16 May 2017

Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) governments are said to be failing to allocate enough funds for research and innovation in their countries.

SADC deputy executive secretary for regional integration, Dr Thembinkosi Mhlongo explained during a Horizon 2020 workshop held in Gaborone on May 15 that member states were yet to fulfill an agreement to invest one per cent of their countries Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on research and innovation.

Dr Mhlongo therefore urged the countries to start investing more funds on research and innovation and use the knowledge from those researches to develop solutions for the challenges experienced in the region. 

“The region is faced with many challenges and investing in research and innovation could be the key to address those challenges. The challenges we are experiencing include climate change which has affected rainfall and availability of water, and food insecurity and shortage of electricity,” Dr Mhlongo said.

Furthermore, he said illnesses such as HIV and malaria had affected the region and research could help in the development of new drugs in the region to cure these ailments.

“We do have capabilities as SADC. We should be able to develop new technologies to make sure that we are less vulnerable,” he said.

The Horizon 2020 programme was established by the European Union (EU) in 2014 and is geared towards funding research and innovation projects throughout the world, and EU ambassador to Botswana Mr Alexander Baum urged SADC member states to take advantage of it and carry out more research and innovation projects in their countries.   

“It is the largest multinational research programme in the world. The programme is entirely open to the world, including to researchers and innovators from Botswana and the rest of the SADC region who are also eligible for funding,” Mr Baum said during the workshop.

He explained that EU had availed 80 billion Euros to fund research and innovation through the programme, which focuses on excellence in science, industrial leadership and societal challenges.

Speaking at the workshop, the deputy permanent secretary in the ministry of Tertiary Education, Research Science and Technology Dr Kekgonne Baipoledi said the government of Botswana valued research and innovation and emphasised strong collaboration between institutions in this regard.

“We want to see results coming out if these collaboration, where we are working together to have solutions that would improve the livelihoods of our people,” he explained. ENDS