africa’s hospitals facing major challenges · 2010-10-18 · vol. 12 september - october 2010...

Vol. 12 September - October 2010

Africa’s Hospitals Facing Major Challenges

Positive Trends from Ethiopia

Kenya: New Constitution and Health

PART ONE - HEALTHCARE IN AFRICA

September - December Seasonal Weather Forecast for 10 IGAD countries pg. 19

By George Kalungwe - Lilongwe, Malawi;Mekonnen Teshome - Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; George Achia and Otula Owuor - Nairobi, Kenya

Despite bloodcurdling tales of malpractice and at least one case of a cat chewing

a premature baby in unattended neonatal unit of a provincial hospi-tal in Kenya serving as the ultimate melting pot of sin, there are indica-tions that hospitals and health pro-fessionals in Africa are beginning to take actions that could finally avail high quality services for all faster than imagined. For most people – within and outside Africa - the stereotype of the continent’s healthcare facilities easily begins with accusing fingers at health professionals who seem to lack the much needed “mis-sionary spirit” instilled by colonial medics. For most patients and their relatives, the region’s healthcare fa-cilities are simply “hell on earth.” Already some hospitals in Asia and Europe increasingly target patients from Africa. In Africa the trend is for the rich, top politi-cians and officials to seek treat-ment outside the continent and in

some countries, it is unacceptable for elites to die in local or national hospitals no matter how prestigi-uos. Only South Africa is depicted as having hospitals that compete with others outside the continent although the recent strike by their medics was branded as bordering on “cruelty and abuse of basic eth-ics.”

Indeed there was much surprise when Kenya’s Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, was rushed to one of the major national private hospitals in Nairobi for what turned out to be a delicate emergency treatment –in-volving opening of the skull- that was not done in secrecy thus giv-ing the mass media almost unlim-

New cases of HIV have dropped by over a quarter in 22 Afican countries, says UNAIDS. The

decline is linked to greater awareness, better use of preventative measures and treatment. UNAIDS, however, said that cases of HIV are increasing in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and among gay men in developed coun-tries. According to Michel Sidibe, the executive director, there is “real prog-ress” towards achieving the sixth Mil-lennium Development Goal (MDG6) of halting and reversing the spread of HIV/Aids by 2015. Availing treatment for HIV/Aids, ensured that 200,000 fewer people died from the virus in 2008 than in 2004.

The ATPS 2010 Annual Confer-ence is to be held from 25th to 27th November in Cairo,

Egypt. The conference, whose theme will be “The State of Science, Technol-ogy and Innovation in Africa: Impli-cations for achieving the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs)” seeks to review the state of STI in the conti-nent with a view to identify existing gaps and charting a proactive way forward for achieving sustainable development through investments in STI. ATPS invites for papers on the conference sub-themes and registra-tions for participation in the confer-ence. It will be hosted by ATPS Egypt National chapter.

Agricultural biotechnology, specifically genetic modi-fication (GM) technology,

can be one of the most vital tools for addressing the chronic food shortages in sub-Saharan Africa, maintains a new report released by the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf). This report has been published as the result of a forum study in which ASSAf convened a series of expert work-

shops aimed at engaging African scientists in assessing the current challenges, opportunities and risks associated with the use of GMOs. Africa is the only continent where food production per capita is decreasing and where hunger and malnutrition affect at least one in three people. Crop yields in sub-Saharan Africa have hardly changed over the past 40 years

and cereal production has been steadily declining over the past four years. The report suggests that GM technology can contribute to the resolution of the African food shortage, provided it is carried out within a framework of appro-priate biotechnology policy with sufficient financing for human capital development, the construc-

Science Academies Support GM

BIOTECHATPS Conference on

Science in Africa

Africa: HIV Declines

continued on pg 10

New antibiotic resistance mechanism

There are chilling biomedical tales of germs found in inten-sive care units and hospitals

wards developing new antibiotic resistance mechanisms against the world’s most powerful drugs. The doomsday scenario of the ultimate disease causing bacteria killing help-less 21st century humans is no mere ferry tale. Already biomedical experts and

Microbes Finally Conquering Antibiotics?

continued on pg 4

cont. pg 15

The first Cardiac Centre in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

September - October 20102

PART TWO: AFLATOXIN IN AFRICA

African Agricultural Technol-ogies Foundation and Inter-national Institute of Tropical

Agriculture have developed a bio-control method or an appropriate technological package – AflaSafe- that effectively controls the devas-tating aflatoxin problem haunting the continent and jeorpadising the health of millions of people apart from curbing agricultural exports. Even more the highly piosonous and cancer causing aflatoxin is not just confined to maize but other crops including, cassava, sorghum, yam, rice, peanuts and cashew nuts. The availability of an appropriate technology that effectively contols aflatoxin at least deserves pompt practical attention from policy mak-ers, farmers, business community, researchers, consumers and the gen-eral public, if Africa is aims to over-come widespread poverty, famine and poor health. Africa loses at least $1.2 billion annually because of dan-gerous levels of aflatoxin in the agri-cultural products which fail to meet food safety and quality standards. Even more in countries like Kenya aflatoxin poisoning reaches fatal epidemic levels and is no longer a silent killer- see last ScienceAfrica is-sue. According to AATF and IITA experts, AflaSafe, is a cost-effective bio-control method developed for Africa to reduce aflatoxin dramati-cally. AflaSafe, is based on the com-petitive exclusion principle which mitigates the negative effects of aflatoxin. In nature Aspergillus fla-vus consist of strains that produce aflatoxin poisons and those that do not. AflaSafe contains the non-poi-sonous strains that out-compete and exclude the potentially lethal or poi-sonous strains. The method reduces aflatoxin contamination by at least 90 percent in maize and researchers have identified the the non posison-ous strains for use in Kenya and Ni-geria. AATF at least took the threat that aflatoxin posed to Africa’s sur-vival and socioeconomic develop-ment more seriously and made bold steps to find appopriate solutions. Its negative impact on the the live-lihoods and food security of small-holders had become obvious in a region where most people still fail to comprehend the dangers aflatox-ins pose to their wellbeing. AATF has facilitated the development and availability of this Competitive Exclu-sion Technology (CET) thus helping remove a major stumbling block to sustainable development including good health and productive lives for millions.

Dr Ranajit Bandyopadhyay, a plant pathologist with the In-ternational Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), in Ibadan, Ni-geria, says that a single applica-tion of AflaSafe 2-3 weeks before maize flowering prevents afla-toxin contamination throughout and even when grains are stored. According to Dr Bandyopad-hyay “Aspergillus flavus strains are either toxigenic (produce aflatoxin) or atoxigenic (do not produce afla-toxin). Our bio-control technol-ogy makes use of carefully se-lected atoxigenic strains that can safely outcom-pete and virtual-ly eliminate their toxic relative, ef-fectively reduc-ing contamina-tion of the maize grains in fields.” He says that the technology’s ability to contin-ue working even when the grain is stored ensures the safety of maize from aflatoxin contamination. “These atoxigenic strains are also carried in the grains from the field to the stores. So, even if the grains are not stored properly or get wet dur-ing or after harvest, they continue to prevent aflatoxin contamination during the postharvest period,” said Dr Bandyopadhyay. It means that even if the grains are not stored properly or get wet during or after harvest, as hap-pening in Kenya CET continues to prevent aflatoxin contamination during the post-harvest period.

AATF’s efforts to help Africa deal with the aflatoxin crisis began five year ago and in 2008, it began work-ing with IITA and with the USDA to develop alternative sources of Competitive Exclusion technology for use on maize and groundnuts in Africa. They all agreed to evaluate the technical and commercial viabil-ity of using CET to control aflatoxin contamination in an African setting. The study, which was commis-

sioned by AATF, was completed in 2008 and re-searchers con-cluded that con-trolling aflatoxin would contrib-ute significantly to increased crop production, higher incomes, improved nutri-tion, and better health while ex-panding export markets need-ed to generate higher trade rev-enues for Sub-Sahara Africa. Still, analysis of

the profitability potential of the new technologies, conducted under dif-ferent effectiveness scenarios, indi-cate that investments in the research and dissemination of CET, even if only 20% effective, will be well placed. IITA, has obtained provisional registration of the technology under the name AlfaSafe, which is a mix-ture of four atoxigenic strains of Ni-gerian origin. In 2009, maize farmers in Nigeria were able to reduce afla-toxin contamination by 80 per cent by broadcasting 10 kilogrammes of Aflasafe per hectare as required.

AATF will need increased sup-port to work with its partners in helping establish projects for the de-velopment and dissemination of lo-cally adapted microbial CET for con-trolling aflatoxin in maize, ground-nuts and other crops. The implica-tions are that improved the policy and institutional framework for the management of Aflatoxins will be expected to emerge. The pilot proj-ects in Nigeria and Kenya could be up-scaled to include Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameron, Cote d’Ivoire, Dem-ocratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozam-bique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Le-one , Somalia, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe

The Expected Outputs include:• Indigenous atoxigenic strains of

A. flavus locally adapted in SSA starting with Nigeria and Kenya registered for use in practical biocontrol and best use practices to prolong and optimize efficacy of aflatoxin biocontrol in a range of cropping systems known.

• Strategic partners (e.g., growers’ association) technically enabled and backstopped for mass pro-duction, marketing and moni-toring efficacy of biocontrol agents.

• Stewardship provided for sup-porting aflatoxin biocontrol as a component of integrated af-latoxin management practices to produce aflatoxin-safe maize and groundnuts.

According to Dr. Daniel Mataru-ka - the Executive Director of AATF the foundation provides expertise and know how that facilitates the identification, access, development, delivery and utilisation of propri-etary agricultural technologies. Kenya more than other countries should have very strong interest in the project whose impact goes be-yond the agriculture ministry to in-clude the two health ministries- cu-rative and preventive- that directly deal with the tragic consequences of aflatoxin poisoning. In Nigeria some research and development activities designed to control aflatoxin include the manu-facturing of two tons of AflaSafe in IITA lab for efficacy tests in farmers’ fields. Deployment of AflaSafe to 86 farmers in Kaduna and Oyo States (through Kaduna State Agriculture Development Project and the UN-DP’s Pampaida Millenium Villages Projects). Provisional registration of Trademark name granted as Afla-Safe.

AATF and IITA Join Forces to Control Aflatoxin in Africa

Dr. Daniel Mataruka - AATF Executive Director

Single application of AflaSafe 2-3 weeks before maize flowering

Deployment of AflaSafeto 86 farmers in Kadunaand Oyo States (through Kaduna State Agriculture Development Project and the UNDP’sPampaida MilleniumVillages Projects)

70.6 ha of maize and 3.5 ha of peanut treated (1ha plot with 10 or 20 kg dosage)

R&D activities to control aflatoxin include manufacturing of AflaSafe

READ ScienceAfrica - Be Informed

September - October 2010 3

The Gates Foundation has announced the opening of Round 6 of Grand Challenges Explorations, a $100 million grant initia-

tive to encourage bold and unconventional global health solutions. Proposals are being accepted un-til November 2, 2010. Grand Challenges Explorations offers research-ers the chance to win $100,000 grants to foster in-novative projects that could transform health in developing countries. The initiative focuses on areas where creative, unorthodox thinking is most

urgently needed. For this round, applicants are asked to focus their proposals on these five topic areas: • Design New Approaches to Cure HIV Infec-

tion;• Create the Next Generation of Sanitation Tech-

nologies;• Create Low-Cost Cell Phone-Based Applica-

tions for Priority Global Health Conditions;• Create New Technologies for the Health of

Mothers and Newborns;

• The Poliovirus Endgame: Create Ways to Ac-celerate, Sustain and Monitor Eradication.

Proposals are being accepted online at www.grandchallenges.org/explorations. The initiative uses a streamlined, grant-making process. Appli-cations are two pages, and preliminary data about the proposed research is not required. All are en-couraged to apply. The grants from Round 5 will be announced in October 2010.

Gates Foundation Accepting Proposals

ANNOUNCEMENTS

$100,000 Grants Available to Researchers Worldwide for Innovative Global Health Projects

The Consortium for National Health Research (CNHR) is a multi-stakeholder forum bringing together national organizations (public and private universities, research institutes and NGOs) involved in research for health, with the following broad objectives: • Promoting high quality multi-disciplinary ethical research that is aligned to the national health priorities, and that inform policy and practice;• Facilitating research capacity building within an enabling environment for career progression for young Kenyans; and• Creating strategic collaborative partnerships as a platform for shared resources and sustainability.

CNHR put out a Request for Applications (RFA) by partnerships involving training and research institutions (both public and private), private sector establishments, NGOs and relevant government ministries, for funding for establishment of Centres/Communities of Research Excellence (CoReS) in one of the following priority areas: • Health Systems Research (ranging from design, operational to implementation research);• Knowledge Sharing Platforms (KSP), incorporating a health literature database, knowledge, harvesting, synthesis and translation;• Science, Technology and Innovation in Research for Health, and;• Any other relevant area of Research for Health.

Twenty two (22) high quality applications, representing partnerships of thirty three (33) institutions in Kenya were received and subjected to a rigorous multi-stage merit review process by an independent Expert Scientific Advisory Committee (ESAC). ESAC membership comprises internationally respected researchers from Africa, North America, Europe and Asia. Its recommendations have been approved by the CNHR Board of Management. The names of the successful partnership applications for the establishment of CoReS that have been recommended to receive funding from CNHR are summarized in the table below, and further details will be available on the CNHR website www.cnhrkenya.org.

CNHR would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the successful applicants, and to wish them success in the establishment of the respective CoReS.The successful applicant teams are as follows:

HR NEWS RELEASE, August, 2010

ANNOUNCEMENT OF GRANTS AWARDS FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF CENTRES/ COMMUNITIES OF RESEARCH EXCELLENCE (CoReS) IN HEALTH

CoReS-2010-08Community of Excellence for Research in Neglected Vector Borne Zoonotic Diseases (CERNVec)Applicants Name(s) Institution Lead Applicant: Dr. Daniel Masiga International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe)Co-applicants: Dr. David Mutonga Ministry of Public Health and SanitationDr. Juliet Ongus Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT)Dr. Rosemary Sang Kenya Medical Research InstituteDr. Chris Shisanya Kenyatta University

CoReS-2010-16The health services and implementation research and clinical excellence (SIRCLE) collaborationApplicants Name(s) InstitutionLead Applicant: Dr. Mike English KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research ProgrammeCo-applicants: Prof. Fred Were University of NairobiDr. Rachel Nyamai Ministry of Medical Sciences

CoReS-2010-09Establishment of the pharmacology and therapeutics unit of the centre of excellence for clinical trials and therapeutics in KenyaApplicants Name(s) InstitutionLead Applicant: Dr. Bernhards Ogutu Kenya Medical Research InstituteCo-applicants: Dr. Simon Ndirangu Kenya Medical Research InstituteProf. Onyango Strathmore UniversityProf. John Odhiambo Strathmore UniversityDr. Hulda Shaidi Swai Council for Science and Industrial Research (CSIR)Dr. Rashid Aman African center for clinical trials (ACCT)Prof. Walter Jaoko University of NairobiDr. Enock Omonge University of Nairobi

CoReS-2010-010Centre of research excellence in health systems strengtheningApplicants Name(s) InstitutionLead Applicant Prof. Daniel Kaseje Great Lakes University of Kisumu (GLUK)Co-applicants: Dr. Odondi Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation (MoPHS)Dr. Mabel Nangami Moi UniversityMs. Elizabeth Oywer Nursing Council of Kenya (NCK)Dr. Alex Eh African Population and Health Research Centre (APHRC)


By Daniel Otunge and Joy Anindo

Most African countries, in-cluding Kenya, perform dismally with regards to

basic health care indicators. Ac-cording to Prof. Gilbert Kokwaro, the director of the Nairobi-based Consortium for National Health Re-search (CNHR), Kenya for example, is no better than the regions weakest economies in terms of basic health indicators. Prof. Kokwaro says CNHR was established out of a strongly felt need to address a broad spectrum of issues affecting health research in Kenya, to begin with. Such is-sues include research coordination, prioritization of research activities, training, strengthening the legisla-tive environment and enhancing the sharing of knowledge in order to strengthen health research in the country. The Consortium’s main objective is to improve the quality of health in Kenya through promotion of quality research, encouraging the formula-tion of evidence-based health policy to improve health care and delivery, building of research capacity of tal-ented young Kenyans and creating of functional strategic partnerships for health. CNHR is an international multi-stakeholder, non-governmental or-ganization that brings together key players in health research includ-ing health institutions, universities, research institutions, government agencies, non-governmental orga-nizations and other research groups concerned with health. The key institutions behind the formation of CNHR, and who also constitute its Council of Founding Members include Kenya’s Ministries of health, Kenya Medical research Institute, University of Nairobi, Moi University, Moi Teaching and Re-ferral Hospital, Maseno University, Great Lakes University of Kisumu and National Coordination Agency for Population and Development. Others are International Centre of

Insect Physiology and Ecology, Af-rican Medical Research Foundation, Department of International Devel-opment, International Development Research Centre and Wellcome Trust, among others. The last three international bodies are also the key initial funders of CNHR. In an exclusive interview with Sci-enceAfrica, the chairman of the first CNHR board, Dr. Wilson Odero, ex-pressed confidence CNHR will soon be an internationally recognized body offering competitive health re-search grants to most deserving cas-es. Dr. Odero who is from Maseno University’s School of Public Health, hopes that funded research will translate into strengthened capaci-ties and better healthcare in Kenya. Dr Jimmy Whitworth of the Well-come Trust, one of the key funders of CNHR, says the consortium meant to achieve what he calls the Health Research Capacity Strength-ening Initiative (HRCS) which aims to support academic research and improve the use of health research in evidence based decision and poli-cy making in Kenya and Malawi.According to Dr. Whitworth, the Trust, which funds several other activities in Kenya, including the KEMRI-Wellcome trust research program which focuses on malaria and other infectious diseases, will fund the CNHR for a period of five years, hoping that it will attract oth-er donors.

Wellcome Trust was founded in 1936 to foster and promote re-search with the aim of improving human and animal health. It has since grown to be the largest char-ity in the United Kingdom, support-ing the expansion and deepening of science and healthcare knowledge. They fund the work of thousands of talented and productive scientists, historians, social scientists and sci-ence communicators worldwide.Prof Kokwaro says research ac-tivities funded through CNHR are largely guided by national priori-ties and the health sector plans. For example, the 2009 applicants for research grants were asked to cen-tre their proposals around issues highlighted in Kenya government’s strategic plans for the health sector, the Vision 2030 and relevant Millen-nium Development Goals (MDGs). Thematic areas of research can be on clinical, basic biomedical, health systems or policy issues. Other pri-orities areas are social, behavioral, public health, immunity and epide-miology research. Multidisciplinary proposals that cut across two or more of those thematic areas are also encouraged. CNHR has a competitive grant award scheme for training fellow-ships and for strengthening the research capacity. These funding opportunities are granted with the understanding that they will con-tribute to strengthening of research

teams, especially within institu-tional setups that encourage the de-velopment of career pathways for young researchers. The grant follows strict eligibility criteria. For instance, to be eligible, an application must meet all of the requirements for the applicant, re-search focus and institutional affilia-tion. Proposed research must under-go ethical review and approval from their institutional ethics and review committee in accordance with na-tional and international guidelines before they can considered for fund-ing by CNHR. The infrastructural support should also be well defined in the research proposal. This may include equipment that will be required and what is being availed by the home institution. In order to enhance the quality of the research being carried out, CHNR facilitates access to the necessary technical and human re-sources. Whereas the applicant is expected to indicate the number and level of trainees the research would need, CNHR reserves the right to ensure that such positions are filled com-petitively. As a rule all the trainees proposed under the research scheme must have well defined career path-ways either in universities, teaching hospitals, government or private re-search institutions. All the training positions are advertised and filled through interviews. All proposals go through a rigor-ous pre-qualification review and evaluation by the Expert Scientific and Advisory Committee (ESAC) before the applicant is invited for oral interview. ESAC is made up of internationally recognized health scientists and researchers. The final decision to support or fund an application is subject to ap-proval by the board of management of CNHR. Each eligible applica-tion must be signed by three ESAC members for review using a stan-dard grant assessment form.

CNHR’s Innovative Health Research InitiativeRESEARCH

researchers are trading accusation over who did what to enable some of the most common bacteria to evolve into their ultimate drug re-sistant or incurable forms. Britain and lately the US, are pointing fin-gers at Asia because patients who carried the potentially doomsday microbes had links with hospitals in India and Pakistan. However some

researchers from these regions say that what has been isolated in Brit-ain and the US are simply “unique” to the European nation and not transplanted from Asia. In the world of antibiotics car-bapenems are the drugs of last re-sort against many multi drug resis-tant, gram negative bacteria. How-ever, the microbes have developed

a gene or a new mechanism- the New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase (NDM-1) making them highly re-sistant to antibiotics. Carbapenems are antibiotics of last resort to com-bat infections by multidrug resis-tant bacteria, especially in ICUs and high risk wards.

from pg 1

Microbes and Antibiotics

The number of women dying due to complications during pregnancy and childbirth

has decreased by 34% from an estimated 546 000 in 1990 to 358 000 in 2008, according to a new report by the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the World Bank.

Maternal Deaths Drop by a Third

Prof. David Bradley and Prof. Gilbert Kokwaro




ILRI: Consevation of Livestock Genes Deserve More Attention

By George Achia

Good nutrition and physical exercise are critical prac-tices recommended for

people living with HIV & AIDS. This was a key message during the national nutrition and HIV day organized in Nairobi recently by the National AIDS and Sexu-ally Transmitted Infections Control Programme (NASCOP) with its partners including USAID, World Vision, WHO and UNICEF. The theme was The Importance of Nutrition and Physical Exercise in Management of HIV & AIDS. Health workers were provided with guidelines with the latest informa-tion on counseling and infant feed-ing. The ministry of health which coordinates comprehensive care, treatment and support services for all people living with HIV and AIDS has scaled up services in-cluding provision of anti–retrovi-rals, prevention of mother to child transmission, home–based care, blood safety and nutrition in order to reach people affected by HIV and AIDS, the permanent secretary in the ministry of medical services, Mary Ngari, said.. Promotion of the culture of good nutrition and physical exercise is critical for People Living with HIV (PLHIV) as it helps in maintenance of normal nutritional status, boost-ing the immune system, delay-ing progression to AIDS, enables medicine work effectively and minimizes side effects and reduces vulnerability to opportunistic in-fections. Key nutrition practices recom-mended for the PLHIV include assessing of nutritional status es-pecially weight every 2 – 3 months, eating a balanced diet, observing personal hygiene, sanitation and safe handling of food and water like washing fruits and vegetables before eating, avoiding harmful practices like alcohol drinking, smoking and eating food with ex-cess sugar, salt and fat and drink-ing eight glasses of boiled or treat-ed water everyday. “Good nutrition in the manage-ment of HIV & AIDS is important besides taking anti-retroviral. Do-ing physical activity or exercises also improves health status of PL-HIV” added Dr. I. Mohamed, Di-rector NASCOP.

Crop genes are being stored in thousands of collections across the world and a fail-

safe genebank is buried in the Arc-tic permafrost while no comparable effort exists to conserve livestock genes. Urgent action is needed to stop the loss of genetic diversity of livestock in the developing world, where a treasure-trove of drought- and disease-resistant animals still exists. According to Dr Okeyo Mwai and Dr Gabrielle Persley, from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), in Kenya, invest-ments are needed now to identify and preserve the unique traits of Africa’s rich array of livestock de-veloped over several millennia but now under siege because the loss of livestock diversity in Africa is part of a global ‘livestock meltdown. The two ILRI experts recently joined other biodiversity conser-vation specialists at the Crawford Fund’s 2010 international conference on “Biodiversity and World Food Security: Nourishing the Planet and Its People,” recently held in Parlia-ment House, Canberra, Australia to mark the UN International Year of Biodiversity. “In the industrialized world”, said Dr Mwai, a leader of ILRI’s breed-ing projects, “just six tightly defined breeds already account for 90 per-cent of all cattle. A 2007 report by the UN Food and Agriculture Or-ganization (FAO) showed that over-reliance on a small number of live-stock breeds is resulting in the loss of around one breed every month. FAO also report that some 20 per-cent of the world’s 7616 livestock breeds are now viewed as at risk.” “From Africa to Asia, farmers are increasingly choosing the breeds that will produce more milk, meat and eggs to feed their hungry fami-lies and raise their incomes. But we cannot afford to lose altogether

breeds that possess genetic attri-butes that may be critical for cop-ing with increasing threats such as climate change and emerging pests and diseases,” he said. Dr Mwai described a variety of pressures threatening the long-term viability of livestock production in Africa and globally, including rangeland degradation and cross-breeding hardy native stock with “exotic” breeds imported from Eu-rope, Asia and the America. “We need to link local, national and international resources and conserve livestock genetic diver-sity through dedicated livestock genebanks”, he said. “International livestock genebanks should store frozen cells, semen and DNA of en-dangered livestock from across the world. It is these genes that will help us feed humanity and cope with un-foreseen crises.” Dr Gabrielle Persley warned that Australian livestock producers are likely to lose many benefits in im-proved production and disease re-sistance if Africa’s indigenous genet-ic resources are lost. She explained that livestock genebank collections must be accompanied by compre-hensive descriptions of the animals, the populations from which they

were obtained, and the environ-ments and local practices under which they were raised. “The necessary technology is al-ready available,” Dr Persley said. “Cryopreservation has been used for years to aid both human and ani-mal reproduction. What’s lacking is a strong policy framework for wide-spread use of the available technolo-gies to preserve livestock genetic di-versity.” She stressed that documenting and conserving the diversity of the world’s remaining cattle, goat, sheep, swine and poultry populations is at least as essential as the maintenance of crop diversity for ensuring future food supplies in the face of health and environmental threats.“Just as we should know which crop variet-ies are most tolerant to flooding or disease,” she said, “we should know which types of chicken can survive avian flu.” But while crop genes are being stored in thousands of collections across the world and a fail-safe genebank is buried in the Arctic per-mafrost, she argued, “no compara-ble effort exists to conserve livestock genes”.

Dr. Okeyo MwaiDr. Gabrielle Persley

HIV: Good Nutrition,

Exercise Needed

NUTRITION

One of the major causes of famine and malnutrition in Africa is the loss of up to 30

percent food crops –especialy grains- after harvest or during storage and it even reaches 100 percent in cases of the Great Grain Borer- also known as Osama in East Africa. However, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, the world leader in maize research is in-volved in an innovative and sustain-able project- Effective Grain Storage Project- which involves use of galva-nized metal silo that stores at least 20 bags of maize. The Airtight silo suf-focates insect including weevils that

find their way into this new granary. Already 146 silos have been con-structed in Kenya and Malawi while sustainability is ensured by the fcat that local artisans are being trained to make them. The demand is bound to boom as some of the famers who have used them in Homa Bay and Embu in Kenya and those in Malawi spread word about their gains. “The focus of the project is to ensure that farmers use only well-fabricated, high-quality metal silos,” says Fred Kanampiu, CIMMYT agronomist and former project head. In Malawi, metal silos have been used since 2007 farm-

CIMMYT: Metal Silos Curb Post-Harvest Maize Loss

continued on pg 6

INNOVATION



ers now even request silos of a 7.5 ton capacity,” says Essau Phiri of World Vision-Malawi. Three-bag silo costs about USD 74 and a 20-bag silo USD 350. How-ever, with lifetime of over a decade, the silos generate profit in terms of food security and surplus grain savings. However there are also

micro-finance opportunities that would allow many more farmers to purchase metal silos. It will also create more business opportunities for local artisans. CIMMYT’s part-ners include Swiss Agency for De-velopment and Cooperation as the main donor.

from pg 5

By George Achia

Patients on medications will now be able to report suspect-ed side effects and poor qual-

ity to the nearest health facilities. This follows the recent launch of a consumer reporting systems by the Pharmacy and Poisons Board (PPB). Reports on dangerous and poor quality medicines should be made using a pink form while reports on adverse reaction to medicine should be made using a yellow form. All forms are available in both public and private hospitals and from the internet. “Clinicians, pharmacists, dentists, nurses, traditional medicine practi-tioners and the public at large are encouraged to report suspected substandard medicines. All reports are confidential and do not identify the infomer when the details of a specific events are communicated,” said Dr. Jayesh Pandit, head of the board’s pharmacovigilance depart-ment, which was launched in June 2009. He was speaking during a me-dia biefing at New Stanley hotel in Nairobi, Kenya. Its ultimate goal is rational and safe use of medicines; and assess-ing and communicating the risks

and benefits of drugs on the market. Pharmacovigilance is the science and activities relating to the detec-tion, assessment, understanding and prevention of adverse effects or any other medicine related problem. It aims at identifying new informa-tion about hazards and preventing harm to patients. The objectives of the National Pharmacovigilance are: to improve patient care and safety in relation to the use of medicine, detecting prob-lems related to the use of medicines and communicating the findings while encouraging safe and more ef-

fective use. The common side effects of medi-cine on patients include pain in the stomach, headache, fever, general body swelling, dizziness, anxiety, rashes, blurred vision, diarrhea and yellow eyes and skin. When reporting the suspected side effects and poor quality of medicines, people will be required to send samples of the medicine to the PPB for further evaluation. All reports are individually reviewed by the Expert Safety Review Panel. When reports are received, they are reviewed and entered into the na-

tional adverse drug reaction data-base. The data is then analyzed to identify safety signals. In the establishment of a true causal association, the PPB can take various actions including canceling the registration of the drug, inten-sive investigation into the use of the medicine in Kenya, informing health care professionals and consumers about the risks of medicine, change in the schedule of the medicine and requesting post – marketing studies. “Always report a side effect to your nearest health care provider. This will helps improve treatment of the patient, prevents further harm and future management of other patients” emphasized Dr. Monique Wasunna, Chief Research Officer and Assistant Director Research, Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI). With the establishment of Na-tional Pharmacovigilance Centre, a number of health care workers have been trained; approximately 338 suspected adverse drug reaction reports have been received at PPB’s department of Pharmacovigilance and approximately 86 poor quality medicinal products complaints re-ceived.

New System to Curb Dangerous Medicines

MEDICINES

As the short rains season ap-proaches, Kenya’s ministry of environment and min-

eral resources which includes the meteorological department, has alerted the public on ways of re-ducing risks- deaths, injuries and property damage- in lightning prone areas after the media high-lighted the tragic death of a fam-ily killed by lightning in Londiani district. The risk reduction measures in-clude installing lightning arresters on buildings and other infrastruc-ture such as tall masts. The arrest-ers are conduits that direct the elec-tricity discharged by lightning to

the ground. In a press release head of pub-lic communication division, Mu-lei Muia, said that –during heavy clouds and showers, people should avoid sheltering near conductors through which lightning travels to the ground. This includes trees, es-pecially those standing alone. They should not walk slowly when it is raining and not shelter in open spaces, around buildings or open windows to avoid becom-ing conductors likely to be struck. People should avoid standing in or near stagnant water when it is showering.

Reducing Risks in Lightning Prones Regions

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Nagoya: Africa seeks common ground

BIOTECHNOLOGY

We must seize this won-derful opportunity while we have so many

great minds - national and indus-try leaders, global influencers and scientists to identify how we can partner to bring about a green revolution in Africa. The green revolution has begun out there in the fields and villages of Africa. Africa’s biggest challenge is that we do not have the systems in place to deliver services to smallholder farmers. Services such as access to quality seeds, affordable fertilizer, a place to sell produce at the best price or a small loan. And these services must give the necessary support to the women farmers who produce the majority of Africa’s food. We are starting to address these constraints and are seeing the re-sults. But imagine if we were able to make those services available to ev-ery farmer. We cannot think about the smallholder farmer anymore as one woman on one hectare of land but as hundreds of thousands of farmers on hundreds of thousands

of hectares of land. They represent a considerable force and if we take advantage of their sheer numbers that force can empower the conti-nent. We cannot think of farming any-more as a subsistence way of life. African agriculture is developing as a dynamic, profitable sector, at-tractive to young people with ambi-tion and drive. African companies are investing: producing quality

seeds and fertilizers; developing food processing businesses, market information systems, and financial products to serve farmers and agri-cultural enterprises. AGRA’s work, in the three years since its creation, has been based on individual grants. However, ex-perience has shown that integrated programs in high potential areas yield the highest returns in terms of production, incomes and poverty reduction. So AGRA is now work-ing with partners to implement a breadbasket development strategy. This strategy is being piloted in four countries: Ghana, Mali, Mozam-bique and Tanzania. Breadbasket development will drive agricultur-al transformation in Africa through the demonstration of effective part-nerships between governments, de-velopment partners, farmer organi-zations and the private sector.

Edited extract of Dr Namanga Ngongi’s speech during African Green Revolution Forum held in Accra, Ghana in September

Green Revolution has Began in Africa, Says AGRA President

By George AchiaScienceafrica Reporter

The future of biotechnology in Africa will be largely de-termined by proactive poli-

cies, functioning biosafety systems and scientific capacity building, al-though 30 countries do not have bio-safety frameworks or are in the pro-cess of developing the frameworks, according to Prof. Diran Makinde, the director of African Biosafety Network of Expertise. He was speaking in Nairobi, Ke-nya, during the recent preparatory workshop on strengthening capac-ity for implementation of the bio-safety protocol in Africa. Delegates - including scientists, researchers and lawyers who play important roles in actualizing national biosafe-ty frameworks- converged to strat-egize on a common voice for the up-coming biosafety conference slated for October 2010, in Nagoya, Japan. The major objectives of the Nai-robi conference was to familiarize African delegates on Liability, Re-dress and risk assessment, as the key issues that will be decided upon in Nagoya and to build capacity for productive participation at the in-ternational event. “This workshop is opportune and

an ideal platform for delegates to deepen their understanding and ac-quaint themselves with substantive information and knowledge about issues in order to concretize coun-try positions, that are in line with sustainable development goals,” said Dr. Margret Karembu, the di-rector of International Services for the Acquisition of Agri–Biotech Ap-plications (ISAAA - AfriCentre). She urged African countries implement-ing the protocol to fast track the ex-ercise by localizing the various obli-gations in it. Kenya’s minister for Higher Edu-cation Science and Technology, Wil-lian Ruto, in a speech read on his be-half by Higher Education Secretary, Prof. Harry Kaane, said the Kenyan government considers biotechnol-ogy to be a crucial tool for develop-ment and also underlines the need to put adequate biosafety frame-work in place to ensure that Kenya can benefit fully from this technolo-gy while minimizing potential risks, if any. “In Kenya, the necessary and ap-propriate policy, legal and institu-tional measures required to imple-ment the protocol have been put in place,” said Ruto. Mr. Harrison Macharia, the acting chief executive officer of Kenya’s

National Biosafety Authority shared lessons learned in implementing Na-tional Biosafety Framework (NBF) in Kenya. He noted that the key chal-lenges faced in implementing NBF included harmonising the roles of the regulatory agencies; identifica-tion of centres of excellence to assist in detection of genetically modified organisms; dealing with the global debate on the contentious issues in COP-MOP meetings and capacity building courses on risk assessment and Management. The delegates deliberated on out-standing issues including liability and redress under the Cartegena Protocol on Biosafety which include provision on financial security in supplementary protocol, applica-tions of supplementary protocol to products of LMOs, provisions on the liability of states for damage caused by LMOs and adoption of guidelines on civil liability among others. The delegates also focused on the need to have competent and com-mitted delegates for effective repre-sentation of Africa’s position in the Nagoya summit.

See back page for Communique of the Nairobi meeting

Best Analysis of Science,

Technology and

Innovation in Africa

Be Informed

By - Lilongwe, Malawi; - Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, George Achia and Otula Owuor - Nairobi, Kenya.

Dr Namanga Ngongi’s


By Dr David Western

Kenya ranks among the world’s top wildlife destina-tions. A million and a half

visitors a year boost our economy by 12 percent. But the swelling ar-rivals are crowding our parks to the point of congestion. Lions and hye-nas are trailed by hoards of cars, off-road driving is pummeling habitats and visitors are grouching about the crowds. Is there any room for fur-ther growth? Plenty, if we look beyond the con-gested parks to the natural wealth Kenya has in abundance. In their rush between parks, tourists miss Kenya’s unrivalled diversity of ani-mal and plant life and habitats—its biodiversity—to say nothing of its varied landscapes and rich cultural heritage. We have also overlooked the part biodiversity plays in rural livelihoods and national develop-ment. Kenya, unlike the industrialized nations, depends more on renewable energy from sunlight than it does fossil fuels. This “natural capital”, channeled through plants and ani-mals, is the engine of our farming, ranching, fisheries, forestry, wild-life and tourism industries. Wood fuels still supply two thirds of our domestic energy. The ecological ser-vices biodiversity give us captures our rainfall, regulates river flows, supplies nutrients for crops, fodder for livestock, controls erosion and cleans the air, water and soils we pollute. These services come free of charge, add billions of shillings to our local and national economy, and yet are ignored in our calculations of national economic output. Ignoring the value of our biodi-versity comes at a huge cost. It took the destruction of the Mau Forest to raise public outrage over the drying rivers and other downstream costs to farmers, ranchers, national parks and our economy. It took a brave po-litical stand to evict the land grab-bers. Now the tax-payer must pay to restore the ecological services we took for granted. Billions of shillings are being lost to Kenya’s economy each year be-cause we are destroying our natu-ral capital far faster than it is being replaced. Farmers and ranchers, the backbone of our agrarian economy are paying the costs. The destruc-tion of our rangelands has halved wildlife populations in the last 40 years. Last year rangeland degrada-tion and intensified drought killed over 70 percent of livestock in pasto-ral areas and left millions of herders destitute. The value of a nation’s natural capital is now being recognized

and audited by the world’s more progressive countries. It is time for Kenya to do the same. Vision 2030 takes a step in the right direction in by stressing the value of renewable energy such as biomass, solar and wind in Kenya’s post-oil economy. But we must go further. We must overhaul our outdated wildlife pol-icy and prepare a comprehensive national framework for all biodiver-sity. Above all, a new conservation mandate must correct the gross im-balances between those who benefit from wildlife and biodiversity and those who bear the costs. Several organizations are taking some tentative steps towards a new and more inclusive biodiversity policy, including the Kenya Wild-life Service, National Museums of Kenya, Kenya Forest Service, the National Council, non-government organizations, landowners asso-ciations and international agencies. These efforts will only amount to better conservation coverage and practices if based on sound science, good environmental governance and new and innovative conserva-tion principles and practices. Recognizing the importance of our natural capital, the Ministry of Environment and Mineral Resourc-es, Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife and twenty conservation bodies, businesses and donors are sponsor-ing this conference on Biodiversity, Land Use and Climate Change. The conference marks Kenya’s participa-tion in the United Nations Interna-tional Year of Biodiversity 2010. The conference reviews the wealth of Kenya’s biological diversity, looks at the challenges of a growing popu-lation, expanding land use and cli-mate change. It also considers how to improve livelihoods and sustain economic growth through better conservation policies, tools and techniques. The good news is that the confer-ence will show that East Africa is the richest biodiversity region on the entire continent and among the

richest in the world. Kenya, sitting at the confluence of Africa’s forests, deserts, grasslands, woodlands and oceans, and spanning the great lakes and mountains, has extraordinary diversity of landscapes, biodiversity and cultures. Our national parks made a good start in protecting the most famous of our wildlife herds, but they fall far short of conserving the wealth of Kenya’s animals, plants and eco-systems. No national park is large enough to conserve the migrat-ing herds of large herbivores, let alone elephants, lions and wild dogs. Only one third of all wildlife is found in our national parks and reserves. We have lost almost a half the wildlife of our parks in the last 40 years. And that was before last year’s catastrophic drought when Amboseli lost 70 percent of its her-bivores, including thousands of wil-debeest and zebra and hundreds of buffalo, and elephants. The drastic loss resulted in starving lions and a huge surge of attacks on livestock. So there is an urgent need to re-store and buffer our parks, and to expand tourism to new destinations that reflect the wealth of Kenya’s natural endowment. The time is now to conserve the natural capital that underpins our farming, ranch-ing, natural resource production and the health of our environment. Conserving our natural capi-tal depends on a full inventory of species and filling the gaps left by our parks and reserves. To do so, we must work with Tanzania and Uganda to secure the animal migra-tions and ecological services that traverse our common boundaries. A full mapping exercise would have been impossible a few years back. No longer. With recent advances in information technology, survey methods, mapping techniques and software, we can now assemble vast amounts of information, size up the threats to biodiversity and plan the best options for countering them through land planning and a host of new conservation tools and in-centives. However, this ambitious undertaking calls for new technical skills, training and collaboration between government agencies and a new public-private partnership with conservation bodies, landown-ers and business. To protect Kenya’s biological wealth, we must also weigh the threats ahead. Land use and liveli-hoods are changing at an ever faster pace. How will the changes affect biodiversity and our natural capital? The biggest threats come from poor land use practices, degradation and habitat fragmentation, driven by population growth, settlement

and poverty. Standing in the way of reversing the losses to natural capital is the lack of rights to land and resources, and the incentive to invest in conservation. Corrupt of-ficials have hastened the losses by thwarting community ownership rights and pillaging natural resourc-es. Climate changes could add to the environmental and social costs--un-less we anticipate the risks it poses and put in place precautionary measures. But just how will global warming affect land use, liveli-hoods, biodiversity and our national parks? There is a good deal of un-certainty about how global warm-ing will change our local climate. To takes stock and be prepared, we must build likely scientific scenarios and counter the worst eventualities. We can also take advantage of the global carbon-trading market cre-ated to mitigate global warming. Communities stand to gain most from such markets, especially if they link carbon offsets to grass banks that counter drought, reforestation that boosts water, timber and fuel-wood supplies, and conservancies that protect biodiversity and foster tourism. Communities also stand to benefit all the more if Kenya puts a value on its natural capital and pays a fair market price for ecological servic-es. Already some 45 percent of our wildlife is found on community and private conservancies and is attract-ing a growing tourist market. These private-sector initiatives contribute richly to the local and national econ-omy yet cost the tax payer nothing. A bigger gain yet for most rural soci-eties lies ahead in renewable energy sources such as biomass, solar and wind, as envisaged in Kenya’s 2030 Vision. Before the new constitution, Ke-nya was edging towards a national biodiversity policy and comprehen-sive conservation framework. The passage of the constitution in Au-gust adds a new urgency by devolv-ing political power and a raft of indi-vidual rights to all citizens. Among them are rights to land, property and an equitable sharing of natural resources. In keeping with the new constitution, this conference is open to the public and invites broad par-ticipation in our efforts to build a national conservation framework. Above all, the new constitution should quicken the tempo for con-serving our biodiversity and natural capital for the Benefit of all Kenyans and the world at large. Dr Western who heads African Conseva-tion Centre was the Conference Chairman

BIODIVERSITY, LAND USE AND CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE

Kenya: Comprehensive Conservation Framework Needed

“Look beyond the congested parks to the natural wealth Kenya has in abundance.”

David Western


By Ayoki OnyangoScienceAfrica corespondent

The myth that people living in Arid and Semi Arid Lands (ASAL) can only rely on re-

lief food from donors and handouts is coming to an end. A group of re-searchers from Kenya Forestry Re-search Institute in partnership with National Agriculture and Livestock Extension Programme NALEP are rehabilitating ASAL areas. Experts from KEFRI have discov-ered that seed dormancy in Melia volkensii is caused by a combina-tion of exogenous and endogenous factors coupled with the inherently low germination vigour of Melia seeds due to self-pollination char-acteristics. KEFRI has over the years developed pre-germination tech-niques capable of breaking the dor-mancy by nipping or cracking the seed coat. Soaking the nipped seeds in cold water overnight for 24 hours before sowing on germination me-dia has been highly successful. “Articulating orientation of Melia production to markets, trade and business can and must be utilized in order to halt the loss of biodiversity and eradicate poverty,” says KEFRI Director Dr. Ben Chikamai. Accord-ing to Dr. Chikamai, the objective is to disseminate research findings to various stakeholders including farmers, scientists and the public. Farmers and NALEP frontline field extention staff have been trained to demonstrate various tech-niques of germination and seedling production, propagation, establish-ment methods, crop husbandry and management, harvesting and pro-cessing methods, crop husbandry and management, harvesting and processing of wood products accru-ing from Melia. It also includes promoting the use of locally available materials for ger-mination and nursery propagation such as cow-dung manure, sand and gravel media, soil organic mat-ter/humus, ash and waste water, Dr. Chikamai explained during an in-terview in his office at Muguga. “Dry lands in Kenya are still a depository of a diversity of plant re-sources. However, loss of biodiver-sity and degradation of ecosystems not only undermine healthy liveli-hoods, food production; and the availability of clean water, but also increase the vulnerability of popu-lations to natural disasters and cli-mate change. The cycle of drought continuously expose several million people who live in ASALs to hunger and deaths”, says Dr. Daniel Nya-mai, chief scientist and researcher

with KEFRI. Within these ecosystems, trees not only provide products such as wood, medicine, charcoal and food, but also support agricultural pro-duction and sustainability, adds Dr Nyamai. “The germination challenge prompted KEFRI researchers to de-velop techniques to break the dor-mancy so as to enhance its germina-tion for seedling propagation and management in the semi-arid parts of Kenya and coastal drylands eco-system”, he reveals. “The two government agencies use teachers or schools, provin-cial administration and organized groups as focal points to propa-gate the ideas”, says David Kimani Muchiri, head of KEFRI in Kibwezi. His counterpart in Kitui, Bernard Kigwa, says KEFRI mission is to enhance socio-economic welfare of Kenyans through research driven forests and allied natural resources. “Melia is highly preferred in this area of Kibwezi because of its high value timber, its wood is durable and termite resistant. We sell timber to those involved in construction and for those making furniture,” says Mzee Jonathan Kituku Mun’gala. Kituku, who has over 12,000 Me-lia trees, expects to earn much mon-ey when the trees mature for har-vest. He is among a group of farmers KEFRI and NALEP trained on how to handle melia on farms- such as spacing and pruning to avoid com-peting with other crops for light. Melia contains compounds that are toxic to insects. KEFRI also trained the farmers on tree improvement so that new plantations are superior to their predecessors. “Melia produc-tions in Kitui and Kibwezi will have long term positive economic impact on the population and improve the lives of the people”, says Meshack Muga also a researcher with KEFRI. Muga, however, adds that not only Melia, KEFRI in partnership with Nalep is also promoting in ASALs. There are other tree crops like Jat-ropha Curcas. A farmer Kaunda Ki-vungi in Songea-Mutito Andei has seven acres of Jatropha Curcas plan-tation. He says he sells one kilo of Jatrapha seeds at Kshs. 500. And in Kitui district, a farmer Jo-seph Kivelenge was motivated by KEFRI/NALEP partnership to start a mango nursery. The first 20 seed-lings of mango were provided freely by KEFRI Regions Research Office in Kitui. He now has 200 mango trees and each tree produces between 500 to 700 fruits. This multiply by 200 trees gives Kivelenge 140,000 fruits and at sh 15 a mango, you can imag-

ine the amount of money he makes. He says they have formed a co-operative society and also started a processing factory around Kitui that manufactures mango juice. “When we realized that brokers were coming to buy our mangoes at throw away prices, we decided to form Chuluni Horticulture Farmers Society to bargain as a group and also to set up factories at nearby centres to process our mango into juices,’ reveals Kivelenge. In Isiolo, Samburu and Laisamis KEFRI in partnership with NALEP is promot-ing the growth of different species of Acacia trees, which will provide fodder for camels, and goats. The trees are also expected to produce gum for sales by the local commu-nities. In Marigat, KEFRI in partner-ship with NALEP is giving technical support and service to local farmers to produce aloe vera and Prosophis Juliflora as well as food crops like shorghum, pigeon peas, cowpeas and livestock such as sheep and cows. “There was a hue and cry as pr-osophis was invading pasture and agricultural lands. However, KE-FRI/NALEP helped farmers and the locals to control its growth and to allow other crops to grow. Farmers were advised to space in the trees,

prune and thin their branches. In this way farmers in Marigat now use Mathenge for firewood, char-coal, fodders, bee forage and tim-ber. “For aloe vera KEFRI helped a local farmers’ organization Baringo Alo- Bio Enterprise BABE Farmers Society to write proposals for fund-ing by the European Union Com-munity Development Fund, CDCF.EU-CDCF. The society got sh 3 mil-lion to set up a factory to process sap from aloe vera” says Muga. Un-fortunately, the factory, which used to serve the aloe vera farmers in the area very well was closed down due a dispute between the farmers and the management. The Farmers wanted to be paid shs 100 for one li-tre of sap while the factory owners were paying shs. 35 a litre. NALEP Training Development Officer David Nyantika says farmers have learnt the techniques and even those who had never done farming in their lives, have embarked on farming saying they ought to have started the project long time ago,” notes Mr. Nyantika. KEFRI director Dr. Chikamai says the public should embrace govern-ment’s requirement that people plant trees on 10 percent of their farms in order to achieve KEFRI Vi-sion 2030 on aforestation.

FORESTRY AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Anne G. Osborn, a leading American medical expert, who has written one of the

best textbooks on Neuroradiol-ogy and the first female president of America Society Neuroradiology was recently at the University of Nai-University of Nai-robi’s Medical School which was also attended by Kenya’s prime minister Raila Odinga. Radiology has its roots in the dis-covery of Xrays by Prof Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen in 1895.However, in 1971 the development of Compu-terized Tomography opened a three dimension imaging evaluation of the body followed by Magnetic Reso-nance Imaging (MRI) in 1977. Even more the world is moving towards imaging at molecular levels which means that diagnosis of certain di-seases could be done early. The UoN medical school has two training pro-grammes for Neurosurgery and the faculty holds Fellowships in Neuro-surgery, Neuropathology and Neu-roradiology. The UON Radiology Department, now the Department of Diagnos-tic Imaging and Radiation Medi-cine, was started in 1972. Graduates

handle traditional radiology, sono-graphy, computerized tomography and MRI. UoN Vice-Chancellor Prof. George Magoha said the radiology depart-radiology depart-ment is a training centre for East and Central Africa while according to Prof. Isaac Kibwage, principal, Col-lege of Health Sciences, few disci-plines in the school of medicine have witnessed as much technological in-novation as radiology.

World’s Top Neuro-Radiologist Visits Kenyan Medical School

Anne Osborn

Best Forestry Practices Behind Increased Income


ited access. This in it self is a rarity for most of Africa where the mere hospitalisation of top political lead-ers is usually shrouded in secrecy. In the last weekend of Septem-ber a ScienceAfrica team visited the emergency section of a major hospi-tal in Nairobi, Kenya. A young high-ly agitated accident victim with a plastered left foot who also seemed high on drugs was calling med-ics unprintable names as he made fruitless attempts to lower himself from his hospital bed and limp back home. But overwhelming “pub-lic” sympathy went to a father and two sons who bitterly complained about his youngest offspring, -road accident victim- failing to get any medical attention for six hours after being brought by an ambulance at midnight. “Believe me we screen all emer-gency patients at point of entry and in this case we decided to first give attention to those who could have died within 10 minutes because we knew your son is not going to die even though he had vomited blood,” an obviously overworked doctor ex-plained. Events in the hospitals emergency sections were the strongest indica-tors of the widespread misunder-standings and frustration among patients and medics in Africa. The continent is far from having enough skilled medics and the need to streamline and effectively use avail-able skills remains a nightmare with only a few hospital administrators having the determination and tal-ents to do so.

Ethiopian Model

However, the myth that Af-rican health professionals lack missionary spirit and

are constantly looking for opportu-nities to rush to developed nations is practically being disapproved by an increasing number of highly skilled and dedicated doctors like Ethio-pia’s Dr. Belay Abegaz, Founder and Medical Director of the country’s, first Cardiac Center pioneering in healing heart ailments in children. It is estimated that 50,000 chil-dren are born with heart diseases every year in Ethiopia and 50,000-60,000 others develop heart disease at some point in life after childhood. Ethiopians are among the people in the world most severely affected by the problem. Especially children with heart diseases have been the most affect-ed ones for they cannot enjoy their childhood like their friends. They can collapse in the middle of a game and risk lossing their life if they want to engage themselves in activi-ties that require much energy and

movement unlike their peers. This is really a heart breaking phenom-enon to notice in Ethiopia. On the contrary, the country had no spe-cialized hospital and cardiac center to assist the helpless children. Cognizant of the fact that children were dying helplessly, Dr. Belay de-cided to contribute his share back home in assisting the children who have endured heart diseases as soon as he completed his studies in pedi-atrics and specialized in cardiology 33 years ago in New York. Dr. Belay recently told ScienceAf-ica reporter in Addis Ababa “As a fortunate citizen who had the chance to specialize in cardiology abroad I could not simply watch children suffering and dying because of the absence of surgical centers and spe-cialists and I decided to come back and do something.” Then, he started to discuss the is-sue with his friends how children of the nation with heart diseases can be assisted. In the meantime, he was helping children get surgical treat-ment by sending them abroad.

Later on, Dr.Belay met Brig. Gen-eral Tilahun Bishane and discussed on how to work in an organized manner rather than individually. The two of them decided to estab-lish an association with a view to helping children sustainably in Ethiopia. “Then, a founding com-mittee in which I was a member was established in collaboration with the then commission of children’s affairs commissioner, Mr. Tezera-work Shimeles and others, then the Children’s Heart Fund of Ethiopia (CHFE) came to existence in 1989.” Cognizant of the fact that heart disease in children is very preva-lent in Ethiopia CHFE was estab-lished to assist children with heart disease get proper treatment both at home and abroad, to promote

awareness among the public about heart disease in children for preven-tive purpose and to establish or be instrumental for the establishment of institutions that would cater for children with heart disease and the like. Prior to the establishment of the Children’s Heart Fund of Ethio-

pia Dr. Belay sent more than 108 children abroad for treatment and many children cured. In addition, some 1200 children were treated at the Children’s Heart Fund of Minne-sota, USA; Terre des Hommes-Ned-erland; Chain of Hope, UK; Save the Child’s Heart, Germany and other centers. However, sending children abroad was not only difficult and expensive but also that much satis-factory in healing the Ethiopian chil-dren affected by heart diseases. As the Children’s Heart Fund of Ethiopia had been helping children who have heart problems by send-ing them abroad for over 22 years, hundreds of others were waiting for their turn; Dr. Belay and his col-leagues had to make relentless effort to realize the establishment of a Car-

diac Center in Ethiopia. Then, the First Cardiac Center in Ethiopia was inaugurated on Febru-ary 12, 2009. However, it took so long to launch the construction of the cardiac cen-ter. “One reason was that we had a problem collecting the money which was given to us by many individu-als and organizations.” Dr. Belay ex-plained why it was hard to realize establishment of a cardiac center in Ethiopia. However, later on with the con-tribution of over 35 million birr by a famous Ethiopia business tycoon Sheik Mohammed Hussein Ali Al-Amoudi as well as additional grants from the general public, the con-struction of the Center was realized. Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia on the inauguration day of the center, lauded the firm commit-ment and utmost effort exerted by Dr. Belay and his colleagues as well as the generosity of Sheik Moham-med Hussein Ali Al-Amoudi made to a make a reality the first ever car-diac center in Ethiopia. According to Dr. Belay, 142 heart patients have been operated so far by the centre and an additional 160 operations will be conducted before the end of the year. The centre also envisages furthers strengthening the cardiac surgery service to help needy children with heart problem in the country. “But there is no doubt we can dou-ble or may be even triple the num-ber of people we can treat here in the years to come,” the Medical Director said. Despite the center was established to provide heart surgery for children it is currently giving services 75 and 25 per cent for children and adults respectively. “The main aim was to provide heart surgery for children. Through time, adults have also been coming to get treatment. So, now, we offer services to patients ranging from 3-45 years of age.” Dr. Belay in-dicated. “I am sure building another one will be a lot easier than the first one. We can see the increased level of commitment in people. Addis Aba-ba needs more than five cardiac cen-ters, let alone the country. So, I call on the people of Ethiopia to work to-gether not only for the expansion of the existing center but also for other activities as well.” Dr. Belay said.He said that the center is also con-tributing its share in the develop-ment of curriculum in Cardiology at the Addis Ababa University Medi-cal College. “The establishment of the cardiac centre at the premises of the Tikur Anbesa referral hospital of the Addis Ababa University Medical College would help to create a prac-tical forum for medical students to

from on pg 1

Hospitals Facing Major Challenges

continued on pg 11

Dr. Belay Abegaz, Founder and Medical Director Ethiopia’s first

Cardiac Center

A young heart patient in Ethiopia


study cardiology,” Dr. Belay added. The centre, as a pioneering car-diac centre, would also play its role in sharing experiences to those who are interested to replicate medical service. Dr. Belay also pointed out that as the center provides the service for free it is undertaking various activi-ties to enable it sustainably generate income to run the centre. The establishment of the center in Ethiopia has created a glimmer of hope for many children and their families. Now many children with

heart diseases have at least some where to go and they would not lose their lives in vain where there is a way to solve their problem. It is also very exciting to see moth-ers and fathers to regain their hope after the successful cardiac surgeries of their children. The construction of a multifaceted building with an intention of gener-ating income is well in progress in Addis, he said, adding that the con-struction is funded by Sheikh Mo-hammed Hussein Ali Al-Amoudi. The business tycoon is also current-

ly covering the running cost of the hospital, Dr. Belay indicated. The medical director also said that a project has been developing to es-tablish a Heart Research Center, first of its kind in Africa, at an initial cost of 7 million USD. “We are not planning to have re-search on every kind of heart dis-ease. We want to conduct research on Rheumatic heart disease which is caused by throat infection or tonsil-litis. This disease is common in our country especially among children. It doesn’t have any vaccination at

the moment but we expect to get one in the future. So, if we get the vac-cination, it will be a breakthrough,” Dr. Belay added. In the next issue we shall look at the situation in other African coun-tries including Malawi and Kenya. The focus in Kenya will be on Get-rude’s Children’s Hospital, Nairobi Hospital, Kijabe Mission Hospital and MP Shah Hospital.

Africa’s Hospitals Facing Major Challengesfrom on pg 10

One of the major develop-ments in Kenya is the inclu-sion of health issues in the

constitution with potentially far reaching consequences that may see the usually docile Kenyan pub-lic and medical community become more assertive. It could mark the beginning of having civil societies give attention to health issues and other basic human need instead of the current overwhelming focus on politics. Recently the African Institute for Health and Development (AIHD), the Center for Study of Adolescence (CSA) and the African Woman and Child Feature Services (AWC) jointly organized a meeting to dis-cuss the implications of the new constitution on the health sector. The intended high level discussion helped initiate a process of working with the Ministries of Health in ad-dressing some of the implications. The participants including the minister for Medical Services Prof. A. Nyong’o, Kenya Medical Associ-ation officials, doctors and lawyers, journalists, NGOs agreed that the country’s healthcare system will-have to be overhauled to cope with the Enforcement of Bill of Rights which makes it clear that Every

person has the right to institute court proceedings claiming that a right or fundamental freedom in the bill of rights has been denied, violated or infringed, or is threat-ened. However, it is the section on economic and social rights that con-tains potentially radical changes in the health sector and it will not be business as usual for health in-stitutions and workers who have taken patients’ rights for granted. Kenyans will no longer be denied emergency health care. Section of the rights ofchildren, the disabled, consumers and the youth have radical implications for the health sector. Health workers in Kenya urgently need to be made aware of the new provisions that could land them in jail.

Below are some of the edited ex-tracts in the Bill of Rights or other sections that deal with health Right to life Every person has the right to life. The life of a person begins at conception.A person shall not be de-prived of life intentionally, except to the extend authorized by this con-stitution or other written law. Abor-tion is not permitted unless, in the opinion of a trained health profes-

sional, there is need for emergency treatment, or the life or the health of the mother is in danger, or if per-mitted by any other written law.

Human dignity and Freedom and security of the personEvery person has inherent dignity and the right to have that dignity respected and protected.Every per-son has the right to freedom and se-curity of the person, which include the right not to be: Subjected to any form of violence from either public or private sources, Subjected to tor-ture in any manner, whether physi-cal or psychological, Subjected to corporal punishment, Treated or punished in a cruel, inhuman or de-grading manner.

EnvironmentEvery person has the right to a clean and healthy environment, which includes the right – To have the environment protected for the benefit of present and future gener-ations through legislative and other measures, particularly those con-templated in article 69 and To have obligations relating to environment fulfilled under article 70.

Economic and social rights

Every person has the right to:• To the highest attainable stan-

dard of health, which includes the right to health care services, including reproductive health care

• To accessible and adequate housing, and to reasonable standards of sanitation

• To be free from hunger, and to have adequate food of accept-able quality

NOTE: A person shall not be denied emergency medical treatment

Consumer rightsTo the protection of their health, safety and economic interests and, To compensation for loss or injury arising from defects in goods or ser-vices.

Specific application of rightsChildrenEvery child has the right – To free and compulsory basic edu-cation To basic nutrition, shelter and health careTo be protected from abuse, neglect, harmful cultural practices, all forms of violence, inhuman treatment and

Health and Kenya’s New Constitution-Bill of Rights

cont. pg 15

A person shall not be denied emergency medical treatment

A team of heart specialists at work


DISEASES

There is a rapid rise of Non-communicable Diseases (NCDs) which presents a ma-

jor health challenge to global devel-opment in the 21st century. The rise threatens economic and social de-velopment, as well as the lives and health of millions of people, there-fore it requires concerted and coor-dinated action for its prevention and control. The World Health Organi-sation (WHO) notes that currently four types of NCDs - cardiovascu-lar diseases, cancers, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases - make the largest contribution to mortality in the majority of low- and middle-income countries (principally sub-Saharan Africa) accounting for 79 percent (i.e. 27.5 million) of world-wide deaths. Preventable heart dis-ease, strokes, diabetes, cancers and asthma contributes to half of these deaths. The main factors aggravat-ing the NCD burden are: (1) The risk factors - mainly increased levels of exposure to tobacco use, unhealthy diets, physical inactivity and the harmful use of alcohol; and (2) inef-fective and inequitable health care services for people with NCDs. Partnerships and Initiatives around NCD prevention and con-trol: Introducing CNCD-Africa The African Institute for Health & Development (AIHD) in collabora-tion with the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC-At-lanta) under the IUHPE/CDC coop-erative agreements with the support of Department of Health UK, has en-gaged in various NCDs control and prevention activities. These have in-cluded: “Community health: build-ing capacity of African countries to prevent NCDS”, “Bridging the gap between research and policy: Enhancing the role of the Partners Forum on NCD and related condi-tions in Sub-Saharan Africa”, “Glob-al Education and Training in Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention” and “Building capacity for cardiovascu-lar health promotion and chronic disease prevention and control in Africa”. The partnerships aim to ini-tiate and facilitate a continuing pro-cess of supporting countries in the region to help advocate and maxi-mise their efforts for NCD preven-tion and control. One of the earliest initiatives was the convening of an NCD Prevention and Health Promo-tion Advocacy Meeting comprising of experts in the region in Bagamoyo Tanzania (2008) to deliberate on the priorities for NCD control, preven-tion and management. The Bagamo-yo meeting resulted into the forma-tion of Expert Group and the Part-

ner Forum. The expert group con-sisted of distinguished actors in the NCD sector and some of them were later to become the steering commit-tee members for CNCD-Africa. The

partner group consisted of partners working within the Health sector in general and NCDs in particular in the region. The idea of forming a re-gional body representing NCD col-lective efforts in the region was born at this time. Subsequent follow-up meetings in Kampala and Nairobi led to the establishment of the Con-sortium for Non-Communicable Diseases Prevention and Control in sub-Saharan Africa (CNCD-Africa) in July, 2009. The Consortium was officially launched during the 20th IUHPE World Conference on Health Promotion in July 2010 in Geneva, Switzerland.CNCD-Africa positions AIHD at the forefront of chronic dis-ease and NCD work in the region by bringing together partnerships that synergize global efforts. Objectives of CNCD-Africa CNCD-Africa seeks to meet the fol-lowing objectives:1. Provide a framework for engag-

ing in a joint dialogue in address-ing NCDs in the sub-Saharan Af-rican Region, ranging from health promotion to case management;

2. Synergize the on-going NCD pre-vention and control activities in the region with a view to increas-ing the coherence, overall impact and visibility of actions undertak-

en in the region;3. Build a platform for members to

support the development of com-prehensive and multi-sectoral policies, standards, guidelines

and protocols, and to mobilize resources for addressing NCDs in

the region;4. Create a forum for networking

and partnership that builds on the capacities and expertise of members in the areas of health care, surveillance, policy, advo-cacy and implementation of NCD interventions and evaluation;

5. Identify and define the unique circumstances that drive the NCD burden in the region with a view to developing context-relevant strategies; and

6. Articulate regional issues at the global level with a view to ensur-ing that NCD interventions in

sub-Saharan Africa are highly vis-ible, relevant, effective, efficient and sustainable.

AIHDAIHD is a Non-Governmental Orga-nization (NGO) that was established in June 2004 in Nairobi, Kenya. The main purpose of the organization is to conduct research, training and advocacy in health and develop-ment that is contextually relevant to Kenya and the African continent; and to influence policy on key devel-opmental issues such as social de-terminants of health, communicable and non-communicable diseases, HIV and AIDS, poverty alleviation, child health, gender and youth. Current CNCD-Africa Partners • CDC Atlanta • Ministry of Public Health and

Sanitation, Kenya• IUHPE• DoH (UK)• PepsiCo Foundation• AFENET

CNCD-Africa membershipCurrently 16 countries in the sub-Saharan Africa are represented in the consortium through the various organizations working on NCDs. They are:1. Swaziland2. Uganda (2)3. Tanzania (5)4. Mauritania5. Nigeria6. Zambia (2)7. Kenya (2)8. Côte d’Ivoire 9. South Africa (2)10. Ethiopia 11. Togo12. Bénin13. Rwanda14. Mali15. Burkina Faso16. BurundiFor more information, visit: http://www.aihdint.org/cncd/

Non-Communicable Diseases: The Silent Epidemic

Participants during the Bagamoyo meeting in Tanzania (2008)

Danger zone: Tobacco use, unhealthy diet and harmful consumption of alcohol


Un-planned Developments Threaten Kenya’s Biodiversity and Livelihoods

BIODIVERSITY, LAND USE AND CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE

By Michael Gachanja

(Technical Adviser, Interim coordinating secretariat, Office of the Prime Minister)

Kenya’s rich biodiversity - found in wetlands, forests, drylands and marine eco-

systems - is vital to socio-economic development. Yet these key biodi-versity areas are threatened by com-mercial developments. The country has however realised the need for planning and hence the reason for adopting the land policy. Section 3.4 of this policy provides for land use planning. This section has now been highly empasized in the New Constitution Chapter 5 on Land and Environment. These provisions are now law since immediately after the constutition was adopted, all other laws should be implemented in a way that they are not contradicting the New Constitution. To make these provisions work, the central government has an uphill task in monitoring their implemen-tation by the proposed county gov-ernment. It is stated that only about 15% of the county government bud-get will come from the national gov-ernment. The balance will have to be generated by the county govern-ment and this is where the challenge will be especially because the coun-ty governments may exploit natural resources within their mandates or turn a blind eye to developments that compromise biodiversity con-servation. Some case studies include the proposed large scale growing of Jatropha in Dakatcha woodlands in Malindi and the commercial devel-opments at Tana Delta. Dakatcha woodland located in Malindi, Coast Province, serves is the breeding grounds for an en-demic bird, the Clarkes Weaver and forms an important water catch-ment area for the local community. However, an Italian company tried to lease 50,000 hectares to grow Jatropha, despite social, economic and environ-

mental factors indicating that growing of Jatropha in this marginal area is not viable. Their Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report was reject-ed by the National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) which adviced them to go for a pilot project. The Company is seeking an approval for 10,000 hectares as the pilot project. This being land within Dakatcha woodland the East Afican Wildlife Society’s view is that this pilot project should not be allowed. Any approval at this stage would also be contradicting the New Consti-tution which has various provisions on land use that should be adhered to. One of the themes of the conference is on land use and livelihoods. The proposed land requested for the Jatropha cultivation was under the old constitution trust-land under the custodianship of the County Council of Malindi and 70% of it is settled. Under the New Constitu-tion, the county council does not have any role and the land is recognised as community land. The provisions of the New Con-

stitution that secure this land for the community living there should therefore be applied so that they do not in any way lose the land and be deprived of their livelihoods. In this era of climate change, it is not wise to replace Dakatcha woodlands with a crop that does not have the capacity to store large quantities of carbon. The net effect is the release of large amounts of carbon by cut-ting Dakatcha woodlands. The second case study is that of Tana Delta wetlands within Tana River district, Coast Province, which is Kenya’s largest, most ecologically and biologically diverse, socially and economically important wet-land. It is formed at the lower Tana River floodplains covering about 130,000ha of which some 69,000ha are regularly inundated thus the Delta has very rich and diverse bio-logical resources. 76% of this biodiversity is wet-lands, comprising permanent water bodies; swamp or marsh vegeta-tion; seasonally flooded grasslands;

mangrove forests; riverine/flood-plain forests; marine sea grass beds; coral gardens and coastal dune habitats. The remaining 24% com-prises wooded grassland and bush land associations. At the species level, parts of the Delta sustain spe-cies of monkeys that are considered endemic to Kenya - the Tana River Crested Mangabey and the Tana River Red Colobus – and several globally threatened bird species, including Basra Reed Warbler and Malindi Pipit. The delta also quali-fies as an Important Bird Area (IBA) and Key Biodiversity Area (KBA). There are many examples of de-velopment done or planned without land use planning and consider-ation of conservation needs. These include the Tana and Athi Rivers Development Authority (TARDA) proposed project to undertake sug-arcane growing and ethanol pro-duction in the Tana Delta. More recently there is a growing demand to use the Delta area for the com-mercial production of Jatropha curcas and other oil crops (sunflower, cas-tor & crambe) as a biofuel. There is no control over the land allocation, there is no co-ordinated decision making and management in regard to development. The rights of the lo-cal people are ignored and sooner than later, there will be a serious land use conflict. The above case studies show that in any commercial development and land use change we should not lose sight of their impacts on biodi-versity and climate change. In this regard, the East African Wild Life Society (EAWLS) is happy to be as-sociated with the Kenya’s Interna-tional Conference on Biodiversity, Land Use and Climate Change held on the 15th- 17th September 2010 in Nairobi.

Allowing a private firm seeking 10,000ha of Tana River Delta to grow Jatropha would violate the new constitution and destroy biodiversity including two endemic monkey species, endangered bird species and other wildlife.

Endemic Tana River Red Colobus (colobustrust.org)



By Prof. Norah K. OlemboExecutive Director, African Biotechnology StakeholdersForum Regional Office, Nairobi, Kenya

Scientific and Technological In-novations serves as a vital en-gine for the knowledge-driven

socio-economic advancement of any country. It is also recognized today that the development policies of prosperous national economies are strongly linked to excellence in Scientific and Technological Innova-tions. In an increasingly globalized world, high levels of investment in research and innovation are essen-tial for economic competitiveness as well as for the development of vital sectors such as healthcare, environ-mental technologies and sustainable energy – in other words, sectors that make tangible improvements to the quality of life of the populace, espe-cially the rural and urban poor.Scientific and Technological innova-tions have served as the foundations of social and economic wellbeing ever since the beginnings of human civilization more than 100 decades ago. With each passing millennium, the forces of Scientific and techno-logical innovations have gained in importance as fundamental tools for creating wealth and improv-ing the quality of life, both globally and within individual societies. Af-rica has a rich history of indigenous knowledge systems that are still unknown to the outside world. It is also true that research activities in Africa have yielded results that re-main largely unpublished in inter-national journals. .Africa enters the 21st century facing monumental challenges to its sur-vival and long-term sustainability and at the core of these challenges is the continent’s ability to master Scientific and Technological Innova-tions and to successfully apply these forces to address critical problems related to health, food, water and the environment.

STI in Africa TodayAfrica has a wide range of impor-tant assets, which if properly man-aged can provide enormous oppor-tunities for Science and Technology-driven sustainable development in the continent. More than 40 per cent of Africa’s population – nearly 400 million people (almost four-fifths of the total population of the Euro-pean Union) - is less than 14 years of age. Africa’s large and expanding youthful population stands in sharp contrast to the aging – and in some instances declining – populations of Europe, Japan and the United States.The potential of its people – its hu-man resources – represents Africa’s greatest asset. Africa also has a plen-tiful supply of natural resources, ranging from oil in Nigeria and An-gola to diamonds in Botswana, the

Congo and Sierra Leone, to gold in South Africa and Ghana, and to other valuable minerals, including some of the largest deposits of cop-per, zinc and bauxite, in the world.

Weaknesses and Challenges • Thirty-five of the world’s least

developed countries are located in Africa. Nearly 70 per cent of the continent’s people live on less than US$2 a day. More than 26 million Africans are afflicted with AIDS, a disease that claims the lives of 2.5 million people in Africa each year. Nearly 1 mil-lion Africans die each year of malaria and more than 40 per cent of Africans do not have ac-cess to safe drinking water, and more than 70 per cent do not have access to electricity. Edu-cation on the continent, while recently enjoying some signs of resurgence, remains inadequate, and reliable health care contin-ues to be out of reach for most Africans.

• Global challenges such as cli-mate change add to the con-tinent’s woes and often place progress at risk. In fact experts anticipate that the dry lands of Africa, which cover nearly two thirds of the continent and are home to nearly 400 million peo-ple, will experience a significant loss in productivity as declining water supplies and higher tem-peratures put additional stress on these marginal agricultural lands.

• Africa’s ability to adapt to cli-mate change is suspect at best. The continent does not have the institutional capacity or scien-tific and technological know-how to effectively design and implement adaptation policies to blunt its effects. In addition, there are unexpected global events that always seem to have the greatest impact on the world’s poorest people, many of whom live in Africa.

• Food price increases will impact Africa more seriously than any other continent. Soaring food prices could push 100 million people deeper into poverty, re-versing nearly seven years of work in the fight against pov-erty. Furthermore 36 countries now face a food security crisis, and that 21 of these countries are in Africa.

STI Deficits in Africa?• Africa does not have the scien-

tific, technological or innovative capacity to effectively address the challenges that it confronts.

Poverty reduction, environ-mental degradation, food and energy security, health care, cli-mate change, wealth creation and sustainable development are all complex issues that de-mand their own set of respons-es if they are to be successfully addressed. But what all these problems have in common is a need for a critical mass of scien-tific and technological expertise that is capable of not just raising heartfelt concerns, but also pro-ducing concrete results.

• Although Africa is home to more than 15 per cent of the world’s population, it produces less than 1.5 per cent of the world’s scien-tific knowledge – as measured by articles published in peer-reviewed international journals.

• Although access to the Internet is improving, the continent re-mains far behind the rest of the world in information and com-munications technologies. Just 4 per cent of the population of sub-Saharan Africa has access to the Internet, compared to nearly 70 per cent in the United States and 10 per cent in China. Access to electronic information is now available in a growing number of African universities, but low bandwidth and high costs make it difficult for African research-ers to review the most current literature in their fields.

• Low pay, poor working condi-tions and limited opportuni-ties for advancement have all prompted Africa’s best and brightest scientists to pursue careers elsewhere. Brain drain represents not only a loss to the professional communities with-in their countries, but more im-portantly, it represents a loss to their societies as a whole. Africa needs skilled and dedicated sci-entists in sufficient numbers if it hopes to break the cycle of pov-erty that has gripped the conti-nent for far too long.

Solutions • Growth of Scientific Innovations

and the ability to apply these tools to address the socio-eco-nomic needs of African coun-tries is mainly the responsibility of Africa’s governments. While it appears that most leaders in Af-rica are now convinced that the only way their nations can meet the Millennium Development Goals is through science-based development, there remains an urgent need to translate this conviction into a clear and con-vincing plan of action.

• Political and scientific leaders in each African country must take immediate steps to work together to design national poli-cies for the development of Sci-ence and Technology based on their nation’s technological and industrial needs. It is imperative that a politically independent science policy agency also be created which should be com-posed of knowledgeable science managers and advisers who are granted sufficient independence and responsibility to create and implement a national plan for building capacity in Science and Technology. The agency should also be given responsibility for coordinating all scientific and technological activities within the country and for forging col-laborative exchanges with scien-tists and scientific institutions in other countries.

• Science policy should be fully integrated into each nation’s de-velopment plan. This will help ensure that the scientific and technological knowledge gen-erated by the nation’s research institutions is responsive to the socio-economic needs of the country. Furthermore, intercon-nectivity between national eco-nomic development plans and national science and technol-ogy policies will both broaden and deepen the involvement of the nation’s private sector in research and development, and help to promote mission-orient-ed scientific and technological research in support of the econ-omy.

• African Governments must en-sure that adequate and stable funding is provided for the implementation of the national science and technology plan. Without a firm commitment by African governments to increase the level of funding for research and development to at least 1 per cent of the gross domestic product, no science policy will be able to effectively build in-digenous scientific and techno-logical capacity, let alone trans-form that capacity into concrete action that helps to alleviate poverty and grow the economy. The average proportion of GDP allocated to research and devel-opment in Africa, which stands at about 0.2 percent, is the low-est compared to other regions in the world.

Promoting Scientific Innovations for Sustainable Socio-Economic Development in Africa

INNOVATIONS

to be continued in the next issue


By George Achia and Bibiana Iraki

A project by CABI on Afri-can Indigenous Vegetable (AIVs) is set to significantly

contribute to food security and nu-trition for East African smallholder farmers. AIVs are also becoming an important source of income for many farmers as their market is widely increasing. However, the potential to meet the growing de-mand for AIVs is limited by the availability of good quality seed. With their medicinal value and rich nutritional contents such as cal-cium, iron and vitamins, scientists at CABI have embarked on a mis-sion to resuscitate AIVs by explor-ing different seed production mod-els that are centered on Farmer-Led Seed Enterprises (FLSEs). The project dubbed “Scaling up farmer – led seed enterprises for sustained productivity and liveli-hoods” is geared towards enhanc-ing utilization of agricultural tech-nologies and innovation and in-creasing access to quality AIV seeds by smallholder farmers in Kenya and Tanzania. The two countries were selected because they have high potential for increase in market opportunities for seeds of AIVs due to their growing demands in the urban centres. In addition, both countries also have a

relatively strong and emerging pri-vate sector which plays a vital role in seed provision. Working in these countries allow for the researchers to analyze the present AIV seed models in two different seed regu-lation circumstances. In Kenya, seed regulation is more stringent as the Seed and Plant Variety Act only permits reg-istered seed growers to work with seed, whereas in Tanzania, the rules are more flexible and the farmers are allowed to produce, pack, and distribute seed within their regions. These differences will enable the researchers to generate viable evi-dence-based models befitting two different circumstances. Five farmer groups in five dis-

tricts in Kenya - Bondo, Kisumu, Siaya, Bungoma South and Butere Mumias - which have interest in es-tablishment of seed enterprises for AIVs are being used to implement the project. In addition, two farmer groups producing seeds of AIVs under contractual arrangement with Kenya Seed Company have been selected. “The priority AIVs that were se-lected by farmers for the purpose of seed production in Kenya in-cluded African nightshade, Ama-ranth, Crotalaria, Spider Plant and Jute mallow. The criterion used by the farmers in selecting the type of AIV for seed production enterprise included marketability, drought tolerance, tolerance to pest and diseases and the amount of labour required during processing,” Dr. Daniel Karanja, a plant pathologist and the project leader told ScienceA-frica during an exclusive interview at CABI offices in Nairobi. The project was started at grass root levels so as to enable the scien-tists to identify the constraints that have been affecting the production of AIVs from the farmers’ perspec-tive. Some of the issues raised by the Kenyan farmers were the un-availability of start-up seed, ad-verse weather conditions, lack of technical skills in seed and leaf pro-duction, and the lack of organized

market for AIV products. Farmers in Tanzania echoed similar senti-ments, along with challenges in ac-quiring water supply for irrigation during dry seasons. To tackle some of these issues, a draft training cur-riculum was developed to meet the needs of the farmers. The success of this project will not only deal with poverty allevia-tion and the re-introduction of nu-tritious vegetables in our diets but also addresses issues of food secu-rity. Kenya has largely depended on cereal crops such as maize for too long and this trend needs to be done away with as was witnessed during the drought that saw the na-tion crippled last year. Introducing diversification of farming systems is paramount if Kenya and the rest of East African countries are going to avoid recur-rence. The short production cycle of these AIVs, coupled with their tolerance to pests and their ability to be produced organically means that these AIVs are beneficial for food security. As a result, the need to raise awareness is essential. The rigorous campaigns on production of good quality seed undertaken by CAB International under the good seed initiative program is a step in the right direction

Indigenous Vegetable for Improved Livelihood

punishment, and hazardous or ex-ploitative labourTo parental care and protection, this includes equal responsibility of the mother and father to pro-vide for the child, whether they are married to each other or not.

Persons with disabilitiesA person with any disability is en-titled – • To be treated with dignity and

respect and to be addressed and referred to in a manner that is not demeaning

• To access educational institu-tions and facilities for persons with disabilities that are inte-grated into society to the ex-tent compatible with the inter-ests of the person

• To reasonable access to all places, public transport and information

Youth are protected from harmful cultural practices eg FGM.

from page 1from page 11

Top Science Academies Support GM Health andRights

BIOTECH

tion and equipping of the necessary laboratories, and the use of rigor-ously planned, results-oriented GM food research. Research results have shown the possibility of increasing crop yields, improving the stor-age potential of harvested crops, improving the protein content of starchy foods, biofortification of lo-cal foods, and improving the func-tional potential of local foods.Despite widespread scepticism sur-rounding the value of GM crops, this application of biotechnology is gradually finding its niche across the globe. A decade after GM crops were introduced into the world, their production has grown to ap-proximately 125 million hectares globally. The use of GM technology and its products are still in their infancy in Africa, and while South Africa remains the continent’s leader in the field, other African countries have begun to produce biotechnol-ogy products for commercial use.

South Africa is one of three coun-tries on the continent (along with Egypt and Burkina Faso) producing commercial GM crops. Despite most African countries having ratified the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (CPB), only a few African countries have functioning biosafety legisla-tion that allows field trials of GM products (South Africa, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Kenya, Uganda, Tanza-nia, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Nigeria, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco and Mauri-tania). To allow developing countries to derive the full potential benefits of biotechnology crops, technology developers should also consider fac-tors such as the relevance and acces-sibility of a particular technology to ensure sustainability, not only in their post-release safety but also in terms of their potential socioeco-nomic impacts within developing countries, which to date have usu-ally only been considered at a very late stage of product development.

Ongoing biotechnology research in Africa focuses largely on attempt-ing to solve local problems associat-ed with food production, health and the environment. Locally focused biotechnology can play a role in in-creased global crop productivity to improve food, feed and fibre secu-rity in sustainable crop production systems that also conserve biodiver-sity. It can contribute to the allevia-tion of poverty and hunger, and the augmentation of traditional plant breeding, and can reduce the envi-ronmental footprint of agriculture, mitigate climate change, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and con-tribute to the cost effective produc-tion of biofuel. The study was undertaken in col-laboration with the Union of Ger-man Academies of Sciences and Humanities, the Network of African Science Academies (NASAC) and the Uganda National Academy of Sciences (UNAS).

Dr. Daniel Karanja


By Daniel Otunge(Associate Editor, ScienceAfrica)

MAIZE breeding is set to go a notch higher, thanks to the impending MAIZE mega-

program of the CGIAR (Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research) to be implemented by a global alliance of international and national partners, especially in Af-rica, Asia and Latin America. Through this megaprogram, the Mexico-based CIMMYT (Internation-al Maize and Wheat Improvement Center) along with the Ibadan-based IITA (International Institute for Tropi-cal Agriculture) in collaboration with research and development partners worldwide, propose to implement several important Strategic Initia-tives. These include development and dissemination of stress tolerant and nutritionally enriched maize for the poorest, doubling the maize yields through an International Maize Im-provement Consortium, improving food safety and reducing post-har-vest losses in maize, besides opening up of the world’s richest maize gene bank, and developing novel tools and methods for enhancing precision and efficiency of maize breeding. In addi-tion, the megaprogram will focus on sustainable intensification of maize-based farming systems in the devel-oping world, and closing the yield gaps through smallholder precision agriculture. In an exclusive interview with ScienceAfrica, CIMMYT’s newly ap-pointed Global Maize Program Di-rector, Dr. Prasanna M. Boddupalli, says Africa, the largest maize con-sumer, will be the biggest beneficiary from the MAIZE megaprogram with more productive maize varieties. Dr Prasanna informs that CIMMYT is building a strong partnership of global maize scientific community under the MAIZE megaprogram so that they can use the opportunity to improve maize in all aspects. The gene bank that CIMMYT has been stocking for decades currently boasts of over 27,000 accessions that includes landraces, wild relatives and inbred lines among others. “This is an equivalent of the ‘black box’ of maize germplasm,” Dr Prasanna says. This important initiative of CIM-MYT is already being talked of as likely to go down in history as per-haps one of the organization’s great-est contributions to the global maize research and development. Opening this rich treasure is expected to bene-fit global maize farmers and consum-ers. Africa will benefit the most as the

biggest consumer of maize. In 94 de-veloping countries, maize is a major food crop preferred by about 900 million people. Of the 170 countries where maize is grown, 125 are in de-veloping countries and nearly a third of that are in Africa. As Prasanna apt-ly puts it, in Africa “maize is not only

a food, it is life!” Dr. Prasanna says that CIMMYT focuses in Africa and “that is why it has decentralized operations in East-ern and Southern Africa, including location of two of its Program Direc-tors (for Global Maize Program and Socioeconomics Program) in Africa,” he said. The placing of Dr Prasan-na in Nairobi to oversee the Global Maize Program shows the impor-tance CIMMYT attaches to mitigating food security in Africa. “We want to do research for the people and by the people,” explains Dr. Prasanna, who has over 22 years of maize genetics and breeding experience at the Indi-an Agricultural Research Institute at New Delhi, before joining CIMMYT in March 2010. Dr. Prasanna explains that the MAIZE megaprogram is part of the global responses to the recurrent food

crises; the global financial meltdown, volatile energy prices, natural re-source depletion and climate change whose impacts have undercut the al-ready threatened livelihoods of mil-lions of poor people. Together with rice and wheat, maize provides at least 30 percent of food calories of more than 4.5 bil-lion in 94 developing countries. They include 900 million consumers for whom maize is the preferred staple and about one third of all malnour-ished children. The MAIZE megaprogram envis-ages that demand for maize in the de-veloping world will double by 2050. But harvests at current levels of pro-ductivity growth will still fall short of demand, he explained. “Un-less vigorous measures are taken and a concerted strategy is accelerate the yield growth, the outcome will be less affordable food for millions of poor maize consumers and increased mal-nutrition, especially among women and children,” he notes. The CGIAR family engaged in maize research will team up in this project. They have developed a grand strategy designed to double the pro-ductivity, sustainability and resilience of maize-based farming system “on essentially the same land area and as climates change and the costs of fer-tilizer, water and labor increase”, Dr Prasanna says. The MAIZE megaprogram is built on a strong history of decades of collab-oration between CIMMYT and IITA and with numerous international, re-gional, national agricultural research organizations. The private sector will also play a pivotal role, according to project documents seen by ScienceA-frica. The partners will pursue 10 ways (called ‘Strategic Initiatives’) to gen-erate distinct products and services that are designed to meet the needs of smallholder farmers. These will provide sustainable intensification

and income opportunities for maize based farming system where 315 mil-lion of the poorest and 22 percent of all malnourished children live; crop management advice that allows 20 million information constrained small holders to close the maize yield gap and reduce agriculture’s environ-mental foot print and stress tolerant maize varieties that reduce hunger and production shortfalls for 90 mil-lion people as climates change and the risk of drought increases, among others. MAIZE will build on early suc-cesses of CIMMYT. For example, in a bid to stabilize and increase maize production in drought-affected areas in Kenya and other African coun-tries, CIMMYT led the initiation of the Drought Tolerant Maize for Af-rica (DTMA) project. This is another broad alliance between CIMMYT and IITA, with complementary strengths and focus on different regions in Af-rica. DTMA already involves more than 50 partners, such as national re-search and extension programs, uni-versities, local seed companies and non-governmental organizations. The program covers 13 sub-Saharan Africa countries. Dr. Prasanna ex-plains that the aim of DTMA is to en-able farmers to harvest at least a ton more of grain per hectare than with their current varieties, when drought hits their crops. In the last three years, CIMMYT has released 53 varieties in DTMA countries, including two in Tanzania (TAN 250, TAN 254); three stem borer resistant open pollinated varieties (OPVS) of maize and nine hybrids were released in Kenya, Dr Prasanna says. At the same time, the Center de-veloped and released quality protein, imazapyr resistant (IR) and highland maize varieties in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Ethiopia. The MAIZE megaprogram also

CIMMYT to Lead Major Maize Improvement Programme

cont. pg 18

CIMMYT’s newly appointed Global Maize Program Director, Dr. Prasanna M. Boddupalli. Top right and below: a farmer inspects her maize yield and a couple that is pleased with their harvest


Africa needs Clinical Studies on TB vaccine

Dr Hassan Mahomed

KIGALI - In an exclusive Skype interview, Dr. Hassan Mahomed, co-director of the

South African Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative (SATVI), tells Science Af-rica writter Aimable Twahirwa that he hopes new Clinical studies on TB vaccines hold the promise of pre-venting the disease on the continent if this vaccine is available for wide-spread use.

How do you rate the current situ-ation of TB infections in Africa when compared to other regions around the world?

I can say that Sub-Saharan Africa and South East Asia carry the high-est burden of TB disease in the world. If Africa, the high rates of TB are particularly associated with HIV. One third of the world’s population is infected with TB and about 9 mil-lion people develop TB every year.

But according to your recent publi-cation, the TB vaccines is holding the promise of preventing TB glob-ally including sub-Saharan Africa , what are findings did you get from Clinical Studies in Africa?

Clinical trials of new TB vaccines are taking place in Africa. Testing new TB vaccines is a process that takes time. We have to show safety before we can try and show if it prevents TB. Many safety studies have been done or are taking place in South Africa, The Gambia, Kenya, Sen-egal and Tanzania. There is only one study which was done in Tanzania which tested efficacy (prevention) so far and it had some promising re-sults in adults who were HIV posi-tive. However, it is not yet at a stage where this vaccine is available for widespread use. In terms of results, all the vaccines tested so far in Af-rica (5 out of 12 that are in clinical trials worldwide), none have had any major safety concerns.

How far governments in Africa are cooperating with researchers to fa-cilitate access to TB vaccines?

Governments play the role of regu-lating these trials and all have par-ticipated in reviewing planned trials and providing approval for the tri-als to proceed and for experimen-tal vaccine products to enter the countries concerned. The trials are expensive so there has been very little funding support for trials but governments have been broadly supportive. We met with represen-tatives of the South African Dept of Health recently and they were quite happy to endorse the work that we

were doing.

What specific challenges, do you expect, as researchers you will be facing in the next decade?

The main challenges are in terms of sufficient funding for these trials, secondly having sufficient numbers of trained staff to conduct the trials and thirdly, having the necessary infra-structure in place to conduct these trials as they get larger.

When saying that subsaharan Af-rica and South East Asia carry the highest burden of TB disease, am I right to say that Poverty and TB are not two disparate subjects?

Indeed. There is a clear associa-tion between TB and poverty. Our research data supports this. Over crowding and weakened immune systems due to malnutrition are fac-tors associated with a higher risk of TB.

What have clinical studies got to do with thousand million of poor people unable to access medical services especially in Subsaharan Africa?

Firstly, clinical studies are impor-tant to ensure the best scientific evi-dence for health interventions such as vaccines. It has been shown that vaccines such as smallpox and polio have made huge differences in com-munities which have suffered from these diseases. The practicalities of how vaccines are rolled out will be an important challenge in sub-Saha-ran Africa. Preventing a disease like TB will have a greater benefit for communities where there is poor ac-cess in that the disease itself requires a much higher level of health care access and care. Nevertheless, I do not wish to minimize the difficulties that will be encountered even of we find an effective vaccine. TB vaccines will be one arm of a multi pronged approach to deal with diseases such as TB in Africa.

How much the new tuberculosis vaccines will cost countries in or-der to ensure that the disease is preventing globally? We are working with a non-profit agency in the US called the Aeras Global TB vaccine Foundation and they are funding most of the trials in Africa. Any vaccine they fund must be affordable in the develop-ing world and they usually aim for a cost of less than a dollar a dose.

What are the types of TB vaccines involved so far, from region to re-gion?

There is an existing vaccine against TB called BCG (Bacille Calmette Guerin) which is one of the most widely given vaccines but it is not very effective hence the need for a new vaccine. There is a mixture of the types of vaccines being tested - some boost the effect of BCG and some are meant to replace BCG. Some are live vaccines whereas oth-ers are made up of proteins.

What else is missing in the whole approach to the issue of Clinical studies on TB vaccines in Subsaha-ran Africa? I would like to be greater aware-ness and support for this initiative not just from governments but also NGOs, community organizations and activists. A lot of funding is needed for this kind of work and there is lots of competition for lim-ited funds. Africa is playing a lead-ing role in testing these vaccines and this is a good thing since we have a huge burden here. A successful new TB vaccine could have enormous benefits for the continent so the ini-tiative should be supported.

Why do you think it has taken so long to come up with a TB vaccine?

I would say yes, Africa has done well in all the countries that trials have been conducted and the results have been published in internation-al medical journals which have strict criteria for research publication. It is something we can be proud of. It has taken long because TB affects main-ly poor countries and big pharma who have resources to invest in such development, have not seen TB vac-cine development as an area of prof-itability. However, it must be said that in recent times, there are now w number of pharmaceutical compa-nies involved in this endeavor.

Six top science academies of India endorse the safety of Bt brinjal and recom-

mend the commercial approval of Bt brinjal in India. The “Inter-Academy Report on GM Crops” says Bt brinjal deserves special attention in terms of its immedi-ate relevance. Available evidence has shown that Bt brinjal is safe for human consumption and that its environmental effects are negligible. It is appropriate to release Bt brinjal for cultivation in spe-cific farmers’ fields in identified states. The report was prepared at the request of Mr. Jairam Ra-mesh, Minister of Environment & Forests and Dr. K. Kasturiran-gan, Member of Planning Com-mission under the auspices of six top science academies including the Indian Academy of Sciences. The report concentrates on GM crops in general and on the spe-cific issue of Bt brinjal in particu-lar in India. It endorses the ap-plication of biotechnology in ag-riculture on a case-by-case basis. “Transgenic crops are one possi-ble alternative and complemen-tary technology products which can contribute to the on-going efforts of genetic enhancement of crops. The technology does not replace conventional plant breeding, hybrid seed technol-ogy, molecular breeding or or-ganic farming but complements them in the over-all objective of attaining food security”, the re-port said. As regard to Bt brinjal, the report concludes that “the available scientific evidence does not indicate any appreciable ef-fect of GM crops on biodiversity. The regulatory mechanism in place in India for approval of release of transgenic crops is strong. However, the same is not true about monitoring after release. A specific mechanism should be created for post-re-lease monitoring, which should include provisions for provid-ing effective technical advice to the farmer”. Immediate steps should be taken to restore con-fidence and allay fears that the moratorium would influence re-search on transgenics and their use on individual merit. Spread-ing public awareness on Bt brin-jal, and transgenics in general, is important and mechanisms for doing so should be set up.

India’s Science Academies

Endorse Safety of Bt Brinjal



By Hope MafarangaNigeria

An assurance of food security and an end to hunger is the dream of all Africans and in-

deed the world.An initiative to control pests and threats to curb diseases of cowpea going on in Africa may be bringing the continent close to that dream. This initiative, a project of Afri-can Agricultural Technology Foun-dation (AATF) uses the processes of biotechnology to produce cowpea that are resistant to Maruca pod-borer, the biggest threat to the plant.Scientists believe that cowpea could lead the way in Africa’s effort to fight malnutrition. Biotechnology is the manipulation of living organisms or their parts for purposes of develop-ing useful products. Dr Nompumelelo Obokoh, the project manager of the cowpea proj-ect of the AATF, says that researchers from partner institutions are build-ing upon biotechnological advances to ensure food security and create opportunities for cowpea growers to increase incomes and live healthier and better lives. She said cowpeas play a key role in the agriculture and food security of Nigeria among other countries in Africa. Cowpea is one of the most eco-

nomically and nutritionally impor-tant indigenous African grain le-gumes produced through the tropi-cal and subtropical areas of the world. It is a major source of protein and vitamins. Statistics show that, as a result of the Maruca pod-borer disease, farm-ers lose 80 percent of their harvest. Dr. Obokoh who was addressing science journalists from across Africa in Abuja, capital of Nigeria, said that various research organizations are working on genetic improve-ment, pest management and storage technology develop-ment to help poor farmers to overcome pre and post harvest losses. Dr. Obokoh also revealed that Nigeria is the largest consumer

(2.7 million metric tons) of cow-peas in the world, adding that about 40 percent of the world’s cowpea production is in Nigeria. However there is still a national def-icit of 500,000 metric tons. “Cowpeas from many neighbour-ing countries are sold to Nigerian consumers,” she said to underscore the amount of cowpea consumed in Nigeria. An estimated 500,000 metric tons of the bean is said to be traded in Nigeria every year although the ac-tual commerce could probably be larger. Dr Obokoh disclosed that be-sides the Maruca Pod-borer, there are a number of pests and diseases caused by bacteria and viruses that affect cowpeas in Africa.

She further revealed that the shifting weather pat-terns have also increased the threats to black eyed beans across the continent. The AATF was established to help farmers access proprietary ag-ricultural technologies including classical plant breeding and novel genetically modified or GM ap-proaches to increase incomes and food security for the rural poor in sub-Saharan Africa. It is hoped that its existence would boost African farmers’ access to innovative agricultural technologies including biotechnology. AATF identified cowpea as one of four crops targeted for improve-ment using biotechnology tools with the three other crops being the maize for drought-tolerance, banana that is resistant to the bacterial wilt disease, and rice to enhance nitro-gen use efficiency and salt tolerance. Nigeria has developed biosafety regulations and procedures that allow and guide the testing of GM crops under confined field condi-tions. Biotechnology discussion fo-rums have been initiated in Nigeria in collaboration with national re-search institutes and biotechnology agencies to address the fears about the use of the biotech-derived prod-ucts.

Pod-borer Resistant Cowpea on trial

hopes to benefit about 40 million Africans through reduced field and postharvest losses due to insect pest damage, genetic solutions and stor-age approaches. It will also improve nutrition by developing and dissemi-nating maize with better quality pro-tein; empowered local seed compa-nies. A comprehensive strategy that ex-ploits synergies among the different management options for reducing post-harvest losses and mycotoxin-related health risks, shall be followed in selected countries in sub-Saharan Africa, including development and dissemination of post harvest insect-pest and disease resistant maize va-rieties, promotion of low-cost techno-logical interventions (metal silos, su-per grain bags, mycotoxin screening assays), and awareness generation among the maize farming communi-ties and consumers. CIMMYT is also keenly engaged in strengthening the capacity of local partners to develop and deliver im-proved maize varieties/hybrids, dis-seminate varietal information, and fa-cilitate local learning and integration with other value-adding agricultural inputs and services for client com-munities. Toward this, the Global

Maize Program has been organizing training courses on various aspects, including conventional and molecu-lar breeding, seed production, seed quality control, post-harvest manage-ment, low-cost storage technologies, etc. for the particular benefit of scien-tists/technicians from the national ag-ricultural research systems (NARS) as well as small and medium scale seed companies and local entrepreneurs. To sustainably intensify maize-legume cropping systems in Eastern and Southern Africa and for improv-ing the livelihoods of smallholders, participatory research and develop-ment with farmers, extension agen-cies, non-governmental organiza-tions, universities and agribusiness along the value chains is being pur-sued by CIMMYT in collaboration with international and national part-ners. This shall be further intensified through the MAIZE megaprogram. However, more challenges still hin-der bumper maize harvests in sub-Saharan Africa, especially among small-holder farmers. In response, CIMMYT spearheaded the formation of a collaboration called Improved Maize for African Soils (IMAS). It aims to solve problems of de-graded, nutrient deficient soils and

inability of resource-poor farmers to access or purchase nitrogen fertil-izer. The project partners include the DuPont company Pioneer Hi-Bred, Kenya Agricultural research Institute (KARI), and South Africa’s Agricul-tural research Council (ARCLaunched in February this year, the IMAS project is developing maize va-rieties that can take up and use more efficiently nitrogen from severely de-pleted soils, as well as making better use of the fertilizer African farmers apply. Projected to be available in about four years, the nitrogen-use-efficient maize varieties are expected to offer at least 20 percent yield advantage over current varieties. They will be made available royalty-free to small-holder farmers. The varieties developed in the IMAS project are likely to be put into DTMA and Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA) so that farmers can eventually get maize seed that yields more both under drought and infertile soils. WEMA is yet an-other partnership involving CIM-MYT, Monsanto, African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) and national partners (Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Uganda and South Af-

rica) aimed at improving maize pro-ductivity under drought conditions. According to Dr. Prasanna, maize production in Africa is also hit by in-sufficient seed supply in Africa, espe-cially in Eastern and Southern parts, despite recent reforms, restructuring and increase in number of seed com-panies operating in the region. Currently, seed companies only produce a limited quantity of seed per year – enough to meet less than 30% of local demand. To help increase seed production, CIMMYT is giving easy access to their germplasm to lo-cal seed companies, especially the small and medium seed enterprises, besides training their personnel for capacity strengthening. Dr Prasanna says seed sales also need to be improved in Africa. This can only be realized if the underlying causes are addressed. Such causes in-clude faulty extension system, poor infrastructure and poor seed policies. The renewed push to develop smart maize seed for small scale farmers may be what sub-Saharan Africa has been waiting for to launch final onslaught against perennial food insecurity.

from page 16

CIMMYT: Maize Improvement Program


Generally adequate seasonal rainfall from September to December is expected over

the western and northern parts of the Greater Horn of Africa (GHA) covering Uganda, western Kenya, southern and central Sudan, western Ethiopia, Eritrea, Lake Victoria ba-sin of Tanzania, Rwanda and much of Burundi. Below normal seasonal rainfall is expected over southern and south-eastern Ethiopia, eastern part of Kenya, Somalia, and much of Tanzania. The current status of seasonal to inter-annual climate forecasting al-lows prediction of rainfall at large spatial and temporal averages rela-tive to the long term mean condi-tions. This is the state of the art-cli-mate modelling and prediction sci-ence and it might not fully account for all the physical and dynamical processes that influence the succes-sion of wet and dry events at par-ticular local areas of the sub-region. The rainfall outlook for various zones within the sub-region is given below. Zone I: This zone is generally dry during the season and covers northern parts of Sudan and northwestern Eritrea.

Zone II: Increased likelihood of near normal to above normal rainfall over central

and southern Sudan, western, cen-tral and northern Ethiopia, much of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, western Kenya, and Lake Victoria basin of

Tanzania.

Zone III: Increased likelihood of below to

near normal rainfall over southern Eritrea, northeastern Ethiopia, and Djibouti.

Zone IV: Increased likelihood of below nor-mal to near normal rainfall over much of Kenya, southern and south-eastern Ethiopia, much of Somalia, Tanzania and southern Burundi.

Note: The numbers for each zone indicate the probabilities of rainfall in each of the three categories: above-, near-, and below-normal. The top number indicates the probability of rainfall occurring in the above-normal cate-gory; the middle number is for near-normal and the bottom number for the below-normal category. For ex-ample, in case of southern Eritrea, northeastern Ethiopia, and Djibouti (zone IIII), there is 25% probability of rainfall occurring in the above-normal category; 35% probability of rainfall occurring in the near-normal category; and 40% probability of rainfall occurring in the below-nor-mal category. It is emphasised that boundaries between zones should be considered as transition areas.

Seasonal Rainfall Outlook for 10 Horn of Africa Countries

WEATHER

Participants who attended the recent Seasonal Rainfal Outlook for 10 GHA countries at Imperial Hotel Kisumu, Kenya

GHA Consensus Climate Outlook for September to December 2010



Vol. 12 September/October 2010

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The Government of Kenya through the Ministry of High-er Education, Science and

Technology and National Biosafety Authority in collaboration with AU-NEPAD Agency, African Bio-safety Network of Expertise (ABNE), COMESA/ACTESA and ISAAA AfriCenter held a forum in Nairobi,

Kenya on 25-27 August 2010, for the African delegates who will par-ticipate at the upcoming COP-MOP5 meeting in October 2010 in Nagoya, Japan. The forum aimed to familiar-ize African delegates on Liability and Redress, and, risk assessment issues that will be decided upon at

MOP-5 meeting in October, and build ca-pacity for productive participation at the in-ternational event. Six-teen African Countries were represented as provided in Annex 1.

Hereby agreed as fol-lows: 1. To support the ex-istence of the African Group and the coordi-nating role of the AUC, AU-NEPAD and other stakeholders while taking cognizance of national priorities and sovereignty2. To encourage Mem-bers to hold prepara-tory meetings by del-egates and to further encourage Members to share the outcome of the preparatory meet-

ings 3. That the outcome of this prepa-

ratory meeting be shared to all African parties, national Gov-ernments, focal points and the negotiators and other stakehold-ers

4. To encourage Parties to reserve a budget for supporting an appro-

priate delegation as it is a coun-try’s obligation to have quality representation.

5. To source funds so as to enable more African technical and legal advisors to attend the Fourth meeting of the Group of the Friends of the Co-Chairs on Li-ability and Redress in the Con-text of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety scheduled for 6-8 October, Nagoya, Japan) thus boosting contributions from the African group. Efforts should also be made to facilitate the same group attend the COP-MOP5 meeting from 11-15 Octo-ber 2010

6. To develop a mechanism for con-tinuous dialogue on on-going preparatory activities for COP-MOP5 (e.g. online)

7. To request the AU to liaise with the CBD Secretariat to explore available funds for participa-tion of advisors from African countries and to consult with African countries on an equally balanced representation of Af-rican countries in the 4th meet-ing of the Group of the Friends of the Co-chairs on Liability and Redress from October 6-8th 2010 in Nagoya, Japan

8. To encourage parties to take the

necessary steps to implement the Cartagena Protocol on Bio-safety at the national level.

Further Agreed as follows on the outstanding issues on Liability and Redress:9. To support the inclusion of Ar-

ticle 10 Paragraph 1 of the pro-posed Financial Security provi-

sion and to note the reservations by South Africa, Annex 2

10. To encourage Parties to further consider the exclusion of “Prod-ucts thereof” in the Supplemen-tary Protocol and to consider ac-cepting the co-Chairs’compromise proposal in paragraph 16 of the COP-MOP4 report “including products containing LMOs” to re-place “products thereof”, as provid-ed in Annex 3

11. To encourage Parties to prepare a clear position after national in-ternal discussions on the inclu-sion of civil liability guidelines in the decision document.

12. To take note of the Compact in the preamble of the decision document

13. To consider the text of Option 1 with regard to supplementary compensation measures, how-ever noting South Africa’s pref-erence for Option 3, as provided in Annex 4

14. To consider the text of Option 3 with regard to the provisions on complementary capacity build-ing, Annex 4

15. To encourage Parties to consider the exclusion of the provisions on the liability of States for dam-age caused by LMOs.

See report on page 7

Africa All Set for BiosafetyConference in Japan

Nairobi: MOP5 Workshop Communiqué

Participants at the preparatory forum in Nairobi

BIOSAFETY

Vol. 12 September - October 2010

Africa’s Hospitals Facing Major Challenges

Positive Trends from Ethiopia

Kenya: New Constitution and Health

PART ONE - HEALTHCARE IN AFRICA

September - December Seasonal Weather Forecast for 10 IGAD countries pg. 19

z

Despite bloodcurdling tales of malpractice and at least one case of a cat chewing

a premature baby in unattended neonatal unit of a provincial hospi-tal in Kenya serving as the ultimate melting pot of sin, there are indica-tions that hospitals and health pro-fessionals in Africa are beginning to take actions that could finally avail high quality services for all faster than imagined. For most people – within and outside Africa - the stereotype of the continent’s healthcare facilities easily begins with accusing fingers at health professionals who seem to lack the much needed “mis-sionary spirit” instilled by colonial medics. For most patients and their relatives, the region’s healthcare fa-cilities are simply “hell on earth.” Already some hospitals in Asia and Europe increasingly target patients from Africa. In Africa the trend is for the rich, top politi-cians and officials to seek treat-ment outside the continent and in some countries, it is unacceptable for elites to die in local or national

hospitals no matter how prestigi-uos. Only South Africa is depicted as having hospitals that compete with others outside the continent although the recent strike by their medics was branded as bordering on “cruelty and abuse of basic eth-ics.” Indeed there was much surprise when Kenya’s Prime Minister, Raila

Odinga, was rushed to one of the major national private hospitals in Nairobi for what turned out to be a delicate emergency treatment –in-volving opening of the skull- that was not done in secrecy thus giv-ing the mass media almost unlim-ited access. This in it self is a rarity for most of Africa where the mere

New cases of HIV have dropped by over a quarter in 22 Afican countries, says UNAIDS. The

decline is linked to greater awareness, better use of preventative measures and treatment. UNAIDS, however, said that cases of HIV are increasing in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and among gay men in developed coun-tries. According to Michel Sidibe, the executive director, there is “real prog-ress” towards achieving the sixth Mil-lennium Development Goal (MDG6) of halting and reversing the spread of HIV/Aids by 2015. Availing treatment for HIV/Aids, ensured that 200,000 fewer people died from the virus in 2008 than in 2004.

The ATPS 2010 Annual Confer-ence is to be held from 25th to 27th November in Cairo,

Egypt. The conference, whose theme will be “The State of Science, Technol-ogy and Innovation in Africa: Impli-cations for achieving the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs)” seeks to review the state of STI in the conti-nent with a view to identify existing gaps and charting a proactive way forward for achieving sustainable development through investments in STI. ATPS invites for papers on the conference sub-themes and registra-tions for participation in the confer-ence. It will be hosted by ATPS Egypt National chapter.

Agricultural biotechnology, specifically genetic modi-fication (GM) technology,

can be one of the most vital tools for addressing the chronic food shortages in sub-Saharan Africa, maintains a new report released by the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf). This report has been published as the result of a forum study in which ASSAf convened a series of expert work-

shops aimed at engaging African scientists in assessing the current challenges, opportunities and risks associated with the use of GMOs. Africa is the only continent where food production per capita is decreasing and where hunger and malnutrition affect at least one in three people. Crop yields in sub-Saharan Africa have hardly changed over the past 40 years

and cereal production has been steadily declining over the past four years. The report suggests that GM technology can contribute to the resolution of the African food shortage, provided it is carried out within a framework of appro-priate biotechnology policy with sufficient financing for human capital development, the construc-

Science Academies Support GM

BIOTECHATPS Conference on

Science in Africa

Africa: HIV Declines

continued on pg 10

New antibiotic resistance mechanism

There are chilling biomedical tales of germs found in inten-sive care units and hospitals

wards developing new antibiotic resistance mechanisms against the world’s most powerful drugs. The doomsday scenario of the ultimate disease causing bacteria killing help-less 21st century humans is no mere ferry tale. Already biomedical experts and

Microbes Finally Conquering Antibiotics?

continued on pg 4

cont. pg 15

The first Cardiac Centre in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

africa’s hospitals facing major challenges · 2010-10-18 · vol. 12 september - october 2010...

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