Editor's note
Science, technology and innovation (STI) are among the primary drivers of economic growth, job creation and socioeconomic reform in South Africa. But are we fully benefitting from the potential of STI to help address our socioeconomic problems? The 2019 White Paper on Science, Technology and Innovation emphasises the need for a focus on inclusivity, policy coherence, budget coordination, and creating an enabling environment for innovation. This includes supporting local innovation systems and developing human capabilities. To move forward, we need to keep abreast of STI activity in various formal and informal economies in the country, continuously refining our measurement tools to be locally applicable.
In 2001, the HSRC’s Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators (CeSTII) was established to support this research and monitoring. The centre conducts national research, development and innovation surveys on behalf of the South African Department of Science and Innovation, producing national indicators and analyses as a basis for international comparisons and to inform policymaking.
In this edition of the HSRC Review, we feature a selection of articles that profile some of CeSTII’s projects and expertise. We start with an article that demonstrates how STI measurement and the development of new indicators can provide evidence for innovation aimed at some of the country’s most demanding challenges – for example, food and nutrition insecurity. Recent work includes the baseline South African Agricultural Business Innovation Survey, 2016–2018 and the Survey of Innovation in the Informal Economy.
Some of the other articles look at the importance of research-and-development (R&D) investment in the manufacturing sector and the efforts of three state-owned enterprises to gear up research, development and innovation. Based on a 2017/2018 baseline survey, researchers also describe innovation in the informal sector in Sweetwaters, KwaZulu-Natal.
Commemorating World AIDS Day on 1 December, this edition also features two articles on HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, conditions overshadowed by the COVID-19 pandemic but still counting among South Africa’s most serious health challenges. Andrea Teagle writes about an HSRC paper on the feasibility of the universal test-and-treat approach to manage the HIV epidemic. She also speaks to the HSRC’s Dr Sizulu Moyo about the results of South Africa’s first national tuberculosis survey, which was commissioned by the Department of Health.
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