Protect intellectual property rights to stimulate economic devt - Report
A capacity and needs assessment of Ghana’s science, technology and innovation (STI) policies has identified the need to protect and enforce intellectual property rights (IPR).
This is to help stimulate the investment and innovation needed for economic development.
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The assessment identified the lack of enforcement and promotion of IPR as a major disincentive for researchers to engage in the patenting and appropriation of their innovations.
“There should be consistent reviews of IP policies to accommodate modern trends and dynamics to support the industrial sector.
Policy implementation should also be promoted as a dynamic process in line with the national development goals and objectives,” a former Director at the Science and Technology Policy Research Institute (STEPRI) of the Council of Science and Industrial Research (CSIR-STEPRI), Dr George Owusu Essegbey, said at a validation workshop in Accra on March 10, 2022.
It was organised by the CSIR-STEPRI in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI), as part of the UNESCO-Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) funded project on “Strengthening STI Systems for Sustainable Development in Africa.”
The project is designed to strengthen national and regional STI policies, in accordance with UNESCO’s 2017 recommendation on science and scientific research (RS&SR), in six selected countries including Ghana, Sierra Leone, Congo, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Namibia.
The RS&SR is a standard-setting instrument that was adopted by member states in 2017 that serves as a checklist to ensure that societies responsibly use knowledge from all fields of science (natural, social, and human), protect scientific researchers' rights and working conditions, and provide adequate financial and institutional support to scientists.
STI components
At the event which also deliberated on a draft report of Ghana’s STI capacity needs assessment (CNA), it emerged that the key components of STI capacity include Infrastructure, human resources, organisations and institutions.
Dr Essegbey said that overall, Ghana has made some concrete STI achievements that demonstrate the UN’s ideals of human dignity, progress, justice, peace, welfare of humankind and respect for the environment.
These, he said, include the setting up of related STI establishment for R&D, human resource development and STI applications in sectors of the economy.
Speaking at the workshop, the Country Director of UNESCO, Dr Abdourahamane Diallo, said science and scientific research were the new initiatives to support the new agenda launched in 2019 by UNESCO to accelerate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
He commended Ghana for being the first project beneficiary to deliver a baseline report on the country's implementation of UNESCO's 2017 RS&SR.
This report is one of the deliverables required to assist participating countries in effectively monitoring the 2017 RS&SR, which serves as a benchmark against which a country's STI system will be evaluated as well as a framework for targeted policy support.
He, however, said there was the need for more in-depth consultations by experts to analyse information and carefully assess strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats relative to global standards.
Objectives
The project, which will support policies and institutions that implement the 2017 RS&SR in all its dimensions, will aid research and research-based tertiary education, reinforce policy design and implementation to deliver the SDGs and create robust STI ecosystems.
It will also deliver innovative and effective funding instruments that provide adequate funding levels and options for research at the national and regional levels.
The project also intends to pursue and enhance policies which coordinate higher educational strategies in line with development needs and priorities, particularly those of young researchers.