ENTERPRERIAL STI UNIVERITY IN COMESA REGION
Triple Helix Workshop at Stanford University
15th November, 2012 2012
Fred Kong’ong’oCoordinator STI [email protected]
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COMESA Membership
•The 19 Member States of COMESA are:
BurundiComorosCongo, DRDjiboutiEgyptEritreaEthiopiaKenyaLibyaMadagascar
BurundiComorosCongo, DRDjiboutiEgyptEritreaEthiopiaKenyaLibyaMadagascar
MalawiMauritiusRwandaSeychellesSudanSwazilandUgandaZambiaZimbabwe
MalawiMauritiusRwandaSeychellesSudanSwazilandUgandaZambiaZimbabwe
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FACTS AND FIGURES 79% of Africa’s arable land remains uncultivated– 20% of the earth’s Land Mass – only 6% are cultivated African population has just passed 1 Billion with around 400 Millions of
Youth Enormous Primary Energy sources: Water, hydro, oil/gas, coal, nuclear Renewable Energy sources: Solar, wind, geothermal, ocean waves/tides, bio-
energies 1 sq km of Africa’s desert receives Energy equiv to 1.5 millions barrels of oil
per year-1000 times the world’s entire annual energy As per today Africa is using < 2 % of its hydro and geothermal power
potentials Africa has rich and varied biological Resources The global market value of pharmaceuticals derived from genetic resources is
estimated at US$75 billion to 150 billion annually;Source : Mo Ibrahim Foundation, 2011:”African Agriculture: From Meeting Needs To Creating Wealth”, 2011, Revised
Edition
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FACTS YOUTH IN AFRICA (a)FACTS YOUTH IN AFRICA (a)
Africa is the most ‘youthful’ continents of the worldAbout 500 Millions of Africa’s population is below the age of 18;
In 2010, Africa is home of 630 Millions of young below the age of 25;
• African Political leadership’s recognition of S&T as a goal to attain MDGs and socio-economic growth-recognised by AU Summit of 2007
• Harness and apply STI for sustainable socio-economic development
• Ensure that Africa contributes to the global pool of scientific knowledge and technological innovations
Importance of STI
Development Entrepreneurial
University in COMESA
Status• Most Universities are funded by Government • Due to funding constraints-created enterprise
development unit-acquiring businesses• Some universities created -running
Businesses through these units• Most do not office of technology transfer• Link to Industry –office Industrial relation
offices for Internship • ICT- based companies –initiated collaborations
with Universities –reduce cost- get human capital
Entrepreneurship• Many starts ups in and outside Universities
due to job shortage• Some remain informal for a long time due to
business environment • Protection to Student’s IP is weak thus link to
established companies weak • Entrepreneurship talk in some Universities• Some Universities have created incubators • Tech companies promoting entrepreneurship
through global competitions
Entrepreneurial Universities • Nokia and Microsoft and Cisco pioneered
Industry-University collaboration in certain countries , Google, HP and IMB have now joined
• Local companies are following • However most Universities do not have a
structured way of dealing with this partnerships
COMESA -What are the Policy
priorities ?
Infrastructure
Cross border investments Infrastructure development
Designated regional STI Centers of excellence
Higher technical education
•Africa inherited education system –designed to produced civil servants
•– Change of mind set and attitude- reform -market focused needed
•Hold VC meeting –collaboration with Africa scholars in Diaspora-share experience
Expand –engineering and science training through South-South, North-South collaboration
Business incubation
•COMESA –working to harmonize Intellectual properly •PPP + Universities –policy •Financial support-creation of Innovation fund-(Kenya, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia already have funds- •Mechanism to tap into private sector and NGO funding•Regional and international collaborations
Policy interventions to create entrepreneurial ecosystem
Creation of cross-border networks
Governance
Executive leadership
Structured -STI advice at the highest level of Government
STI advisorat all level of Government
Created COMESA Innovation Council
Flagship products
Regional entrepreneurial ecosystem
Science and technology diplomacy
Summery – Focus harnessing STI for economic development– Created of Innovation Council –tap eminent STI persons to provide advise on STI– Innovation wards at National level -regional level to starts 2013– Capacity building -Executive programme in collaboration with Harvard Kennedy and
others – Designated STI regional Centers of Excellence foster regional and international
collaboration – Promoting creation of innovation funds National and regional level to support
entrepreneurial ecosystem– Promotes of creation of Entrepreneurial Universities-graduate business as well as
students– -Change of attitude -take advantage of the incubation potential of Universities
– Promotion of training of more engineers and scientist - line ministries , private sector institutions
– Tap Diaspora talent to contribute to STI development
– Sharing of University Best Practices regarding innovation entrepreneurship and commercialization
Key Ministerial decisions – tapping into Africans in the Diaspora, vast amount of
knowledge exists among the Diaspora, invite and provide a vehicle for supporting STI parks programs;
– Establish offices of Chief Innovation Advisors as well as broad cross-sectoral national advisory committees to assist harness and provide advice on knowledge and innovations that could be diffused into the economies.
– STI ministries -work closely with related ministries, such as those for infrastructure, Health Agriculture, ICT so that these include research and innovation in their programmes and allocations.
Key Ministerial decisions
– Higher education ministers to promote the creation of technical universities under other line ministries and public corporations. To expand engineering and technical training institutions,
• – On STI indicators- to add creation of new
enterprises incubated by universities, clusters and science parks could be a good measure of progress
There is no reason for There is no reason for COMESA/Africa not to bullish!!COMESA/Africa not to bullish!!
Thank YouThank You
When we aggressively execution When we aggressively execution
Finally
visionary policies visionary policies