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UNECA-COVID-19-AFRICA
UNECA chief says innovations in science, tech key to Africa’s COVID-19 recovery
ADDIS ABABA, June 16, 2020 (BSS/XINHUA) – Science, technology and innovations are key factors to Africa’s recovery from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic crisis, Vera Songwe, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), said on Tuesday.
“Science, technology and innovation will be at the heart of Africa’s recovery from the devastating COVID-19 pandemic and the continent’s ability to create sustainable jobs,” Songwe told a five-day virtual COVID-19 Africa Innovation and Investment Forum 2020.
The ECA chief emphasized that the African continent “needs innovations to drive homegrown solutions out of the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic recession it has triggered the world over.”
“We need investments in innovation, science and technology to understand how we can protect our citizens and also as a way of growing out of this crisis, and that is why for a very long time ECA has been talking of the importance also of intellectual property rights to protect the innovations of Africa’s youth,” Songwe said.
The ECA chief said the current costs of intellectual property registrations on the continent are “prohibitive and not rewarding innovation.”
“This virus (COVID-19) has highlighted the importance of science, technology and innovation and the need for Africa to build a much stronger, much more collaborative scientific technology industrial base,” said Songwe.
She also stressed that Africa needs to come together to see how it can be part of the big drive to find a vaccine for COVID-19 and other diseases affecting the continent.
“If Africa is to succeed in getting out of this crisis in a sustainable way, technology is going to have to be the cornerstone of that success,” she said, adding the continent needs to innovate collectively and support its youth to innovate by creating the necessary infrastructure to create quality jobs, spur economic growth and promote health.
Songwe said it was unacceptable that only 25 percent of Africa’s population has access to quality, affordable and reliable broadband.
“We surely can do more to improve internet penetration on the continent, especially as a lot of jobs and wealth are going to come out of innovation,” she said.
Latest figures from the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) show that the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases across the African continent surpassed 251,866 as of Tuesday afternoon.
The Africa CDC, a specialized healthcare agency of the AU, also disclosed that the death toll from the pandemic rose from 6,464 on Monday to 6,769 as of Tuesday. The virus has so far spread into 54 African countries, in which some 114,308 people infected with COVID-19 had recovered.
BSS/XINHUA/FI/ 2006 hrs