African scientists need to leave their Ivory Towers

NAIROBI – Elite science institutions in Africa must do more to ensure their research is put to practical use against agricultural, health and other problems, and the continent’s governments must invest more in research if they want to develop, officials say.

Mohamed Hassan, president of the Nairobi-based African Academy of Sciences, said such institutions too often do little more than bestow honours on their members. “Science academies in Africa can no longer afford to be private men’s clubs,” Hassan said during a two-day meeting on scientific research in Africa that ended yesterday.”Instead, they must assiduously seek to become more active members of their societies, measuring their success not by their service to their members but by their service to their scientific communities, governments and the public at large.”Hassan and others were gathered to discuss how they can get more of their research to be used by governments and how they can increase their collaboration in order to tackle research subjects more effectively.”Science academies in Africa must work together both to learn from one another and to better address such critical regional issues as agricultural productivity, access to safe drinking water, improved sanitation, and research-based measures to address the HIV-AIDS pandemic,” Hassan said.Only 13 of Africa’s 53 countries have science academies, said Hassan.African science and research ministers have committed themselves to lobbying for an increase in the average government spending on research to a minimum of one per cent of a country’s gross domestic product, from 0,1 per cent of its gross domestic product so that their countries can develop their economies, said Yaye Kene Gassama Dia, Senegal’s research minister.She said that African ministers agreed to this noting that countries and regions with advanced economies like the United States and the European Union spend between 1.4 per cent and 3,5 per cent of their gross domestic product on research.”We must also convince the public that what scientists are doing in research will benefit the public,” Dia said.”And it is from this public awareness of the importance of research in socio-economic development that parliamentarians will accept to vote for a larger research budget because it is an element that was defined as a priority by the communities.”The meeting was organised by the African Academy of Sciences, the Kenya National Academy of Sciences and the US National Academies.It is part of a 10-year, US$20 million program that began last year and is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to develop better managed and staffed African science academies.The US National Academies is administering the funds and will initially work with the science academies of Nigeria, Uganda and South Africa, sharing its experience in getting its research used by the US government and others, the organisation said in a statement.-Nampa-AP”Science academies in Africa can no longer afford to be private men’s clubs,” Hassan said during a two-day meeting on scientific research in Africa that ended yesterday.”Instead, they must assiduously seek to become more active members of their societies, measuring their success not by their service to their members but by their service to their scientific communities, governments and the public at large.”Hassan and others were gathered to discuss how they can get more of their research to be used by governments and how they can increase their collaboration in order to tackle research subjects more effectively.”Science academies in Africa must work together both to learn from one another and to better address such critical regional issues as agricultural productivity, access to safe drinking water, improved sanitation, and research-based measures to address the HIV-AIDS pandemic,” Hassan said.Only 13 of Africa’s 53 countries have science academies, said Hassan.African science and research ministers have committed themselves to lobbying for an increase in the average government spending on research to a minimum of one per cent of a country’s gross domestic product, from 0,1 per cent of its gross domestic product so that their countries can develop their economies, said Yaye Kene Gassama Dia, Senegal’s research minister.She said that African ministers agreed to this noting that countries and regions with advanced economies like the United States and the European Union spend between 1.4 per cent and 3,5 per cent of their gross domestic product on research.”We must also convince the public that what scientists are doing in research will benefit the public,” Dia said.”And it is from this public awareness of the importance of research in socio-economic development that parliamentarians will accept to vote for a larger research budget because it is an element that was defined as a priority by the communities.”The meeting was organised by the African Academy of Sciences, the Kenya National Academy of Sciences and the US National Academies.It is part of a 10-year, US$20 million program that began last year and is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to develop better managed and staffed African science academies.The US National Academies is administering the funds and will initially work with the science academies of Nigeria, Uganda and South Africa, sharing its experience in getting its research used by the US government and others, the organisation said in a statement.-Nampa-AP