Moses Mulondo
24 September 2007
Kampala — THE World Bank has urged the Government to ensure that the $30m earmarked for the science project is effectively used.
The five-year World Bank-funded project, dubbed 'Millennium Science Initiative' (MSI), will be co-financed by the Government.It is aimed at boosting Uganda's level of science and technology
The project will fund science and technology development activities, including training and research.
Speaking on Friday at Serena Hotel in Kampala during the closure of the Science Week, the bank's country representative, Michael Crawford, said a successful MSI project needed regular monitoring and evaluation of how the funds are used.
He urged the implementers to influence researchers to produce tangible results based on innovation and hard work.
Crawford asserted that the science and technology sector was pivotal in engineering an industrial revolution and economic development.
The MSI caused a rapid science and technology growth in the South American countries of Chile and Brazil, where the project was first implemented in 1998.
The guest speaker, Prof. Luiz Castro from Brazil, said before the MSI project was introduced, his country was contributing 0.8% of the world's science and technology, but it now contributes 2%.
Castro, who is the secretary for the Brazilian ministry of science and technology, advised Ugandans on how best to cause significant progress in science and technology.
"Donations will not cause a significant impact. Uganda needs to come up with an ambitious policy for funding science and technology initiatives through internally-generated funds," Castro argued.
He revealed that the Brazilian government had injected over $1b into the science sector last year. Castro urged the Ugandan Government to take similar steps.
"This is not a rhetoric talk, I am talking facts. Just try to find out the billions of dollars developed countries like USA and Japan inject in science and technology. You cannot sow where you did not reap. Nothing in life should be feared; it should only be understood," the professor of generic engineering said.
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