Donor funding rules limit basic research opportunities
Africa’s total research output is merely 1% of the world’s scientific research production and there are no indicators that the situation will improve in the near future, simply because there is insufficient funding for science on the continent, according to Elizabeth Marincola, a senior adviser for communications at the Nairobi-based African Academy of Sciences (AAS).
The issue is that, whereas all the 54 countries in the continent committed themselves to spending 1% of their gross domestic product to fund research and development by 2010, none has achieved that goal since the decision was endorsed by the African Union’s Executive Council in 2007.