By Albert Futukpor
Tamale, March 29, GNA – Representatives of various organisations in the Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI) ecosystem of Ghana have been introduced to STIthe Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) indicators framework and the Global Observatory of STI Policy (UNESCO GO-SPIN).
They have also been trained on how to measure and report on the STI M&E Framework indicators to enable them to gather quality data using the Framework.
Organisations represented at the one-day workshop, held in Tamale, included the Ghana Health Service, Northern Development Authority, research institutions, and tertiary institutions amongst others.
The workshop was organised as part of the “Strengthening STI systems for Sustainable Development in Africa” project being implemented by the Science and Technology Policy Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR-STEPRI) in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation.
The project sought to ensure that governments and national science institutions in six African countries (Congo, Ghana, Namibia, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe) are taking measures to strengthen their national and regional STI policies, governance of STI, and institutions in research and innovation by the Recommendation on Science and Scientific Researchers (RS|SR).
The project is funded by the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) through the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.
Dr Mavis Akuffobea-Essilfie, Senior Research Scientist/Sociologist at CSIR-STEPRI, and Project Team Member speaking during the workshop said the workshop was expected to contribute to enhancing awareness and knowledge about the STI M&E indicators framework to allow the organisations to report on such indicators.
There were presentations on Ghana’s STI M&E Indicators Framework – Human Resource Capacity, Ghana’s STI M&E Indicators Framework – Infrastructure, and Ghana’s STI M&E Indicators Framework – Organisation and Institutions.
Dr Akuffobea-Essilfie appealed to the participants to adopt the indicators and use them at their organisations to help measure the extent of STI development in their organisations and how they were performing in terms of STI development and strengthen the capacities of their various units.
Dr Gordon Akon-Yamga, Head, of Commercialisation, and Information Division, CSIR-STEPRI said, “Now that you have been sensitised on the indicators, we will be coming back to collect data, soon, based on the indicators to assess our STI ecosystem. So, you (participants) will not be new to the indicators. Some of the indicators are such that you can also use them to measure how you are performing as an organisation.”
Participants recommended that the M&E Framework should be widely disseminated to all relevant organisations and stakeholders in the STI system upon the conclusion of the preparation as well as the need for other means to measure the progress in the quality of the STI development.
GNA