Yesterday we said goodbye to a young Kenyan scientist whose career began less than 2 years ago following the attainmet of an MSC. We say goodbye to many aspiring scientists who never get an opportunity to pursue a scientific path. The next day it will be you and then finally me – and that will either put a nail in the coffin on your source of daily bread, but worse of all scientific ambition. The bottom line is always the lack of funds – because a foreign funded principal investigator has to downsize or close shop. The simple reality is that African scientists are basically employees of foreign funded programmes that conduct research within pretty narrow constraints determined by the wind of global health or international funding agencies. They are always being imbued with “capacity” to justify colossal sums of money solicited using the front of “capacity building”. Whilst there is a vast need to build capacity among Africans for science, those of us trapped in search settings all too well know how this has established a servile dependence that is the ultimate killer of innovativeness as we try to outdo each other to please our employers so that we can merit support of this or that education opportunity. Worse, just to beat the desperation, we get into studies that we care little about just because that is what was available. The danger of such decisions becomes evident after the sponsoring projects come to an end and the realisation of vertical competence that cannot find accommodation within industry – not to mention our higher institutions of studies that are killing fields of young, bright and determined minds. Worse, even with a PhD and a couple of academic papers, extremely few (if any) can get onto becoming scientific leaders or attract stable grants to last a few years enough to set up indipendent research basis.
My experience in the last 11 years since completing medical school is that it is a tough landscape for the African scientist. And i have moved on from being the innocent and impressionable scientist waiting for my turn on the chain to become a leader to asking the tough questions – can Africans become scientific leaders within their own country’s without funds being made available locally? The straight answer is no. Chances are that you probably are very afraid of reading this article and think i am insane to write such a critical piece if you are labouring so hard within a programme where you hope that an opportunity will become available for you to make it. Forget it and begin to face the reality…look all around you, look yonder in the past and into the future and fit all probablistic models, regress them and you will probably notice the most significant factor for you to make it as a successful scientists will be the variable of funding and its source thereoff. And then realize that there are no local sources of funding for scientists…what??? Take a look through the web and see if there are any places as an African scientist you can get funds readily even with strong strings attached. You will be shocked that intentions of organisations such as Africa Union (AU) and NEPAD (RIP) have all come to nought. Take a trip to the web everyday, you will see new funding opportunities popping all over but they are for most part unavailable to Africa and if so only through institutions from countries where the funds originate…yes, it means you cannot lay claim to these funds and you must dance to the tune of he who pays the piper. If African science has to rely on these funds then the equation AFRICAN SCIENCE=RIP can be proven correct to a large extent with great certainity.
What about our own National Council for Science and Technology (NCST) – hit this web and see if you will succeed http://www.ncst.go.ke/? A few years back i started developing a point of care clinical software application – see http://www.viskenya.com – and needed some little funds to try out the system at the Kenyatta National Hospital. Having left my former employment at a KEMRI collaborative programme and joinned the University of Nairobi to complete training in paediatrics, i wanted to use my epidemiological and software programming skills to set up a paediatrics electronic medical records system. I figured out that this system would lead to better handling of data, improve the efficiency and accuracy of clinical and laboratory work but also provide me with some funds to support its development and deployment as part of my studies. I was never able to get hold of any meaningful contact at NCST nor find out a way for making an application for funds. Needless to say, i discontinued my studies in paediatrics and went back to my old job that does not support clinical training and took up an epidemiological job to meet my financial needs. Although this piece of work has grown through a lot of unpaid personal sacrifices and is now deployed in some public hospitals, it exposes how even the little funding set aside to support innovative research in Kenya is not accessible to aid the growth of local scientific talent….enough of the depressing thoughts what can be done?
In my former days at High School and Univeristy, besides science i relished practical activism until i heeded ‘wise counsel to shun activism’ and pursue science. But now i realise that for African science to grow, we have to be heard and seen locally and not in some distant lands in some high impact journals. We have to appeal to the local entrepreneurs, bankers, philanthropists, politicians and leaders to come to our rescue by setting up an endowment fund to cater for the scientific growth of local scientists. I will give a simple example of success in Kenya: The Starehe Boys Centre (SBC) where i studied and that has continued to produce excellent talent. SBC relied on goodwill from a vast array of donors (individual and corporate) but its foresighted founder the Late Dr. G. W. Griffin realised that this would be unsustainable and set up an endowment fund through generous contributions from all sources. At the death of Dr. Griffin, the fund was large enough to be able to provide a high quality free education for 200 boys from poor families forever.
I believe Africa can fund its own research, however minimal to begin with, because science is about answering our own problems: dirrhoea, pneumonia, population explosion, lack of water, energy needs, food problems and social problems. Yes we can and we need all citizens of good will to set up a fund for our best brains to think through and create solutions to our problems. This kind of fund can augment what the government makes available for research – but such public funds must be accessible to scientists with ideas and increased to a reasonable amount.
Whether in good or bad faith, help us pass around this message to build a momentum to for our country to begin paying for science using local resources.