United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in partnership with the Minister of Information, Communications, Science, Technology and Innovation (MICSTI) held Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) conference where innovators will pitch their ground breaking ideas.
When opening the conference, Minister of Information, Communications, Science, Technology and Innovation, Ms Nthati Moorosi, shared her deepest gratitude to UNDP for bringing the event to life.
“The theme for the conference is ‘Global Science For Global Wellbeing’,” she indicated. She mentioned that when developing things, science has been at the forefront of everything.
“Innovation is not just an idea, it is a way of helping change the world,” added Ms Moorosi, highlighting that this is the conference for the top 100 innovators who were chosen among the 200 innovators who were selected.
“The 100 innovators will pitch their ideas, and only the best 30 will be chosen to participate at the Sebabatso Youth Connect Summit that will be held in Rwanda,” she continued.
She also mentioned that as the Ministry they will implement the 2023 – 2024 policy.“ The policy aligns with UN SDGs three (3), four (4), seven (7), nine (9), ten (10) and 11,)” Ms. Moorosi stated.
On the other, Dr Jacqueline Saline Olweya, UNDP Resident Representative, indicated that this is the second year UNDP holds the conference in Lesotho.
“There were 600 submissions in 2023, while there were 1944 submissions in 2024,” she mentioned. She also added that with these year’s submissions they include disabled people and older people.
“We have 144 disabled participants and people by the age of 84 years participating,” said Dr. Olweya.
Similarly, the Principal Secretary (PS), MICSTI, Mr Kanono Ramashamole mentioned that the Ministry has started digital transformation and digital business.
“Some of the ideas provided by these innovators will come out alive and help provide jobs,” he said. When concluding, he expressed hope that the innovations will be incubated.
Source: Lesotho News Agency (LENA) 09/09/2024
