Opinions from FARA: 6th Meeting of the Advisory Committee on Science and Technology for ACP Agricultural & Rural Development

Monday 12 November 2007

6th Meeting of the Advisory Committee on Science and Technology for ACP Agricultural & Rural Development

The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA) hosts from 12 - 16 November, 2007 the 6th Meeting of the Advisory Committee on S&T around the theme of “Advancing the ST&I Policy Dialogue: Increasing Performance and Impact” (CTA Headquarters Wageningen, The Netherlands).

Background:

CTA’s S&T Strategies programme was launched in 2003. Since then the Advisory Committee has met annually to deliberate on relevant ST&I issues, assess their implications and define ST&I strategies for improving the performance of ACP agriculture. Inter and intra ACP and ACP-EU ST&I collaboration have expanded. Africa and the Caribbean have published regional and national ST&I policy documents and the Pacific is mobilizing resources to do the same. Over 600 ACP nationals have been trained to understand, analyze and strengthen the Agricultural, Science, Technology and Innovation (ASTI system) and about 700 ACP experts have participated in intra and inter regional ACP and ACP-EU ST&I policy dialogues on a range of emerging and critical issues.

Expected Outcomes 6th AC:

Increased awareness and consensus building on relevant ST&I developments and the related policy implications and strategies identified for improving ACP agricultural performance.

Improved monitoring and evaluation of the performance of ACP ASTI systems.

Renewed mandate for the CTA S&T Strategies Programme including the Advisory Committee and redesigned web portal.

Interview with Marco M. Aleman, Deputy Director, Devision of Public Policy for Development, World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) -Geneva

Mr. Aleman discusses how to protect Indegenous Knowledge (IK) and the use of patents related to agricultural research.

Interview with Lalao RAKOTOMALALA (Madagascar), Deputy Director Intellectual Property and New Technologies Division, WIPO, Geneva, Switzerland

Ms RAKOTOMALALA explains why it is important that african scientists know more about intellectual property rights. She refers to the Forth International Forum on Creativity and invention: A better future for humanity in the 21st Century, which was held in Costa Rica. This conference focused on Science, Research and Intellectual Property Rights.