The African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD) through its Calestous Juma Executive Dialogue on Innovation and Emerging Technologies (CJED) held a two-day virtual consultation from the 29th – 30th of September, 2020. The third in the series of the CJED was under the theme “Effectively harnessing innovation and emerging technologies for the recovery and sustainability of African economies: Lessons from the pandemic”.  The 3rd CJED was organized virtually and attended by about 240 delegates over the day period. Participants included senior executives, policy and decision makers, experts from various development sectors, academics, innovators and other relevant stakeholders.

APET was established by the African Heads of State African leaders at the AU General Assembly Summit of July 2016 through AU decision (Assembly/AU/10(XXIV) requesting AUDA-NEPAD (the then NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency) to support AU member states in harnessing innovation and emerging technologies through increased research and knowledge sharing in addressing societal challenges. 

The CJED was established by AUDA-NEPAD, AUC and the African Union Panel on Emerging Technologies (APET) in honour of the late Prof. Calestous Juma, an eminent Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) scholar and co-chair of the African Union Panel on Emerging Technologies. It serves as a continental platform for convening various stakeholders at national, regional and continental basis in order to share knowledge and experiences and deliberate on innovation and emerging technologies.

The executive dialogues are organized in recognition that emerging technologies and innovations can provide solutions towards societal grand challenges, disrupt the status quo of operational systems, and improve the socio-economic competitiveness of the continent. Hence STI-related executive dialogues such as CJED provide opportunities for leaders to address inequalities, share national experiences, and promote innovation through science and technology. These executive dialogues bring opportunities to appraise socio-economic development, enhance capacity towards innovation change, and sustainable socio-economic development.

Due to the pandemic, the 3rd CJED was organized virtually, during which deliberations underscored the fact that STI has the potential to transform African countries’ economic development with proper STI governance and implementation strategies. However, it requires stakeholders and experts to improve policies, implementation strategies, and applications of technologies in Africa. STISA-2024 is a continental strategy on STI that is utilised to improve Africa’s economy through building STI infrastructure, improving technical competence, fostering innovation and entrepreneurship, and creating an enabling STI environment. The 3rdCJED launched a campaign on the strategy to further advocate for its domestication in Member States.

Discussions included the need for Africa to address misinformation towards emerging technologies by creating trust with stakeholders and users of technologies for seamless adoption.  During the health and biosafety session, delegates observed that the impact of Malaria on the African population far exceeds that of COVID-19. The adoption by some countries of emerging technologies such as gene drive through an integrated vector management (IVM) process for malaria control has been made possible in Burkina Faso with the involvement of all stakeholders. It was encouraged that African countries explore emerging technologies that would support the elimination of vector-borne diseases on the continent.

The Vice-chancellor’s roundtable, which brought together vice-chancellors across the continent discussed the future of higher learning in the wake of a post-COVID Africa. It was identified that gaps in Africa’s schooling curriculum system must be addressed in order to foster skills that align with Africa’s needs. This can be achieved at various levels of the curricula, from educators up to departmental/governmental levels. The curricula review must not wait for the 5-year review required by most African governments, as technologies and innovations emerge by the day. Educators were encouraged to update their curricula every year by incorporating current trends, news and technologies through an integrated stakeholder consultative process. It was recommended that African governments when reviewing curricula, must include all stakeholders affected and embrace a holistic approach that includes lecturers/teachers, youth (learners/students), and technologists. Governments must also integrate innovation and entrepreneurship into the science curricula so to generate capital.

Another area of discussion was gender and youth. It was deliberated that women should be supported in STI career development through a welcoming and enabling environment. Additionally, the youth were challenged to be actively involved in leadership and policy development of STI whilst national executives were urged to afford youth in their countries access to leadership roles and create a succession plan for the future. This can be achieved through well-structured mentorship programmes and deliberate opportunities for youth and women. There must be an interdisciplinary approach towards innovation and entrepreneurship for the youth, and an active mind-set change towards entrepreneurship, social responsibility, and the creation of an enabling environment.

Further key recommendations from the 2-day executive dialogue included the need for Africa to address the low internet penetration and technology infrastructure that will improve access towards harnessing innovation. Africa needs to harmonise her continental operational systems and improve intra-trade whilst utilising emerging technology, by breaking down trade barriers through Africa’s Free Trade Agreement towards intra-Africa’s trade integration. Africa also needs to create guidelines for innovation and emerging technologies which must include accurate data sharing so as to improve public trust.

To conclude the 3rd Calestous Juma executive dialogue, the APET launched its white paper on harnessing innovation and emerging technologies for addressing the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the continent. The White Paper adds to the value of providing a shared understanding of global best practices in the area of preparedness strategy for pandemics, and AU member states were encouraged to adopt the recommendations and strategies contained therein. It additionally launched the Technical Working Group and National Focal Points and Resource Persons to support CJED implementation in Member States through short courses, stakeholder engagements and dialogues.  The 3rd CJED ended with positive feedback from delegates requesting the executive dialogue across the continent.