Fifth African Science, Technology and Innovation Forum Will be Held in Niger

December 20/2022/ENA/ The fifth African Science, Technology and Innovation Forum will be held from 26 to 27 February 2023, in a hybrid format, in Niamey, Niger under the theme: “Accelerating development and diffusion of emerging technologies for a green, inclusive and resilient Africa.”

The Forum is co-organized with UNESCO, the African Union Commission and the Department of Science and Innovation of South Africa.

Other key partners include the Technology Bank for the Least Developed Countries, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the African Materials Research Society and the African Biomedical Engineering Consortium.

The Forum is designed to fulfill both global and continental mandates, according to UN Economic Commission for Africa.

While all the Goals will receive equal attention, the Forum will lay a greater emphasis on Goal 7 affordable and clean energy given that almost half of the continent’s population has no access to electricity and the continent greatly relies on biomass that provides about half of its energy needs.

The overall objective of the fifth African Science, Technology and Innovation Forum is to conduct the regional follow-up and review of progress made, in order to identify potential mechanisms and measures that countries can deploy to scale up actions, facilitate peer learning and advance transformative solutions to accelerate achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and the goals of Agenda 2063.