University scientists in Cameroon have had their pay cheques increased by over 40% over two years. I was told this by the vice-chancellor of the University of Buea, Vincent Titanji, during lunch today.

Amid the gloom of the tales coming out of African universities about how they are facing uncertainty as a result of the financial crisis, this comes as a ray of sunshine.

Apparently, the government of Cameroon has decided to spend part of the money it “received” as a result of two major debt write-offs on health, engineering and teacher education. How very wise!

Titanji’s university is also getting a whole new faculty for health sciences with two specialised laboratories.

The payrise has stabilised the university sector, says Titanji. People are happy in their jobs now, and the institutions work harmoniously.

It is too early to evaluate the impact of the programme. But it is reminder that there are many possible sources for funding for S&T if a government is serious about supporting it.

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In other news, Mohammed Hassan, executive director of TWAS, has been away from the conference today. For a good reason, we are assured. He has supposedly been to see South Africa’s president Jacob Zuma who has been awarded TWAS presidential medal.

We hope he will take a photo

Linda Nordling, SciDev.Net

School Children in Cameroon. Photo credit: Flickr / emeryjl

TropIKA.Net, the web portal of the WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR), is also reporting from Bamako 2008 with a homepage devoted to the meeting. They’ll be providing technical reports and background reading, interviewing key speakers, producing daily reports summarising each session and blogging throughout the conference. http://www.tropika.net/svc/home/bamako2008

Bringing together various ministers of health, science, research and higher education along with researchers, nongovernmental organisations, civil society representatives, funders, the private sector and others for a three-day conference in Mali’s capital city of Bamako was definitely a Herculean task to begin with.

Add to that an Air France pilot strike the exact weekend the conference began, and it’s a wonder that the organisers didn’t have a collective nervous breakdown.

But despite the potential logistical chaos for delegates travelling via Paris and an hour’s delay in the opening ceremony, there was no confusion whatsoever among the organising partners of Bamako 2008 on what they feel needs to be done in research for health.

While research into the prevention and treatment of diseases is a no-brainer, there was an equal emphasis on research into health delivery systems so that governments have the scientific evidence on which to make informed decisions on health policies.

The next challenge, as stated in WHO director-general Dr Margaret Chan’s speech, is to get these political leaders to pay attention to these research results and incorporate them into all governmental policies and departments (not just health) to achieve health equity.

So will the ministers at least aim to listen more to researchers? We await the Bamako Call to Action on Wednesday.

Shiow Chin Tan, SciDev.Net