Kariuki is convinced that Africa requires scientific innovation to address the continent’s problems, such as infectious diseases and food insecurity, and that funding for this is critical.
Accelerating investment in African science will equip Africa to address local community challenges and prevent a talent exodus from the continent, according to Thomas Kariuki, executive director of the Science for Africa (SFA) foundation.
According to Kariuki, investment in African science research had increased prior to COVID-19, but had been dampened by the pandemic. While increased collaboration among African countries has resulted in more scientific research in many countries, the region’s overall output remains low, he tells SciDev.Net.
Kariuki is convinced that Africa requires scientific innovation to address the continent’s problems, such as infectious diseases and food insecurity, and that funding for this is critical. “The continent is still stuck in a place where we strongly believe that science and innovation can address those challenges,” he says.
The SFA foundation, a non-profit organisation that works with local and global partners to grow Africa’s research and development sector, launched the second phase of its programme, Developing Excellence in Leadership, Training, and Science in Africa, last month (DELTAS Africa). “DELTAS Africa is investigating how science can be used to address economic, health, food security, and climate change challenges.”
“As a pan-African organisation, the SFA Foundation wanted to ensure that we are not leaving some people behind so that we can all work together to accelerate Africa’s growth and create an enabling environment for scientists to work and thrive,” Kariuki explains.
The programme, which funds 14 grantees, aims to promote science and innovation in Africa while also strengthening African institutions. “DELTAS Africa was founded to investigate how science can help solve economic, health, food security, and climate change challenges,” Kariuki explains.
“The first thing we stress to the scientists is the importance of going into the communities.” max articles=”3″ sdn-related-article “The communities themselves know best where the challenges are, so we start there and now get people who can bring this out even more forcefully, so we can together identify and define scientific priorities to enable impact investment for communities.”
Kariuki believes that the SFA, through its programmes such as DELTAS Africa and Grand Challenges Africa, has a responsibility to support African science and research and to create a sustainable research funding landscape.
“The SFA Foundation is rooted in Africa, but we are global,” he adds. Our goal is to continue working with African scientists to develop high-quality research and scientific solutions to achieve the Africa we want.”
The African Union Development Agency, the UK-based health research foundation Wellcome, and the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) funded the first phase of DELTAS Africa with a $100 million investment.
This phase supported 11 consortia from 54 institutions in 24 countries. With continued support from Wellcome and the FCDO, the SFA Foundation is now implementing the second phase of the DELTAS Africa programme.
According to Kariuki, DELTAS Africa is assisting in stemming the exodus of scientists from Africa by recruiting the best young African scientists from around the world and creating an enabling environment for them to work in Africa with the resources needed to address the continent’s challenges.
He emphasises the importance of long-term plans, such as sustainable research funding pipelines, for encouraging young scientists to stay on the continent to work. He warns that if long-term opportunities are not created, young people will “pack their bags again and return [to the global North].”
DELTAS Africa II, a US$70 million investment running from 2023 to 2026, has 14 consortia spread across Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia, and Zimbabwe, with 75 institutions from around the world participating, including 57 from Africa.
The project funds research to address local community issues, with a focus on diversity, gender equity, and inclusion. It aims to bridge the gap between science and policymakers through collaboration.