African Centre for Technology Studies

African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS) is an intergovernmental non-profit organization, founded in 1988 by Calestous Juma FRS[2] in Nairobi, Kenya, promoting policy-oriented research on science and technology in development that is sustainable in terms of the economy, society, and the environment.[1] It was the first African non-profit organization to combine policy research, science and technology.[2]:6

African Centre for Technology Studies
AbbreviationACTS
MottoKnowledge for better livelihoods
Formation1988[1]
FounderCalestous Juma FRS[2]
Founded atNairobi, Kenya
TypeThink Tank
PurposeTo strengthen the capacity and policies of African countries and institutions to harness science, technology and innovation for sustainable development.
Location
  • United Nations Cres, Nairobi, Kenya
Key people
Cosmas Milton Obote Ochieng PhD., Director[3]
Websitewww.acts-net.org/

History

Founded in 1988, ACTS was a pioneer in development research on innovative development policies related to applied science, technology, and innovation.[1][2]

ACTS research influenced policies on industrial property legislation and policy in Kenya, environmental impact assessment standards in Eastern and Southern Africa, biofuels and bio-energy in Kenya, Eastern and West Africa. ACTS has also influenced policies across Africa on issues such as climate change adaptation and mitigation, agriculture, biotechnology, biodiplomacy, and biosafety.[1]

Affiliations

ACTS is a member of the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data (GPSDD), which includes 150 data producers and users working towards sustainable development focusing on data that informs research ending extreme poverty and addressing climate change. The Canadian, Colombian, French, Ghanaian, Italian, Mexican, Moroccan, Nigerian, Philippine, Senagalese, United Kingdom and United States' governments are member-states of the network.[4]

Awards

In 2013, ACTS was named as one of the top Environment Think Tanks globally.[1] In 1991 the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) honored ACTS for its contribution to expanding the knowledge base for development in Africa with the Justinian Rweyemamu Prize, named after Tanzania’s first major economics scholar, Justinian Rweyemamu.[1][2]:6

Community-based actions

ACTS policy researchers engage with local communities to encourage communities to reflect on and learn from their own coping mechanisms when faced with flood-prone areas. They then choose best practice adaptations and develop long-term proactive strategies for flood mitigation which might include crop diversification.[5]

Selected publications

ACTS published the groundbreaking study by Harvard professor, Calestous Juma[6] and J. B. Ojwang entitled Innovation and Sovereignty: The Patent Debate in African Development.[7] Juma directs the Harvard Kennedy School's (HKS) Agricultural Innovation in Africa Project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.[2]

In his 1993 article, in which he examined legal processes regarding access and tenurial issues in regards to group and individual pastoral natural resource management in Turkana in Kenya, focusing on tree rights, Edmund G.C. Barrow made a case for indigenous property rights.[8]

References
  1. "Who we are", ACTS, nd, retrieved December 23, 2016
  2. Calestous Juma (PDF), November 2012, p. 27, retrieved January 22, 2017
  3. Cosmas Milton Obote Ochieng (2008). "Comparative capitalism and sustainable development: Stakeholder capitalism and co-management in the Kenyan fisheries sub sector". Natural Resources Forum. 32 (1): 64–76. doi:10.1111/j.1477-8947.2008.00168.x. Ochieng examines the Kenyan fisheries sub sector - using the production ofObamo made from tilapia, a dried fish, as an example of sustainable development
  4. Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data, United Nations, 2016, retrieved December 23, 2016
  5. In conversation with… Elvin Nyukuri, African Centre for Technology Studies, African Centre for Technology Studies, May 16, 2011, retrieved January 22, 2017
  6. "List of Fellows".
  7. Calestous Juma; J. B. Ojwang (1989). Innovation and Sovereignty: The Patent Debate in African Development. Nairobi: African Centre for Technology Studies. ISBN 9966410007.
  8. Edmund G.C. Barrow (1993), Calestous Juma; John Mugabe; Norman Clark; Walter Reid (eds.), Tree Rights in Kenya: The Case of the Turkana (Part 1), Nairobi, Kenya: Biopolicy International, African Centre for Technology Studies via Bioline International, pp. 1–23, ISBN 9966-41-046-5, retrieved January 22, 2017"This issue of Biopolicy International was published in conjunction with the World Resources Institute (WRI). Financial support included the Finnish International Development Agency (FINNIDA), the Swedish International Development Authority (SIDA), the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), Initiatives Ltd., the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), The World Conservation Union (IUCN), Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), Swedish Society for the Conservation of Nature (SSCN), and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Ochieng, C. (2007). Development through positive deviance and its implications for economic policy making and public administration in Africa: the case of Kenya agricultural development, 1930-2004. World Development 35: (3) 454–479.

Ochieng, C. (2007) Re-vitalizing African agriculture through innovative business and organizational arrangements: promising developments in the traditional crops sector. Journal of Modern African Studies 45 :( 1) 143-169.

Ochieng, C. (2007) The EU-ACP economic partnership agreements and the development question: opportunities and constraints posed by Article XXIV and special and differential treatment provisions of the WTO. Journal of International Economic Law 10: (2) 363-395.

Ochieng, C & Houdet, J. (2015) eds. Responsible Exploitation of Natural Resources for African Development. ACTS Special Issue Paper Series 001. ACTS Press, Nairobi

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