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STI Indicators and links to STI policies

South East Asian Regional Workshop on Science, Technology and Innovation StatisticsHanoi, Viet Nam

5-8 December 2011Simon Ellis

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Science, technology and innovation (STI)

STI universally recognised now as one of the main drivers of economic growth…

… and therefore of poverty reduction as well

Governments should aim to harness the benefits of STI

Hence the need for a national STI policy

Integrated in the overall national strategic plan

Coordinated between the various actors that have a stake (e.g. Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Higher Education, etc.)

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The need for monitoring

Monitoring and benchmarking is critical in assessing, implementing and evaluating policy

If you don’t know where you are, how do you know in which direction you need to go?

Policies often include targets: need for (statistical) measures to assess progress

• E.g. Lisbon target (3%)

• China: 2.5% by 2020

• CPA: 1% in Africa

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STI policy, evidence/data needed: indicators to tell a story

Do I need to invest in R&D or in Higher Education?

• Better know how much you are investing already

• What is a convenient and relevant measure?

• % of GDP? Number of graduates?

In which areas should I invest predominantly?

• In which areas am I already investing?

• Which are important economic sectors, in mining, agriculture, industry, services, etc?

• Which are crucial public sectors, and what are national or regional peculiarities? (health, environment, utilities, defense,…)

Do I need to improve quality of higher education or research?

• Better know how you compare to other countries

• Are there sufficient links of universities and institutes to industry?

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Some examples – UNESCO

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Some examples – EU

The EU innovation Scoreboard is "an annual assessment of innovation

performance in the individual Member States of the European Union.

It was an explicit request of the European Council of Ministers meeting

in Lisbon in March 2000

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Some examples – OECD

Innovation strategy

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Some examples – AU/NEPAD

The ASTII Initiative is a programme in the Africa’s Science and Technology Consolidated Plan of Action (CPA) (adopted in 2005) by the African

Ministerial Conference on Science and Technology (AMCOST), resolving “to

establish an inter-governmental committee comprising of relevant

national authorities to develop, adopt and use common indicators to survey

and prepare an African Science, technology and Innovation report”.

http://www.nepadst.org/doclibrary/pdfs/african_innovation_outlook_2010.pdf

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Some examples – Latin America

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Thank you!

http://www.uis.unesco.orgs.ellis@unesco.org