Marikana and the hard truths it reveals about links between industry, governance and development in South Africa played on my mind as I sat in a workshop at the University of Sussex, United Kingdom, last week (11 August). The focus was the African Union’s ten-year Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy for Africa (STISA), adopted last year.
This ambitious strategy aims to put science “at the epicentre of Africa’s socio-economic development” and “accelerate Africa’s transition to an innovation-led, knowledge-based economy”. [1]
But it has come under flak for being too top-heavy, ignoring implementation and failing to commit governments to spending or training targets. Sussex’s one-day workshop was meant to dissect the concrete steps needed to implement the strategy.
