Special side event in honour of the late Professor Calestous Juma

The deliberate and purposeful deployment of science, technology and innovation to achieve and improve development outcomes remains a central challenge in Africa. Countries have grappled with this challenge ever since their immediate post-independence years. Africa's persistent low ranking on all measures of economic development shows that success on this score has been rare and that a great deal still has to be done for African countries to successfully harness science, technology and innovation to achieve their development objectives and transform, in far-reaching ways, the lives of their people. Confronting and overcoming this challenge has instigated many national and continental science, technology and innovation action plans, strategies and policies. The African Union’s latest science, technology and innovation master plan, the Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy for Africa 2024 (STISA 2024), places science, technology and innovation at the centre of the continent’s social and economic development and growth.

The theme of this year's annual Adebayo Adedeji Lecture is “Envisioning a science, technology and innovation future for Africa in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals and Agenda 2063”. The lecture will honour Professor Juma, an ardent advocate of an African future shaped by science, technology and innovation, who died in December 2017. The lecture will explore an Africa of the future where science, technology and innovation play an important role as impetus and underpinning of structural and social transformation. This Africa of the future will be constructed with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (Agenda 2030) and Agenda 2063 of the African Union as important driving forces. Both agendas assign a leading role to technology and innovation, identifying these as important means of implementation. Frontier technologies such as artificial intelligence, pervasive computing, biotechnology, nanotechnology and new energy storage technologies will play a role in shaping that future. New continental integration arrangements, notably the recently signed African Continental Free Trade Agreement, are also likely to play an important role in shaping that future.

The lecture, which will be by invitation only, will be followed by a moderated panel discussion with audience participation.

Expected outcome: A report raising policy issues and containing a set of recommendations for the consideration of policymakers.

Date, venue and time: 14 May 2018, United Nations Conference Centre, Addis Ababa, 1:00 - 2:30 p.m.

Contacts: 

Kasirim Nwuke, Chief, New Technologies and Innovation Section
Contact by Email
Tel.: +251 11 544 3375

Stephen Karingi; Director, Capacity Development Division
Contact by Email

Flavia Domingas Mendes-Ba; Special Assistant to the Executive Secretary
Contact by Email
Tel.: +251 11 544 3504