President of The AFRICALICS Dr. Bitrina Diyamett Officiates The Kigali International Conference on Unpacking Systems of Innovations For Sustainable Development in Africa

19th November 2015 President of the African Research Network on Economics of Learning, Innovation and Competence Building systems (AfricaLics) Dr. Bitrina Diyamett officiated the International Conference on Unpacking Systems of Innovation for Sustainable Development in Africa in Kigali - Rwanda. Giving the opening remarks, Dr. Bitrina Diyamett who also heads the Science, Technology and Innovation Policy Organization (STIPRO) said the 3 days Conference was the Second conference hosted jointly by Africalics and Rwanda University with major objectives of sharing and facilitating use of knowledge. Explaining other objectives of the Conference, Dr. Diyamett noted that the Conference was organized to determine the state of the art within research community in Africa working in the field of innovation and development and providing a much needed arena for researchers in Africa, particularly early career researchers, to build capacity in presenting and networking skills as well as learning about new methods and theories. She said innate in human is innovation and human beings, since time immemorial, had always endeavored to improve on their tools of production and modes of living. She however warned that under current environment of globalization, innovation had taken a new horizon – it is a tool for competitiveness, including survival. “Without innovation, the very existence of our firms and farms, and ultimately our nations are at stake. In this regard Africa does not have options other than implementing good policies to guide innovative activities in their own countries. But good policies require good knowledge produced through high quality research.” She says She further explained that in order for the African Continent to avoid marginalization, the Continent must address innovation knowledge imbalance by producing more knowledge that is relevant to its context; work more on connecting existing knowledge to use. She went on to say, that cannot happen in the absence of adequate capacity for such activities.

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STIPRO Executive Director New Post

Dr. Bitrina Diyamett, STIPRO Executive Director has been appointed to be a member of steering committee of the Southern Voice (SV) representing Africa. SV is a network of think tanks from Africa, Latin America and South Asia that was initiated through the support of Think Tank Initiatives (TTI) for experts in developing countries to share their evidence based policy inputs towards the post 2015 Development Agenda. Since its inception in June 2012, STIPRO participation has been highly remarkable particularly in advancing Science, Technology and Innovation (ST&I) issues as key component in the next post 2015 development agenda to be named Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). From 16th to 17th February 2015, SV in collaboration with Think Tank Initiative (TTI) organised a two-day research conference with the theme “Southern Voice on Post-MDG International Development Goals and Targets”. The conference was held at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Sisli of Istanbul. Objectives of the conference included shaping of the international development agenda for post-2015 period, identification of implementation challenges of the post-2015 agenda, and understanding national implications for implementing post-2015 international development goals. The conference was attended by more than 70 members of international development and research communities from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and North America. During the conference, Dr. Diyamett made a presentation titled “Growth and Poverty: Some Empirical Evidence from Tanzania and Implications for the SDGs” with the major argument that growth is important but not enough to bring social and economic development. The presentation can be accessed here

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