COMESA to establish Innovation Council and Regional ICT Fund

During the 16th Summit of the COMESA Authority of Heads of State and Government, held in Kampala on 23-24 November 2012, the establishment of the Innovation Council, an Annual Innovation Award and a Regional ICT Fund was endorsed.

The establishment of the Innovation Council has been driven by the need to put mechanisms in place to harness and mobilise existing knowledge in a structured manner that benefits all Member States. The Council will incorporate representatives from academia, private sector and government and it will advice the Member States in relation to existing and new knowledge and innovations, and the best ways of applying the knowledge and innovations in the Member States.

An Annual COMESA Innovation Award will commence in 2013.

The Ministers responsible for Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) in the COMESA region believe that the creation of the ICT fund will enable the COMESA region to develop and implement science and technology programmes and projects from the design stage. The COMESA Secretariat will establish a regional fund to provide grants that match national level funding. It is recognised that support for entrepreneurship, Science, Technology and Innovation is essential for the future of the region.

During the meeting of Ministers responsible for STI in Lusaka in June 2012 it was also agreed to harmonize the ICT curricula in the COMESA region for all learning institutions providing courses that relate to information technology and innovation and also allocate at least 1% of GDP to research and development. It is hoped that each Member State will set aside no less than 1.5 million USD to establish national innovation funds.

To date Zimbabwe has established a national Innovation fund of 1.5 million USD to support research, development and commercialisation, which will be disbursed annually on a competitive basis by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Development.