Islamabad: (Parliament Times) The Commission on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in the South (COMSATS) will hold its Fourth General Meeting this year on April 14, 2020 in Accra, Ghana. The Meeting has been convened by the President of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, as the Chairperson of COMSATS, which is an inter-governmental organization based in Islamabad having 27 Member States from the developing world. The Heads of States/Governments having COMSATS’ membership will participate in the General Meeting of the Commission. The Commission will deliberate upon socio-economic challenges being faced by the member states in order to find means to overcome these challenges through science and technology. This high level meeting will result in determining future direction and courses of action in the form of collaborative projects and programmes.
Concurrently with the General Meeting of COMSATS, President of
Ghana, who is also Co-Chair (along with Prime Minister of Norway) of the
UN Secretary General’s Sustainable Development Goals Advocates and member
(along with 13 other Heads of States/Governments) of the High-Level Panel for a
Sustainable Ocean Economy, has convened the “Accra Forum on Science &
Technology for Sustainable Development”, on the 15th April, 2020.
The idea of the Forum emerged as a result of
discussions of a COMSATS’ delegation with officials of United Nations
Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) to create a platform for promoting
the role of science & technology in meeting the SDGs. This led to holding
of an event in November 2018 during the Global South-South
Development EXPO at UN Headquarters in New York in which there was
consensus that COMSATS should have a leadership role in establishing a
networking mechanism to promote South-South Cooperation in science and
technology.
The Forum will identify challenges and mechanisms to strengthen
scientific and technological capacity pertaining to implementation of SDGs. It
will be an instrument for facilitating interaction, establishment of networks
and multi stakeholder partnerships in order to promote S&T cooperation,
capacity development and to examine technology needs and gaps. It will give an
opportunity to COMSATS’ member countries to improve their capacity in meeting the
SDGs.
The Accra Forum will work under the patronage of the President
of Ghana as Chairperson of COMSATS and develop partnerships with international
institutions engaged in promoting role of science in implementation of the SDGs
and building global collaboration for sustainability. This will enhance status
of Pakistan-based COMSATS which took the lead in this initiative as a major
science and technology institution of the Global South in realization of the
2030 Development Agenda.