The Challenge of Catching Up. Malagasy youth, like their African counterparts, face a uniform reality: they lag significantly behind the rest of the world in science, technology, and innovation. "This gap depends largely on political will; secondly, it can also result from economic fragility. But these elements are complementary," said an official from the Ministry of Youth and Sports yesterday during the launch of the national training workshop for the African Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators Initiative (ASTII), held at Ankorondrano headquarters until July 1st.
Faced with this technological and structural gap, a genuine breakthrough is now essential. Bridging this divide represents a major challenge requiring sustained efforts to realize development ambitions on the ground. Youth are Madagascar's primary asset, as they are for Africa.
Following this training, an initiative led by Auda-Nepad — Office of Science, Technology and Innovation (OSTI), in partnership with the African Union, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and Sweden, will establish an observatory. This observatory would produce all necessary data to measure potential progress in science, technology, and innovation, as well as the evolution of future opportunities for young people.
This training workshop aims to strengthen the capacity of Malagasy national actors in collecting, analyzing, and using research, development, and innovation indicators, serving national STI policy and continental and global reference frameworks.