Science policy crafted to build the economy and society – University World News

ETHIOPIA

In general, it also recognises the importance of science and technology in ensuring Ethiopias future growth but, in particular, its ambition of becoming a middle-income country by 2025.

Past efforts

Ethiopia has, over time, been seeking mechanisms to harness the power of science and technology for its development. Various policy directives that promote science have been implemented in the country at different times.

Government initiatives during the past four decades were kick-started in December 1975 through a proclamation (62/1975) that stipulated the establishment of a Science and Technology Commission and defined its responsibilities in planning, coordinating, selecting and approving research programmes, projects and activities.

Ethiopias first Science, Technology and Innovation policy was formulated in 1993 after a lengthy drafting and ratification process that took about 10 years (from 1984 to 1993).

The policy included major goals of building national capability to generate, select, import, develop, disseminate and apply appropriate technologies for the realisation of the countrys socio-economic objectives.

The policy identified four management bodies that were considered to be critical for implementing the policy: the National Science and Technology Council, the Technical Advisory Committee, an Ethiopian Science and Technology Commission (ESTC) and science and technology institutes and centres.

The plan also envisaged the establishment of research institutes, technology centres, design enterprises, and various science and technology support services under the ESTC or as autonomous entities.

Sectoral initiatives

Sectoral policies on agriculture, health, industry, mines, water, energy and geo-information were developed and approved by the council of ministers in 1994. More sectoral advisory councils were also established.

Following the change of government in 1991, ESTC was re-established in March 1994. A year later, in 1995 the commission was re-organised as the Ethiopian Science and Technology Agency (ESTA) and the agency, in 2006, revised the earlier science and technology policy and introduced a new governance structure.

It also identified the priority areas for science and technology as agriculture, commerce, industry, education, human resource development, energy, environment, health, mining, tourism, water, transport and communication, nuclear science and technology, social sciences and meteorology.

Further, the policy outlined the strengthening of existing capacities as major areas for consideration and identified the need for a highly skilled labour force that could utilise science and technology to solve socio-economic problems.

Restructuring of the science and technology ministry

After the successive restructuring of the Ethiopian Science and Technology Agency, the Ministry of Science and Technology was established in 2008. But, after two years, the ministry was again restructured in October 2010 and became the top government agency for coordinating, supporting and encouraging science and technology activities in the country.

The ministry was entrusted with setting science and technology and research priorities in addition to developing guidelines, frameworks, policies, regulations and strategies which facilitated the application of science, technology and innovation to accelerate the socio-economic development of Ethiopia.

Furthermore, the ministry facilitated collaboration among the government, universities and the private sector and oversaw human resource development plans in the field of science, technology and innovation.

It was responsible for developing mechanisms for incentivising and rewarding individuals and institutions that contributed to science and technology and for organising and supporting research councils that facilitated research activities.

The establishment of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education in 2018 has necessitated changes in the manner in which science development has been led and coordinated at a national level.

This has led to the restructuring of the governance and hence the development of a new policy framework.

New policy rationales

In line with past policy directions, the new policy has been crafted to address the building of a knowledge-based, technology-driven economy and society; enhancing national growth and development through an emphasis on human resource development; as well as sound regulatory frameworks, partnership and funding mechanisms.

The new policy also deals with providing strategic leadership for the efficient implementation of policy, ensuring the availability of adequate funding and necessary support for the advancement of science research and science education as a discipline within university communities, research institutions, professional societies and private companies.

Flowing from the policy, seven core focus areas have been identified: human capital development; enterprise development; scientific research and innovation; infrastructure development and management; governance, leadership and management; knowledge management; and financing and incentive schemes.

In addition to setting out the regulatory and partnership schemes, which are key to implementing the policy, emphasis has been placed on the need for aligning the core areas with the strategic demands of the countrys medium- and long-term development plans.

Science in higher education institutions

Since their earliest beginnings, Ethiopian universities have been involved in promoting science and producing the required human resources in science-related fields of studies.

The faculty of science was one of the first two faculties (the other being the faculty of arts) of the University College of Addis Ababa, the first higher education institution in the country, organised to provide preparatory training in the two streams of engineering and medical sciences.

After the University College of Addis Ababa grew to Haile Selassie I University (HSIU) in 1961, (now Addis Ababa University) the science faculty was incorporated into the university and went on diversifying its programmes.

Apart from setting up the oldest research units in the country that include the Institute of Pathobiology and the Geophysical Observatory, the science faculty is known for being one of the pioneering faculties in introducing postgraduate programmes in the country, both at masters and PhD levels.

It also remains one of the strongest academic units within the Ethiopian university sector responsible for producing a higher share of publications and research output at a national level.

Ethiopias specific focus on promoting science and technology education has also led to the development of a policy whereby, until very recently, 70% of university admissions in the public sector were planned to be in science- and technology-related programmes.

Anticipated implementation challenges

Despite the various structural changes and policy directions set over the past four decades, the development of science and its contributions toward the economic development of Ethiopia still remains meagre.

The failure in meeting national ambitions has been mainly explained by critical bottlenecks such as shortage of funding, a lack of infrastructure and qualified human resources, weak governance and regulatory schemes as well as poor systems of integration and coordination among relevant stakeholders.

The latter is further becoming a challenge for the Ministry of Science and Higher Education that is taking the lead role in the advocacy for science, coordination and harmonisation of science policy and programmes while the Ministry of Innovation, as a separate ministry, is given the role for coordinating activities related to innovation.

In terms of the demand for a more aligned system and shared responsibilities, serious attention should be given to the integration between concerned ministries, government and non-government agencies, civic societies, private organisations, higher education and technical and vocational education and training institutions and other actors and stakeholders who should respond to the new call.

This commentary has been written by Wondwosen Tamrat. He is an associate professor and founding president of St Marys University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, a collaborating scholar of the Programme for Research on Private Higher Education at the State University of New York at Albany, United States, and coordinator of the private higher education sub-cluster of the Continental Education Strategy for Africa. He may be reached at preswond@smuc.edu.et or wondwosen@gmail.com.

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Science policy crafted to build the economy and society - University World News