African policy-makers, scientists and other social actors are duty-bound to use the continent’s biodiversity and arable land to take Africa and her people out of the “trap of grinding and debilitating poverty”, says Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation Dr Blade Nzimande.
He believes there is an urgent need to understand and embrace the importance of the bio-economy for Africa’s socio-economic development and sustainability.
Nzimande was addressing the 5th Bio Africa Convention held at the Durban International Convention Centre under the theme: “Africa Resilient, Life Sciences innovation for achieving Health and food security”.
Across the world, the concept of a bio-economy is being embraced as a sustainable model that brings together all commercial activity surrounding the use of renewable biological resources such as crops, forests, animals and micro-organisms, agricultural waste and residual materials.
This is being done with the view to address challenges related to food security, health, biodiversity and environmental protection, energy and industrial processes.
“It is therefore no exaggeration to state that the very survival of humanity is dependent on how we manage the earth’s resources,” Nzimande said.
He added that the objectives of this convention perfectly aligned with the 2019 White Paper on Science, Technology and Innovation and our Science, Technology and Innovation Decadal Plan 2021-2031, whose key objectives included accelerating the implementation of the pan-African STI agenda and focusing on inclusivity, transformation, SMME support and job creation among others.
The Decadal Plan is premised on advancing a whole-of-government approach and ultimately a whole-of-society approach to innovation in South Africa.
Nzimande said they had begun their work to establish a standing ministerial-level Science Technology and Innovation (STI) committee, involving key ministries, chaired by himself, and President Cyril Ramaphosa who will be hosting an annual STI Plenary which will include business, government, academia and civil society.
“As policy makers, scientists and social actors, we must take well-thought, collaborative and decisive action on how to turn Africa into an innovative and self-reliant continent, as enjoined by the theme of this convention.
“To our advantage, we have an incredibly rich biodiversity, and a relatively large proportion of arable land. All this puts us in a favourable position to translate our biodiversity into a viable, competitive and sustainable bio-economy,” he said.
Nzimande said he strongly believed that Africans could not be able to advance most of their research, science, technology and innovation goals unless they had their own resources to fund research and be less dependent on donor-driven funding.
He added that there needed to be a strong focus on encouraging and supporting more African countries to not just embrace the importance of the bio-economy, but for them to proactively build the necessary policy, institutional and scientific capacity to build a viable bio-economy in Africa.
And this is linked to the fundamental task of a research funding regime that is based on advancing the African agenda.
“In this respect, while we recognise the work that is done by South Africa, as a continent must commend the work that is being done by other African countries such as Namibia, Uganda, Ghana and Kenya that have implemented several policy and institutional measures to promote the sustainable management and use of their biodiversity,” he said.
Some of the things to learn, as Nzimande listed, included:
– The importance of identifying gateway sectors through which to initiate the development of transition to a bio-economy;
– Strengthening links to R&D and markets for new bio-products and bio-solutions;
– Developing demand for bio-products and bio-solutions;
– Regulating sustainability incentives and managing trade-offs; and
– Setting up independent national advisory boards to inform and guide the development of bio-economies.