Senior Experts Dialogue (SED-2015) on Science, Technology, and Innovation (ST&I)

Senior Experts Dialogue (SED-2015) on Science, Technology, and Innovation (ST&I)

“Innovation Hubs, Clusters and Parks and Africa’s Transformation”

2 DECEMBER 2015 TO 4 DECEMBER 2015

Nairobi, Kenya

ECA and the National Commission for Science, Technology and Innovation of the Government of the Republic of Kenya to organize the second Senior Experts Dialogue on Science, Technology and Innovation and the African Transformation Agenda on the theme “Innovation Hubs, Clusters and Parks and Africa’s Transformation”.

The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the National Commission for Science, Technology and Innovation (NACOSTI) of the Republic of Kenya will be organizing the second ECA-initiated Senior Experts Dialogue (SED-2015) on Science, Technology, and Innovation (ST&I) on the theme “Innovation Hubs, Clusters and Parks and Africa’s Transformation”.The Dialogue, made possible in part through the kind support of the Government of the Republic of Korea and the Kingdom of Norway to ECA, will be held at the Laico Regency Hotel, Nairobi, Kenya on 2nd and 3rd December, 2015, with a field visit organized by NACOSTI to selected innovation hubs in Nairobi on the 4th of December 2015.

The objective of the Dialogue is to provide a forum for learning and experience/knowledge sharing amongst African experts. The forum is expected to contribute to the articulation of policies that would support Africa’s growth and transformational trajectory with science, technology and innovation constituting principal pillars. It also serves to strengthen the domestic constituency of science, technology and innovation in ECA member States.

The first SED on ST&I and the African Transformation Agenda (SED-2014) was hosted by the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in July 2014 under the broad theme of “Making New Technologies Work for Africa’s Transformation”. A follow-up brainstorming session held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in February 2015, and organized to further interrogate the recommendations of SED-2014, identified innovation hubs and clusters as a pressing issue for ST&I policy action.

Participants will be drawn from various walks of life including international experts, senior government experts, and experts from the private sector, academia, bilateral and multi-lateral organizations. SED-2015, will among other things, explore the role of innovation hubs, clusters and parks in late-comer industrialization, the performance and characteristics of emerging technology and innovation hubs in Africa, intellectual property rights as well as key challenges and success factors.  The outcome of SED will be a set of policy recommendations that African governments may consider and adopt in order to accelerate the transformation of their economies.

Contacts

Mr. Victor Konde New Technologies and Innovation Section Special Initiatives Division United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Email: vkonde@uneca.org Tel: +251.11.544.3654

Dr. Stephen Karimi National Commission for Science, Technology and Innovation Government of the Republic of Kenya Nairobi, Kenya Email: karimisteve@gmail.com Telephone: +254 20 2242175