Africa needs to fund and support its scientists

In 2012, Mr George Warimwe, a Kenya-born scientist working at the University of Oxford, received funding to develop a vaccine for Rift Valley fever.

After proving its efficacy in mice and sheep, he leveraged for additional funding to scale up testing in goats, cattle, and camels. The next stage is human testing.

Working outside Africa allowed Mr Warimwe to find the right facilities and funding to develop and prove that his innovation works.

He acknowledges that he would not have easily accomplished this feat if he was still in Africa, largely due to poor capacity for pre-clinical vaccine development on the continent.

His peers in Africa, for whom finding funding is an uphill struggle, are not so lucky.

Take for example, Ms Njambi Njuguna, a doctor at Kenyatta National Hospital, who received $100,000 from a donor to use SMS to educate young Kenyan women about HIV in 2013.

Two years into her grant, Ms Njuguna had developed an innovative SMS platform and tested it on 18- to 24-year-old female college students in Kiambu County — an age group with the highest infection rate in Kenya.

The platform can transform how HIV messaging is relayed to vulnerable groups but needs to be further developed and commercialised for  its benefits to extend beyond Kiambu.

She needs funding to do this, a big challenge for her and other local scientists.

Lack of funding means African innovations do not grow beyond just being an idea or prototype in the laboratories. This needs to change.

FUND INNOVATIONS

It is important for governments and businesses to fund innovation so that innovators can continue to search for solutions to Africa’s problems.

Mr Warimwe’s story is an example of how innovation, a process of translating ideas or inventions into goods that generate economic and social value, can flourish with the right funding, infrastructure, and government support.

Innovation is a risky undertaking that requires long-term investment as results and returns on investment are not always immediate.

Can this money be found in Africa — from businesses, philanthropy, and governments?

It is imperative to discuss how best to promote innovation and engage businesses to ensure that they can scale up their support.

Businesses have as much of a stake in the growth of innovation. In fact the most successful global businesses are also the most innovative.

Businesses can teach innovators how to build sustainable business models. Most do not have this expertise as it is not what is taught at university or in the laboratory.

Governments can create a conducive environment to encourage private sector investment in innovation. Policies that, for example provide research and development tax credits for companies will attract foreign direct investment. For example, Kenya’s growth to be the largest economy in East Africa is spurred by innovation.

Innovations can also help focus attention on what people need to lead healthy and productive lives. Africa can develop the requisite innovations to address gender inequality. Simple innovations such as school feeding programmes and provision of sanitary towels in Kenya and Uganda are keeping girls in school and transforming societies. 

Solving the health and development challenges facing Africa will require increased financial and political commitment from governments to support local innovators, who best understand the problems. This cannot happen without deliberate efforts by initiatives to mobilise governments and other sources of support. And by funding the discovery, development, and delivery of innovations, Africa will ensure that its innovators have the right support to develop tools to deal with the continent’s myriad developmental challenges.

It is the only way for Africa to accelerate its progress.

Mr Kariuki is the director of the African Academy of Sciences’ Alliance for Accelerating Excellence in Science in Africa (AESA). Ms Gitau is the programme manager for Grand Challenges Africa, of AESA.