Academy of Science South Africa 2005/6 Annual Report

Programme 3ASSAfidea” might also have a role to play in the development of Africa.It was fortunate for ASSAf that the ASADI delegation that visited seven of the existing African scienceacademies found in South Africa an impressive receptiveness, on the part of the principal governmentdepartments and agencies that were visited, of the notion that ASSAf might become useful to them asan independent, authoritative source of evidence-based advice on key problems for which they neededpolicy-driven solutions. This, taken together with the commitment of the Academy Council to a nationalrole for the Academy that would transcend the purely honorific focus of traditional academies, led toASSAf being chosen as one of USNA’s three “intense partners” in ASADI, with funding of USD 1,5 millionover 5 to 7 years within a framework of annual reporting and review. The South African project was alsoembedded in the larger design of a collaborative developmental project for all of the seven participatingAfrican national science academies. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), complete excepting for anASSAf Strategic Plan to be generated and approved after the first year of the partnership) was agreed andsigned by both partners, together with a formal USNA-ASSAf contract. The first funds arrived from theUSA on the initiating day of the partnership, 5 July 2005.In summary, the task of building ASSAf’s capacity to serve South Africa in ways that resemble thosein which, for example, the USA is served by the US National Academies, amounts to taking forward anorganisation that in the first 10 years of its existence has produced only one national advisory report, islargely unknown or unrecognised in the ranks of government officials dealing with policy issues, andhas been pre-occupied with establishing itself in a highly problematic historical setting.Planning ProcessDeveloping the “Year One” Workplan and budgetDrawing up an annual Workplan and associated budget is a contractual requirement for ASSAf to receivedfunding from USNA in each year of the partnership. Using the provisions of the MoU, the approach was todesign the Workplan as a series of specific activities. For each of these it was necessary to generate an equallyProf Chabani Manganyi (MASSAf)Represents ASSAf in the International Human RightsNetwork of Academies and Learned SocietiesAnnual Report 2005/0633