Building Astronomy Research Capacity in Africa

Abstract

Africa has about 1.4% of the world’s population of professional astronomers. In terms of research output, African astronomers produce less than 1% of the world’s astronomical research. The problems confronting African researchers have been discussed extensively in numerous studies. In this paper, we discuss concrete efforts aimed at building research capacity in astronomy in Africa. There are several favourable factors supporting these efforts. These include a more favourable political climate than in the past, new large-scale facilities for ground-based astronomy and new partnerships for training and research on the continent. Various capacitybuilding activities are discussed as well as some of the lessons learnt from such activities.