TUNISIA JUMP-STARTS S & T

TUNISIA JUMP-STARTS S & T

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Tunisia is a showcase country in terms of the governance change waged via the Arab Spring. The turbulence that saw the overthrow of the authoritarian regime there surely had some dislocating effects on certain sectors.

Needless to say, the event was so tumultuous as to have put to a near-catastrophic halt the development thrusts of the nation. Gargantuan amounts of monies were siphoned off from the public purse by the corrupt regime’s top leaders, thus disabling the poorer sectors from moving up the ladder.

Also badly affected by the corruption was the science & technology of the country as a whole. It seems that Tunisia has to start all over again as far as S&T is concerned, which rationalizes the attention showed unto this sector by the new government.

Below is a special report on the subject.

[Philippines, 27 November 2011]

Source: http://www.scidev.net/en/middle-east-and-north-africa/tunisia/news/tunisia-to-boost-its-s-t-with-us-16-5-million-project.html

Tunisia to boost its S&T with US$16.5 million project

Nébil Zaghdoud

2 November 2011 | EN

[TUNIS] The Tunisian government has launched a US$16.5 million project to support the country's scientific research and innovation systems.

The three-year project, funded by the European Union, will aim to improve governance of the country's research and innovation sector, revitalise research and develop new national and international collaborations, according to Abdelaziz Rassaa, minister for industry and technology.

"The Support Project to Research and Innovative System (SPRIS) is an excellent opportunity to boost the National Research and Innovation System in Tunisia, which needs to be efficient to successfully carry out any economic development strategy," said Rassaa at the launch of the project last month (12 October).

By 2016, Tunisia aims to increase its exports of technological products from 30 per cent to 50 per cent by developing industrial sectors, such as electronics, through research and innovation, said the minister.

The steering committee for the project met for the first time last month (12 October) and is still to develop a strategy document and assign funds to individual projects.

Rachid Ghrir, director of research at the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research told SciDev.Net that the focus is to "improve the contribution of research and innovation to socioeconomic development and generate new jobs in Tunisia, while strengthening ties between the research and production systems and helping the country integrate into European research programmes".

MohamedMaalej, a member of the National Advisory Council for Scientific and Technological Research, told SciDev.Net: "Although Tunisiahas an integrated systemof scientific research and innovation in terms of legislation and institutions, the economic return of research resultsis still weak, especially in the field of industry".

The country allocates 1.25 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) to research and development and plans to reach 1.5 per cent of GDP by 2014, but the effect on the economy s of such investment are largely still to be seen, according to Maalej.

Maalej added that "this new project should adopt a cost-effective strategy to ensure the best use of research results, especially in the industrial field" and that it should "make use of international cooperation for supporting national research and industrial projects".

"The implementation of such an ambitious project is the main challenge," said Souheib Oueslati, a biotechnology researcher at the Center of Biotechnology.

Project leaders should ensure they stick to the key targets outlined in the project, "so the scientific research system, the economy, and society as a whole benefit".

The Tunisian National Research and Innovation System is made up of 33 research centers and almost 16,000 researchers, according to UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization).

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TUNISIA JUMP-STARTS S & T

TUNISIA JUMP-STARTS S & T

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Tunisia is a showcase country in terms of the governance change waged via the Arab Spring. The turbulence that saw the overthrow of the authoritarian regime there surely had some dislocating effects on certain sectors.

Needless to say, the event was so tumultuous as to have put to a near-catastrophic halt the development thrusts of the nation. Gargantuan amounts of monies were siphoned off from the public purse by the corrupt regime’s top leaders, thus disabling the poorer sectors from moving up the ladder.

Also badly affected by the corruption was the science & technology of the country as a whole. It seems that Tunisia has to start all over again as far as S&T is concerned, which rationalizes the attention showed unto this sector by the new government.

Below is a special report on the subject.

[Philippines, 27 November 2011]

Source: http://www.scidev.net/en/middle-east-and-north-africa/tunisia/news/tunisia-to-boost-its-s-t-with-us-16-5-million-project.html

Tunisia to boost its S&T with US$16.5 million project

Nébil Zaghdoud

2 November 2011 | EN

[TUNIS] The Tunisian government has launched a US$16.5 million project to support the country's scientific research and innovation systems.

The three-year project, funded by the European Union, will aim to improve governance of the country's research and innovation sector, revitalise research and develop new national and international collaborations, according to Abdelaziz Rassaa, minister for industry and technology.

"The Support Project to Research and Innovative System (SPRIS) is an excellent opportunity to boost the National Research and Innovation System in Tunisia, which needs to be efficient to successfully carry out any economic development strategy," said Rassaa at the launch of the project last month (12 October).

By 2016, Tunisia aims to increase its exports of technological products from 30 per cent to 50 per cent by developing industrial sectors, such as electronics, through research and innovation, said the minister.

The steering committee for the project met for the first time last month (12 October) and is still to develop a strategy document and assign funds to individual projects.

Rachid Ghrir, director of research at the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research told SciDev.Net that the focus is to "improve the contribution of research and innovation to socioeconomic development and generate new jobs in Tunisia, while strengthening ties between the research and production systems and helping the country integrate into European research programmes".

MohamedMaalej, a member of the National Advisory Council for Scientific and Technological Research, told SciDev.Net: "Although Tunisiahas an integrated systemof scientific research and innovation in terms of legislation and institutions, the economic return of research resultsis still weak, especially in the field of industry".

The country allocates 1.25 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) to research and development and plans to reach 1.5 per cent of GDP by 2014, but the effect on the economy s of such investment are largely still to be seen, according to Maalej.

Maalej added that "this new project should adopt a cost-effective strategy to ensure the best use of research results, especially in the industrial field" and that it should "make use of international cooperation for supporting national research and industrial projects".

"The implementation of such an ambitious project is the main challenge," said Souheib Oueslati, a biotechnology researcher at the Center of Biotechnology.

Project leaders should ensure they stick to the key targets outlined in the project, "so the scientific research system, the economy, and society as a whole benefit".

The Tunisian National Research and Innovation System is made up of 33 research centers and almost 16,000 researchers, according to UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization).

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PEACE & DEVELOPMENT LINKS:

http://erleargonza.blogspot.com, http://unladtau.wordpress.com, http://www.facebook.com, http://www.newciv.org, http://sta.rtup.biz, http://magicalsecretgarden.socialparadox.com, http://en.netlog.com/erlefrayne, http://www.blogster.com/erleargonza, http://www.articlesforfree.net, http://ipeace.us, http://internationalpeaceandconflict.org, http://www.blogleaf.com/erleargonza, http://erleargonza.seekopia.com, http://lovingenergies.spruz.com, http://efdargon.multiply.com, http://www.blogleaf.com/erleargonza, http://talangguro.blogfree.net

AFRICA ON FIRE!

Erle Frayne D. Argonza


Africa is on fire. From north to south, east to west of the continent, politico-military turbulences are taking place, hence tending to confuse and scale up fear among the ordinary folks of the continent.

You can go ahead and harbor your own perspective in explaining the causes of the conflicts there. You can see the conflicts from a domestic vantage point, thus explaining turbulence based on internal factors such as religious, ethnic, and geopolitical factors. You can also choose to explain them from the vantage point of a globalist, thus explicating the turbulences as offshoots of global synarchy of chaos fomented by the financier oligarchs of the West.

At a time when a new millennium is accelerating momentum, bringing forth glad tidings of prosperity and relative peace, hot fires are taking place in Africa. Whether a single set of explanations would suffice to comprehend the predominance of negative imagery in the continent would be subject of debates. What is clear first of all is that the continental imagery tends to recline on the negative which bodes ill for the Africans.

To name a few representative projections of the turbulences: growing protests in Tunisia; contested poll results in Cote d’Ivory, spiraling into civil war proportions; paper governance in Somalia where pirates abound as offshoot of a failed state; still unabated turbulence in Zimbabwe, spilling off millions of migrants to South Africa; Sudan’s split between North and South as a result of religious and ethnic divergences; and, brewing conflict between Copts and Muslims in Egypt.

Those representative turbulences alone demonstrate that in every corridor of the continent—north, east, west, south—turbulence is the pattern. The anarchy practically overshadows or masks the peace, cooperation and development now going on in countries that have struggled hard to depart from the path of failed states that were balkanized by internecine wars.

Let us take the case of the Sahara. A gigantic effort to green the historically desert region has been going on for years now, which to me is a milestone event that will reverse the age-old desertification. With the turbulences going on in the cardinal corridors of the continent, who would now care to examine and extol the very admirable eco-balancing inter-country efforts in the pan-Sahara?

Tanzania and Ghana would also be worth your enquiry. Both countries are undertaking development efforts, with external investors showing great interest in both countries as showcase of cross-border direct foreign investments. Ghana is most especially important to my beloved Philippines, as many of its leaders were schooled by top universities in Manila. Who would ever care for such exemplary developments in both countries, with the media perpetually presenting staccato and crescendo of turbulences in the continent?

Africa is indeed on fire, all of its representative regions have their respective versions of hot spots, so the situation must first of all be accepted by all stakeholders there. There must be no denying about the hot fires and brewing caldrons, so that the alternative courses of action can be configured, and the compass of peace be identified and executed.

As an external observer who is keenly interested in seeing Africa accelerate its development and poverty-reduction, I am very supportive of efforts by all stakeholders in the continent to forge ahead the agenda for stamping out hot fires, contain brewing caldrons, and prevent other fires from igniting in the foreseeable future. Africans who wish for my moral support can go ahead and let me sign advocacy positions that need the support of solidarity groups and individuals outside of the continent as I’ve done in the past.

Watching those exemplars of positive development in the continent, I am optimistic that Africans will be able to transcend their predicaments, imbroglios, and anarchies in due time. I hope that the fast rising ‘emerging markets’ in other continents would expand and diversify on their support for peace and development in Africa, and reinforce their deployment of grassroots volunteers to the continent.

To all concerned Africans, Love & Peace! You shall overcome!

[Philippines, 01 February 2011]

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