Seychelles called to spearhead pilot digitization programme in southern Africa |05 October 2021
Formerly known as the National Institute for Science, Technology and Innovation and headed by Xavier Estico, the local body has punched above its weight to be recognised as one of the leading science, technology and innovation bodies in the Southern African bloc.
This was the statement made by Anneline Morgan of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) secretariat responsible for science technology and innovation, in her intervention in the Zoom meeting that took place last month.
Following a decision taken on June 16, 2021 by the joint SADC Ministers Meeting on Education and Training and Science, Technology and Innovation, it was agreed that Seychelles would collaborate with the African Union Development Agency-New Partnership for Africa’s Development (AUDA-NEPAD) and the SADC to digitalise a survey process in the SADC region.
Lukovi Seke of AUDA-NEPAD in his interview via Zoom stated that SADC and AUDA-NEPAD and other partners on the continent are working together to bring this exercise to the whole of Africa, piloting first in the SADC region. He continued stating that it has been recognised, decided and adopted in the AU Agenda 2063 and Science, Technology and Innovation for Africa 2024, STISA-24 that science technology and innovation (STI) is the precursor to the socio-economic development for all its member states. The ability to measure STI performance is crucial and the achievement of Nisti to digitalise this process is a great milestone being achieved in a short period of time since the agency took the challenge to carry out the STI measurements survey in 2017 for the first time.
Apart from the request to the Seychelles government to use the expertise of Nisti in capacity-building in STI measurements, AUDA-NEPAD has also recognised the effort of Nisti in bringing about innovation in the public sector through putting a work-from-home system for a whole year when they were evicted in short notice from their premises in 2018. The case study that they documented on their experience has been published on the continent so that it can help other member states to relate to this scientific publication for policy implication, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. AUDA-NEPAD has formally advised the Seychelles government of their appreciation to this public sector innovation achievement that was shared on the continent.
When asked what does this means for Seychelles and Nisti, Mr Estico, currently the director general of the division for science technology and innovation (DSTI) in the Ministry of Investment, Entrepreneurship and Industry (MIEI), had this to say: “Country is first; it means a lot for Seychelles as the smallest and most remote state of Africa to be able to bring such contribution to the continent. It means a lot for Seychelles as it opens doors for collaborations in STI. As for Nisti, the youngest STI agency on the continent with only nine staff members to achieve such milestones in a short period of time is a great success story. Anneline Morgan qualifies this as punching above our weight”.
Mr Estico concluded by stating that there is a lesson to be learned from those significant achievements, stating that we are never too small as a nation to achieve mighty milestones if we work together in the interest of science technology and innovation as a team.
Contributed