Addis Ababa — A Senior Experts Dialogue (SED), themed "Science, Technology and Innovation and the African Transformation Agenda: Making New Technologies work for Africa's Transformation", was held in Abuja, Nigeria, from 21-22 July 2014. Organised by the Federal Government of Nigeria and the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the aim of SED was to bring together senior policy makers, technology and innovation experts from academia, the private and public sectors, the international developmentcommunity, other opinion makers (from within and outside Africa), and entrepreneurs to examinecollectively the directions in which Science, Technology and Innovation can be deployed to support and accelerate the African Transformation Agenda and contribute to agreed societal priorities.

The specific objectives of SED were to:

i) highlight the leading issues hindering the development, transfer and diffusion of technologies in Africa; and identify short-term, medium-term and long-term actions to address these issues;

ii) contribute to a deeper understanding of how new technologies and innovation can effectively transform Africa's economies while identifying the impediments to harnessing these technologies and innovation for Africa's development;

iii) facilitate dialogue between African policy makers, researchers and leading academic institutions, the private sector and stakeholders working on STI on the pathways and modalities to accelerate the development and diffusion of technologies in Africa;

iv) build sustainable partnerships among participants in order to advance STI policy making in Africa in general and promotion of right technology application to deal with Africa's multifarious challenges; and

v) Propose a set of actions/recommendations that will guide and inform ECA's future programme of work;

Participants included senior policy makers, technology and innovation leaders from academia, the private and public sectors, the international development community and other opinion leaders from Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ireland, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Senegal, Somalia, Switzerland, Togo, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

The Federal Ministry of Science and Technology (FMST) on behalf of the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria was appreciative of UNECA, the Government and people of Norway and Finland for supporting this dialogue.