Seychelles holds first national stakeholders’ consultative workshop on Technology Assessment |03 March 2022
Guests and delegates in a souvenir photograph after the opening ceremony (Photo: Joena Meme)
Seychelles is hosting a first workshop to assess the types of technologies that can be used to help transform agriculture, fisheries and energy sectors, as well as identify their effect on social, economic and environmental aspects.
The two-day National stakeholders’ consultative workshop on Technology Assessment (TA) has been organised by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in collaboration with the Division of Science Technology and Innovation Division (DSTI) within the Ministry of Investment, Entrepreneurship and Industry.
It was officially launched yesterday by the Minister for Investment, Entrepreneurship and Industry, Devika Vidot, at the Savoy Seychelles Resort and Spa at Beau Vallon.
Attending the workshop are principal secretaries, chief executives and other representatives from the Seychelles Energy Commission (SEC), the Public Utilities Corporation (PUC), Ministry of Agriculture, Climate Change and Environment, Seychelles Fishing Authority (SFA), department of Trade and post-secondary institutions, among others.
Also in attendance are UNCTAD experts Ruslan Rakhmatullin, Associate Economic Affairs Officer; Miltos Ladikas and Ulrich Klaus-Andreas Stamm, consultants in Technology Assessment and STI Policy and Prof. John Mugabe, Postgraduate School, University of Pretoria, South Africa; Michael Anthony Lim, Economic Affairs Officer; Liping Zhang (Ms), Chief, Science, Technology and Innovation Policy Section, ST&ICT Branch and Angel Gonzalez-Sanz, Head, Science, Technology and ICT Branch, Division on Technology and Logistics, who are conducting and following the assessment workshop online.
The UNCTAD project is to support national science, technology and innovation policymakers and other stakeholders in the country to design and implement a technology assessment exercise in the energy and agricultural sectors and to take action to utilise technologies as catalysts for sustainable development.
Enhanced capacity would be demonstrated by having identified and characterised the relevant technological trends and associated socio-economic and environmental implications in the area of energy and/or agriculture and having an action plan for these technological sectors in each target country defined and adopted by various stakeholders.
With the DSTI participating in the pilot phase of UNCTAD project on TA in the Agriculture and Energy sectors in Sub-Saharan Africa and further to its proposals to host the assessment, Seychelles was given the opportunity along with two other Sub-Saharan Africa states – South Africa and Zambia, among the other states – to conduct the assessment for the formulation of a tools box to assess trends in technology and its associated socio-economic and environmental implications.
The assessment tool box for making strategic choices on new technologies procurement, development and governance, among other benefits, is expected to be developed by 2024. Yesterday’s focus was on agriculture and fisheries sectors and today the participants are sharing experience and knowledge on assessing technology in the energy sector.
Launching the workshop, Minister Vidot said the workshop had come at an opportune time when we are currently working on our transformative economic agenda in the midst of the still looming Covid-19 pandemic and taking into account of the numerous climate change challenges that we have.
Minister Vidot noted that the country is aware of the challenges caused by the pandemics and climate changes and it is for that reason that science, technology and innovations are being integrated in all programmes across all sectors to support the creation of wealth and employment in a sustainable and responsible manner.
She added that in the past we have not had the opportunity to apply such a vital tool in our decision-making process and this has resulted in many challenges in technology transfer, adaptation and adoption across our economic priority sectors.
“We are therefore determined and committed to having a paradigm shift in how we procure and govern technologies,” said Minister Vidot, who expressed her ministry’s full support to the exercise which seeks to strengthen capacities to support national science, technology and innovation policymakers and other stakeholders.
She also thanked UNCTAD for choosing our country for the exercise.
In his welcoming remarks, Xavier Estico, the director general of DSTI, stated that in this dynamic technological revolution, we may have missed out on assessing how technology impacts our lives in a more multidimensional way; economy, society, culture, social norms and values.
“We need technology assessment as this powerful toolbox for making strategic choices on new technologies' procurement, development, introduction, and governance in the priority sectors of our economy as we reinvent ourselves out of the Covid-19 pandemic,” he said.
Through ZOOM, Gonzalez-Sanz, Head, Science, Technology and ICT Branch, UNCTAD, said the assessment will help the country to recover from the effects of the pandemic and to build resilience for future emergencies.
He noted that although technology has now been seen as providing solutions to many development problems, a deep understanding of the full spectrum of the changes, possibly the negatives that these technologies can unleash across the economic context, particularly in developing countries, is urgently needed.
“It is for this reason that UNCTAD launched the Technology Assessment project that will run from 2021 to 2024,” said Mr Gonzalez-Sanz, who noted that good progress has been made so far with step by step TA methodology policies being designed to help policy makers to make better inform decision.
TA is a problem-oriented process that examines the societal effects when a technology is introduced, extended, or modified. It is an interactive, communicative and scientific process that aims to contribute to the formation of public and political opinion on the social aspects of science and technology, risks and opportunities, providing effective, pragmatic, and sustainable options for policy action. New models of technology assessment, incorporating citizen and decision-maker participation with technical expertise can make vital contributions to informing policymakers working with innovation policies and strategies and energy and agricultural policies.
Apart from feeding into policy making, TA can assist in identifying priorities and helping improve the cost-effectiveness, long-term impact, and environmental sustainability of technology policies and investments especially in domains like energy and agriculture.
Patrick Joubert