29/06/07

Homegrown science creates sense of community

Testing water in a treatment facility in South Africa Copyright: R. Zurba, USAID

We encourage you to republish this article online and in print, it’s free under our creative commons attribution license, but please follow some simple guidelines:

You have to credit our authors.
You have to credit SciDev.Net — where possible include our logo with a link back to the original article.
You can simply run the first few lines of the article and then add: “Read the full article on SciDev.Net” containing a link back to the original article.
If you want to also take images published in this story you will need to confirm with the original source if you're licensed to use them.
The easiest way to get the article on your site is to embed the code below.

For more information view our media page and republishing guidelines.

The full article is available here as HTML.

Press Ctrl-C to copy

<div class="article-wrap">
<div id="article-introduction">
<h1>Homegrown science creates sense of community</h1>
<h4></h4>
</div>
<br />
<br />

<div id="article-body">
<p>Mohamed H. A. Hassan, president of the African Academy of Sciences, argues in this Science editorial that collaboration in science and technology (S&T) will help foster cross-national integration.</p>
<p>African nations are already stepping up their own expenditure in S&T. Other developing countries such as Brazil, China and India are also opening up channels for South-South cooperation, using money and scientists to build capacity in science-poor African states.</p>
<p>Developed countries too are interested in supporting S&T capacity building on the continent. The challenge, Hassan says, is turning interest and pledges into sustainable initiatives and real progress, tailored to Africa’s own development plans.</p>
<p>This week’s (25 June) African Union summit is an opportunity for progress, asserts Hassan — but only if home-grown science is prioritised. Every African nation should use education reforms to support a new generation of scientists.</p>
<p>And science must recognise that it cannot solve the problems of poverty and development alone — broad channels of communication are needed between the S&T and social and political communities so they can learn from one another.</p>
<p>Such measures may not attract the same public attention as calls for a United States of Africa, but they can help bring the continent closer together, concludes Hassan.</p>
<p><a href="/sci.cfm?redir=http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/316/5833/1813?ijkey=XBRKC1za2O3Xc&keytype=ref&siteid=sci" target="_blank" onclick="pageTracker._trackPageview('/tracking/external/'+this.href);" rel="noopener noreferrer">Link to full article in Science</a></p>

</div>
<div class="quick-links-wrapper">
<h3>You might also like</h3>
[related-articles]
</div>
<p>This article was originally published on <a href="https://www.scidev.net" target="_blank">SciDev.Net</a>. Read the <a href="https://www.scidev.net/sub-saharan-africa/opinions/homegrown-science-creates-sense-of-community-ssa/" target="_blank">original article</a>.</p>
<script type="text/javascript">
(function(e,t,n,r,i,s,o){e["GoogleAnalyticsObject"]=i;e[i]=e[i]||function(){(e[i].q=e[i].q||[]).push(arguments)},e[i].l=1*new Date;s=t.createElement(n),o=t.getElementsByTagName(n)[0];s.async=1;s.src=r;o.parentNode.insertBefore(s,o)})(window,document,"script","//www.google-analytics.com/ga.js","ga");var _gaq=_gaq||[];var _gaq=_gaq||[];_gaq.push(["_setAccount","UA-3223906-8"],["_trackEvent","article interaction","republished","https://www.scidev.net/sub-saharan-africa/opinions/homegrown-science-creates-sense-of-community-ssa/",null,true])
</script>
</div>

Mohamed H. A. Hassan, president of the African Academy of Sciences, argues in this Science editorial that collaboration in science and technology (S&T) will help foster cross-national integration.

African nations are already stepping up their own expenditure in S&T. Other developing countries such as Brazil, China and India are also opening up channels for South-South cooperation, using money and scientists to build capacity in science-poor African states.

Developed countries too are interested in supporting S&T capacity building on the continent. The challenge, Hassan says, is turning interest and pledges into sustainable initiatives and real progress, tailored to Africa’s own development plans.

This week’s (25 June) African Union summit is an opportunity for progress, asserts Hassan — but only if home-grown science is prioritised. Every African nation should use education reforms to support a new generation of scientists.

And science must recognise that it cannot solve the problems of poverty and development alone — broad channels of communication are needed between the S&T and social and political communities so they can learn from one another.

Such measures may not attract the same public attention as calls for a United States of Africa, but they can help bring the continent closer together, concludes Hassan.

Link to full article in Science