The new science, technology and innovation policy, adopted by the parliament last February, had a familiarization forum recently at Adama, about 100 kilometres from the capital.

Abdissa Yilma (Msc), is technology advisor to the Minister of Science and Technology. The Ethiopian Herald have had a stay with him focusing on the new policy and related issues.

Excerpts:

The Ethiopian Herald: How do you see the present state of using science for various development endeavours in the country?

Abdissa: Before I try to see our present state, it is better to see the evolutionary stages of science and technology. There are six stages of technological evolution. The first one is learning operation skills. At the second stage comes the maintenance and servicing skill. The skill of adaptation comes at the third stage. When we say adaptation it is suiting with the raw material, environment, local labour, and market and so on. The next stage is the issue of improvement. At the final stage technology generation takes stage. As Ethiopia is one of the low income countries, we are not in a position to generate new technologies. Even we have not reached to a position that could enable to improve technologies. But we can exhaustively utilise existing technologies.

The Ethiopian Herald: What would the new science, technology and innovation policy contribute to the country’s overall development in the near future ?

Abdissa: This policy is very important in such a way that it better paves the way to integrate science, technology and innovation with the national development agendas. In order to realize the visions of the country and enable the industry lead the economy building a better technological capability is vital. Technological capacity in terms of searching technologies, the kind of technologies that we need is important. Then comes the issue of selection, importing and effectively adopting and adapting those technologies. This enables the manufacturing and service sector products to be better qualified.

The Ethiopian Herald: The new policy mainly focuses on effective adaptation of imported technologies. Is it not possible to undertake technological generation side by side with adaptation ?

Abdissa: Of course, we do encourage local innovation. We have clearly stated this in the policy document. But when we look at the reality at a country level, we do not have the capacity to generate new technologies. We might have a few individuals who might come up with new technologies. However, this won’t enable us to say we are in a position to focus on creating new technologies. Our research institutions and technology schools have not been focusing on innovation. You do not see many creative works and inventions from universities and research institutions. When one thinks of consider invention there should be a capability to do so. Not only the financial input, we even do not have the human resource to undertake technological invention at the macro level. We have to first build our technological capability while importing appropriate, important and effective foreign technologies. This is a better way at the moment to realize visions of the country to become a middle income nation after few decades. Though we are not discouraging invention, until we build the necessary capacity, the only fit alternative is to focus on adaptation.

The Ethiopian Herald: The country has had other science and technology policies in the last decade. What makes this one different from the previous ones?

Abdissa: We had a policy of the 1986 E.C but I can say that policy was not successful for various reasons. The first reason was the policy was formulated before other national agendas were put in place. So, it lacks integrity. On the other hand, the policy focused on the supply side. It did not take into account the existing reality. It did not focus on changing research results to services and outcomes. The other point that this policy lacked it did not give due emphasis to service and manufacturing institutions. It also did not take into account the importance of the private sector for the development of science and technology. These and other factors made the 1986 policy unsuccessful. But this policy has been prepared in such a way that it properly fills these and other related gaps.

The Ethiopian Herald: There are expected challenges in implementing this new policy as is the case before. How have you planned to overcome the challenges ?

Abdissa: We are focusing on building technological capability. This does not only concern those who actually demand the technology. It is also a concern for the decision (policy) makers. There might be different challenges. The first challenge might be the resistance that we could face from various directions. This might happen regarding the research direction. This direction may need to shift towards technology adoption and adaptation. This is the challenge that we might face from some universities. The other issue is related with integration. Of course, a direction has been set to solve this issue. The actors of technological capacity are the main stakeholders. From research institutions to financial enterprises there are many actors. So, the issue of integration is one of the challenges that we expect. To overcome this challenge a direction has been set to have a national direction of innovation. This is to be led by national science and technology council.

The Ethiopian Herald: Most of our educational institutions are criticized as focused on the theoretical aspect rather than technological adoption and adaptation. How do you plan to work with them and what will be their stake in implementing this policy ?

Abdissa: We hope the educational institutions will play a very important role in the effort to effectively implement this policy as it is a vital national policy. Not only at institutional level, as a country, we are not even capable of properly utilizing the existing technologies. We are at a low level in properly and effectively using contemporary technologies. The policy is set in such a way that the country would resolve these drawbacks at a large scale. That is why we focused on building our capability above all. The policy in general intends to fill the gaps that we have faced so far.

The Ethiopian Herald: Do you have any thing to say to all stakeholders who would engage in practicing this new science, technology and innovation policy ?

Abdissa: I can say the government has now formulated a good policy that really integrates with the national development goals of the country. It could help a lot in the effort to realize the country’s vision to get out of poverty. It could also contribute in making the industry lead the country’s economy and increase agricultural productivity. This policy is by its nature is cross-sectoral. It needs to be implemented by different stakeholders. The efforts that we make independently are not as such successful. We have to act in an integrated manner in implementing this policy. First we need to reach on a mutual consensus on the main strategies and then think about successfully im
plementing them. We also should integrate the limited resources that we have.

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Originally published on the Ethiopian Herald, on June 16, 2012, titled ““Our focus should be on adopting and adapting technologies”, by: Abraham Dereje.

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