Building the future of science in Africa
Our world continues to challenge our limits, as “climate change” evolves from a vague threat to a very real existential crisis unfolding all around us. At year-end 2023, many countries in Africa suffered the devastating consequences of El Niño, a climate pattern in which surface waters in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean are unusually warmed. On the most recent occasion, it brought devastating floods, displacing two million people in East Africa while producing lower-than-normal rainfall in southern Africa, the latter exacerbating water challenges in cities like Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Zambia experienced an outbreak of cholera later declared a public health emergency by its government. As El Niño lingers into 2024, floods continue to pelt East Africa while southern Africa experiences drought, undermining crop growth, food quality and availability. This destabilisation threatens food security on a continent where already 278 million people – 20% of African people -- suffer from chronic hunger.
All this is, of course, on the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic, which disrupted lives and economies for three years, and whose effects are still present and will continue to be far into the future. The economic impact of COVID-19 is estimated to have had a cumulative negative impact on the economies of Africa on the order of US$335 billion to US$617 billion by 2030 and will have added 38-70 million people to the numbers already classified as extremely poor, bringing the total number of those ranks to 35%-37% of Africa’s projected total population by then of about 1.4 billion people. The pandemic also significantly reduced government revenue, which has already impacted ordinary people, as countries, including Kenya, introduce new taxes to help address shortfalls.
Charting a new future for delivering science programmes
These compounded challenges for Africa require innovative and creative solutions to ensure that our continent successfully confronts the climate emergency and other challenges that impact the health and wellbeing of the people of Africa. Over the span of six years, multiple programmes were implemented in collaboration with various organisations, which have now transitioned to our new permanent home, the SFA Foundation.
The Foundation is adapting its approach to respond to the continent's needs driven by the sense of urgency that these unrelenting crises merit. Underpinned by the SFA Foundation’s five-year strategy, From Science to Impact, the SFA Foundation has unveiled a new approach to accelerate action for a healthier and more sustainable future for Africa.
R&D prioritisation — eating the elephant one bite at a time
Launched in 2023, the SFA Foundation strategy prioritises three interconnected thematic areas: agriculture, climate & environment, and health. The interdependencies of these areas are self-evident: climate change threatens agricultural productivity, in turn driving resurgence of disease. As the world emerges from pandemic and Africa experiences the wrath of El Niño, return on research and development investment in these areas is optimised if resources are aligned to accelerate Africa’s developmental progress. How are we doing this?
Our strategic thematic areas
Agriculture
Agriculture addresses biodiversity, food security and improved livelihoods.
Climate & Environment
Climate & Environment generates evidence to inform prioritisation and decision making in national, regional and global discussions, and research that drives adaptation, mitigation and resilience to climate change.
Health
Health focuses on global public health security, driven by emerging priorities on the continent.
SFA Foundation programmes consist of four portfolios
Leadership and Excellence in Science:
It is urgent to build a critical mass of African scientists to generate data, knowledge and proposed solutions to inform decision making. To be successful, scientific career pathways must enable these highly trained individuals to grow into leaders who can, in turn, train future generations of scientists in and for Africa.
This precious human resource can only be nurtured if there are productive and satisfying careers available. We have the opportunity now to retain and build our Brain Trust of African skilled
workers: to enable talented individuals to dedicate themselves to the future of their own homeland, growing the African economy and increasing the welfare of her people. Conversely, the 13% of skilled workers who choose to emigrate outside the continent are not lost to the science ecosystem of Africa: they serve as collaborators, models, connectors, advisors and supporters of their colleagues and family in Africa, enriching all involved.
As opportunities created by the SFA Foundation and others grow on the continent, some scientists are returning.
Programmes in this portfolio build scientific leadership in physical and mental health, climate change and the social sciences, positioning the continent as an important contributor to and collaborator with the global research and development space.
Science-based Products:
The innovation ecosystem in Africa is stifled by weak coordination between research and industry, resulting in few R&D outputs being commercialised and or social public goods.
This portfolio seeks to create a robust science innovation ecosystem in Africa, with the potential to drive economic growth, create jobs and improve the lives of millions of people. Additionally, it seeks to improve the visibility and build the capacity of clinical trials in Africa to ensure that drugs developed are suitable for Africans.
Research of course informs and stimulates not just vaccines, therapeutics, devises and other medical products, but also the creation of veterinary drugs and strategies, climate-smart food, distribution channels and other outputs that improve lives.
Science Solutions for Emerging Global Priorities:
The African continent sustains 100 or more ongoing disease outbreaks at any given time. This number will increase as population grows and the environment continues to degrade. Coordination of pandemic preparedness and environmental preservation is an urgent priority.
Our success is highly dependent upon our ability to integrate response to the big forces that impact our shared environment, including climate, health, agriculture and biodiversity,
all of which impact each other and the world. Under this portfolio, programmes designed to support networks of scientists will benefit the people of Africa and around the globe.
Science Knowledge in Society:
Research must be informed by those it serves -- the communities in and for which it is conducted. This is both an ethical imperative and necessary to ensure a conducive environment for science and innovation, enabling it to thrive. Programmes in this portfolio communicate and demonstrate the impact of science to a broad community, providing trusted, quality accountability mechanisms to ensure effective delivery.
Additionally, they ensure the institutions they work in strengthen their research management and grant management capabilities and therefore provide conducive and supportive environments for researchers to thrive.
We are particularly keen to ensure that the social sciences, humanities and arts inform our work. Africa-led research in these disciplines can offer unique insight into opportunities for Africa’s growth within a people-centred framework.
Under these portfolios sit 10 programmes designed as long-term and advancing science and innovation, encompassing disparate disciplines from basic, applied and translational sciences to social sciences, humanities and arts.