invent
the wheels of STI or repeat
the mistakes of industrial
revolution, but rather learn fromthese experiences to leapfrog
development in African STI by
integrating the positive aspectsof the western styles of STI
with those of African indigenous
knowledge and technology.

An African Manifesto for Science, Technology and Innovation

solutions to Africa’s numerous STI challenges anddiscourage African experts from migrating elsewhere areurgently needed. At the same time, capacity should bebuilt amongst the general African public to understandscientific and technological challenges and opportunities,
and to proactively participate in shaping Africa’s solutions
to them.

factors” that exacerbate the brain drain syndrome. Many
developed countries now have highly skilled visa programs
which entice African experts trained in Africa to migrate
to their countries, effectively subsidizing their own STI
training budget with those of the so called poor developing
countries.
Furthermore, African government’s lack of attention to
STI investments and recognition of African STI experts,
leave the African STI sector in a very debilitating state,providing “push factors” for the mass migration to “greener
pastures”. African STI infrastructures are in a very poor
state, remuneration of African experts is very low, and in
most cases, existing capacities are neither recognised
nor utilized as foreign consultants are preferred, partly
due to bilateral funding conditionalities. These neo-liberalpolicies of globalisation of STI constitute an invisible handthat drives the continued poor investments in STI capacity
building in Africa, on the one hand, and poor utilisationof existing skill base leading to frustrations and externalmigration of African experts, on the other.
These circumstances call for urgent action by African
governments and African people to enact policies that
support capacity development and effective capacity
utilisation in Africa for African development. Necessary
economic and policy incentive structures that willencourage African STI experts to develop home-grown“

Africans must demystify science and technology from its
current perception as an “ivory tower” activity to a spacefor gaining knowledge and codifying experiences throughsystematic observation, experimentation and measurementof phenomena and the formulation of laws to describe theobserved facts in general terms. The traditional means ofgaining knowledge through multiple perspectives, lateralthinking and shared opinions within communities need tobe mainstreamed into the new African scientific paradigm.
Expressed in the currency of modern scientific language,
this is a call for problem solving through multi-disciplinarity,transdisciplinarity and systems thinking. Only with suchan improved public understanding of, and space for,participation in science, technology and innovation, can wehope that the African public will engage in the democratic
governance of STI.

“

20

2.1.4 On the Language of STI and the
Culture of Science Communication
The limited socialisation of STI in Africa can be attributedin part to the language of science and technology andthe established culture of science communication. To
improve the communication between scientists and the
public, to improve the public engagement with scienceand technology, and to enhance the societal engagementof scientists, important investments have to be made insimplifying and standardising the language(s) of STI,
and language education at all levels. This pertains to thelanguage of the modern scientists as well as the multiplicity
and limited capacity of African languages to communicate
STI in general.
There is not one African language, and most of the African
languages are limited in their ability to communicate
scientific terms and phenomena comprehensively. The
African Union has adopted English, French and Arabic as
its official languages, but many African countries typicallyhave over three different major languages of their own,
and the “language of science” is yet another one. The
elite character of the language of STI tends to exclude
many in civil society, government, and private sector(formal and informal). This is not very different from otherregions of the world, but the existence of so many basic
vernaculars in Africa does increase this problem, leaving

scientists communicating to each other, leaving out the
majority of the population. With an unenviable recordof having the lowest adult literacy percentage of the
population (62%), the language exclusion not only confers“foreignness” to STI in Africa, but it also prevents the
emergence of knowledge networks where collaboration,user participation, and participative STI governance canbe nurtured. The question is how to translate between thelanguage of science and the African languages, and how
to facilitate two-way communication between scientists
and other Africans. To start with, science communication,
STI policy, and STI entrepreneurship should be made an
integral part of the curricula for all science and engineering
subjects. Writing for popular audiences and developing
the attitude and skills to translate research into innovation
would not only boost the confidence of researchers, itwould make science more relevant. Secondly, generalprimary, secondary school and university education
should prioritize science and technology subjects, and21

The elite character of the language of STI tends to exclude
many in civil society, government, and private sector (formal
and informal)....leaving scientists communicating to eachother, leaving out the majority of the population. With an
unenviable record of having the lowest adult literacy percentageof the population (62%), the language exclusion not only
confers “foreignness” to STI in Africa, but it also prevents the
emergence of knowledge networks where collaboration, user
participation, and participative STI governance can be nurtured.

An African Manifesto for Science, Technology and Innovation

22

programmes of public education of STI should provide anéducation permanente to allow African citizens to interact
meaningfully with scientists and engineers. Knowledge
brokerage institutions in Africa should also be strengthened
for effective knowledge valorisation on the continent.

2.1.5 On Youth and Gender Engagement

Investing in African womenis investing in the present
Africa in a structural anddeep way. In agriculture,in the informal sector, inthe production of crafts
and arts, in health care, inwater and environmental
management, women
play a central role.

STI cannot become socialized and embedded in African
culture if significant sections of the African population do
not participate in the discourse. The role for civil society
in such engagement with STI is crucial to enhance thesocialisation of STI. To strenghten civil society, thisManifesto makes a plea for investing in STI capacity
building for African women and youth.
Investing in African youth is investing in the future of Africa.
Gross enrolment ratio in tertiary education in many Africancountries is currently low with only Mauritius, Liberia, Cape
Verde and Nigeria exceeding 10%. Better education andmore opportunities to make a living will keep the youth inAfrica and stimulate their engagement with the shaping ofa new and sustainable Africa. Investing in African women isinvesting in the present Africa in a structural and deep way.
In agriculture, in the informal sector, in the production ofcrafts and arts, in health care, in water and environmental
management, women play a central role. Their role in thefamily also shapes the mood and temperament of thecontinent. Furthermore, women are increasingly emerging
as bearers of valuable knowledge and agents of change.
Yet their voices have hitherto been marginalized with few
African women engaged in STI governance positions
throughout the continent. In order for these voices to beheard, we need more proactive investments in programs
such as the African Women Forum for Science andTechnology (AWFST) and the African Youth Forum for
Science and Technology (AYFST), and other similar
initiatives that have emerged in the past decades. It isfrom these fora that specific concerns can be articulated
and eventually merged with other views on a platform that
articulates Africa’s agenda for the future. Support to thiskind of programs should have mentoring and incubation
facilities to build a culture of innovation amongst African
youths and women. We need to give African women andyouth the confidence to embark on science, technology
and innovation related careers, knowing that they can
succeed and operate at world-class levels.

2.1.6 On Knowledge Circulation,
Valorisation and Appropriation Strategies
Harnessing science and technology for sustainable
development requires a free circulation of knowledge, andstrategies to translate scientific knowledge into effectiveuse (valorisation) and adoption by a broad range of socialgroups in society (appropriation). Explicit policy measures

to enhance such circulation, valorisation and appropriationneed to be developed at national, regional and pan-Africanlevel. Inevitable tensions will arise with the protection of
intellectual property rights, as governed by a number ofcomplex international agreements. The Convention on
Biodiversity, for example, underlines the importance oftraditional knowledge as advocated in this Manifesto, andcreates a framework for ensuring that local people sharein the benefits arising from the appropriation and use of
local knowledge systems and of the resources of theirlocal environment. Plant breeders´ rights and farmers´rights are equally recognized in the Convention. These
resources are of great importance for Africa’s sustainable
development and they must receive adequate attention.
Similar international agreements should further safeguard
African access to medical knowledge and innovation as
well as access to technologies and innovations for climatechange adaptation and mitigation.

2.1.7 On the Nature of STI Incentives
To achieve a strong science-society interface in Africa,
the current incentive system in science and technology
needs to be changed. The current incentives make African
scientists try to mimic their colleagues abroad, focusing
sometimes on self-defined and donor defined research
priorities and aiming for outputs that have international
relevance with have little or no practical application in

23

An African Manifesto for Science, Technology and Innovation

24

Africa. In addition, there is the tendency for global STI
agenda to dominate the work of African scientist to thedetriment of their attention to local problems. Much donor
funding stimulates attention to such foreign issues, forcing
African researchers away from the problems of their own
society.
A new system of incentives would reward local publications
and reports, sometimes in one of the African languages,
in addition to scientific publications in international peerreviewed journals. The collaboration with scientists ofother disciplines and with other groups in society should
also be rewarded. This requires new forms of “measuring”
scientific production, in addition to publications of indeed
any sort. Africa also needs to reward and encourage
scientists’ involvement in education, in innovating sciencecurricula at all levels of education, and in engaging withcivil society.
In addition to developing such a new system of incentives,
this also requires re-orientation and re-training of the STI
practitioners. This new orientation of African researchers
and the new incentives will promote a focus on local
problems and innovation and an engagement in a broad
range of collaborative research activities.

2.1.8 On Systems Thinking
and the Collaboration
Current African science is carried out in disciplinary silos
with little knowledge flows between them. This effectively
inhibits innovation. Neither is there much knowledge flow
between scientific laboratories and non-academic partners
such as industry and other user groups. So, even if Africa
starts looking to science for answers, the solutions willtake far too long to reach society and solve the problemsof poverty and unsustainable use of resources in Africa.
While disciplinary science remains important to create
in-depth understanding of phenomena and inform
evidence-based policymaking, the systemic and dynamic
nature of the current development agenda of Africa meansthat trans-disciplinary approaches, systems thinking andinnovation must be taken more seriously.

Innovation does not happen in the disciplinary silos,
but in interactions amongst the key actors in an
innovation system, including policymakers, private
sector actors, science experts and the civil society.
These interactions must be profound and mutually
re-inforcing as in a quadruple helix of policy, science,industry and civil society.
In most African countries there is very little interaction
between universities and industry and very few universities

in the region conduct research and training programmes
pertinent to industrial needs. To bridge the existing gap
between scientists, technologists and industrialists,
African governments should encourage and support theestablishment of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary
research and training centres and strengthen existing
institutions in areas of science and technology most relevantto the development of local industry. The industrial sector
should on the other hand expand its involvement in theactivities of the research and higher education institutions
engaged in science and technology. In particular greater
importance should be given to the development of strong
linkages between engineering institutions, small-scaleindustries and the agricultural sector with the principal
aim of producing simple and modern tools and equipment
required by farmers to increase their productivity andefficiency. Small research and training units should
also be formed and strengthened in areas of cuttingedge technologies relevant to industry such as lasers,
fibre optics, composite materials, pharmaceuticals, finechemicals, information and communication technologies,
biotechnology and nanotechnolgy. The most successful
newly industrialized countries of the South are those whichhave been able to form a strong alliance between science,technology and industry. It has now been established thatmulti-lateral collaboration amongst the quadruple helix
breeds innovation, while bilateral relationships lead toknowledge dependence.

25

2.1.9 On Integration
In addition to the quadruple collaboration between research,
industry, civil society and government, also collaboration
over other borders and divides need to be stimulated.
Governmental ministries in Africa often display the same
isolated and inward-looking practices as academic
disciplines: much can be gained if a more problem-oriented
style of policy making were developed. Similarly, national
interests sometimes block the realization of African goals.
This Manifesto thus advocates more strategic cooperation
between different African countries both within theestablished regional blocks and at the pan-African level
under the African Union.
To ensure the successful implementation of STI
programmes and activities in different countries in Africa,
there is need for their proper coordination and integrationin the innovation system into all national and regionalsocio-economic planning issues. Presently, coordinationof STI programmes and activities seem to be within thepurview of the ministries of science and technology. Whilethey should continue to serve as the main STI ministry forsuccessful implementation of STI policy, there is an urgent
need to begin to coordinate all STI programmes andactivities into national and regional systems of innovation.

An African Manifesto for Science, Technology and Innovation“

STI is cross-cutting to most Ministries including agriculture,energy, water resources, eduction, science and technology,
mining, trade and industry, etc. These interconnections
need to be systematically streamlined within national
systems of innovation to effectively harness synergies andcomplementarities within the system.

Innovation does not happen in the mainstream but inthe interactions of actors within an innovation system.
K. Urama, 2009

2.1.10 On STI Investments
Despite considerable empirical evidence from SouthEast Asia and other emerging economies showing thatinvestment in STI yields direct and indirect benefits tonational economies, Africa still fails to give priority toinvestment in STI. African countries are characterized by
low investment in science and technology, a concentrationof investment in public large enterprises in big cities and an
exclusion of the large mass of population from the formal
economy. This low level of investments has led to declining
quality of science, engineering and technical education at
all levels.
For science and technology to make an effective contribution
to development, African governments must devote a criticalminimum of investment in research and development. At“

26

present very few African governments allocate more than
0.3% of their Gross National Product (GNP) to researchand development, while the majority of industrializedcountries allocates over 3%. This Manifesto calls for a
tripling of the existing resources to bring them close to thelevel of 1% of the GNP as recommended by UNESCO andmore recently by the African Union 2007 Summit. Indeed
it is only South Africa that has met this figure and thedifference in development dividends are clear.

2.1.11 On Regulation and Mediation of STI
STI needs to be regulated. STI knowledge can be used to
do good, but can also be used to destroy. Africa needs aregulatory framework that facilitates a democratic balancingof risks and benefits. Risk in innovation and science isnecessary to make progress, but ethical considerations forthe common good are equally necessary. We saw how the
failure of proper regulation of the financial world produced
the global financial crisis. Lack of proper regulation of STI
could cause a loss of lives and destruction of ecosystems.
The level of informality in Africa is high and attempts toimpose standards may be seen as stifling creativity andhome-grown solutions. Good regulations, however, do not
stifle creativity, but create space for it while safeguarding abalance between risks and benefits. Rules and standards
are not enough; enforcement is equally important. The

Building the infrastructure of STI should not be a stand-alone activity. It should be linked
to industrialization concerns, the requirements in the key sectors such as agriculture,
water resources management, and STI policy goals and targets.
regulators must be empowered to regulate, and at thesame time the regulator needs to be regulated to avoid
corruption that can subvert the entire system. This
Manifesto calls for a regulatory framework that accords
with international standards, bearing in mind that African
circumstances may require creative learning from bestpractices elsewhere.

27

2.1.12 On Innovation Incubation
Finally, for Africa to advance its development through
STI, proactive programmes to identify and harness the
STI capacities of African people, especially youths andwomen needs to be strengthened. Programs such as theAfrican Youth Innovation Incubation (Y I CAN) and Women
Innovation Incubation (WE CAN) provide platforms forfostering and harnessing innovation capabilities amongst
the African youths and women to create a crop of African
innovators today for African development tomorrow.

2.2 Building Sustainable STI Infrastructure
Science, technology and innovation infrastructures across
Africa have been in a very bad shape. This refers to boththe human and physical infrastructure. Rebuilding theseinfrastructures would require a lot of resources, creativity
and prioritizing. There is no science-led development
without the attainment of a certain threshold in science

There is no science-led
development without theattainment of a certain
threshold in science andtechnological capacity
and capability, throughhigh-level training inuniversities and colleges ofscience and technology.

An African Manifesto for Science, Technology and Innovation28

and technological capacity and capability, through highlevel training in universities and colleges of science andtechnology. The technological revolution in Asia waspreceded by heavy investment in higher education, targeting
especially scientists, engineers and mathematicians. To
build these infrastructures requires devoting consistently ahigh proportion of the national budget to higher educationand improving the incentive structure for scientists andinnovators. Currently, only the Republic of South Africa has
attained the expenditure target of one percent of GDP for
Research and Development as mandated by the African
Union. Unless this level of funding is attained, it would be
difficult to modernize the physical infrastructure and bringit to world standard.

concerns, requirements in key sectors such as agriculture,
water resources management, and STI policy goals
and targets. This is one avenue through which industryuniversity (knowledge generating institutions) linkages
can be fostered. This can also force the rationalizationof scarce STI assets. Attempts in the past to establish
specialized universities have failed in many Africancountries. We therefore have many Universities of
Science and Technology or Agriculture, established for the
primary purpose of generating STI knowledge, become
multi-purpose universities, taking their scarce resourcesin the study of arts and humanities. This mushrooming ofuniversities of science and technology has led to poorly
resourced and ill-equipped universities of STI in many
African countries. The Manifesto calls for a return to thepolicy of strengthening existing trans-disciplinary centersof excellence with a specialization in core areas of needin African development struggle: sustainable energy,
infrastructure, entrepreneurship development, technicaleducation, agriculture, ICT, STI policy research andadvocacy, etc, tailored to the special needs of Africancountries.

This Manifesto seeks to build a coalition of actors that
not only assists the government to prioritize STI funding
but join forces to agitate for increased funding for higher
education and R&D from both domestic and externalsources. Prioritizing implies making choices amongst
competing needs. Building both human and physical STI
infrastructure should be guided by a vision of where theleadership wants to take the society, the needs of thesociety, and its resource endowment and comparativeadvantage, including dynamic comparative advantage.

2.3 Restoration of Confidence in African
Science, Technology and Innovation

Building the infrastructure of STI should not be a standalone activity. It should be linked to industrialization

This Manifesto will have had a major impact if African
researchers can once again regain their confidence and”This Manifesto will have had a major impact if African researchers can once again regain
their confidence and trust their capacity to do world-class science and technology, andinnovate; and if African Leaders can be convinced that home-grown solutions are not inferior.
trust their capacity to do world-class science and technology,
and innovate; if African leaders can be convinced that
home-grown solutions are not inferior and if the African
people become supportive of their own knowledge class.
To break the cycle of knowledge dependence and improvethe demand for African knowledge a quick major scientificbreakthrough would be required. For this breakthrough tooccur, a critical mass of African scientists working together
on major African concerns is necessary. This implies thestrengthening of existing regional platforms and centers of
excellence on STI such as the AU-NEPAD STI unit, African
Technology Policy Studies Network (ATPS), the African
Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS), the network of
African Academy of Science (AAS) and the associatednational academies, etc.
But more importantly, it would require the continuous
sensitisation and training of the political class, proper
involvement of the civil society and the retooling of andgreater support for STI policy advocacy institutions. In
tackling the issues of confidence, African Scientists abroad
could play a significant role. They can bring cutting-edgeknowledge and collaborate with home-based scientists
in a non-condescending way. Development partners canfacilitate these collaborations in a manner that encourages
multilateral dialogue and a shared vision for Africa’s
development.
But more importantly, development partners must de-linkknowledge and aid and return to the core principles of

the Paris Declaration, if confidence is to be restored. The
autonomy to determine development and research priorities
by Africans must be assured and donors must acquire thelongevity of venture capitalists. The rate at which theychange their programs and personnel cannot augur wellfor true partnership; while Africans, policymakers and all,must acquire the discipline for transparency, accountability
and responsibility. Aid can be effective once we avoid the
traditional donor behaviour: mistrust of the system; lackof trust in the capacity of Africans to deliver; inability toappreciate that learning involves provisions for curiosityand mistakes; excessive use of ill-equipped expatriates
who, have very little knowledge of the local contexts,
cultures and social conditions. Excessive focus on shortterm scientific publication outputs rather than medium
term innovation incubation and the curiosity required toinnovate is also another constraint. This assumes that
Africans will do their part, acquire superior knowledge,
use their capacity wisely and drive the dialogue withconfidence, following established international norms andstandards.

But more importantly, development partners mustde-link knowledge and aid and return to the core
principles of the Paris Declaration, if confidence is to berestored...Africans must be assured and donors must
acquire the longevity of venture capitalists. The rate
at which they change their programs and personnel
cannot augur well for true partnership; while Africans,policymakers and all, must acquire the discipline fortransparency, accountability and responsibility.

29

“We in Africa must
either begin to build
our scientific andtechnological training
capabilities or remain an
impoverished appendage
to the global economy
Paul Kagame, Rwandan
President, cited in the New
African, Vol. 494, p. 78.

”
3 A Call for Self-Rule and Democratic
Governance of STI in Africa

“

If political sovereignty is necessary, then scientific sovereignty
is perhaps more important in present-day Africa.
E. Mveng 1983”

31

This Manifesto is in more ways than one, a Call for Action
by the African governments, the African peoples and theDevelopment partners.

stands for multi-lateral (North-South-South-North)relationships in knowledge, capacity and financial flows
for STI development in Africa.

3.1 Self Rule of African STI
in the Global Scene

We believe that mutual interaction and mutual learning
amongst the global community is a necessary condition
for leapfrogging STI development in Africa. This
relationship must however be carefully negotiated andcarefully governed to ensure full sovereignty of different
knowledge communities, countries and regions in therelationship.

In conclusion, this Manifesto is a call to the many peoples
and governments of Africa to rise up to the challengeof taking their proper place in the ongoing global STI
revolution. This Manifesto promotes self-rule in a mannerthat clearly allows autonomy in the origination of ideas,
experimentation and curiosity in order to provide solutions
that are home-grown and encourages “Africanness” ofviewpoints.
The time has come for Africa to address the current
unbalanced global governance of STI which hasentrenched knowledge dependence for far too long. Africa
needs to move away from the current binomial, linear,
unequal partnerships where the funding for scientificresearch, knowledge and technology generation largely
flow from North to South.
African needs to move away from imported, supply driven,scientific processes forced in through development funding
packages or through poorly negotiated international
agreements, by which recipients acquire no specificknowledge or skills during the process. This Manifesto

For equity, social justice and our common humanity, theneed to accord knowledge emanating from Africa equal
treatment and consideration in the international STI
discourse is imperative. In line with our earlier call on thesocialisation of science in Africa, the time is now ripe for all
Africans to exercise sovereignty over their knowledge andscience, be treated and respected, knowing that they havemuch to contribute to global STI.

3.2 Leadership for a Democratic
Governance of STI
And how can all of this new renaissance in African STI be
achieved? The key missing link is good leadership. STI-leddevelopment is a leadership endeavour, requiring strong
political vision to drive the African agenda and enforce
governance processes that prioritises investments in STI.
STI prioritisation is a comparatively new endeavour for

Right: A young innovatorfrom Ghana with hisshea nut processor.
Picture credit: Flikr

An African Manifesto for Science, Technology and Innovation

32

political leadership in Africa, but the past decade has seen
the emergence of an unprecedented political will for theuse of STI as the engine of development. In 2008, Liberian
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf reminded delegates at
the Science in Africa summit that: “No country on earth
has developed without deploying, harnessing and utilizing
science and technology, whether through technology
transfer or homegrown solutions.”
Bingu wa Mutharika, the Malawian President, branded his
maiden speech as New Chairman of the AU with a slogan“Feeding Africa through New Technologies: Let Us Act
Now.” President Kagame, on the other hand, during his
2008 address at the Royal Society in London underscoredthe fact that, “We in Africa must either begin to build ourscientific and technological training capabilities or remain
an impoverished appendage to the global economy” . The
2010 African Development Forum hosted by the African
Union, the Economic Commission for Africa and the African
Development Bank also prioritised STI in Africa’s response
to climate change and other development challenges.
Following the example of South Africa, whose developmentof Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) policy has
long been at the forefront of the African success stories,
other countries in Africa such as Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania,
Malawi, and many others are also strengthening their
National Systems of Innovation with thriving Ministries of
S&T, and National Commissions and Councils for S&T.

The long term visions for development in many Africancountries, including Kenya’s Vision 2030 and Nigeria’s Vision2020 all have STI as their bedrocks.
These developments and political commitments, including
the formation of dedicated S&T units at NEPAD, the United
Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), areall seeds of the new era. Pan-African NGOs championing
STI capacity building and the emergence of civil society
organisations advocating for STI investments in Africa,
are all testimonies of this changing vision. There is alsoa growing army of African youth and women in research
centres, civil society organisations, private sector networks,
innovative entrepreneurs, social groups which – throughout
all Africa - practise in their daily actions, science, technology
and innovation activities at the grassroots.
However, African leaders, who have come to recognise thecentrality of science and technology for an African renaissance,
seem still uncertain of how to translate this orientation into
practice. What is needed is to create a democratic space wherethese diverse actors can join efforts and enter into a dialogue
to ensure that science, technology and innovation thriveand flourish for the benefit of the African peoples. For a start,mechanisms should be put in place to celebrate achievements
in STI leadership in Africa. This Manifesto therefore encourages
the establishment of an African Leadership Prize in Science andTechnology. This should not be a prize for a scientist but a prize
for an African Head of State or Head of Parliament, who has
demonstrated strong and visible leadership for STI in Africa.

STI-led development is a leadership endeavour, requiring strong political vision to drive
the African agenda and enforce governance processes that prioritises investments in
STI.

Progress towards an African STI that finds its proper placein the global scientific community can be a long term
perspective, but we do not think that it is a wild speculation.
Our conviction is reinforced by the passionate responsethat we received across Africa during the process of drafting
the Manifesto, but it is also based on recent evolutions
occurring in the continent as the effect of the social action
by numerous and diverse actors, who are already on themove in the African societies.

33

4 Can We Achieve This?

“

Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or
settling for less. It has not been the path for the
faint-hearted - for those who prefer leisure overwork, or seek only the pleasure of riches andfame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers,
the makers of things,… who have carried us up thelong, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom
President Barack Obama, Inaugural
Address, 20 January 2009.

”Africa has experienced a boisterous revolution instigatedby ICTs, which have not only affected the continent’s
governance pillars but have had far-reaching ramifications
for the environment, commerce, poverty alleviation, STI
dialogue, agriculture, and community life. According to theInternational Telecommunication Union (ITU), in the last
decade alone Africa has recorded the biggest growth inmobile phone penetration and internet connectivity and is
striving to close the digital divide by having a presencein the global knowledge economy. By 2008 mobile phoneusers in Africa had reached 370 million people. Overall
internet use in Africa has grown by 238% between 2005
and 2008. Rarely has the continent come out to addressscience and technology as now. The African Information
Society Initiative (AISI) launched in 1996 is perhaps oneof the most comprehensive regional ICT-for-development
frameworks of its kind. Preceding the Geneva Action Planof the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) of
2003 and the WSIS Tunis commitments in 2005, AISI canbe credited for being a reference point for an African digitalvision and agenda in a globalised world.
This diffusion goes together with innovation that is
improving people’s daily life in many ways. In a numberof African countries notably Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania
and Zambia, mobile telephones have become an easymeans for poor individuals to gain access to banking
services. The technology M-PESA (Swahili for “Mobile
Money”) provides the possibility of making person-toperson payments, transfers and pre-paid purchases

without a bank account. This is an African success story
that has completely changed the regional business terrain.
It has empowered the local people, from the capital city
Nairobi to the rural outposts, by giving them what had
hitherto been impossible owing to a banking regime withstrict regulatory frameworks. To the Kenyans this is atypical everyday mobile transaction. To the world, this isan unbelievable first. It is mobile commerce at its best.

35

Another example. USHAHIDI.com (which means testimony
in Swahili) is a website initially developed as a tool for
citizens to report and map violence, which they witnessed
after the post election crisis in Kenya at the beginning of2008 via sms and mobile phone. This prototype software,
which combines crisis information from citizen generated
reports, media and NGOs and mashes these data up
with geographical mapping tools, is now used worldwide
to track unrest in similar crisis related situations (e.g. in

M-PESA: Swahili for
Mobile Money thatprovides person-to-person
payments, transfersand pre-paid purchases
without a bank accountAn African Manifesto for Science, Technology and Innovation

36

India, Mexico, Lebanon, Afghanistan and the Democratic
Republic of Congo). It operates as an early warning system
and assists in visualization for response and recovery.
Africa is now rife with similar innovative breakthroughs inseveral areas of STI which, in most cases, remain obscurein the serenity of our rural villages or in the periphery of ourcities. This Manifesto proposes and supports mechanisms
to identify, mentor and incubate such innovations by African
youth, women and men to boost their impact on the overall
STI system and to contribute to raising awareness about
African capacity for research and innovation.

4.1 A Call to Coordinated Action
Thus it seems that a quiet revolution is taking place inAfrica geared to tie STI to society in ways that were hitherto
unimaginable. In our continent we are starting to think andact seriously about stepping up our efforts in using STI
for making a difference in the lives of ordinary people. By
harnessing STI, African countries have a stronger chancefor sustained economic growth, for addressing poverty,
disease and environmental destruction. It is a huge effort
and it needs the contribution of Africans and friends ofAfrica. To achieve the vision, Africa must embark ontransformational changes in how STI is socially defined,prioritised, constructed, funded, communicated, monitored
and evaluated for African development. The following
specific actions are recommended:

Reject knowledge dependence, i.e. the idea thatthe existing international division of labour is STI
is adequate for development. The system whereby
STI knowledge is predominantly generated in andfunded by the global North can only lead to “theglobal South” remaining a perpetual “appendage”
to the global economy, as “consumer”, not“producer” in the new knowledge economy.
2. Encourage bottom-up innovation and democratic
governance of STI in Africa for African development.
– More inclusive forms of knowledge generationand knowledge circulation in which the voicesof the African is treated with equal respect
irrespective of social or academic status, income,gender, country, race, religion, or age.
3. Encourage new forms of STI in Africa, focusing
on poverty reduction, inclusive wealth andenvironmental sustainability and respect for thediversity of knowledge systems in Africa, while taking
into account global policy priorities. Local needs
and priorities should drive the STI agenda within
the context of global agendas and not vice versa.
4. Encourage new forms of STI monitoring andevaluation, and inclusive incentive structures:
Develop alternative matrices for the evaluationof STI taking into account internationalp
standards as well as local relevance.
5. Encourage coordination and collaboration:
through formation of National Systems of
Innovation (NSI) platforms to foster innovation1.

through collaboration amongst the relevant
governments Ministries, Agencies andParastatals and amongst the quadruple helix.
6. Full socialisation of STI in Africa: Create policy
environments to espouse the principles of Self-rule,
African Ownership, and Democratic Governanceof STI research prioritisation processes andpolicies in Africa for African development.

The final word belongs to all Africans who are willingto take the necessary action to change the status quo
and mainstream STI in national and pan-African policy
dialogues; it belongs to those visionary leaders who would
buy into the vision and prioritise STI in national budgets
and investment strategies.

These recommendations can be translated into specificcalls for action for specific people in the African society andthe international community. These calls to action targeting
specific African stakeholders: governments; scientists;
private sector, civil society, Africans in Diaspora as well as
development partners will be published separately.

We therefore invite you and all Africans and friends ofAfrica who share in this responsibility to share their views,
make their contributions, and keep the dialogue going.
More importantly, those who would like to innovate by
implementing the recommendations of the Manifesto
would be celebrated heroes of Africa. We hope that wehave provoked a living dialogue that will grow into an
African vision and have encouraged as many African
peoples and stakeholders of all ages to join the multilateraldialogue on STI and its relation to African society. We callon you to kindly contribute to the effort to make African
science, technology and innovation speak to all Africans,listen to all Africans, address the needs of African society,and is owned by Africans. We call on you to build once
again an African development paradigm that is anchoredon science, technology and innovation as the norm.

What will you do?
4.2 An Open Dialogue
The African Manifesto for STI is a passionate call for the
Africans to take responsibility and act in every capacity tosecure self rule in STI for African development. It starts
the participatory dialogue that will lead the African people
to collectively build the new Africa STI agenda, rather thanattempting to say a final word on the issues at stake.

The final word belongs to you!

37

An African Manifesto for Science, Technology and Innovation38

You can contribute to or follow the dialogue
on e-mail at AfricanManifesto@atpsnet.
org;
•
•
•

•

or blog: http://www.atpsnet.
org/blog/index.php
Twitter at http://twitter.
com/ATPSNETWORK,
Facebook at http://www.
facebook.com/atpsnet?ref=search&sid=149300024.3173025637..1,
Upload useful video messages and case studies
at http://www.youtube.com/user/atpsnetwork.

39

It was against this background that institutions
such as the African Technology Policy Studies
Network (ATPS), The African Academies of
Science (AAS), The African Union-NEPAD
platform on Science and Technology; the African
Union (AU) and the United Nations Economic
Commission for Africa (UNECA) Science andTechnology divisions emerged to provide African
perspectives on STI and to widen Africa’s
participation in the global STI discourse andto agitate for Africa’s scientific sovereignty.

“Building Africa’s Science, Technology and Innovation Today,
for Sustainable Development Tomorrow”

ATPS Secretariat
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