By Calestous Juma And Ismail Serageldin
African leaders are determined to forge a new economic outlook based
on science and innovation. This is reflected in their decision to seek
advice from African experts on the role of biotechnology in Africa's
development.
The results of the work of the High-level African Panel on Modern
Biotechnology are contained in Freedom to Innovate: Biotechnology in
Africa's Development.

The report was released yesterday at the meeting of the African
Ministerial Council on Science and Technology (AMCOST) in Mombasa. It was
compiled by a panel of African experts from both inside and outside of the
continent.

The panel was put together by the African Union (AU) and the New
Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD).

Freedom to Innovate outlines specific and practical measures to
advance development, quality of life and environmental sustainability using
biotechnology. It is a bold statement on the need for Africa to build the
capacity needed to manage emerging technologies.

The report stresses that biotechnologies should be developed with
appropriate safeguards in place and according to the best internationally-
agreed standards.

The work of the panel represents the most comprehensive and
transparent assessment exercise used by the AU and NEPAD. It brought
together the full spectrum of views on the subject and was able to reach
consensus on controversial aspects of biotechnology.

The panel reviewed existing and historical plans, reports and
published- research. It conducted consultations with stakeholders around the
world. In addition, public meetings were held and written and verbal
submissions were recorded from researchers, scientists, the business
community, policy-makers, legislators, non-governmental organisations
(NGOs), and individuals.

Freedom to Innovate went through several drafts, which were posted on
public websites. The findings were presented at workshops and conferences in
Africa and other regions of the world. In November 2006, AMCOST committed
itself to developing a 20-year African biotechnology strategy to be
implemented through the Regional Economic Communities (RECs).

The panel's main recommendations include the need for countries in
central, eastern, western, northern and southern Africa to work together at
the regional level to scale up the development of biotechnology. A key
vehicle is through what the panel calls Regional Innovation Communities and
Local Innovation Areas.

These would include clusters of expertise, sharing knowledge, creative
ideas, personnel, and collaborating on specific projects. Regional
Innovation Communities might include institutions that are already situated
close together, such as universities, science-based industry and science
parks. But today, institutions do not need to be in close proximity to work
together.

Effective collaboration can take place between people and institutions
that are geographically separate so long as the will exists to do so.
Regional Innovation Communities are a form of regional economic integration,
which Africa is already experiencing in other areas.

Regional integration can help foster mobilising, sharing and using
existing scientific and technological capacities, including human and
financial resources as well as physical infrastructure for research,
development and innovation.

Some Regional Innovation Communities will come about organically. But
many will need to be nurtured. In every case, what will be needed is a pool
of talented and skilled people, as well as new and existing institutions,
willing and able to embrace change.

There needs to be a step-change in this area. This will entail
reviewing and adjusting national and regional policies and related
legislation to promote higher education, R&D and innovation.

The report's other recommendations include: outlining priority areas
in biotechnology that are of relevance to Africa's development; identifying
critical capabilities needed for the development and safe use of
biotechnology; establishing appropriate regulatory measures that can advance
research, commercialisation, trade and consumer protection; and setting
strategic options for creating and building regional biotechnology
innovation communities and local innovation areas in Africa.

Packing tablets at a medicine manufacturing plant.

Food security, nutrition, healthcare and environmental sustainability
are among Africa's biggest challenges. Regional biotechnology efforts have a
role to play in each and can be implemented through what the panel calls
long-term "biotechnology missions".

Clustering can take place around priority areas as well as in places
and institutions where expertise exists. Health biotechnology, for example,
is concentrated in southern Africa. North Africa is established in bio-
pharmaceuticals.

Animal biotechnology has strong roots in eastern Africa; crop
biotechnology in the west and forest biotechnology in central Africa.
Africa's ability to effectively use existing and emerging biotechnologies
will depend largely on the level of investment in building physical, human,
institutional and societal capacities.

More specifically, Africa's regional innovation communities will need
to focus on creating and reforming existing knowledge-based institutions,
especially universities, to serve as centres of diffusion of new
technologies into the economy.

Dependence on what we call the "relief model" for international
cooperation will need to change towards a new emphasis on
competence-building. Investing in critical capabilities is central to
Africa's ability to benefit from its resources.

Africa needs to: develop and expand national and regional human
resources development strategies that include; a continental biotechnology
curriculum that focuses on specific areas and targets that offer high
economic potential for the regions and the continent; a consortium of
clearly identified and designated universities and research centres that
develop and offer regional biotechnology training courses; a focus on female
recruitment in the sciences and engineering.

Africa needs to immediately expand and create infrastructure
development programmes in order to tap into the opportunities that may arise
from biotechnology.

Research and development activities for the development, operation and
maintenance of infrastructure need to be promoted, and linkages need to be
established with both domestic and overseas research networks.

African countries need to identify specific biotechnology priority
areas that offer high potential for regional R&D and product development and
integrate these priorities into African regionalisation processes and
policies. To improve commercialisation and business capacity, Africa needs
to: foster R&D cooperative partnerships at the local, regional and
international levels; create policy instruments that enable business
incubation and development; develop functional market infrastructure for
economic development; and stress the role of technology in general and
biotechnology in particular for SME development policy.

The following mechanisms can be used to increase funding for
biotechnology R&D in Africa: substantially increased national R&D budgets;
special funding mechanisms, possibly innovation funds funded through a
variety of means including challenge funds; specific funding mechanisms
under government ministries; distinct African funding schemes or facilities;
reformed tax laws (foundation laws and industry-wide levies); and national
lotteries.

Africa should adopt the co-evolutionary approach where consumer
protection goes hand in hand with the development of the technology itself.
New stakeholder partnerships, awareness campaigns, and innovation
competitions need to be created to facilitate public awareness and education
on issues of biotechnology.

Emphasis should be put on maximizing the benefits associated with new
technologies while reducing their negative impacts. Equally important is a
consideration of the long-term implications of non-adoption of emerging
technologies.

The essential point therefore is developing and harmonising regional
regulations governing issues such as regional integration, research and
development, safety (covering field and clinical trials) and trade in
biotechnology products and services.

Africa's regulatory institutions need transparent and high quality
scientific capacity to assess biotechnology-related risks and to be able to
regulate quickly, safely and effectively.

The panel recommends the creation of an African Presidential Science
and Innovation Council to oversee the implementation of AU recommendations
related to scientific capacity building. Complementary organs may also need
to be created in the Regional Innovation Communities.

There is need to develop harmonised legislation and measures based on
international, continental, and individual country good practices in the
context of the emerging Regional Innovation Communities.

Development of such frameworks can lead to a co-evolution of
regulatory frameworks and technology development. The Pan-African Parliament
(PAP) is an ideal institutional locus for harmonising regulations and
promoting biotechnology missions.

There is need to strengthen PAP engagement in developing regional and
continental programmes for biotechnology. Strengthening PAP will involve
establishing for it advisory mechanisms, providing its committee with
evidence-based policy studies, and equipping it with technology monitoring
capabilities.

Africa needs to take strategic measures aimed at promoting the
application of modern biotechnology to regional economic integration and
trade. Such measures include fostering the emergence of regional innovation
systems in which biotechnology-related Local Innovation Areas play a key
role.

But doing so will involve additional measures that include upgrading
regional capacities and forging international partnerships. Furthermore,
funding such initiatives will involve adopting a wide range of approaches
aimed at generating the necessary financial resources, including "innovation
funds".

Existing funding sources such as international and regional
development banks could also play a key role in helping in the
commercialisation of products from the biotechnology-related local
innovation areas.

Regional economic communities need to begin to determine potential
opportunities for biotechnology specialization and to foster regional
networking of biotechnology centres for R&D related to this regional
specialisation. African Regional Innovation Communities need to facilitate
North-South and South-South collaboration as well as to mobilise the
expertise in the diaspora for development.

Long-term process of biotechnology development in Africa needs to go
hand-in-hand with the creation of regional economies. African countries need
to: facilitate the process of regional integration; and foster technological
innovation as a force for promoting regional integration and trade.

Local Innovation Areas hold the promise of creating competitive,
biotechnology driven African economies that will benefit from spatial
concentrations of regional innovation actors (universities, firms, and
research institutes).

Countries and Regional Innovation Communities need to: identify
biotechnology-related fields of local relevance; and facilitate local
innovation centre upgrading initiatives.

There is great potential in developing North-South and South-South
collaborations supporting biotechnology R&D and capacity-building in African
regional innovation communities and local innovation areas.

Countries and emerging Regional Innovation Communities need to
identify ways of improving cooperation with other regions (particularly Asia
and Latin America) of the world to effectively address issues pertaining to
biotechnology.

Africa's history has been marked by a development narrative in which
the benefits from science and innovation have been enjoyed by few. Today
this is changing and Africa's leaders view science, technology and
innovation as critical to human development, global competitiveness and
ecological management. Freedom to Innovate is therefore an important
contribution to Africa's technological renaissance.

[allafrica.com]