A new initiative that aims to help drive Africa’s research agenda and build scientific capacity across the continent has been launched by African leaders with the support of international partners.

The scheme called Alliance for Accelerating Excellence in Science in Africa (AESA), which was launched in Nairobi, Kenya, is a jointly funded pan-African platform operating from the AAS head offices in Nairobi. It was established to support the development of long-term sustainable funding, research leadership, and scientific excellence and innovation in Africa.

AESA was endorsed by the African Union to champion the development of research for health capacities in Africa and represents an exciting new model for long-term development of research leadership and excellence in Africa.

The African Academy of Science (AAS) say AESA will fund and manage science programs, work in partnerships to develop health research strategies, and monitor investments in science on behalf of African and global partners.

The African Academy of Sciences (AAS) and the New Partnership created AESA for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) with US$5.5 million in initial seed funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Wellcome Trust and the British Department for International Development (DFID).

In addition to serving as a scientific think tank, AESA will manage more than US$70 million in Africa-focused research programmes as part of its broader effort to build pan-African scientific capacity and leadership.

The AESA launch ceremony also featured the announcements of two grant programmes intended to support Africa’s future research leaders: the Developing Excellence in Leadership, Training and Science (DELTAS) Africa Awards and Grand Challenges Africa.

Currently, Africa accounts for 15 per cent of the global population and 25 per cent of the global disease burden, but only produces about two per cent of the world’s research output. Although more than 60 per cent of African countries have increased their recent investments in science, over half of African countries still invest less than 0.5 per cent of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on research – far less than the global target of one per cent. Increased domestic investment in research is needed to accelerate the long-term health and development progress required to meet the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

President of Mauritius, Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, who attended the launch, stressed the need for African governments to take advantage of the development and focus greater attention on funding for scientific research and innovation.

She emphasized the crucial importance of science and technology, also the need for the Continent to commit itself to boosting excellence in science and technology for achieving sustained long-term development.

Throughout history, science and technology has been instrumental in improving the human condition. That role will not diminish, although nations will have to be adept and innovative to bend S & T for development purposes and social advance,” she said.

She went on: “When we talk about leveraging science and technology for development, we cannot be oblivious of the need to mobilise adequate funding in S & T research…
“Our task today is to look forward and address the large gap in research capacity that still exists between Africa and the rest of the world in all scientific disciplines, especially, in the Physical Sciences, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) sector.”
Ameenah chronicled five African nations, which she said dominate research on the continent.

According to her, “It is no surprise that four of these countries are also leading in terms of GDP (Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt and Algeria).
“A World Bank report examined the research enterprise in Africa over a decade from 2003 to 2012 and compared it to that Malaysia and Vietnam.

These two countries had a comparable research base to the SSA regions at the beginning of the period of analysis.
“It is interesting to observe that over the period 2003 to 2012, all three SSA regions had doubled their yearly research output and had greatly increased both the quantity and quality of research.
“Indeed, SSA’s share of global research has increased from 0.44 per cent to 0.72 per cent during the decade examined.”

She noted, however, that a ‘yawing gap’ in research capacity still exists between SSA and the rest of the world as the region only accounts for less than one per cent of the world’s research output while being home to 12 per cent of the global population.

Her words: “It is time to tackle mediocrity in S & T and forge the next generation of partnerships that can deliver results and lasting outcomes.
“Improving higher education is key to making Africa a knowledge-driven continent.”

The President, who is also a scientist and a fellow of the African Academy of Sciences, lamented how Sub-Sahara African rely heavily on international collaboration and visiting faculty for its research output.
“This must change,” she stressed.