Scientific Meeting of Stakeholders on the Development of a

S & T Policy for The Gambia,  29^th February to 6^th March 2008

Introduction

National policies for science and technology are now widely recognised as having impact in a country's growth and development prospects. Since The Gambia does not have a Science and Technology Policy in place, it intends to come up with one that will take into consideration what developed and developing countries are doing and can do to guarantee that S&T continues to contribute to economic and social development, while minimising potential risks and taking into account the needs and interests of a growing number of stakeholders in government, academia, non-governmental organisations, industry and civil society. Consequently, a policy would be developed drawing on the experiences of other countries and serving as a guide for government, policy makers and other stake-holders to benefit from international projects on Science and Technology for sustainable development. Thus, ISESCO in partnership with The Gambia National Commission for UNESCO supported a mission comprising an external consultant (Dr. Mohsin Ullah Khan) assisted by a national consultant (Mr. Yahya Al-Matarr Jobe) to coordinate the consultative meeting with stakeholders and organise a workshop to elicit government and stakeholders opinions and commitment.

Aims and Objectives

The aims and objectives of the consultations are:

Overall Goals

·To establish what stakeholders visualise as the components of a Science and Technology Policy

·To come up with measures that can facilitate the development of a national policy

·To draw up a policy that would strengthen science and technology capacities and stimulate and sustain a balanced socio-economic growth and development.

Specific Objectives

·        To provide expert scientific inputs to policy making

·        To assess strengths and weaknesses of existing S&T capacity of all stakeholders in order to build and/or improve the requisite national capacity.

·        To promote S&T activities in educational programmes as well as in research.

·        To develop a strategy that would identify concrete actions for helping international, national, and local actors bring about reforms and introduce the necessary innovations, including promoting networks and implementation and monitoring

The Activities

Within the framework of implementation of its Action Plan 2007-2009, the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) in collaboration with the Gambia National Commission for UNESCO (NATCOM) started to lay the foundation for a Science and Technology Policy.

The mission guided and started the whole process which consisted of the following activities:

a.     Consultative meetings with stakeholders on the development of a Science and Technology Policy were held from 29^th February to 5^th March 2008.

b.     A workshop for stakeholders held on the way forward on March 6^th 2008 at the Corinthia Atlantic Hotel in Banjul.

Recommendations

Ø                            Form a committee to sensitize the public on issues relating to developing capacities as well as a Science and Technology Policy

Ø                            Engage the other stakeholders that were not involved in this exercise

Ø                            Have further consultative meetings to review the document in order to provide best practices for the formulation of a national policy

Ø                            Set up a taskforce to prepare the draft policy

Ø                            Organize a workshop to validate the draft S&T policy

Ø                            Draw up a policy spanning from 2009-2020

Ø                            Mount a sensitization campaign on the policy document

Ø                            Prepare a Strategic Action Plan (2009-2020)