The Egyptian Academy of Scientific Research and Technology (ASRT) in cooperation with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) recently released an Arabic translation of the UNESCO Science Report: Towards 2030 at the organisation's office in Cairo. The report is a global monitoring report published every five years by UNESCO since 1993 and mapping scientific and technological innovation around the world on a regular basis. Each report is written by experts analysing developments in their countries or wider regions. The latest and sixth edition entitled “Towards 2030” is a 700-page report covering more countries and regions than previous issues, and it is the first to have been produced in a complete Arabic version. It includes a chapter on scientific developments in the Arab countries from 2010 to 2015. The report “summarises developments since 2010 against the backdrop of socio-economic, geopolitical and environmental trends. It also helps to shape contemporary science, technology and innovation (STI) policy and governance,” according to UNESCO. More than 50 experts contributed to it. “Many countries are now incorporating science, technology and innovation into their national development agendas, in order to make their economies less reliant on raw materials and more rooted in knowledge,” the report notes, making it more crucial than ever that it should exist in different language versions. Director of the UNESCO Regional Bureau for Science in the Arab States, the Cluster Office for Egypt, Sudan, and Libya, and the organisation's representative in Egypt Ghaith Fariz told Al-Ahram Weekly that the “UNESCO Science Report is one of the organisation's most important global reports. It reflects the situation of science worldwide, and this edition was the first ever to be published throughout in Arabic.” “The ASRT committed to translate the report, making it available to Arabic readers with all its valuable information and data. This is an enrichment of the library of such materials in Arabic,” he added. “The report presents a comprehensive vision for 2030 as far as science is concerned, and it appears in parallel with Egypt's Vision 2030 for sustainable development. The science report includes numerous studies, results and recommendations. It will be widely read, and decision-makers, researchers and all those working in the scientific fields will benefit from it,” Fariz said. President of the ASRT Mahmoud Sakr said that it was important to translate the report into Arabic for multiple reasons. “One of the ASRT's roles is supporting the Arabic language and promoting Arab culture. Arabic is one of the six official languages of the United Nations, and it is important that such reports appear in Arabic in order to spread the culture of science, technology and innovation as widely as possible throughout the Arabic-speaking community.” Outbound mobility ratio among doctoral students Today, there are some 415 million Arabic speakers throughout the world, and the report's existence in Arabic has made this important publication available to them, he said. “The most important reason for translating the report is to help decision-makers to know the real situation of science, technology and innovation in Egypt, the Arab countries and the wider world. This will allow them to make decisions on a sound and scientific basis.” sustainable development goals TRANSLATING THE REPORT: Translating a report of this length and complexity was not an easy task, however. The Egyptian team was composed of seven translators who spent a year translating the report into its Arabic version. “A large budget was required to do so, and the Arabic version is some 1,500 pages long full of scientific expressions and terminology,” Sakr said. “My colleagues at the ASRT made sterling efforts that are very much appreciated,” he added. “The project would also not have been possible without the Prince Sultan Bin Abdul-Aziz Al-Saud Programme to strengthen the presence of Arabic in UNESCO,” Fariz said. This was launched in 2007 and is sponsored by the Sultan Abdul-Aziz Al-Saud Foundation to promote the Arabic language and Arab culture within UNESCO and throughout the international community. The Egyptian Science, Technology and Innovation Observatory (ESTIO) at the ASRT was responsible for updating the indicators and statistics for the Arab states in the UNESCO report. The ESTIO was established in February 2014 and is affiliated to the ASRT and the Ministry of Scientific Research. It aims to be a repository for science, technology and innovation data and a source of analysis in support of evidence-based policy-making in Egypt. Director of ESTIO Mohamed Ramadan said the “ESTIO is a focal point for the UNESCO Institute for Statistics and the African Observatory of Science, Technology and Innovation. It has many activities on the national and international levels and has supported observatories of science, technology and innovation in Sudan, Libya, Jordan and other Arab countries.” According to the UNESCO report, “the past few years have witnessed major geopolitical changes with significant implications for science and technology in the Arab world, among them the Arab Spring in 2011, the nuclear deal with Iran, and the creation of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Economic Community in 2015. At first sight, many of these developments have little to do with science and technology, but their indirect impact has often been significant.” “In Egypt, for instance, there has been a radical change in STI policy since the Arab Spring. The government now considers the pursuit of a knowledge economy as being the best way to harness effective growth,” the report notes. “All the current national policy documents in Egypt consider science and technology to be vital for the country's future. The constitution adopted in 2014 mandates the state to allocate one per cent of gross domestic product on research and development. It also stipulates that the state guarantees the freedom of scientific research and encourages scientific institutions as a means towards achieving national sovereignty and building a knowledge economy that supports researchers and inventors.” According to indicators in the report, most of the Arab countries' expenditure on research and development (R&D) remains low, however. But “the scientific research community in Egypt has good potential and abilities. Egypt's indicators of publication of international scientific papers in journals are positive. The number of Egyptian scientists and researchers has been increasing,” Sakr said. While “most of the Arab states devote more than one per cent of their GDP to higher education, and many have high gross tertiary enrolment rates for both sexes, R&D intensity has remained low in most Arab states, especially in oil-rent economies where high GDP makes it hard to increase,” the report says. “Gross domestic expenditure on research and development (GERD) as a percentage of GDP remains low in the Arab world. It is hard for wealthy oil-rent economies like the Gulf States to have substantial GERD/GDP ratios, as their GDP is so high.” Scientific specialization in large emerging economies NEXT STEPS: “The weakness in the system has been the contribution of technology to GDP, which is very low in Egypt and the Arab world,” Sakr commented. “The ASRT has begun to deal with this by launching programmes and initiatives in technology, industry and national networking for the transfer of technology.” Deputy Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Amr Adli said the report showed that what was truly important were the indicators used. “Egypt's place among the other Arab countries and in the world as a whole has good as well as weaker points,” he added. “The UNESCO report signals Egypt's sustainable development plan for 2030. The aims of this cannot be achieved without the ASRT,” he said. In 1976, the ASRT launched a scientific magazine in Arabic directed to scientists and the non-expert public alike. It has also worked to bridge the gap between academic researchers, professionals and the business community through the National Programme for Technological Incubators and the Egypt Knowledge and Technology Alliance (E-KTA). The priorities of the ministry include providing Egypt's institutions with qualified scientists in different fields, Adli said. “Science, technology and innovation are part of Egypt's Vision 2030, which aims to place Egypt among the world's 30 most powerful economies in the world by 2030 and raise the living standards and improve the quality of life of all Egyptians.” The existence of the UNESCO report in Arabic would help the ministry to meet such aims. “We look at the new techniques and latest science trends that may be unavailable in Egypt. The ministry is always keen to establish new faculties or offer programmes for these specialties,” Adli said. Scientific research programmes have been implemented to track the development of the sciences in Egypt. “These programmes were funded by the Science and Technology Development Fund in Egypt or through other scientific research programmes,” he said. According to the UNESCO report, a wide range of recent initiatives in the Arab states concerning science, technology and innovation have been in the field of energy. It gives examples like the Zewail City of Science and Technology Project in Egypt, the Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology in the UAE, and the building of Africa's largest wind farm in Morocco in 2014. Some of these achievements in Egypt have come about through increased foreign investment, the report says. “Foreign direct investment increased by seven per cent to $4.1 billion between 2013 and 2014,” it says. “The Sharm El-Sheikh Economic Development Conference organised by the government in 2015 attracted more than 1,700 investors. By the conference's end, Egypt had attracted $36.2 billion in investment, plus $18.6 billion in infrastructure contracts and $5.2 billion in loans from international financial institutions.”
