The Africa Program - Africa

The Africa Program was inaugurated in 1987 as a component of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Directorate for International Programs. It represents a concerted effort on the part of U.S. scientists and educators to respond to the institutional crisis that their African colleagues face and a commitment on the part of U.S. scientific societies and donors to work with African institutions in order to address that crisis. To date, the programme's activities, which have been developed and implemented in partnership with African institutions, have centered on improving access for African researchers to scientific and technical information, encouraging other aspects of scientific capacity-building, articulating research and policy agendas for critical issues facing African science and society, and promoting productive collaborative ties between U.S. and African scientists and their institutions.

More specifically, this broad-based programme - initially focussed in southern Africa - includes projects in:

• professional development for primary and secondary science and math teachers
• reformation of science education at universities through engagement with public issues and campus outreach
• short-term fellowships in science radio journalism for journalists and science professionals
• use of events-based approaches for informal science communication and increasing public understanding of science-based issues
• community-based research center development with university and NGO partners
• electronic information access projects, e.g., a project to make online journals available to Multilateral Initiative on Malaria (MIM) sites for two years and a study of emerging digital media and their potential to ameliorate the "digital divide"
• workshops on biodiversity, biotechnology, and law; participation in training courses organised by the Global Biodiversity Institute; and the spearheading of follow-up efforts
• the organisation of several symposia for the 2001 AAAS Annual Meeting, including one on invasive species, one on coral reefs, and one on new approaches to combating malaria.

Main Communication Strategies
The activities of the Africa Program fall into two general categories: "Science and Technology Information" and "Science and Technology for Development." For example, in December 2001 the Africa Program helped launch a two-year initiative entitled "Women in Higher Education and Science: African Universities Responding to HIV/AIDS." The initiative aimed to catalyse activities by East African universities in response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. It focussed on enhancing science education and strengthening community outreach to foster civic engagement with HIV/AIDS efforts. The initiative was launched with a workshop involving U.S. and African partners and featuring presentations and discussions with U.S. science education experts, U.S. and African NGOs, and eight university teams from Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya.

Second, the Africa Program released "Partnerships for Strengthening Conservation Biology in Africa." This publication reports the results of an international workshop held in Nairobi, Kenya in September 2001 to discuss the status of conservation science in Africa and to find ways to build on existing strengths in Africa in research and education. The workshop was organised by the Africa Program in collaboration with the Society for Conservation Biology and International Livestock Research Institute.

Third, "Malaria in Africa: Emerging Prevention and Control Challenges," a proceedings volume from the symposium of the same name, was published online. The symposium was held February 17, 2001, at the AAAS Annual Meeting in San Francisco.

The Africa Program has also released a report entitled "Global Trade and Consumer Choices: Coral Reefs in Crisis." The report presents papers by five experts who spoke at a 2001 symposium on coral reef conservation and the global trade in coral reef animals and products. The symposium was held at the AAAS Annual Meeting and was co-organised by the Africa Program.