Currently, the country is partic­ipating in a programme launched in July 2019 by the United Nations Inter-Agency Task Team (UN-IATT), to prepare the road­map for Science Technology and Innovation for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (STI4SDGs).

The participating countries are Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Kenya and Serbia.

The Director of STI at the Ministry of Environment Science Technology and Innovation (MESTI), Mr Kwamena E. Quaison, announced these at a workshop to build the capacity of a consultative group, made up of members of Swedish Interna­tional Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) -UNESCO proj­ect, in Accra.

It was organised by the Sci­entific and Industrial Research – Science and Technology Policy Innovation (CSIR-STEPRI), in collaboration with MESTI.

Mr Quaison indicated that an important step towards realis­ing the expected output of the project across policy, governance, research and innovation, was to develop a monitoring and evalua­tion framework and methodology, tailored towards Ghana’s national circumstances, needs and prior­ities.

The development of the proj­ect’s framework, he said had been inclusive, with various engage­ments and discussions with its consultative group members.

Mr Quaison said that the STI directorate will oversee the activi­ties regarding the STI monitoring and evaluation framework in col­laboration with responsible minis­tries, departments and agencies.

“The designing of a monitoring and evaluation system is an essen­tial component of not only the STI4SDGs roadmap, but of the other effort at strengthening the national STI system,” he added.

Mr Quaison explained that the roadmap was designed to accel­erate the development of new or adapting existing solutions, to meet the Sustainable Develop­ment Goals targets (SDGs) using STI.

Throwing more light on the SIDA project, he mentioned that, it was also being piloted in African countries: Congo, Ghana, Namibia Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.

He said that measures were being taken to strengthen the countries’ national and regional STI policies, governance of STI and institutions in research and innovation.

The Director, CSIR-STEPRI, Dr Wilhelmina Quaye, under­scored the need for the strength­ening of all STI systems in Ghana to support poverty reduction and achieve the SDGs.

She assured that her out­fit would contribute its effort towards supporting all activities geared towards the development of Ghana’s STI systems.