The Africa Union (AU) has called on member countries to formulate policies that would place value on science and technology, encourage their development and ensure sustainability for the development of the continent.

"The link between science and society in Africa is presently weak, with only a few citizens able to appreciate the value that they can derive from science enterprise," Nagia Essayed, Africa Union (AU) Commissioner for Human Resources, Science and Technology, was quoted as saying by Ghana News Agency Friday at the Second Africa Ministerial Conference on Science and Technology in Dakar.

The conference organized by AU and New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) is discussing the preparation of a draft resolution, the validation of a plan of action as a blueprint for work and financing mechanisms for projects and programs.

Essayed suggested that policies should ensure that the human resources to sustain lined up programs were developed and called for the need to promote the study and teaching of science in schools in a more improved and attractive way.

Mosibudi Mangena, Minister of Science and Technology of South Africa, said Africans should be innovative and initiate their own programs like the developed countries to avoid over-reliance on them for things that they could have done in Africa themselves.

He said Africans continued to die of poverty and hunger when answers to those problems could be found through the application of science and technology, adding: "this is the time for us to be more innovative and solve our own problems."

The Senegal Minister of Scientific Research, Yaye Kene Gassama urged Africans to use their expertise, make science and technology the driving force of development and build Africa's integration on science and technology.

She urged science ministers in Africa to use the meeting as a turning point to meet the goals of NEPAD and the Millennium Development Goals.

Source: Xinhua