UN Economic Commission for Africa UNECA

1
UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA)

• Established 1958 by ECOSOC
• Located in Ethiopia only independent African
  country, not colonized at the time
• Helped establish OAU, also in Addis Ababa
• Part of the UN Secretariat, reports to UNSG,
  ECOSOC

2
UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA)

• Promotes socio-economic development in Africa
• Policy analysis and advocacy
• Awareness creation and mobilization
• Capacity building and advice
• Bringing UN to Africa, and African issues to UN

3
Science, technology and innovation

• How can Africa take advantage of global and local
  advances in STI to develop?
• What strategies, policies, capacities,
  structures, institutions, programs must she
  develop?
• Who are the players and stakeholders and how can
  they be assisted?
• www.uneca.org/estnet

4
Main Areas of ST Focus

• STI policies 1970-present from NRCs, NCSTs,
  Commissions, Ministries of ST
• African Green Revolution Initiative
• Biotech IACNB- Interagency Coopn Netwk on
  Biotech
• ICTs/WSIS/AISI
• ST for sustainable development WEHAB, Nat Res,
  Energy
• HI/AIDS - CHGA

5
UN ST Cluster for Support of NEPAD

• Launched July 2004 in Addis convenor UNESCO,
  vice UNECA 14 members incl. UNCTAD/UNCSTD
• Support NEPAD ST Plan of Action
• Participated in launching of NEPAD Plan of Action
  Nov 2003

6
Focus Areas for UN ST Cluster

• Engineering Education (Leader UNEP)
• Entrepreneurship in HEI (Leader, UNESCO)
• ST for agriculture and environment (African
  Green Revolution and UN Biotech Africa) Leader,
  UNECA
• Others Centers of Excellence, Brain Drain (up
  to UNICFA)

7
Recommendations

• Support consolidation of STI policies UNCSTD
  Dev Acct proposal
• Support African Green Revolution (esp. design
  teams)
• Support UN ST Cluster activities
• Welcomes UNCSTD special focus on Africa (informal
  working group) and working group on Centers of
  Excellence