3rd East African Community (EAC) Academia-Public-Private-Sector Forum opens in Kigali Featured

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18 July 2012

The 3rd East African Community (EAC) Academia-Public-Private-Sector Forum opened today in Kigali, Rwanda, with a call by His Excellency President Paul Kagame to the stakeholders to redesign and streamline the region's economic development approaches to meet the high expectations of the East African people.

President Kagame, who was represented by his Minister for Education Prof. Silas Lwakabamba at the official opening of the Forum, challenged the Academia-Public-Private Partnership to take advantage of the commitment of the EAC Partner States, as stipulated in Articles 79 and 80 of the Treaty for the Establishment of the EAC, in which the role of innovation is broadly spelt out.

The President urged the participants to borrow a leaf from other global experiences, whereby emerging economies and transition countries have increasingly recognized that knowledge, new technology and innovation were crucial elements for driving systematic and progressive socioeconomic development, and were vital for promoting a country's or region's competitiveness in the international economic order.

President Kagame commended the leadership and the entire Inter University Council for East Africa for their invaluable contribution through the development and implementation of various higher education harmonization strategies, frameworks, guidelines and standards, the impact of which will steer the region into a common higher education area.

The President also commended the Private sector through the East African Business council for playing its role as the key pillar in supporting the socio-economic development agenda of the EA, and in moving the regional integration forward.

The Chairperson of the EAC Council of Ministers, Hon. Phyllis J. Kandie, who was represented by Kenya's High Commissioner in Rwanda His Excellency John Mwangemi said the Forum came at a time when the EAC Partner States had great desire to transform their economies into a knowledge-based which could only be achieved and sustained by the development of a strong innovation system.

The Chairperson noted that there was urgent need to redesign the training curriculum and the way it is delivered so that the education and training systems are able to churn out graduates who are creative, innovative and entrepreneurial.

The Secretary General of the East African Community, Amb. Dr. Richard Sezibera is confident that Academia-Public-Private Partnership will take advantage of the available political commitment and enabling legal framework at the national and regional levels to drum-up and consolidate views of stakeholders to achieve the short and long term goals of the socio-economic development agenda of the Community.

Amb. Sezibera emphasized that the people of East Africa were eagerly looking forward to the impact and outcome of this partnership to transform the regional economies; promote industrialization and improve the livelihood of the common citizens.

The Chairperson of the East African Business Council, Mr. Felix G. N. Mosha noted that a new paradigm calls for effective interaction between Universities and the private sector to put East Africa in the main stream of technological revolution that would enable SMEs and large corporate entities alike to generate and use knowledge in order to achieve their innovative potential.

Mr. Mosha said collaboration between the private sector and the academia was an effective, practical and realistic way to carry out such development work, in addition to building the region's innovation capacity and intellectual capital.

The Executive Secretary of the Inter-University Council of East Africa (IUCEA) Prof. Mayunga Nkunya, disclosed that the Forum was geared towards coming up with practical strategies for implementing academia-public-private partnership platforms in the EAC to spur socio-economic development.

The delegates attending the Forum are drawn from the EAC Secretariat and Institutions, heads of higher education institutions, national commissions and councils for higher education, and national commissions and councils for science and technology, government institutions and ministries, international organizations, NGOs, academicians, students, private individuals, businessmen, media and stakeholders in academia and the private and public sectors in the Partner States.

The IUCEA, East African Business Council (EABC) and East African Development Bank (EADB) have jointly organized this year's Forum under the theme: "Harnessing East Africa's Innovation Potential". 

 

Prof. Silas Rwakabamba, Amb. Sezibera and HE Mwangemi tour the Exhibitions
Prof. Silas Rwakabamba, Amb. Sezibera and HE Mwangemi tour the Exhibitions

Notes to Readers:

In 2011, the IUCEA and EABC entered into a partnership aimed at providing the point of connection between knowledge and human resources produced by higher education institutions in the region on the one hand, and the dissemination of the same to the private sector for their eventual diffusion into the productive, social and service sectors on the other.

The partnership focuses on (i) enhancing linkage between the private sector and higher education institutions; (ii) promoting the utilization of higher education research output and innovations by the private sector/business community; (iii) promoting consultative engagement in curriculum and research development and implementation; and (iv) jointly organizing dialogue forums and exhibitions.

The first Forum was dubbed "Higher Education Forum and Exhibitions", in Arusha, Tanzania in October 2012 followed by  "Academia – Private Sector Partnership Forum" in Nairobi, Kenya on 24th – 26th October 2013, during which time the East African Development Bank (EADB) joined in as another partner.

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J.N. Ssekazinga

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