Angeyo H. Kalambuka
13 May 2008
opinion
Nairobi — LAST NOVEMBER I ATTENDED the World Science Forum in Budapest, Hungary, where I met Patrick Amuriat.
Mr Amuriat, the chairman of Uganda's Parliamentary Committee on Science and Technology, was among the many MPs who had attended the forum because of its special session organised by Unesco namely; Investing in Science, Technology and Innovation: Challenges and Opportunities for Parliaments.
He asked me why no MP from my country was in attendance. I asked him why he was not attending the African Ministerial Conference on Science and Technology (AMSCOT III), which was simultaneously taking place in Mombasa. AMSCOT's main objective was to discuss the implementation of the Africa's Science and Technology Consolidated Plan of Action.
When he admitted that he had not heard of that meeting, I owned up that in my country we did not yet have a Parliamentary Committee on Science and Technology.
As news of House committees continues to dominate the media indeed there is one important Committee one never hears about - Committee on Science and Technology. The Committee on Education, Research and Technology can never perform exactly the function of this committee.
This does not necessarily mean that these other committees do not themselves also address matters with a major Science and Technology element, for example, defence technology matters will invariably be examined by a defence committee.
The problems of developing an overview and legally regulating the many processes of modern society are enormous. It has become necessary for institutions of governance to map and understand better a host of new institutional arrangements for technology transfer and diffusion, research and development, and higher education, among many others, in order to evaluate and take responsibility for their impact and consider their applicability.
Recent debates and controversies at many parliaments across the world on genetically modified foods, human cloning, genetic testing and therapy, new information technologies, desertification, or global warming are all striking examples of the increasing difficulties that Parliament faces.
UNFORTUNATELY, OUR PARLIAMENT is not evolving to deal with such a complex array of problems, processes and new developments. We have no specific structure for addressing science and technology - i.e. a complete lack of any structural parliamentary recognition of the area.
This does not, of course, mean that Parliament does not give any attention to science and technology - this may be done through other committees, or through more generally established procedures, such as parliamentary debates, questions, etc. However, we need recognition of a distinctive and overarching need to address science and technology that is met by creating a dedicated function of one form or another - frequently referred to as a technology assessment (Ta) function.
To date, such systems have been created only by parliaments in Europe and North America. For example, the German Bundestag has such a service through its Büro für Technikfolgen-Abschätzung beim Deutschen Bundestag (TaB), but it also has a conventional parliamentary committee, the ausschuss für Bildung, Forschung und Technikfolgenabschätzung, (committee for education, research and technology assessment), which determines TaB's work programme.
A committee on science and technology would enhance the country's capacity to handle policy issues related to science and technology innovation.
By sharing information with other parliaments, such a committee would not only help MPs examine such issues effectively, but also support one of the primary objectives of Parliament: to promote public knowledge and understanding of the work and role of Parliament.
The writer teaches physics at the University of Nairobi
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