New opportunities in a changing landscape

Kathryn Strachan

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African countries are at a turning point, where they have an opportunity to invest in research capacity and ‘leapfrog’ over research institutions in other parts of the world.

This was the optimistic message from Val Snewin, international activities manager for Britain’s Wellcome Trust, who was addressing a session of Forum 2012 on the topic of developing research capacity.

Snewin said that, in light of the recession in Europe and the United States, and set against positive economic growth in Africa, a new opportunity presented itself for African research capability.

Getting fitter: new opportunities are opening up for health research in Africa (Credit: Flickr/Oxfam)

“The world is shifting on its axis here,” she said. “But very few national governments are stepping up and engaging with it. We need political will, and for governments to invest in research capacity, where they can afford it.”

Two examples were Ghana and Tanzania, both of which were showing commitment to creating research and innovation.

Rene Loewensen, of EQUINET in Zimbabwe, said that a changing landscape, in which countries were being encouraged to take charge of their own health research agendas, also brought an opportunity to shift the paradigm of how research is carried out.

Previously the focus had been on building capacity in research institutions in universities, she said. Now there was a need to extend this research to a broader context.

Placing research capacity in the community and in health services would enable it to be more responsive to the needs of both the community and the country.

“It allows us to look at the real world, rather than at theoretical issues,” said Loewensen.

But this new focus on community and multidisciplinary research had also brought new challenges, such as how to keep track of quality in a rapidly changing field.

Yogan Pillay, deputy director general of the South African health department, said that policymakers were increasingly recognising the importance of research, but were now seeking an answer to “how to make it happen”.

The questions they faced were around the implementation of research results, and scaling them up to make a wide impact.

Kathryn Strachan is a freelance health and development journalist working in Johannesburg.

This blog post is part of our Forum 2012 coverage — which takes place 24–26 April 2012. 

Declarations, dancing… but will the Forum deliver action?

Ochieng’ Ogodo
Sub-Saharan Africa regional news editor, SciDev.Net

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In an evening of a cosy buffet and free flowing drinks, many at the Forum’s conference dinner discussed Africa’s love of conferences and the lack of implementation of their outcomes.

Kenya’s Minister for Higher Education Science and Technology, Margaret Kamar, who was the host, could have not been more apt in terming the continent “a sleeping giant with tons of declarations with nothing being done to fulfil them.”

And she said she hoped that at the end of the Africa Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation that scenario would change.

“I hope tomorrow will mark the end of declarations for Africa and we must translate these outcomes into development,” she said.

She had some food for thought for the delegates, that unlocking the continent’s potential won’t come from meetings and resolutions but on the ability of her people to wake up the giant and give it the much needed push to development.

“It’s time for science, technology and innovation in Africa and there is no short cut. We must do it. We want solutions that will work. Practical solutions for practical problems,” Kamar said.

The dinner was also a chance for delegates to relax after a long day’s deliberations, with African beats belching out from big speakers.  There was talents galore in footwork, and some very intricate and rare dance steps.  It was a reminder that everyone there, irrespective of their stations in public life — academics, diplomats, and even journalists like me — have many other gifts… including dancing.

Nonetheless, Kamar’s remarks echoed what has been said in many other places, at other meetings in other posh hotels, where excellent declarations have been made that rarely translate into tangible solutions for Africa’s people, the majority of whom are trapped in abject poverty.

Africa can only come unstuck with a paradigm shift, not business as usual.

We are now waiting to see how — and whether — this Nairobi meeting that had at its theme the promotion of Youth Employment, Human Capital Development and Inclusive growth will contribute to bringing about real change.

A new scientific landscape – and countries that don’t fit in

Romain Murenzi: "Progress uneven"

Although the world is witnessing the emergence of new scientific powerhouses such as Brazil, China and India, the least developed countries are being left behind, the World Science Forum in Budapest, Hungary heard today (17 November).

Progress  (or otherwise) that emerging countries have made, and the rise in global collaborations in science and technology (S&T) have been the main threads of the talks at the forum so far.

Romain Murenzi, executive director of TWAS, the academy of sciences for the developing world said: “The progress that has been made is undeniable. But it has also been uneven”.

We must remember that our goal should be to build scientific capacity in all countries, he said, “in ways that enable science to become a global enterprise in the truest sense of the word”.

“Just six countries in the developing world account for more than three quarters of the scientific articles published in peer-reviewed international journals authored by scientists from the South,” he said.

He told SciDev.Net on the sidelines of the forum that some 2 billion people living in 81 developing countries that are scientifically lagging are still not seeing the benefits of growing global science.

These countries, mainly from Africa and the Islamic region, have been left behind in this new landscape, he said.

“The North-South gap in scientific capacity is narrowing on a global scale. But the country-to-country gap remains as wide as ever. A bi-polar world in science has become a multi-polar world in science. The age-old problem of yawning disparities between scientifically advanced and scientifically lagging countries persists – only in a different configuration.”

He sees part of the solution in more scientific collaboration and exchange between emerging countries and least developed ones. Students from lagging countries can now get the same quality science education in the emerging countries of the South as they can in the North but for less money. And those emerging countries benefit from the original points of view these students bring with them and the knowledge they create that stays in the host country.

 Mićo Tatalović, deputy news editor, SciDev.Net

Africa: poor but rich

Science can change Africa?

Informal settlements (commonly known as shacks) in South Africa do not only mirror poverty, or the government’s struggle to provide basic amenities for its people, they are also a sign of a potentially great resource – they are a recruiting ground for future scientists. This is the view of Barry Green, director of the African Institute of Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) based in South Africa.

Africa's main resource - its people - must be properly trained. Credit: Flickr/US Army Africa

Green said Africa has much potential. But it remains untapped as its main resource – its people – need to be properly trained to define their future.

In its efforts to change this, AIMS has been offering post-graduate study to Africans in mathematical sciences. It is also expanding its learning institutions across the continent.

Science is a formidable force that can improve the fortunes of Africa but it needs to be pursued with relevant policies and support, Ochieng Ogodo, SciDev.Net news editor for Sub-Saharan Africa, told the session.

In terms of innovation Africa is not putting new products on the market. Climate change is already wreaking havoc on the continent and water access was a huge problem.

Ogodo said the solution lay in African home grown science solutions. But, long and hard as the road to scientific emancipation might seem in Africa, the key message from the session was that locally credible research and appropriate policies were critical to turn fortunes of a rich but poor continent.

Munyaradzi Makoni, SciDev.Net contributor in South Africa

Africa must stop looking to the West for malaria funding

Ochieng’ Ogodo
Sub-Saharan Africa regional news editor, SciDev.Net

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Africa should stop continually looking to the West for funding to deal with the malaria menace. The solution could be discovered from within if a few rich Africans would turn to philanthropy and team up with governments that currently do little, to build strong partnerships at home, a South African researcher said today.

“The question today is what are African governments and the rich individuals in the continent doing to build partnerships that could have far-reaching positive implications in the fight against malaria,” said Kelly Chibale of the Department of Chemistry and Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine at the University of Cape Town in South Africa.

He said African research institutions should not always hold out begging bowls for money from organisations in the West, such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Africa must investigate smart technologies to fight malaria. Credit: Flickr/US Army Africa

But it is not just research funding that is needed. There’s also the need to create capacity and use smart science to defeat the age-old disesase.

“There are technology gaps that need to be fixed to enable Africa focus on different strategies in the fight against malaria,” he said.

Chibale who is currently working together with a team of researchers on a single dose  drug candidate for malaria, said the road to drug discovery was long and expensive and Africa needed to investigate smart technologies such as those that use computer models to explore the response of the human body to a drug, to get a hit.

ASADI 2010: Improving energy access in Africa

Can Africa afford to go for renewable energy? Credit: Flickr/PRI's The World

It is time for another African conference here on the SciDev.Net blog.

Next week, the African Science Academy Development Initiative (ASADI) descends on the sleepy seaside town of Somerset West, about an hour’s drive from Cape Town. The theme of the conference, ASADI’s sixth, is ‘improving energy access in Africa’.

The conference will hear about the state of energy access in Africa. Did you know that 70 per cent of the continent, or nearly 600 million Africans, lack access to electricity? And that nearly half of its power generation capacity belongs to South Africa?

Clearly, Africa’s energy revolution can’t come fast enough. But the continent has many choices to make. Can it afford to go for renewable energy? For South Africa with its coal reserves, dirty energy has been cheapest. But with climate change knocking on the door and green technology emerging as a growth market, renewables are becoming more competitive.

Already, there is progress on the renewable energy front in Africa. Kenya is looking to wind to power its grid, and South Africans are putting solar panels on their roofs to cut their rising electricity bills. The conference will give my blog co-pilot, Munyaradzi Makoni, and myself the opportunity to investigate these, and other, successes in more detail.

What can scientists do to make their voices heard in African energy policymaking? What are the benefits – and risks – of expanding nuclear energy in Africa? Can ‘smart’ grid technology help to curb the continent’s voracious energy appetite? Keep checking in for updates on these questions and many, many more.

Linda Nordling, SciDev.Net columnist

Science commercialisation should be the new mantra: Dzinotyiweyi

Heneri Dzinotyiweyi (MDC)

Zimbabwe’s minister for science and technology development Heneri Dzinotyiweyi wants Africa’s scientists to adopt a new mantra of commercialisation of their research — indeed, devote about 20 per cent of their science efforts in commercialising and ploughing back the returns into research and development. This was his message at the ministerial round-table on India-Africa science collaboration on Tuesday (19 October).

For so long the buzzword at both national and international fora has been ‘capacity building’ on the continent.  Which is all very well, Dzinotyiweyi, a TWAS fellow and former mathematics professor at the University of Zimbabwe, told me and Danny Schaffer from TWAS last night. But by now African scientists have some degree of ‘capacity’ in some science sectors at least, both within the country and among its diaspora. “What is missing is that we do not see significant transformation of our economy despite this capacity building in science”, he said.

“We are now in an era where we should seek to get immediate benefits, especially market benefits [of research],” he added.

Dzinotyiweyi also suggests a reverse thinking on science investment and national wealth as measured by gross domestic product (GDP). Policymakers are used to thinking in terms of percentage of GDP devoted to investment in science. “If we seriously address commercialisation of science and technology, we can tell on a year-to-year basis how much [a nation's] GDP has grown due to commercialisation of S and T.”

Dzinotyiweyi uses diamonds as an example. There is nothing so complex about diamond processing techniques that African scientists cannot master and emerge as major players in the international markets, he said.

So far so good. But as India’s experience — a rise in GDP but fall in global hunger index — shows, developing countries still need to go a long way to ensure a more sustainable development that ensures a more equitable distribution of economic gains.

T V Padma, South Asia Regional Coordinator, SciDev.Net

TWAS comes to India

Welcome to the blog from the 21^st General Meeting of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS), in Hyderabad, India.

So is this yet another developing countries’ meeting on their science struggles? Not exactly. The mood is upbeat, as several developing countries that have witnessed enormous changes in science since TWAS held its first meeting in Trieste in 1985 can testify.

Take Hyderabad, for example. A somewhat sedate city when TWAS was founded over two decades ago, Hyderabad today is host to cutting-edge biology institutes such as the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology and Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics; and a global biotechnology and information technology hub. Brazil, China, Rwanda and South Africa have similar success stories to tell.

TWAS meetings are changing too.

Their initial major goals were to provide a forum where scientists from the developing world could discuss critical issues of common concern and showcase their science, and to create a bridge between scientists and science policymakers.

 

TWAS's 1st international conference on 'South-South and South-North Cooperation in Sciences' (5-10 July 1985)

 

The second TWAS meeting was held in Beijing, with 150 participants from 50 countries. The Beijing meeting featured in Nature as one of a handful of scientific meetings in the second half of the 20th century that had a significant impact on scientific discourse.

TWAS 2010 will have 350 participants from 54 countries. The emphasis is shifting to strengthening the research–policy interface, expanding South-South collaboration and on the work of young scientists. There is growing concern, too, that discussions need to focus more on countries and scientists that have yet to fully participate in the growing scientific capabilities of developing countries.

India’s prime minister Manmohan Singh will open the meeting, followed by an Africa–India ministerial round table. Other key developing countries’ concerns on the agenda include tuberculosis, typhoid vaccine and zinc deficiency. And there is other exciting science stuff — I personally like the sound of munching black holes (yummy!) and growing galaxies.

SciDev.Net blog will be updating you daily,  so please watch this space.

T V Padma, South Asia Regional Coordinator, SciDev.Net

What’s next for RISE?

The RISE conference ended at midday today and by now everybody is on their way home. After all the discussions and presentations that have taken place over the past week, one question remains: What is next for the RISE programme?

The answer is, hopefully, more of the same. The RISE networks are nearing the end of their first 2.5 years of funding. It is very likely that its funders will approve another 3-year term to see current students through their degrees and to recruit new students when others graduate. This will be ‘Phase 2′ of the programme, and won’t involve a great expansion of the number of students being trained.

What comes after may be different. Phase 3 is currently envisaged as a move towards a more long-term sustainable funding model, based on partnerships with other sources of support. This will not least include African governments, whose commitment will be vital to taking the programme forward.

But for now it is bye-bye Benoni, and goodbye from us bloggers.

Linda Nordling, SciDev.Net columnist

 

Seaweeds of Zanzibar, herbal STI treats of Samburu, Malawi’s drought proof tea

Irene Kamanja

RISE has given students an opportunity to present their work and the work is impressive.

And, indeed, the bag of research from students is mixed. One project that came up yesterday was the distribution and nutritional composition of selected sea weeds that are used as marine fishing baits in basket traps in Zanzibar.

Grace Mutia of the Western Indian Ocean Regional Initiative wants to know the nutritional properties of seaweed and why parrot fish, a common local food source, choose them. The aim is to isolate and produce a fish-attracting chemical that will reduce seaweed demand and improve the lives of local fishermen.

Irene Kamanja from the University of Nairobi, under the African Natural Products Network, wants to establish an inventory of plants and formulations used to manage sexually transmitted diseases in Kenya’s Samburu community, 324 kilometres north of Nairobi. One hopes results will come out on the efficacy and toxicity of the priority plants used by local people to treat STI’s.

Malawians can now benefit from draught tolerant tea. Pelly Malebe of the Southern African Biochemistry and Informatics for Natural Products network, at University of Pretoria told me they have managed to identify drought tolerant genes for tea grown in Malawi. Hopefully improved quality life is assured for small farmers that will replace old tea cultivars with drought.

And Secilia Ilonga of the University of Namibia hopes her research into indigenous plants compounds that can treat cancer could help bring about safe and effective treatment in future.

This is just about the briefest pick of the vast research on offer by RISE students. They deserve best wishes.

Munyaradzi Makoni is a freelance journalist