UNU Update
The newsletter of United Nations University and its
network of research and training centres and programmes

 

Issue 13: December 2001

Africa needs indigenous capacity in
science and technology – INRA lecturer

Africa must develop an indigenous capacity in science, technology and innovation to foster the continent's economic development, according to Professor Maurice Iwu, executive director of the Bioresources Development and Conservation Programme.

Professor Iwu was delivering the 2001 UNU Institute for Natural Resources in Africa (UNU/INRA) lecture. The event was supported by the UN Economic Commission for Africa and held during the second meeting of the commission's Committee for Natural Resources, Science and Technology held in Addis Ababa.

Professor Iwu said there was a need for clear policies to promote the establishment of operational university-industrial clusters based on strategic national interests. Areas of interest where the simple application of science and technology could add value to Africa’s natural resources included biodiversity processing and development, crop protection and post-harvest technology, biotechnology, industrial microbiological processing, DNA marker technology for genetic resources, proteomics, genomics, and bioinformatics.

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