The role of the state in the NSI

1
The role of the state in the NSI

• South Africa

2
Evolution of the current form of the state The
segregation/apartheid heritage

• High degree of intervention
• establishment of parastatal corporations in
  energy, transport, iron and steel
• Industrial development corporation
• CSIR
• Strong system of science and technology
• Minerals-energy-complex (endowment driven)
• Military-industrial-complex (strategic
  imperatives)

3
Evolution of the current form of the state The
segregation/apartheid heritage

• Weak system of innovation
• Human capital constraint
• Small local markets
• Relative isolation from global ST networks
• Wasteful state administration structures
• Distorted economic geography
• Transitions
• 1916-1948 drive to modernity
• 1948-1994 the apartheid NSI

4
Evolution of the current form of the
statePost-apartheid

• GEAR (1996)
• Neoliberal
• Structural continuity
• Review of GEAR (2001)
• Sub-target growth, investment, savings and
  enduring unemployment
• negative net FDI (excluding MA investment)
• Unchanged human capital constraint (poverty,
  education)
• Post-Polokwane
• Possibility of a third stage

5
Periodisation of STI policy

• Two STI policy documents
• 1916 empire driven (integrated planning but
  short lived)
• 1996 NSI driven (White Paper)
• The White Paper and GEAR
• Institutional build-up (DACST, NRF, NACI,
  Innovation Fund)
• Policy fragmentation and isolation of STI
• Post-GEAR
• DACST to DST
• Transfer of CSIR from DTI to DST
• Strategic intervention increased in ST
• Neutral intervention in the broader NSI

6
Post-apartheid performance of the system of ST

• RD intensity has increased consistently since
  2001
• Share of government financed RD dropped over
  2001-2004 but rose sharply in 2005
• Weak relationship between financing and
  performance patterns
• Drop in share of HEI RD performance

7
Human CapitalST

• An aging and shrinking scientific population
• Black and women scientists, technologists and
  engineers are not entering the academic ranks
• In 1990, the percentage of scientific
  publications produced by researchers 50 years of
  age and older was 18 (one in five), but by 1998
  this figure had increased to 45 (one in two).
• Between 1990 and 1998 the percentage of
  publications by black scientists rose from 3,5
  to 8 (less than one in ten). Participation by
  women has not changed over the 1990s, with
  publication output being about 10 of the total.
• Currently, there is less than one researcher for
  every thousand members of the workforce, as
  compared with five in Australia and ten in Japan.
  (NRDS, 2002 21)

8
Human CapitalBroad based

• Low numeracy and literacy rates
• HDI dropped consistently over 1995-2005
• Increasing income inequality
• Increasing within racial classifications
• Decreasing between racial classifications
• The integrity of the family unit and the
  uncertainty of human capital formation
• High unemployment
• Single parent households
• HIV/AIDS
• Inadequate provision of basic needs

9
Regional (intra-NSI) disparities

• HDI
• Education
• Migration flows
• STI

10
STI-specific policies1996 White Paper

• Starting point
• SANSI designed to meet the requirements of
  apartheid
• Badly coordinated STI policy
• Strategy
• Integrating and coordinating STI initiatives
  across government departments
• Prepare a government wide science budget
• Management of government SET institutions with
  appropriate ME mechanisms

11
STI-specific policies1996 White Paper

• Shortcomings
• Low priority indicated by placing within the
  state architecture
• No interface with other policy areas (trade,
  industrial, labour, and primary and secondary
  education)
• No demand side initiatives to compensate for the
  erosion of the military-industrial-complex (lost
  opportunity with the commitment for the provision
  of basic needs)
• Supply side policy limited to direct RD
  subsidies
• Coordination was allocated to Ministers
  Committee on ST a weak coordinating mechanism
  reinforcing silo STI planning

12
STI-specific objectives2002 NRDS

• Enhancing innovation
• Address the innovation chasm
• Development of social sciences to understand the
  SANSI
• Coordination of funding instruments
• Poverty reduction orientation
• ICT and biotechnology
• SMMEs and BBEE
• Agricultural orientation of RD to establish an
  indigenous value chain
• Provincial convergence

13
STI-specific objectives2002 NRDS

• SET human resources and transformation
• Addresses matriculation rates and maths and
  science enrolment
• Rationalisation of state ST system and
  infrastructure
• Eradication of silo policy formulation
• Alignment with the national economic (and social)
  development strategies
• Private sector interventions
• Tax incentives for RD
• Provincial innovation initiatives, such as
  incubators to be run by the proposed Foundation
  for Technological Innovation
• Dedicated funding for global technology sourcing
  aimed at small and medium firms complemented by
  information drives to expose local firms to new
  sources of technology
• Venture capital in the form of seed and
  early-stage venture capital for high-technology
  businesses, in conjunction with the DTI

14
Ten year innovation plan (2007) Recognised
constraints

• Human capital development
• Human capital pipeline from post-grad students
  to recognised researchers
• Low RD levels and intensities
• Poor knowledge infrastructure
• sub-optimal levels of ancillary functions, such
  as finance, that impede the flow from RD to
  innovation

15
Ten year innovation plan (2007)targeted
intervention

• GRAND CHALLENGES

16
Ten year innovation plan (2007)Technology
Innovation Agency

• Provide funding and complementary services to
  bridge the innovation chasm
• Stimulate development of technology intensive
  services and products
• Provide an intellectual property support platform
• Stimulate investment (venture capital, FDI, etc.)
• Promote development of human capital

17
Broader policy framework Human Resource
Development Strategy (2001)

• Targets
• Improve Human Development Index
• Improve basic social infrastructure
• Reduce income inequality
• Gini coefficient
• Improve international confidence
• International Competitiveness League ranking

18
Broader policy framework Industrial policy

• Goals of the Microeconomic Reform Strategy
  (2002)
• Growth
• Competitiveness
• Employment
• Small business development
• Black economic empowerment
• Geographic spread of economic activity

19
Broader policy frameworkMacroeconomic Strategy
(AsgiSA, 2004)

• AsgiSA identifies the following constraints
• Currency volatility
• Inefficient national logistics system whose
  infrastructure lacks the required capacity for
  growth
• Shortage of skilled labour
• Market concentration, monopoly power and barriers
  to entry
• Limited new investment opportunities
• Regulatory environment which is not appropriate
  for the SME sector labour law was identified as
  one of the constraints
• Shortcomings in state organisation, capacity and
  management

20
Broader policy framework HRD - AsgiSA
interventions

• Build a strong foundation in public schooling
• Focus on priority areas in tertiary education and
  training
• Initiate and improve work-based training
  programmes and scarce skills initiatives
• Establish a joint council in government to
  strengthen and co-ordinate the activities to
  address the skills shortage
• The urgent need for skills, which are a necessary
  input for AsgiSA programmes, led to the idea of
  creating a short- to medium-term troubleshooting
  approach towards skills challenges.

21
Broader policy framework HRD JIPSA (2004)
interventions

• Five high-profile priority skills areas for
  immediate attention
• engineering and planning skills for the network
  industries transport, communications, water,
  energy
• city, urban and regional planning and engineering
  skills
• artisanal and technical skills, with priority
  attention to infrastructure development, housing
  and energy, and in other areas identified as
  being in strong demand in the labour market
• management and planning skills in education and
  health
• Mathematics, Science and language competence in
  public schooling.
• Systematic process of discussion with key
  project owners and role-players regarding the
  skills required to underpin AsgiSA projects
• Constraints and inefficiencies in the current
  frameworks and institutional arrangements for
  skills delivery
• analysis of the problem of unemployed graduates
• strengthening of the labour market and skills
  information system
• the National Qualifications Framework Review and
  quality assurance mechanisms
• analysis of artisan training capacity

22
Broader policy framework Framework on local
development (2006)

• Based on New Institutionalism
• Convergence of economic and social policy
• Conditions for successful local development
• Human capital
• Institutional networks
• Linkages across municipal, provincial, national,
  continental and global systems

23
Inter-NSI integration 2007 SADC Protocol on STI

• Establish institutional mechanisms in order to
  strengthen regional cooperation on and
  coordination of science, technology and
  innovation
• Institute management and coordination structures,
  with clearly defined functions, which will
  facilitate the implementation of regional STI
  programmes
• Promote the development and harmonisation of
  science, technology and innovation policies in
  the Region
• Pool resources for scientific research,
  technological development within the Region
• Promote public understanding and awareness of and
  meaningful participation in these disciplines
• Eliminate restrictions that restrict the free
  movement of scientists, technologist and
  engineers for the purposes of education, research
  and participation in joint STI programmes.

24
Recommendations

• Strengthen the coordinating role of the DST to
  eliminate silo planning
• Redefine human capital pipeline to include
  primary and secondary education (planning
  integration with DoE and DoL)
• Poverty eradication
• Build indigenous STI component in all state
  construction and infrastructure programmes
  demand side incentives
• LSI convergence

25
THANK YOU