Jean-Pierre Ezin, AU Commissioner for Human resources, Science and Technology: “We must be in the driving seat of the eight AU-EU partnerships”

Jean Pierre Onvehoun Ezin is the African Union’s (AU) Commissioner for Human Resources, Science and Technology, one of 10 Commissioners representing the 53 AU member states. A mathematics professor, he told us about his wish list in the policy areas for which he’s responsible under the second action plan (2011-2013) of the EU’s Africa Strategy, which has eight sector partnerships. The action plan will be discussed by AU-EU partners at their upcoming Summit in Tripoli, Libya on29-30 November.

The Courier caught up with Commissioner Ezin at a seminar mid-September in Brussels on Space and the African citizen organised by the EU’s Belgian presidency (see separate article in this issue). With the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving poverty by 2015 a shared global concern, how does support for science and technology contribute to improving the lives of the poorest? “Becoming wealthy is the best way of combating poverty and the best way of becoming wealthy is through accessing science and technology and knowledge”, Ezin told us. Despite other partners such as China, Brazil and India now courting the African continent, Ezin says, “Europe is the partner we know best and who knows us best, but we want a more effective cooperation. We are anxious to see results beyond words in Tripoli”.

The first Action Plan (2008-2010) for the partnership he looks after, Science, Technology and Information, has had many results. They include a programme of grants to EU scientific research bodies to look at health-related and other issues with African partners (a new programme solely for African scientific entities is to be announced at the upcoming Summit), prizes for African scientists who have excelled and the launch of Africa-Connect, extending the EU’s own GÉANT network to Africa, a dedicated website for African researchers to get in touch and share data with fellow scientists throughout the world. The first action plan has also increased capacity within the AU’s Science and Technology department.
 
Ezin says, however, that cooperation in space which includes satellite monitoring of Africa to study climate change, environment degradation or security has not fully taken off although the feasibility of the extension of the EU’s own Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) system to the African continent has been looked at. “We have to move a step further to scale up our international co-operation, where Africa will become an equal player through acquiring or exploiting space capabilities”, EZIN told us. He added: “GMES was conceived for Europe. In the new strategy to be adopted at Tripoli, we want to reach an agreement with the Europeans on the content of a new GMES plan”. The possible extension of another EU satellite, the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay (EGNOS) to sub-Saharan Africa is also likely to come up in Tripoli (see article in The Courier issue 17). EGNOS improves the navigation of airlines and other transportation. Ezin stressed, however, the AU’s concern across all eight partnerships that Africa must be at the steering wheel of new projects. He would like to see a space agency for Africa.

He wants to raise donor interest in putting in place a core campus with satellite institutes in each African region. He’s hoping for the EU’s political commitment to the project in Tripoli: “Once it is given, we will find ways to jointly finance this”, he told us.

For more on the EU’s partnership on Science, Technology and Information Society see www.acp-eucourier.info/Science-becomes-part.928.0.html

Debra Percival