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Erle Frayne Argonza
Good morning from Manila!
It seems the excitement in Iraq’s S&T is moving to higher pitches, despite the noise and flames of the ensuing war there. The policy environment is getting to be more definitive, and a new state institution is being installed to address S&T research and development needs of the country.
See the exciting news below.
[Writ 06 October 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila. Thanks to SciDev database news.]
New authority and law to push Iraqi research
Wagdy Sawahel
26 September 2008 | EN | 中文
Flickr/rxwarren
Iraq is to establish a scientific research authority (SRA) to promote science and technology research and improve science policy, and will consider a new law offering scientists significant financial benefits.
The SRA was announced by Abd Dhiab al-Ajili, the Iraqi minister for higher education and scientific research last week (15 September).
It will function independently from the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research (MHESR) and have a separate, as yet undisclosed, budget. Its exact start date has yet to be decided.
The authority will oversee all of the science and technology centres associated with universities and have the capacity to fund research directly. It will also prepare science policy reports reviewing subjects including best practice for funding research, measuring the quality of scientific research, and methods for knowledge dissemination.
The SRA will suggest educational programmes and provide analysis for the MHESR on Iraq’s needs to build its scientific and technological capacity. It will also provide advice to the MHESR and university science centres on topics such as ethics, socioeconomic impact, health and environmental concerns and intellectual property rights.
The Iraqi government is also set to consider a new law aiming to persuade scientists, innovators and engineers abroad to return to the country.
Samir Ibrahim Abbas, deputy director-general at the Iraq Ministry of Science and Technology and a member of the ministerial committee preparing the law, says a draft will be ready within six weeks and submitted to the government.
The proposed law also offers incentives to top scientists and innovators working in Iraq.
These include increased salaries — currently on average less than US$1,000 a month — of 300–350 per cent making it equivalent to the Iraqi deputy ministerial salary level. Other benefits include exemption from the mandatory retirement age of 63 years and preferential treatment and reduced prices when buying land for housing.
Abbas says the law will reward different levels of scientists and innovators depending on their scientific achievements.
Scientists would be expected to apply for the benefits, overseen by a central body comprising representatives from scientific committees in different scientific and technological fields who would be responsible for the evaluation and assessment of candidates.
Erle Frayne Argonza
In the sub-Saharan region, so many exciting developments are going on that deserve our attention. Among these are gigantic projects that are funded by the billions of dollars.
Below is a news briefer about Kenya, Nigeria, and the entire region concerning both ongoing projects and assessment reports about problems that need to be addressed.
Happy viewing!
[14 August 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila. Thanks to SciDev database news.]
Sub-Saharan Africa news in brief: 19 June–3 July
3 July 2008 | EN
Kenyan and Nigerian researchers will bioengineer improved cassava
CGIAR
Below is a round up of news from or about Sub-Saharan Africa for the 19 June–3 July 2008.
Kenya and Nigeria plan bioengineered cassava trials
The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture will next year begin field trials in Kenya and Nigeria on long-lasting cassava roots fortified with vitamins, minerals and protein, bioengineered to resist damaging viruses and requiring less processing time. Kenya’s Agricultural Research Institute and Nigeria’s Root Crops Research Institute will provide support. More>>
DRC benefits first from US$5 billion African hydropower project
Aluminium smelters in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will, in 2010, be the first to receive power from a US$5 billion hydroelectric project on the Congo river. The project, planned since 2003 and jointly owned by the energy ministries of Angola, Botswana, the DRC, Namibia and South Africa, should be complete by 2015. More>>
Yaws disease remains a threat
The crippling and disfiguring yaws disease remains a threat in developing countries, including those in west and central Africa, despite almost being eradicated in the 1960s. WHO specialist Kingsley Asiedu says[171kB], the disease needs to be considered a priority once again — especially since one injection is all a cure needs. More>> [138kB]
South African telescope bid receives boost
Africa’s chances of hosting the Square Kilometre Array — the largest and most sensitive radio telescope in the world — has received a boost with South Africa’s approval of the Astronomy Geographic Advantage Bill. The bill gives the country’s science and technology ministry the power to protect astronomical research regions, including the proposed South African site for the array, from development. More>>
‘Non-recommended drug use raising resistance fears in Mozambique
Researchers have expressed ‘concern’ that Mozambican authorities continue to treat malaria with a combination of sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) and artesunate drugs. All neighbouring countries have abandoned antimalarial drug combinations using SP due to drug resistance problems. Conditions are now ideal for artesunate drug resistance and may even endanger second-line drugs. More>> [205kB]
Couple counselling can help cut HIV risk, African research reveals
Counselling for couples could cut the rate of HIV transmission between partners in long-term relationships by up to 60 per cent, researchers say. Based on the results of their study, conducted in Lusaka, Zambia, and Kigali in Rwanda, they say all African governments should urgently scale up HIV testing, condoms, circumcision and antiretroviral drugs for cohabiting couples. More>>*
Africa lagging on Clean Development Mechanisms
Only 25 of the 1,090 registered Clean Development Mechanism projects in developing countries are in Africa, with 11 in South Africa. Projects in the mechanism aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but companies in South Africa have complained that the amount of time to set up projects is double that stated in provided guidelines. More>>
Namibia moves to boost hydropower
Namibia is negotiating with Angola to store water alongside the Kunene River during the rainy season to help boost its electricity capacity through hydropower. Namibia’s only hydroelectricity station, the Ruacana power plant, stops in the dry season when the river runs dry. Analyst Moses Duma says Namibia also has a good market for wind, solar and gas power. More>>
South African satellite wait continues
South Africa is still waiting to launch its Sumbandila environmental monitoring satellite. A delegation from Russia’s civilian space agency Roskosmos is due to visit South Africa to discuss alternative options after the Russian government blocked the planned launch last year. Meanwhile, South Africa has held its first two public consultation sessions on a proposed space strategy. More>>
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Compiled by Christina Scott. Additional reporting by Frederick Baffour Opoku, Onche Odeh and Sharon Davis.
If you would like to suggest a story for this news in brief, please contact the Africa News Editor Christina Scott (christina.scott@scidev.net).
Erle Frayne Argonza
Good morning form Manila!
Hello Mercosur! Here comes another great country of yours that has been leading in physical economy-led growth, the Argentine republic. A recent governance innovation in Argentina was the bringing of legislation on science down to the provincial level. The news caption below reports on the encouraging development.
Happy reading!
[04 August 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]
Aprueban primera ley provincial de ciencia en Argentina
Laura García
21 junio 2008 | ES
Chaco: La ley promoverá la biotecnología en la región
Wikipedia / Pertile
En la Argentina se aprobó la primera ley de ciencia, tecnología e innovación de carácter provincial. Algunos de sus objetivos son promover la aplicación del conocimiento para contribuir al desarrollo regional y despertar el interés por la investigación científica en los jóvenes.
La ley Nº 6.135 de la provincia de Chaco, ubicada en el nordeste del país, fue publicada en el boletín oficial provincial el 9 de junio y presentada en una reunión oficial el 13 del mismo mes. Participaron representantes del gobierno de Chaco y del Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación Productiva del país.
La ley establece que la Subsecretaría de Ciencia y Tecnología de Chaco dispondrá de un presupuesto anual no inferior al 0,8 por ciento del presupuesto total anual de la provincia. Además, contará con el 3,5 por ciento del Fondo para la Promoción y Fomento de la Innovación.
“Es muy importante que una provincia establezca un marco legal para la ciencia y la tecnología, porque significa que esas actividades han sido jerarquizadas”, dijo a SciDev.Net el secretario general del Consejo Federal de Ciencia y Tecnología, Hugo De Vido.
Entre otras acciones, la ley establece la creación de un consejo consultivo integrado por representantes de diferentes instituciones públicas y privadas del sector. Tendrá bajo su responsabilidad ayudar a elaborar un plan cuatrienal de actividades.
Durante la presentación de la ley, se firmó también un convenio marco de cooperación para la creación de un Polo Biotecnológico, Agropecuario y Forestal en la ciudad de Resistencia, a concretarse en el marco de la nueva ley.
El secretario general de ciencia y técnica de la Universidad Nacional del Nordeste, Angel Fusco, dijo a SciDev.Net que esta ley es una herramienta muy útil para establecer líneas estratégicas de desarrollo científico-tecnológico.
“Desde la universidad, aportaremos propuestas de trabajo conjunto y la experiencia de nuestros recursos humanos en la ejecución de proyectos de investigación y desarrollo”, informó Fusco.
Enlaces relacionados:
Ley Nº 6.135 publicada en el boletín oficial de la provincia de Chaco, Argentina
Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago
For a long time in Philippine development experience, cooperation in the development terrain was largely a market-state synergy. Only in the 1980s did the NGOs and peoples’ organizations or POs sprout in large numbers to leverage their strength and engage the state in the development game.
As a budding development professional and technocrat in the early 1980s, I encountered a context with few NGOs if ever in my area of operations (Cagayan Valley/Region II, Northern Philippines). It was Martial Law, independent NGOs/POs were regarded with suspicion as communist fronts (we have a Left insurgency here), and so it was tough looking for ‘civil society’ groups to co-partner with in the development game, most specially in development planning.
When the provincial development councils were mandated to be installed as planning & coordination platforms, I had the luck of sitting in some of them as convenor and top advisor. But alas! There were not much ‘independent’ NGOs/POs to invite as participants, save for ‘agrarian reform’ and peasant groups that were constituted by barangay officials and mayors that were not, in fact, ‘independent’ or ‘autonomous’.
Good enough for the market players, as chambers of commerce already abound then across the archipelago. So during my watch as convenor, I immediately invited the local chambers to sit along with us state officlals who came from both local and national government agencies.
So that was the arrangement I had than at the provincial council. And the experience was fulfilling so far. The market players were participative, they actively presented ideas regarding process and priority programs and projects for the province. It was not difficult engaging them, as I recall well.
Another strategy that was employed by my broader them then, led by our regional director, was to form a club of government and business executives in the region. We called it the ‘Valley Kilusan Executive Greenhouse Club’ or Valley KEG Club. In the first semester of 1983 I was luckily appointed the manager of the clubhouse (located in Ilagan, Isabela), which I executed on top of my other regular tasks.
The response to the invitation for club membership was simply very enthusiastic. During my incumbency as manager, there were over 100 members which included traders, provincial governors, regional directors & provincial heads of line agencies, and cottage industry owners.
Our sub-regional office in Ilagan (Isabela) housed the clubhouse that was specially designed and constructed for the purpose of R & R of executives in the region. We had a restaurant and some function rooms, including a games room that was under construction (it was done when I left the ministry for graduate school later).
Every now and then we invited entertainers from Manila, who were contracted to perform for about a week or so. One entertainer decided to stay for good, as he found the business opportunities in the valley so great for exploration and immersion. The restaurant alone, which was packed with exec audiences at times, was already a good venue to build goodwill and good faith among development partners.
At daytime, some business and government officials would come to take lunch, hold meetings there, or simply chat and exchange pleasantries. The warlord governor then (now deceased) of Isabela, who also chaired the Regional Development Council, would come occasionally to meet people and exchange pleasantries.
Both the formal and informal platforms for concurring synergy are effective, as far as my experience had shown. Explore all possibilities for dialogue, this is the thumb rule. If one may not work fairly well, then explore the other strategy. Should both of them work well, then indeed this would brighten your day, and this is possible.
[Writ 29 May 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]
Erle Frayne D. Argonza
[Writ 04 May 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]
Good afternoon! Food be with you! (Hmmm that’s to borrow from Christian’s ‘peace’ maxim…)
You may wonder how we stakeholders of development do our coordination here in the Philippines, and I’d say coordination is practically the same everywhere. It involves ‘partnering’, an unraveling of distrust and a sincere effort to cooperate and collaborate. Partnering eventually creates strong institutions, thus catalyzing development further.
I was just a 23-year old enterprise supervisor in the defunct Ministry of Human Settlements (MHS) in 1982, when news came out that development councils will be constituted at the regional level. It used to be part of partnering mechanisms at the regional level, with the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) serving as secretariat, till it floundered and slept in the late 1970s.
When the regional development council or RDC woke up again, circa 1982, the MHS was already making waves in the development arena. This agency was eventually mandated to revive the council, in collaboration with the NEDA and all provincial governors. I remember then that the charismatic and management-savvy Governor Faustino Dy of Isabela was elected 1st chair of the revived RDC, with Area Manager (regional director) Tito Osias of MHS serving as convenor.
Down the hierarchy of power and influence the provincial development councils or PDCs were also constituted. I had the luck then of representing the MHS to begin building the PDC core in Batanes, the same core being the members of the KKK Secretariat (KKK = Kilusang Kabuhayan at Kaunlaran or National Livelihood Movement, a major state funding program for enterprise) then emerging. My provincial and deputy bosses, who was almost always out of the region (their families were in Manila), mandated me to be the lead convenor for the core building of both bodies.
It was a fruitful work to begin with, the task in Batanes. State and business representatives were invited to comprise the core, down the mayor’s level. Civil society was weak here then, there were no developmental NGOs to invite here then, so it was purely a state-market synergy we had there in Basco (capital town). Within just three (3) months of consultations, our coordination outputs were simply enormous, the targets could overwhelm a single agency if it were left alone to implement them. But with many partners to achieve the goals, including modernizing the pier and acquiring a ship dedicated for Batanes alone (the islands were practically isolated from the ‘mainland’ Luzon), development goals are optimistically achievable.
Acquiring the experience I needed for my next task, Cagayan, I then moved to add inputs to a PDC core plan that was already begun then before I occupied my Tuguegarao office (capital town). Because there was a provincial manager-designate, and my post was just recently upped to deputy provincial manager, my first tasks were to travel to different towns and subtly convince the mayors and line agency partners at that level about the need for development coordination at the provincial level. That ‘massaging’ had to be done, because mayors were reportedly luke warm about the idea of a PDC.
After three (3) months on the job, my provincial manager was sadly sacked from duty, and so I had to take over as Acting Provincial Manager. Then did I do the convenor tasks at its core, with Governor Cortez role-playing PDC chair. Mr. Bagasao, provincial head of the Ministry of Local Governments (MLG), was co-convenor. There was no NEDA office at the provincial level, so the MHS-MLG-Governor’s Office served as lead implementers of the council. I myself prepared the agenda for all succeeding meetings.
It was quite tough a work there, I recall. Cagayan was quite large a territory to navigate, state officials and business groups too many to manage, but we did make headway in forming the active core. State officials could hardly see each other eye to eye at local levels, but there they were in the council, forging inter-agency linkages as semblances of ‘committee work’ of a gigantic cooperative. Sadly, the mayors were absentee, and this almost piqued me at some point to the extent that, warlord-like, I would challenge those pretentiously all-knowing absent mayors to some war games to show them I was serious in the job.
But again, like the Batanes narrative, the Cagayan experience was largely a state-market synergy, with nary a developmental NGO to invite. What we did then was to invite peasant and fisherfolk groups, which were largely enterprise-group types, but that was the best remedy then for the absence of NGOs there. (Contrast this to today’s Cagayan where dozens of developmental NGOs are in operation.) We set the rules of engagement, built interagency teams, ironed out convergences among state agencies’ plans, got inputs from the chamber of commerce and dealers’ groups, and then conceptualized new projects. Among those new projects during my watch was the industrial estate in Sta. Ana (today’s CEZA).
It was an altogether fulfilling experience for me then as a budding technocrat. I loved every bit of the job. Walls among state officials were broken down, cooperation gelled, new bold and ambitious projects were identified, existing ones were fast-tracked (irrigation, electrification, public works, enterprise finance, food sector development). It was beautiful!
Sadly, I had to leave that work, as I needed to go back to my schooling: to the University of the Philippines where I longed to take up my masters degree in sociology. I simply monitored the ensuing institutionalization efforts for the councils…till later, I heard about the constitution of municipal and barangay (village) development councils. That’s partnering at work, and mind you, it surely works if you put your heart and mind into it. It brightens up the world a bit.
erleargonza
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