Scientific Day

THE Director-General of the Council for Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), Professor E. Owusu Bennoah, has called for a scientific revival and rejuvenation to address issues including global warming, energy and food security in Africa and Ghana.
He said the government needed to recognise all the sectors of the Ghanaian society that contributed to the setting and achievement of science and technological goals, particularly the industrial sectors.
“We need to identify mechanisms to bring the major sectors of society — government, industry, academia, non-governmental organisations, and the public — together to examine ways in which science and technology can be focused on achieving the national objective,” he stated.
In an address read on his behalf by Dr W. A. Plahar, Director of the Food and Research Institute (FRI), at a workshop to mark this year’s Scientific Revival Day of Africa in Accra, Prof. Bennoah noted that Ghana and indeed all African countries would confront critical public policy issues that were intimately connected with advances in science and technology.
He cautioned that without scientific progress no amount of achievement in other directions could insure the health, prosperity and security of Ghanaians and Ghana as a nation.
He pointed out that policy issues would not be resolved by citizens, scientists, business executives, or government officials working alone but required the concerted effort of all sectors of society, adding that “the policy decisions we make today will determine whether historic opportunities will be seized or squandered”.
“It is crucial to note that policy decision-making will require the integration of numerous considerations, including accepted scientific knowledge, scientific uncertainty and conflicting political, ethical and economic values,” he noted.
The day was instituted by the African Union (AU) to draw attention on what Science and Technology could do towards the overall development of the continent.
The workshop was organised by the African Technology Policy Studies (ATPS) Network, Ghana Chapter, under the auspices of the Science and Technology Policy Research Institute (STEPRI) of the Council for Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) in collaboration with the Parliamentary Select Committee on Environment, Science and Technology.
The occasion also formed part of the 50th Anniversary celebration of CSIR.
Prof. Bennoah further stated that “for too long, our science and technology sector apart from support for basic research has been neglected” and if that continued “the problems we have encountered for many years such as those regarding food, water and energy and the difficulties of meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) could derail promising opportunities for progress.
He entreated the government to accept new responsibilities for promoting the flow of new scientific knowledge and development of specific talents, adding that “science should serve society, and in turn society should provide the financial support necessary to assure the advancement of science, particularly basic research”.
He congratulated ATPS on their efforts at bringing scientists together on a common platform.
The National Co-ordinator for ATPS, Dr Amu Mensah, said ATPS was a multidisciplinary network of researchers, policy makers and other end-users interested in the generation, promotion and strengthening of innovative technology and industrial policies in Africa.
He said the network had its regional secretariat in Nairobi where it operated through national chapters in 23 countries with an expansion plan in place to cover the entire sub-Saharan Africa.
The Director of STEPRI, Dr George Owusu Essegbey, said the theme for the workshop: “Food, Water and Energy Challenges: The Role of Science, Technology and Innovation”, was evident of STEPRI’s mandate to lead in the interaction and exchange of ideas to formulate public policies and programmes that utilised Science, Technology and Innovation in Ghana’s socio-economic activities.
He disclosed that presently STEPRI was facilitating an initiative of the World Bank to undertake the practical steps in creating innovative centres and business incubators for the agricultural and food processing sectors, where key players from the research institutes, universities and industry were being brought together to develop the programme for the innovation centres.
A Ranking Member for the Parliamentary Select Committee on environment, science and technology, Dr Mustapha Ahmed, who is also the Member of Parliament for Ayawaso East, bemoaned the fact that Africa with all its natural resources was the poorest continent because Africans viewed technology as a consumable item and not something that could be produced or created.
He said it was now a widely accepted fact that no nation could make any meaning economic gains without acknowledging the relevance of science and technology to its development agenda.
He said it was in recognition of the crucial role of science and technology to building a powerful economy that the first President of Ghana, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, founded the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1959 to promote and pursuit advancement and dissemination of knowledge in all branches of science and the humanities.
At the moment, he said, the Academy was actively working with the Select Committee to improve MPs’ access to scientific knowledge and information.