Building capacity in Africa's national science academies

Abstract

On July 23, the InterAcademy Partnership released Harnessing Science, Engineering and Medicine to Address Africa's Challenges, a call for greater collaboration and investment in Africa's national science academies from policymakers and international organisations such as the UN. Countries in Africa face enormous challenges that require scientific and technical solutions: climate change, infectious diseases such as HIV and Ebola virus disease, as well as non-communicable conditions. Across the continent, headway in achieving global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is in places stagnant. Importantly, science academies can play a vital role in deepening relevant research and policy around advancing the SDG agenda. Africa has a young population expected to double by 2050, emerging and dynamic economies, and has made substantial progress in sustainable production and climate action. Yet investment has been scarce; sub-Saharan African governments on average contribute only 0·4% of their GDP to scientific research. The report has several recommendations to help bolster African science, engineering, and medical capacity. At the international level, it calls on the UN and the African Union to work with African researchers to develop skills in policy advocacy—helping local governments formulate research activities and identify solutions for local problems. It calls for the Network of African Science Academies to increase capacity and build stronger collaborative networks among each other and the diaspora of African researchers in the global north. Addressing Africa's challenges will require getting away from the historical, hierarchical, externally driven model that too closely echoes a colonial past. Too often, well intentioned institutions from the global north “parachute” into Africa to help address challenges or conduct research, only to leave without having stimulated, supported, and built capacity for local expertise and knowledge to fuel solutions. Capacity building, investment in research, and networks where local governments can look to African science academies as equal partners in identifying, researching, and addressing problems will be needed to address challenges we already know about, and those we have not even envisioned yet. For the UNESCO report on scientific research and development see http://uis.unesco.org/sites/default/files/documents/fs54-global-investments-rd-2019-en.pdf For the UNESCO report on scientific research and development see http://uis.unesco.org/sites/default/files/documents/fs54-global-investments-rd-2019-en.pdf