We stand at a civilizational crossroads. As artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing and synthetic biology reshape the global order, Africa faces a defining choice: will we be the architects of our own destiny or merely tenants in a future designed by others?
This is not a theoretical question. In the 20th century, the colonial economy was built on the extraction of raw materials. In the 21st century, the new frontier of extraction is data, talent and genomic information. Nations that merely consume technology, providing raw data and labour while importing finished, value-laden products, risk becoming the digital-age equivalents of colonies. This precarious future is what economist Yanis Varoufakis terms ‘techno-feudalism’, where a new class of ‘cloudalist’ lords dominates global value chains within closed digital ecosystems. The only way to avoid this fate and secure our sovereignty is through a deliberate, assertive strategy of proactive science diplomacy and engaged research. This is not optional; it is existential.
The strategic imperative: Moving from the periphery to the core
For too long, Africa has been on the periphery of global multilateral systems, often reacting to agendas set elsewhere. Science diplomacy is Africa’s strategic approach to change this. It allows us to enter negotiations not with a list of needs but with a portfolio of assets: our unique biodata, critical minerals for the energy transition, deep tech talent and vast living laboratories for climate adaptation solutions.
Africa’s goal must be to leverage these assets to negotiate for co-ownership of intellectual property (IP), not just technology transfer. The World Trade Organization is no longer just about tariffs on goods; it is the arena where the rules of digital trade, data flows and IP regimes are written. Without a robust science diplomacy strategy, African trade agreements could lock us into a new form of digital dependency, compromising our digital sovereignty before we even have a chance to build it.
Beyond rhetoric: Building a practical agenda with BRICS and the AU
Grand platforms mean little without concrete action. While BRICS is often discussed in geopolitical terms, its most tangible value for Africa could be as a scientific and technological commons. While the existence of the BRICS Think Tanks Council is a positive platform for cooperation, we need to do more, considering the scale of Africa’s challenges and opportunities. BRICS members must move beyond the Think Tanks Council and advocate for a BRICS-wide research council with pooled funding for grand challenges. Imagine a ‘CERN for the Global South’, focused on pandemic preparedness, drought-resistant crops or equitable AI governance. This requires mutual recognition of qualifications and shared research infrastructure, turning political alignment into scientific power.
Similarly, the AU must evolve from a convener to a catalyst. The STISA-2024 strategy, while a comprehensive and visionary continental framework for science, technology and innovation (STI) in Africa, exhibits notable gaps and challenges in terms of implementation progress. These undermine its full potential to harmonise regulations, enable researcher mobility and create a continent-wide market for innovation.
The STISA-2024 strategy faces several key challenges in its implementation:
- Member states and regional economic communities vary widely in their infrastructure, human resource capacity and organisational readiness, leading to uneven ability to adopt and benefit from the strategy across Africa.
- Funding remains a critical bottleneck. Although mechanisms like the African Development Bank’s science diplomacy fund exist, member states have largely failed to contribute sufficiently, restricting resources for essential STI programmes and infrastructure.
- Implementation progress is slow, with few flagship programmes launched and inadequate coordination between national, regional and continental levels. Monitoring and evaluation systems require strengthening to ensure effective tracking and accountability.
- Policy and institutional misalignment prevails, as many states lack cohesive frameworks to domesticate and operationalise STISA-2024 fully, resulting in fragmented efforts rather than a synchronised continental approach.
Towards stronger alternatives: Anticipatory leadership and governance
To build towards an integrated and functional framework akin to an ‘African Science, Technology and Innovation Union’, significant shifts in leadership, governance and policy integration are needed:
- Anticipatory leadership: African STI leadership should embrace forward-looking strategic foresight to anticipate emerging technological, social and economic trends. This enables proactive policymaking to prevent fragmentation and rapidly adapt to evolving innovation ecosystems, driving continental STI cohesion and competitiveness.
- Anticipatory governance: Instituting governance frameworks that are flexible, collaborative and risk-aware allows the AU and member states to harmonise regulations, streamline researcher mobility and foster collaborative innovation spaces across borders. This approach would prioritise systemic coordination and multi-stakeholder engagement.
- Integrated funding mechanisms: A reformed and enforced science diplomacy fund with mandatory member state contributions, supplemented by public–private partnerships and international cooperation, would bolster financial sustainability and African knowledge sovereignty.
- Comprehensive STI market creation: Policies must foster a seamless market for innovation across Africa by integrating patent and IP rights, standards harmonisation and infrastructure connectivity to attract global partnerships and investments.
From R&D to D&R: Deploy, refine and unleash investment
The old model of research & development (R&D), where solutions are developed in isolation and then handed down, is failing. Africa should shift to D&R: deploy and refine. Engaged and participatory action research means co-creating solutions with industry and communities from the very start. A farmer-centric approach to agri-tech, for instance, ensures adoption, creates a ready market and de-risks investment for manufacturers and venture capital. Africa needs to build the market in the gap and not fill the gap in the market.
This creates a powerful virtuous cycle. Every rand invested in local D&R has a massive multiplier effect – the ‘knowledge sovereignty dividend’. It keeps our brightest minds on the continent, mitigates the African brain drain, creates high-value economic and career pathways and ensures solutions are tailored to our unique contexts. This is not an expense; it is the bedrock of our economic resilience.
The ultimate question: What kind of economy are we building?
Yet, to truly harness science diplomacy, Africans should answer a deeper question: what kind of future are we building? We cannot use the tools of the future to simply recreate the failed economic models of the past.
- Do we want to continue with the neoliberal, austerity-driven economics that have given us the highest inequality on earth, undervalue care work, see nature as an externality and view public investment in science as a cost to be cut?
- Is the alternative a state-led capitalist model that trades certain freedoms for socio-economic stability and top-down technological advancement?
- Or do we aspire to liberal capitalism, which offers political freedom but is proving profoundly unstable, sustaining deep inequalities under the guise of meritocracy?
I propose a fourth path: an African Ubuntu-based wellbeing economy. This is not a pipe dream but a necessary evolution. What if our goal was not just GDP growth, but collective holistic flourishing?
- What if our economic metrics valued environmental regeneration, community health and knowledge creation?
- What if our industrial policy was based on circular material flows and energy generation with reduced environmental footprints, making our core regeneration our competitive advantage?
- What if, instead of aiming to catch up by leapfrogging – with its sudden changes that overlook local capacities – our science diplomacy prioritised radical incrementalism? This approach would achieve systemic transformation through strategic, interconnected small steps that embrace complexity and ethics.
This is the profound role of science diplomacy: to provide the approaches, tools, partnerships and sovereign capability to build transformative futures. It is the organism for achieving strategic autonomy. Science diplomacy is not just meetings; it is the D&R lab for this new African economic paradigm. It is where we experiment, iterate, and prove what is possible.
Let us be clear: the objective is not to use science to fit into a broken global system. The objective is to use it to build a better one, from right here in Africa. We have the vision, we have the assets and we have the imperative. Now, we must have the courage to invest, collaborate and architect our own destiny. The future will not wait for us.
This think piece is based on a talk given by Dr Deon Cloete, on invitation by the HSRC, at DIRCO head offices on ‘Engaging Futures: Bridging Research, Policy & Diplomacy’, launching the 2025 Engaged Research Conference & Science Diplomacy Summer School on 26 August 2025.
