HOW TWO PERCENT OF THE GDP WOULD BE UTILIZED IN RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT

The parliament approval of 2% GDP annually allocation to the Science, Technology and Innovation (ST&I) sector is a boost to the sector that will fast track the transition of the country into a knowledge based economy.  This is such a noble and timely decision by the Government that will place our country in the same league if not ahead of the fastest developing middle income economies such as Malaysia and South Korea which were at the same level like  Kenya in the1960’s. This calls for serious thinking on strategies on implementation. I would expect the researchers to conduct research that will have positive impact on issue of food security, health, environment and industrilization. Equally, we must do cutting edge basic research to contribute to knowledge at national and international level.

For Kenya to leverage on ST&I for socio-economic impact there is need to heavily invest in two crucial areas, namely quality skilled human capacity building and cutting-edge research infrastructure development, such as in areas of health (malaria, cancer), agricultural sciences including the biotechnology, renewable energy, engineering, marine science and space science, just to mention a few. The ST&I can only drive the achievement of the Vision 2030, if is well developed; with adequate well trained technical human capacity to work in our industries and adequate postgraduate training to drive the research and innovation agenda in our research institutions, universities and industries.

It has been indicated that this more that what the sector needs. In my opinion the two percent is very seasonable in support of the sector that cuts across all sectors, and also being the foundation of V2030. Take for example, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for the EU countries propose for at least 3% of GDP to be allocated to R&D. We must remove skepticism on the use of these resources. Kenya’s GDP is  approximately 36.1 billion US dollars which translates to about 63 billion Kenya shillings according to the current exchange rates.

An over view of the national ST&I landscape reveal that Kenya has about 15 public research institutions and 22 public universities and around 50 public technical institutions. These institutions need to be fully supported in terms of building modern research facilities to enable them conduct meaningful research and contribute to competitive R&D for national development.  Most of these research institutions apart from those supported by international agencies such as ILRI and ICIPE, lack cutting edge facilities significantly denying the scientists working in these facilities the opportunity to do quality research that leads to innovation and even discovery. Besides, inadequate research funds to allow them explore the broad world of basic and applied research.

On the other hand, it is important to note that some of the reasons behind brain drain include lack of adequate Grants for research and not very attractive remunerations for scientists and researchers. Conducting research requires massive investment with good pay packages to the scientists if they have to devote all their time to research.  In Kenya, the total annual university research budget hardly exceeds 20 million Kenya Shillings in most of universities. The story is almost the same in our public research institutions which almost entirely depend on donor collaborators for their research support. Take for example, Kenya Medical Research Institute, while their budget is about 7Billion annually, developing partners pump in 6Billion.

The National Research Foundation yet to be established will cater for research and capacity building needs for the Research Institutions and Universities in the country. It is therefore a glaring truth that if the research institutions and  universities have to be provided with adequate research infrastructure, Kenya would need even more funds as we expand to develop the facilities in these institutions before addressing issues of research funding and capacity building.  

The number of applications received by NCSTI for the ST&I grants indicates that there is a growing interest by Kenyans to conduct research. For example, in the last call focused on projects in “Water, health and sanitation”, 207 applicants expressed their interest for the 15 million Kenyan shillings grant.  If it were possible to fund all the applicants, it would cost about 3.1 billion Kenyan shillings for one year only. This is besides the other research support given to Women researchers, PhD and MSc students, Post doctorates as well as support for innovations, Research facilities and Symposia and Conferences.

It is important to appreciate that for Kenya to leapfrog and catch up with the best in the world, we need to heavily invest in ST&I. The move by the Government to allocate 2% annual GDP to the sector is not only laudable but the right step towards actualizing the Vision 2030 and making Kenya a knowledge-based economy. We however must be pragmatic in our planning and prioritization.  The NCSTI is committed to ensure that these resources will be put into good use through a mechanism in which institutions will identify their competitive niches and grow into centers of excellence through Government facilitation from the allocation so as to minimize duplication and wastage of resources and maximize on output and societal impact. Given their geographical and regional spread, our universities and research institutions, will open up counties and allow exploitation of indigenous resources in all parts of the country through R&D.