EDWIN NAIDU
CABINET has approved the final version of the STI Decadal Plan, and implementation is already underway, focusing mainly on tackling grand societal challenges and addressing priorities, such as climate change and environmental sustainability, according to Department of Science and Innovation Director-General Dr Phil Mjwara.
The plan aims to address:
- – Societal grand challenges: Climate change and environmental sustainability; future- proof education and skills; and the future of society.
– STI priorities: Modernising sectors of the economy (manufacturing, agriculture and mining); new sources of growth (the digital and circular economies); health innovation; energy innovation; innovation-enabled capable state; and innovation in support of social progress.
Mjwara told the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education, Science and Technology last Friday that the National Development Plan sees human capital development as central to addressing South Africa’s unemployment, poverty and inequality challenges.
Transformation was pivotal to the plan. To this end, he said A Department of Science and Innovation task team had been established to co-create a robust, evidence-based transformation agenda for the next ten years.
Furthermore, he said the team would seek to identify reforms and actions to be implemented by the DSI and its entities over the 2020-2025 cycle to enhance transformation outcomes.
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