[afro-nets] Effort to Build Information Infrastructure in Africa

[Dieter Neuvians MD <neuvians@mweb.co.za>]

Effort to Build Information Infrastructure in Africa
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From: Harvard Public Health NOW
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/now/aug6/africa.html
 
Aiming to give African scientists the chance to work together to 
solve some of the continent?s most pressing problems, the Re-
gional Centre for HIV/AIDS, TB, and Malaria Research and Train-
ing in Witwatersrand, South Africa is building an infrastructure 
of information, said the Center?s director at a recent talk 
marking HSPH?s first Africa Malaria Day. 
 
There are "many clever people" in African science, said Steven 
Chandiwana, but the infrastructure to support them does not ex-
ist. Chandiwana is associate dean and director of graduate stud-
ies, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Witwatersrand. 
 
He has recruited as partners representatives of governments and 
institutions of southern African countries ? Botswana, Zimbabwe, 
Mozambique, Lesotho, Swaziland, and South Africa. The Center 
provides research and educational opportunities to scientists, 
reduces duplication of research efforts in the region, and as-
sists governments in planning policies based on scientific evi-
dence. African scientists ? in particular graduate students ? 
are trained in research methodology and in nuts-and-bolts skills 
such as grant-writing. By building these skills at home, said 
Chandiwana, Africans can bring more research dollars to their 
region while building and receiving knowledge.
 
The Internet is a significant tool in the effort. The Center is 
creating two databases: one of current research projects in the 
region and one of potential funding sources. "Virtual" scien-
tific relationships between graduate students who can exchange 
ideas using the Internet are also being encouraged. 
 
A parisitologist trained at Cornell University, Chandiwana has a 
particular interest in malaria. Two-and-a-half billion people in 
90 countries are at risk for the disease, he said. There are 300 
to 500 million cases in sub-Saharan Africa, where 3,000 people 
die of it each day, mostly pregnant women and children under the 
age of five. Malaria costs Africa $2 billion annually in direct 
and indirect costs, he said.
 
When 44 African leaders gathered in Abuja, Nigeria in 2000, they 
pledged to fight malaria through a variety of means which, they 
hoped, would cut mortality in half by 2010. Countries and donor 
organizations pledged US$ 100 billion in new funds, and set 
goals to reach by 2005: for 60 percent of malaria sufferers to 
have access to appropriate treatment within 24 hours; for at 
least 60 percent of those at risk to benefit from a combination 
of community measures and personal measures (such as insecti-
cide-treated nets); and for at least 60 percent of pregnant 
women to have access to malaria prophylaxis. 
 
The region is falling well short of those goals, said Chandi-
wana. Right now, fewer than two percent of African children 
sleep under insecticide-treated nets. Disbursement of funds is 
falling below commitments made by donors, he added. What?s 
needed, he said, is political will and regional efforts that can 
be more focused. He concluded, "There are a lot of people in Af-
rica who would like to do good work."
 
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