Foreword
By Prof. Shaukat A. Abdulrazak, Ph.D, FIBiol, MBS, FASI
Secretary and Chief Executive, National Council for Science and Technology
I am pleased to introduce to you National Council for Science and Technology.
The Council was established in 1977 and charged with the prime responsibilities of advising Government on matters of science and technology and the formulation, subsequent coordination, promotion and popularization of ST&I policies. With respect to these responsibilities, the Council provides the necessary institutional and process coordination framework for spearheading the development of innovative ideas, products and services in order to meet the development goals of the country.
That the country has long standing socio-economic development challenges, many of whose solutions lie in the integration of science and technology, is self evident in a number of sectors. Such challenges include widespread illiteracy; persistent and increasing poverty; HIV/AIDS, other emerging diseases; a relatively high population growth causing increasing unemployment with resultant high dependency; declining productivity in the basic sectors; deficient infrastructure, and the overall unfavourable environment for improved investment. Some of these challenges have recently been reinforced by the globalization of trade that makes it harder to use tangible or intangible trade barriers to protect domestic industry, knowledge, and technological innovation. In view of the foregoing, the Council has to provide the leadership necessary to respond to the challenges and help the country realize high material abundance and non material (cultural) richness in majority of the people. This, we believe will be realized through effective integration of science, technology and innovation in close consultation and collaboration with national and international stakeholders.
In discharging its responsibilities, NCST closely consults and collaborates with all S&T stakeholders, principally the institutions of research and higher education, national professional and scientific bodies; the various governmental and non-governmental organizations handling matters of S&T. It also enlists the participation of all other entities with interest in matters of science, technology and innovation in the country. This ensures a broad based stakeholder driven determination of national scientific and technological agenda, national science policy, organizational arrangements for planning and coordinating of scientific activities and overall financial requirement for scientific and technological activities, among other matters of national science and technology. In this manner, NCST ensures that science and technology is effectively integrated in our national development endeavours.
The inter-ministerial and inter-agency in nature of the functions of NCST enables the Council to freely and directly reach and interact with all stakeholders in the process of policy development and the generation as well as the dissemination of advice on all matters of S&T. Through its committees and associated task forces, the Council achieves high level representation and participation of public, private and non-governmental sectors in its activities. Moreover, it representation in the Boards of Management of the national Research Institutes enables the Council to propagate advice on matters of science and technology and also to effectively participate in the planning of research programmes and activities of the public research institutions.