DPMN Bulletin: Volume X, Number 4, November 2003

Objectives of Phase III of the S&T Dialogue Forum

The main objective of Phase III is to consolidate and build on the project's achievements to date. The enthusiasm of the S&T working groups, parliamentarians, senior policy makers and other stakeholders is presently very high and needs to be sustained at this level. More stakeholders need to be brought on board to build on this momentum.

The specific objectives of Phase III of the S&T Dialogue Forum are:

a) To strengthen, through training workshops and seminars, the capacity of S&T Dialogue Forum members in drafting S&T plans and programs. IDEP will provide backstopping. The Project Director and other local resource persons will incorporate a training component to seminars conducted at Provincial level.

b) To elaborate on the Draft National S&T Policy document into a full plan with implementation strategy and sectoral programs of action. It may be noted that, the limited capacity of the participants involved in preparation of the draft S&T policy document as well as lack of prior experience in drafting policies, were the initial concerns of our team. The eventual outcome surpassed expectations. As a result of consensus among the Forum members and with the concurrence of the Minister of Higher Education and Technology, the Broad policy document only incorporated elements of an S&T plan and strategy.

c) To develop S&T monitoring and evaluation capacity among stakeholders;

d) To broaden the membership base of the S&T Dialogue Forum and continue with the dialogue to keep the momentum going;

e) To institutionalize the relationship between the S&T Dialogue Forum with the policymaking structures of the country by lobbying for the formation of a science and technology subcommittee of the National Economic Consultative Forum (consisting of members of the S&T Dialogue Forum);

f) To build upon the S&T database with assistance from IDEP that was initiated during the last phase of the project.

Activities of Phase III

To achieve the above objectives, the following activities will be undertaken:

National Dialogue to Launch Phase III

A national dialogue will be conducted to launch phase three of this project. At this launch, the program of activities for the following two years will be presented, refined and elaborated in detail, including identifying who will be involved in what activities and when. This occasion will also be used to review progress of the Dialogue Forum, particularly the adoption by Cabinet, of the S&T policy framework drafted in the previous phase.

The launch will be done by the Minister of Higher Education who will "unveil" the activities of the S&T Dialogue Forum for the following two years and the expected outcomes of those activities, from Government's perspective, particularly the S&T Action Plan, when and how it will be implemented and the expected role of the S&T Dialogue Forum in implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

High level dignitaries who will be present during the launch will include the following: Chairperson of the Research Council of Zimbabwe and Council members, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Zimbabwe and the Pro-Vice Chancellors, the Scientific Liaison Officer in the Office of the President, some members of the Parliamentary Budget Committee and a representative of Provincial Governors.

Other participants will be senior policy makers and technocrats from line Ministries, members of Provincial Development Committees, academics from the University of Zimbabwe, National University of Science and Technology and other tertiary institutions, representatives of R & D institutions, the private sector, the labor movement, S&T related NGOs and civil society orga
nizations and other S&T policy stakeholders.

A total of 70 participants is planned for.

Provincial Seminars - Round 1

The first round of Provincial seminars will be conducted to:

a) Launch phase III at the provincial level;

b) Disseminate/present the S&T policy framework drafted in the previous phase;

c) Mobilize support for the adoption by Cabinet of that policy framework, if that has not occurred by that time; and

d) Work out modalities of how provincial chapters of the S&T Dialogue Forum will be involved in phase III activities, particularly in drafting the National S&T sectoral plans.

The seminars will also start to address areas of concern to particular provinces that they feel should be addressed in the sectoral S&T plans.

The provincial seminars will be officially opened by the Provincial Governors / Resident Ministers. They will be jointly organized by S&TPDF - Z and Ministry of Higher Education and Technology, with the assistance of the office of the Provincial Administrator (Ministry of Local Government). The Minister of Higher Education and Technology will be represented by a very senior official from the Ministry, who has already been assigned to work closely with the S&TPDF - Z. The Director of IDS will grace each provincial seminar.

Participants in provincial seminars will consist of members of the Provincial Development Committees, who are drawn from provincial representatives of different line ministries, District Administrators, local Members of Parliament, provincial chapters of Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries, Chamber of Commerce, Trade Unions, Indigenous Business Development Organization, Farmers Union, Miner's Association, R&D institutions and tertiary institutions where present.

An average of 45 participants is expected in each provincial seminar.

S&T Training Seminar

The S&T training seminar will be jointly organized by the United Nations Institute for Economic Development and Planning (IDEP) and S&TPDF - Z in accordance with article 1.1 of the two institution's Memorandum of Cooperation. The objective of the training seminar is to build capacity among members of the S&T working groups in the area of S&T planning, management, monitoring and evaluation of S &T programs.

Participants will be drawn from Central Government line ministries, Provincial Development Committees, S&T policy researchers, R&D institutions, the private sector and other stakeholders. Graduates of this training seminar are expected to play a leading role as resource persons or consultants in the drafting of the National S&T Action Plan and activities that will follow thereafter.

Participants from R & D institutions and the private sector will contribute to development of their organizations on the basis of knowledge acquired in the seminar, in addition to contributing to the drafting of the S&T Action Plan. They will also serve as focal points for effective linkages between the S&TDF - Z, Government and the private sector, in promoting private sector financial contribution to sustain this exercise, after having appreciated the extent to which the private sector can benefit from the exercise.

Participants from Government will be involved in the drafting of sectoral S&T plans as elaborated in section 4.4 below. These will be the line Ministry focal points to liaise with the Ministry of Higher Education and Technology, when it comes to co-ordination and implementation of the S&T Action Plan.

Around 30 participants will be involved in this training seminar.

Drafting of the National S&T Action Plan

Resource Persons

Two resource persons will be involved in drafting each sectoral S&T plan and all of these will have participated in the training seminar referred to in 4.3 above. There will be one consultant and one policy maker from the relevant line Ministry. The consultant will have final responsibility over the quality of output and timely delivery. The policy maker will contribute by facilitating access to official documents and arranging for meetings between the consultant and senior government officials as well as contributing to the intellectual content of the sectoral plan by commenting and making concrete suggestions along the way.

S&TWG Meetings - Round 1

The purpose of this round of S&TWG meetings will be to commission the work of the consultants who will do the initial draft of the sectoral S&T plans. This will involve discussing the terms of reference for the consultants and elaborating on them to meet sector specific requirements. The training seminar referred to in 3.2 above will have developed a broad outline of the expected contents of the national plan, which will constitute an aspect of the broad terms of reference for the consultants. The meetings will give guidance to the consultants on issues that are pertinent to the sector and suggestions on sources of important data that may be required and individuals or institutions that may need to be consulted.

Members of the working groups consist of S&T policy researchers, representatives of private sector at management level and R&D institutions at directorate level, policy makers at Assistant Secretary level, S&T related NGOs and other stakeholders. At least one representative from the provincial chapters will be included in each working group.

The project director, an official from MoHET and other resource persons who will be involved in putting together the sectoral plans into a single comprehensive S&T Action Plan will attend all the meetings of the seven working groups.

In-house Ministerial Seminars

These will be held to discuss the first drafts of the sectoral plans within each relevant ministry. The policy maker, assigned to work with the consultant, will be responsible for arranging the in-house seminar. An official from MoHET and the project director and/or deputy director will attend all the in-house ministerial seminars. More resource persons may attend, depending on the extent to which a particular line ministry will want the seminar to be "in-house".

These in-house seminars are important for each line ministry to acquire ownership of the relevant aspects of the S&T Action Plan and integrate them into their operations to ensure commitment and smooth implementation.

S&TWG Meetings - Round 2

S&T working groups will meet to review the draft sectoral S&T plans. Each provincial representative in working groups will be responsible for collecting all the sectoral draft S&T plans for distribution among members of the provincial chapters.

Integration of Sectoral S&T Plans into Single Document

Three resource persons will be involved in this exercise including the project director who will lead the team.

The integrated S&T Action Plan will be sent to IDEP, if acceptable to the Ministry of Higher Education Technology( MoHET), for detailed comments and suggestions.

Provincial Seminars - Round 1

The purpose of this round of provincial seminars is to present the integrated National S&T plan in order to solicit final comments from provincial chapters and build national consensus in the process. The importance of this round of seminars is that it is also a process of lobbying for Cabinet to adopt and implement the S&T Action Plan. These seminars will receive extensive media coverage including television coverage. In addition, broad involvement is important in national consensus building and ownership of the S&T plan, which is important for implementation purposes.

The seminars will also strengthen provincial chapters of S&TDF - Z that will be interested in seeing the S&T Action Plan being not only adopted, but also implemented. The decentralization exercise currently going on in Zimbabwe also means that provincial planners will play an important role in implementing the S&T plan.

National Dialogue to Finalize and Adopt the National S&T Action Plan

This will be a high level seminar very crucial for adoption of the S&T Action Plan by Cabinet. It will involve senior policy makers at the level of Permanent Secretary from various line ministries and those policy makers that were involved in drafting the sectoral S&T plans as well as other stakeholders.

The seminar will be jointly organized by the Ministry of Higher Education and Technology and S&TDF-Z, with technical backstopping provided by IDEP. To ensure uninterrupted serious discussion, the seminar will be held outside Harare, preferably at Victoria Falls.

His Excellency the President of Zimbabwe or the Vice President will officially open the conference and the Minister of Higher Education and Technology will make a keynote address. Other dignitaries at the opening session will include the National Planning Commissioner and other Cabinet Ministers, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Zimbabwe, some members of the Parliamentary Budget Committee, some Provincial Governors and resident representatives of international organizations such as the World Bank and UNDP.

Other participants will be the authors of the sectoral S&T plans, representatives of provincial chapters, the private sector and other stakeholders. A total of 50 participants are planned for.

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^*Benson M. Zwizwai (M.Sc.) is currently Acting Deputy Director of the Institute of Development Studies, as well as Director of the Science and Technology Dialogue Forum. He is also National Coordinator for the Zimbabwe Chapter of the African Technology Policy Studies (ATPS).