UNESCO SCIENCE REPORT

UNESCO SCIENCE REPORT
Despite these two high-profile international commitments,
there is little information available on STI policy and
implementation in Equatorial Guinea and, somewhat
ironically, the country does not participate in STI data
surveys. The Web of Science catalogued just 27 scientific
articles from Equatorial Guinea between 2008 and 2014,
placing Equatorial Guinea on a par with Comoros and
Somalia for this indicator (Figure 19.8).
ERITREA
Urgent development challenges
Eritrea faces numerous development challenges.
Just 0.9% of the population had access to internet in 2013
and 5.6% a mobile phone subscription (Table 19.1). There
is also little access to improved sanitation (9%) and clean
water (43%). To compound matters, the population is
growing at one of the fastest rates in sub-Saharan Africa:
3.16% in 2014 (Table 19.1).
Two-thirds of the population worked in the services sector
in 2009. With gold accounting for 88% of exports in 2012
(see Figure 18.1), there is an urgent need to diversify the
economy to ensure sustainability and attract FDI, which
contributed just 1.3% of GDP in 2013. Economic growth
has been erratic, attaining 7.0% in 2012 but only 1.3% in
2013.
The Eritrea Institute of Technology is the main institution for
higher studies in science, engineering and education. The
facilities and capacity of the institute are continually being
upgraded, thanks to largely external funding, although
the Ministry of Education also contributes. The number of
students graduating each year is rising steadily but from a
low starting point. In 2010, just 2% of the 18–23 year-old
cohort was enrolled in university and there were not as yet
any PhD students (Tables 19.3 and 19.4). The number of
Eritrean publications in the Web of Science dropped from
29 in 2006 to 22 in 2014 (Figure 19.8).
The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC),
Eritrean Science and Technology Development Agency
(ESTDA) and National Science and Technology Advisory
Board were all established in 2002. The NSTC is responsible
for the formulation, review and approval of policies but
no specific S&T policy has been published since 2002,
as far as can be ascertained. ESTDA is an autonomous
corporate body with two main objectives: to promote and
co-ordinate the application of S&T for development under
the guidance of NSTC and to build the national capability
for R&D.
ETHIOPIA
An ambitious plan for growth and
transformation
For the past decade, Ethiopia has enjoyed
some of the fastest economic growth in Africa among
agrarian economies. The government is now focusing on
modernization and industrialization to realize its ambition
of turning Ethiopia into a middle-income economy by 2025.
The government recognizes that STI will be a prerequisite for
realizing its Growth and Transformation Plan for 2011–2015.
A government report has since mapped progress over the
first two years of implementation (MoFED, 2013):
n improved crop and livestock productivity and soil and
water preservation through research;
n greater generation and dissemination of geoscience
data and more problem-solving research related to
mining;
n the development of alternative construction
technologies for road-building;
n the start of construction of a national railway network;
n sustainable technology transfer in medium and largescale
manufacturing industries to improve their export
capacity, fostered through privatization and measures
to attract foreign investors: by 2012, this sub-sector
had registered growth of 18.6%, close to the target of
19.2%; there was 13.6% growth in value-added industrial
products by 2012 but export earnings from textiles, leather
goods, pharmaceuticals and agroprocessing have been
disappointing, owing to low productivity and inadequate
technological capability, a lack of inputs and other
structural problems;
n the development of renewable energy, including
through the Ashegoda and Adama-2 wind energy
projects, the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the
Blue Nile and the ongoing development of biofuel plants
(jatropha, caster, etc.) on 2.53 million hectares of land;
n the development of a Climate Resilient Green Economy
Vision and Strategy, as well as the enforcement of
compliance with environmental laws and capacitybuilding
in the mitigation of greenhouse gases;
n the number of tertiary-level students rose from 401 900
to 693 300 between 2009 and 2011; the target is for 40%
of students to be women by 2015;
n a national survey of research and innovation in 2011–2012
found that 0.24% of GDP was being devoted to GERD,
the same level as in 2009. The survey also inventoried
91 researchers per million population;
520