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Islamic countries 'dragging their feet' on science plan Wagdy Sawahel Scientists and
policymakers have urged the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference
(OIC) to speed up the implementation of a ten-year plan, adopted in 2005, to
promote science and technology in the Muslim world (see: Islamic states urged to follow 10-year science plan). At a forum on the
implementation of the 'Makkah Declaration', held last week (1–3 September) in
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the country's prime minister and chairman of the OIC,
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, said that in the 20 months since the plan's adoption,
"we have not been able to move significantly beyond the preparatory
planning and coordination stages". Delegates at the forum
heard that to successfully implement the OIC's science plan, the Islamic world
needs to promote investment in research and development, improve its scientific
workforce, increase its science budget, reform educational institutions, combat
brain drain and set up a committee to monitor and evaluate the plan. Badawi outlined five
points to prevent the plan from "gathering dust on the shelves of
history", including sustaining collective political will, developing human
capital, allocating adequate resources and promoting partnership with the
international community. Ahmed Abdullah Azad,
from Brac University in Bangladesh, told SciDev.Net that there is an urgent
need to set up an advisory and implementation committee made up of scientific
leaders in different disciplines from OIC member countries. He also called for
efforts to focus on niche areas of science where OIC countries have existing
strength in the establishment of centres of excellence and the encouragement of
multidisciplinary collaboration. Such moves could help collaborative research
groups compete for major international grants, he said. Tun Musa Hitam,
chairman of the World Economic Islamic Forum Foundation, says implementing the
Makkah Declaration action plan requires the participation of OIC institutions
as well as the private sector. He adds that there are
many stumbling blocks — including bureaucracy and corruption — which slow
government implementation of the plan. Ali Abdel Gadir Ali,
deputy director general of Kuwait-based Arab Planning Institute, called upon
each Muslim country to reform their educational institutions and spend one per
cent of gross domestic product on research and development. Average spending in OIC
countries is 0.38 per cent compared to an average of 2.3 per cent in the rest
of the world, he says. http://www.scidev.net/news/index.cfm?fuseaction=printarticle&itemid=3884&language=1 |
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