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About SAFIPA

The Government of Finland and the South African Department of Science and Technology (DST) view the investments in research, development and innovation capacity as critical to the successful building of a sustainable information society in South Africa both in a national and regional context.

In order to achieve the overall goal of a sustainable information society, the South African government has identified three strategic objectives:

* human capital development;

* technology research; and

* innovation enhancement.

The South African Government, through the Department of Science and Technology, has actively engaged with the Government of Finland, through the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. While this engagement includes already a number of areas, such as the capacity building in the field of Innovation Policy or provincial information society strategies, the focus of the South Africa – Finland Knowledge Partnership Programme is in the enhancement of immediate service delivery process.

The overall objective of the programme is to support the creation of an environment which facilitates the development and deployment of ICT service applications for the benefit of South African citizens. Thus the programme is addressing the creation and delivery models of ICT based service applications which are suitable for local conditions especially in the most vulnerable parts of population.

This programme provides support in addressing the issues raised in ICT Research & Development Strategy. The long term sustainability of the programme is based on the strong commitment by the Department of Science and Technology to this strategy.

The SAFIPA PMO

Kristiina Lahde - Chief Technical Advisor

Kristiina has a Masters of Science in Engineering from Helsinki University Of Technology (Currently part of Aalto University) in Finland.

She has worked in various roles in the ICT industry in Finland and internationally, from multinationals to SME's, as an account manager, entrepreneur and CEO of an incubator, in sales, HR, logistics, consulting and recruiting to mention a few.

Kristiina relocated from Finland to South Africa for the duration of the programme.

Thiru Naidoo-Swettenham - South African Programme Coordinator

Thiru has a strong background in Science and Technology, formerly as researcher and project leader in Plant Biotechnology at CSIR in Durban and Pretoria for 15 years, and more recently as a development consultant and operations analyst in Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) and ICT for Development (ICT4D) at the World Banks’ office in South Africa.

Her academic background includes degrees in both Science – Chemistry, Biology and Plant Pathology, and Commerce.

Thiru has extensive knowledge and experience in project management and organisational management; monitoring and evaluation; stakeholder and relationship management; strategic thinking and planning; and risk assessment and sustainability.

Cleophas Dzinotyiweyi - Project Manager

Cleophas manages high-profile projects and provides strategic operations support at the CSIR Meraka Institute. His professional experience spans 23 years and includes experience in strategic ICT Management in a vertically integrated mining, manufacturing and trading corporation; project management on a major IT Implementation Project with an international bank; management consultancy with a leading global consulting and audit houses; and hands-on IT Systems Development on various engagements. Cleophas holds a Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Computing Science and Mathematics, a Master of Business Administration (MBA), and is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP).

Lorraine Shikwane - Project Officer

Lorraine has extensive experience in project management and administration, previously gained at SABS as project leader in ISO ICT standards and SANAS as programme administrator for the accreditation of Calibration and Testing laboratories. Previous employment also includes the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) as Committee Coordinator for Professional Boards. Lorraine has a degree in social sciences from the University of the North, and has obtained a Fundamentals of Project Management certificate, a Masters diploma in HR (RAU) and a Management Assistant certificate among others.

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