Date/Time
Date(s) - 15/02/2024
8:30 am - 10:00 am
Location
Stanhope Hotel
Categories
The Science Diplomacy Capital for African (SDCfA) platform, an initiative of the South African Department of Science and Innovation (DSI), hosted at South Africa’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) invites to a briefing on its activities and related partnership opportunities with Europe, to take place in Brussels on Thursday 15 February 2024 from 08:30 to 10:00, at the Stanhope Hotel (Rue du Commerce 9.)
The SDCfA seeks to initiate and support dynamic partnerships between Africa’s largest diplomatic community, accredited in South Africa’s capital city Tshwane (Pretoria) and the science and innovation organisations in South Africa, including pan-African regional and continental bodies hosted in South Africa. The SDCfA’s activities are targeted towards achieving the following strategic objectives:
- Supporting international research and innovation partnerships especially those focused on the Sustainable Development Goals – the platform for example plays an enabling role in supporting South Africa’s participation in the Horizon Europe Framework Programme through the European South African Science and Technology Advancement Programme (ESASTAP);
- Promoting “Open Science” and a vibrant debate on the role of science in society, especially with regard to science diplomacy and the contribution of science in responding to global challenges – the platform for example hosts the annual Science Forum South Africa (SFSA), which first organisation in 2015 was partly inspired by the Euro Science Open Forum (ESOF); SDCfA will also in 2025 support Africa’s first hosting of the World Conference of Science Journalists (WCSJ 2025); and
- Harnessing an African input into global policy reflection and development, as well as capacity-building, with regard to science diplomacy, including through regular collaboration with major international science diplomacy actors such as the Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator (GESDA).
The briefing will consist of a background presentation on the SDCfA by Ms Vinny Pillay, currently Chief Director at the South African Department of Science and Innovation, and its former Representative in Brussels. This presentation will be followed by a reflection by the Director-General of the Department of Science and Innovation, Dr Phil Mjwara, on the strategic importance of leveraging synergy between science and economic diplomacy, one of the goals of South Africa’s new Decadal Plan for Science, Technology and Innovation. The programme will conclude with practical science diplomacy insights from Ms Eudy Mabuza, whose career, before her current deployment as the Department of Science and Innovation’s Representative in Brussels, included a similar assignment in Japan and serving as Chief of Staff to South Africa’s Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation.
Breakfast refreshments will be served to permit networking and partnership-building.
Register to attend: https://www.africasciencediplomacy.org/presenting-the-sdcfa-in-brussels/
